Greetings, and welcome again to Meditation Moments, and again the old-time greeting: the Lord bless you and make you a blessing.

The third Psalm reads: “Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! Many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. But thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.

“I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained me.

“I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing is upon thy people.”

A wonderfully precious Psalm! Those words, “The Lord hath sustained me,” I will particularly call your attention to. This same David, the psalmist that in this Psalm cried: “Lord, how they are increased that trouble me! Many are they that rise up against me!” The same David that cried out, “If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me” (Psalm 139:9–10).

So he knew that no matter what the trouble, he could rise above it. He said, “If I had wings” (Psalm 55:6a). You know, Man has always wanted wings, wanted to fly, wanted to get away from it all. There are so many who feel confined and discontented with things where they are. “Surely there must be something easier and brighter somewhere else?” And wings would lift him above all his troubles here.

David knew that. To David, a wonderful praiseful psalmist, there came a day when he cried, “Oh that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away, and be at rest” (Psalm 55:6). Always we feel that there is something better somewhere else, just over the hill; there’s a glorious liberty and freedom somewhere else. And now around the world, through space, circling the world above the birds whose realm man has always envied, man flies today.

Have you ever read what Tennyson wrote? My, he was a prophet, wasn’t he? For he says:

For I dipped into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw a vision of the world’s future, and all the wonder that would be;

Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales;

Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew
From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue;

Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle-flags were furled
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.

From “Locksley Hall,” by Lord Alfred Tennyson, 1835

Just think how long ago Tennyson wrote that [1835], and how that prophecy is being fulfilled today! But I’m thinking now of wings that only a child of God can have, wings that God gives His own children when you feel so much like you cannot stand the situation any longer. And some of these letters are just like that.

One woman writes of her heartache over a faithless husband, “I’m really living in a living hell.” Another writes, “I can stand it no longer; I am pressed out of measure.” Well, there’s one that God’s Word speaks about; he wasn’t so much in disaster, never in despair, he said. Although he had all the care of the churches and had fought lions at Ephesus (1 Corinthians 15:32), and he spent a day and a night in the deep, and he talks about the stripes he had received and how he had been stoned. (2 Corinthians 11:24–25) Yet Paul was able to take the wings of his soul and fly above it all and praise God for his persecution.

We can all do that; there is a way of living above these things. There is a way, no matter what it is in your life, that you can make wings out of your weights, the weights that so easily beset you and the weight, the things that are just tying your soul down. (Hebrews 12:1) Paul made wings out of them.

Wings are often born out of weights. When wearied with the strain of it all, you can fly to God. God has the victory for you. God has an answer for your problems; God does have the answer if we’re obedient to Him. Oh, will you search your heart and make sure that the obedience is there? There is some reason for these things happening that you haven’t gotten the victory, because there is victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. “Praise be unto him who always giveth us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).

You can fly to God for the rest He has promised. You can fly on the wings of prayer and faith, and get the relief that He alone can give you. An acquaintance of mine has this little poem tacked above her sink:

Lord of all pots and pans and things,
Since I’ve no time to be a saint by doing lovely things,
Or watching late with Thee,
Or dreaming in the dawn light,
Or storming heaven’s gate,
Make me a saint by getting meals,
And washing up the plates.

From “The Lord of All Pots and Pans and Things,” written in 1928 and attributed to a 19-year-old girl in service, author unknown.

That always reminds me of the beautiful verse, again by David in the Psalms, “Though ye have lien among the pots, ye shall be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold” (Psalm 68:13). Now what brings such a miraculous change in David when he has cried so pitifully in this third Psalm? He knew the secret; he knew just how to mount up with wings as a dove. He knew how to mount above all these things, and live above them.

In the third Psalm he has cried, “Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! Many are they that rise up against me.” Now watch these words, however: “I laid me down and slept … for the Lord sustained me.” He just put it all in God’s hands and left it right with the Lord and then he slept, for he said, “the Lord sustained me.” There is the secret.

Then he continues, “I will not be afraid of the thousands of people who have set themselves against me.” What are people anyhow, beloved? They are nothing in their power or their wisdom compared to God, these that are against you, and these that are causing a trial in your life and are bringing that awful resentment in your heart. You don’t have to have that resentment; the Lord can deliver you from that. He says, “the Lord sustained me,” and he made wings out of his weights.

There isn’t a truer scripture in God’s Word than these, “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as the eagle” (Isaiah 40:31). Putting this in the simplest words—and God grant that it shall not sound trite—the one that flies to the Word of God and there meditates and seeks the presence of the Lord, waits in prayer until God touches his soul, truly mounts up and up to realms of peace and rest and are truly, as this verse says, they are sustained by the Lord.

I know there’s a sort of devilish gravitation in this old world that daily strives to keep you and pull you down. But the Word here tells us there’s an upward pull if you’ll just live in God’s Word, and if you’ll just pray and look to the Lord. It’ll lift you right up to the very heart of God if you’ll only give God a chance. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as the eagle; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

That’s the principle of this everyday life of victory. Take your Bible and quietly read; read and wait upon the Lord. Talk to Him. Wait for Him to speak, and soon you’ll run and not faint, and you’ll find yourself mounting up with all the strength that you need.

Give God a chance. Just take Him at His very Word and believe Him for this, because God wants to help. He wants to give you the victory. Don’t let anyone discourage you. God’s Word stands sure and steadfast, He’ll not fail you. You can mount up with wings as eagles. Stand your ground and “see the salvation of the Lord!” (Exodus 14:13). Trust in God. Keep heart, keep hope.

They that wait upon the Lord shall never be ashamed (Psalm 69:6). God bless you. He’s still on the throne, and prayer does surely change things. He’ll change things for you. Amen.

This was a transcript of a Meditation Moments #127 broadcast. Read or listen to the next episode called Compose And Repose.