If you’ve seen the enjoyable film The Princess Bride, you’ll remember the “Pit of Despair.” It was a secret, underground lair that contained a torture device simply called “the Machine.” So dreadful was “the Machine” that it reduced the film’s dashing and confident protagonist to a whimpering mess — and eventually (spoiler alert) killed him.
But don’t worry, he was only “mostly dead.” 🙂
Maybe you haven’t been thrown into a secret lair by a corrupt prince or tortured by a medieval device, but chances are you understand what it’s like to be in darkness and misery. And that’s the kind of pit that the psalmist talks about in the fortieth Psalm — a pit that thankfully God had delivered him from.
I waited patiently for the Lord;
Psalm 40:1-3, NKJV
And He inclined to me,
And heard my cry.
He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay,
And set my feet upon a rock,
And established my steps.
He has put a new song in my mouth—
Praise to our God;
Many will see it and fear,
And will trust in the Lord.
Before we reflect on God’s deliverance, let’s make sure we understand the “horrible pit” that the psalmist (most likely David) writes about.
After all, some of you may still be in the pit.
Or you may be headed toward a pit.
Or you may know someone who is in a pit or on their way into a pit.
So, before we can talk about God delivering us, let’s make sure we understand what God can deliver us from.
“A Horrible Pit”
First, it’s a pit. A deep hole in the ground. And when you’re in that hole, you can’t get out in your own strength.
When you’re in a hole, your visibility is limited. The amount of light is reduced and your perspective shrinks. No matter which way you turn, you can only see a wall of dirt. In fact, the only way you can see anything clear or promising is if you look up.
It gets worse.
The psalmist describes the pit as “horrible” and consisting of “miry clay.” Let’s consider the implications of those features. First, it’s horrible. That’s the NKJV rendering of the Hebrew word שָׁאוֹן֮ (šā·’ō·wn), which (at various times in the Old Testament) is translated as or associated with destruction, noise, clamor, or tumult.
When I consider those various renderings, the picture I get of this “pit” in my mind is a situation characterized by loud and tumultuous misery.
That noise can be external or internal. It can be when you feel (rightly or wrongly) the whole world (or at least your world and everyone in it) is against you OR it can be when you are tormented by loud, conflicting, and accusing voices from within. Sometimes, internal torment can be far worse than anything external.
“I Waited Patiently for the Lord”
Patience is hardest when we’re in pain. And yet that’s often when it’s most crucial.
When we’re in the pit, we must wait on the Lord. And we must do so patiently.
What do we do when we’re waiting on the Lord?
Well, the psalmist says the Lord “inclined to me” and “heard my cry.” This suggests (rather obviously) that the psalmist was praying. Not just praying, but fervently praying.
The best thing to do when you’re waiting on the Lord is to communicate with the Lord.
The worst things you can, while in the pit, would be to deny or ignore the pit or (even worse) deny or ignore the Lord.
At all points in life (especially when you’re in a pit), you should turn toward God and not away from Him.
Call on Him. Worship Him. Listen to Him.
And then wait for Him.
Wait for Him to answer you, encourage you, guide you, and direct you.
Staying Out of the Pit
While you’re praying to God from within the pit, among the many topics you can discuss with Him is how and why you ended up in the pit in the first place.
There are basically four ways a person can get stuck in a pit.
You can:
- slip into the pit
- jump into the pit
- be pushed into the pit
Or…
- the ground can open up beneath you and you just fall into the pit!
We slip into the pit when we’re not careful, when we don’t watch where we’re going. This is why we’re told to “ponder the path of your feet” (Proverbs 4:26). It’s why we’re told to let God “direct” our steps (Proverbs 3:5-6).
And let’s be honest. Sometimes, we jump right in!
Whether it’s the “lust of the flesh,” the “lust of the eyes,” or the “pride of life” (I John 2:16), we see something in the pit we like and we head right in. Maybe the pit doesn’t look too deep. Maybe it doesn’t appear to be a pit at all. Or maybe it does. Sometimes, we just don’t care. We want what the pit has to offer.
Or at least we think we do.
This is what James means when he writes:
Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
James 4:1-4, NKJV
When we get ourselves into the pit, we need to be honest with God and honest with ourselves. And sometimes, God will make us wait in that pit until we are fully honest with Him and ourselves!
There are times, however, when we find ourselves in a pit through no fault of our own.
- Ask Joseph whose brothers threw him into a pit (see Genesis 27) — and then sold him into slavery!
- Ask Jeremiah who was literally thrown into a pit when the people of Jerusalem got tired of hearing what he was preaching (see Jeremiah 38:6).
- Ask Job (see the whole book).
- Ask Paul (see II Corinthians 11:23-30).
And of course…
- Ask Jesus (see the Gospels and, well, the whole Bible which points to Him and explains Him).
Yet even though there are times we are in a pit through no fault of our own, we still have a responsibility in that pit to listen to God, learn from God, serve God, and glorify God.
Don’t Sink Deeper
If we’re not careful — whether we put ourselves in the pit or whether we were thrown into the pit — we can dig that pit even deeper if we don’t respond the right way.
Even if you don’t sink right away, if you beat against the dirt walls, you’ll just hurt yourself and exhaust your energy.
But the longer you stay in the pit, the more you will sink.
That’s the nature of a pit consisting of “miry clay.”
When more rain comes (and it will), it makes the pit even muddier, and you’ll sink even more.
Don’t Get Comfortable
Don’t get comfortable in the pit.
There are times when people get used to their misery. They give up. And then they resign themselves to the pit and try to make the best of it.
They make themselves some furniture, maybe with some things they’ve asked to be lowered down to them.
Sometimes, they even try to lure other people into the pit with them! Misery loves company, right?
Of course, at times, people will deceive even themselves about their motives. They may claim they want out of the pit, but their actions, their attitude, and their attention will tell you the truth. Are they attentive to what will help them out of the pit — or who? Is there attitude one of goal orientation or hopefulness? And are they being obedient to God?
Are you — when YOU are in the pit?
Let God Lift You Out
The psalmist proclaims that the Lord “brought me up” out of the pit and the “miry clay.”
Only God can truly deliver you from a “horrible pit.”
You can’t get out yourself.
And… others can’t really get you out either. Not completely anyway.
Sometimes, they make it worse.
You know, like Joseph’s brothers. They got him out of the pit alright – the one they put him in. And sold him into slavery!
You can’t depend on other people to rescue you from the pit! And you can’t rescue yourself!
You must depend on God!
Only He can lift you out of the pit and put you on solid ground!
What Ground Are You On?
When you get out of the pit, and God puts you on a rock…
Do your best to stay on the rock!
Jesus says we should build our house – our life – on a rock and not on slippery sand. Here’s what our Lord says in His famous Sermon on the Mount:
“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
Matthew 7:24-27, NKJV
“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
You are only as strong as what you stand for and what you stand on!
Or should I say WHO you stand for and WHO you stand on?
Build your life and base your life on the Person and teachings of our Lord.
“A New Song”
There are times when our emotional, internal wounds can last longer than the circumstances themselves. And if we’re not careful, we can remain in a mental prison even after the rest of us has been liberated.
If you haven’t seen the inspirational film Unbroken, directed by Angelina Jolie, you should. It tells the harrowing story of Louie Zamperini, a former Olympic track star who, after surviving a plane crash in the Pacific, spent 47 days drifting on a raft before finally taken into captivity by the Japanese. It spent a brutal two and a half years in agonizing confinement.
As is often the case, the book is even better. I highly recommend Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Lauren Hillenbrand.
Following Japan’s surrender, Zamperini was released as a POW and was able to return home. He would soon get married. But the horrors he experienced during the war overwhelmed him and drove him into nightmares, alcoholism, bitterness, rage, and despair. With his marriage on the brink, Zamperini attended a Billy Graham “Crusade.” And his life changed forever.
Receiving Jesus Christ as his Savior, Zamperini forgave his Japanese captors — even, at one point, traveling to Japan years after the war to meet with several of them. He shared the love of Christ with them, and many accepted Jesus as their Savior.
Let’s make sure we understand that forgiveness is crucial to escaping the pit!
First, there’s God’s forgiveness. He forgives us. We must welcome that forgiveness in our lives and want it for others as well. And that leads to the next part, which is forgiving others – including those who may be partly or (humanly speaking) fully responsible for your pit experience.
In her book Get Out of That Pit: Straight Talk About God’s Deliverance, Beth Moore declares: “My breakthrough came when I realized that nothing took more divine power than forgiveness, and therefore nothing was more powerful than forgiving.”
Thanks to the power of Jesus Christ, Zamperini escaped his pit and experienced total victory.
God put a new song in his heart and he used that song brought others to the love of God.
May that be your story as well.
Let God lift you out of the pit, put you on solid ground, and give you a new song for your heart.
Want more on this? Check out the sermon I preached “Escaping the Pit” yesterday (Sunday, April 20) at Olney Baptist Church.
