Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer. [Psalm 4:1 (KJV)]
Mornings, I read a short devotional from Streams in the Desert, a devotional by L.B. Cowman. Compiled between 1918 and 1924 and first published in 1925, it consists of portions of inspirational sermons, tracts, church bulletins, hymns, devotions, and poetry Mrs. Cowman collected through the years. Each day’s reading begins with a portion of Scripture and a recent devotion began with Psalm 4:1: “Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.” Because the devotional uses the King James Translation and I usually read the NLT, I didn’t recognize this verse; nevertheless, I had a good idea what it meant.
My morning’s prayer had begun much like David’s—with a plea for God to hear my prayer. It then went something like, “O Lord, please not again! I can’t go through this another time. How much more can I take?” Apparently, based on the day’s verse, God heard me, but I wasn’t so sure I liked His answer. It sounded a lot like, “This is a growth opportunity and you can take all that is given to you!” I certainly wasn’t pleased with the devotion’s explanation that the psalmist was “declaring that the sorrows of life have themselves been the source of life’s enlargement.”
Curious about the verse, I turned to my NLT Bible and found a vastly different translation: “Free me from my troubles.” While I’d rather be freed from my troubles than be enlarged by them, Scripture’s purpose isn’t to accommodate our preferences; it is for our edification, enlightenment, and growth. Confused by the different tenses and dissimilar translations, I turned to a lexicon to determine the meaning of this verse in its original Hebrew.
The psalmist used the word rachab which clearly meant to enlarge, grow wide or large, broaden, or make room for. Throughout Scripture it was used in the sense of extending or enlarging one’s understanding, heart, steps, territory, borders, and mouth. Rather than escaping from troubles, this verse is about growing large enough to handle them! Moreover, while my NLT uses the present tense, most word-for-word translations use the past. Preserving the tense and word usage found in the original Hebrew writings, Young’s Literal Translation reads, “In adversity Thou gavest enlargement to me; Favour me, and hear my prayer.”
Psalms 3 and 4 are believed to have been written by David during his son Absalom’s rebellion. If so, David was about 61 years old and God had given him a great deal of trials and enlarging in the more than 45 years since being anointed by Samuel. This psalm is David’s vote of confidence in God’s future grace because of God’s past grace. The troubled king knew that the God who enlarged, expanded, and strengthened him in the past could do so again. He asked God that, hearing his prayer, He would repeat His mercy.
God has the power to divinely deliver us from our trials. More often than not, however, He doesn’t because there is purpose in those trials. The good news is that, while God may not free us from the challenges, He never will abandon us in them! Because of God’s past grace in the trials of yesterday, like the psalmist, we can count on God’s future grace in the trials of today and tomorrow. Indeed, my past troubles have enlarged me. They matured my faith, strengthened me, grew my understanding of God’s will, multiplied my prayers, intensified my trust, expanded my capacity to endure, and developed the ability to find joy in all circumstances. No matter what I face, when I remember God’s past mercies, like David, I can lie down in peace, confident that God will keep me secure in His loving arms!
Let God enlarge you when you are going through distress. He can do it. You can’t do it, and others can’t do it for you…. Life’s trials are not easy. But in God’s will, each has a purpose. Often He uses them to enlarge you. [Warren Wiersbe]
I suspect we would prefer a eulogy that shines a light on our victories and accomplishments but the man known as “the father of modern missions” chose otherwise. When William Carey [1762-1834] was asked what text he wanted for his funeral sermon, he chose today’s verse. The humble man wanted to shine a light on God’s lovingkindness and great compassion rather than his personal accomplishments.
The Israelites were camped on the east side of the Jordan River, in view of Canaan, when Moses addressed them. After spending the last forty years as nomads in the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula, can you imagine their excitement at the thought of finally having a place to call their own and their eagerness for a new beginning in a new land? There must have been some apprehension, as well. They weren’t naïve; they knew there would be conflict, battles, and even loss before Canaan was conquered.
Like their parents, my youngest grands like to race and recently did this year’s 5K “Hot Chocolate” run. When Paul referred to running, he wasn’t referring to fun runs like theirs or a marathon like the one their parents ran nor were his boxing and wrestling references to the sports we know today. His allusions were to the Panhellenic games and Olympics which were well known throughout the Roman Empire in his day.
Last October, we went north to watch our son and daughter-in-law run the Chicago Marathon. This 26.2-mile race passes through 29 Chicago neighborhoods and the city’s streets were lined with spectators ringing bells, beating drums, holding signs, cheering, and applauding as the runners ran past. Like us, some were there to cheer on specific runners but many were there to encourage all who were running. When we saw Sam and Nina, they were nine miles into their run and had stripped off the jackets, gloves, and hats they’d been wearing earlier that morning. The whole scene reminded me of today’s verse from Hebrews in which the author likens Christian living to running a race with endurance.
Devotions of the Heart 