Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - When the Pressure is Too Much | The Writings | Psalm 55

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed by pressure and responsibility that you just want to check out? David's been there too. In today's episode, Tanya shares how David looks for hope in Psalm 55. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 55

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. There are times in our life where the pressure feels especially intense. When you feel like you're the only one who can handle the responsibilities in front of you, the only one who can own them, you think no one else can help, no one can really understand. You feel alone, responsible, overwhelmed. The little knot sits in the bottom of your stomach, prodding you awake when you need to sleep,

feeding your anxiety when you're awake. King David wrote a hymn of lament for God's faithful people to sing to God, to pray to God in times like these. When the pressure and responsibility of life feels so overwhelming, you just want to check out. You actually are not alone. Psalm 55 is God reaching down to you, acknowledging this feeling,

and providing words of comfort and instruction in his word for you to take to heart. It says, Fear and trembling come apart. me, and whore overwhelms me. And I say, oh, that I had wings like a dove, I would fly away and be at rest. Yes, I would wander far away. I would lodge in the wilderness. I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest. David's impulse here is to flee his trouble and his pain and go somewhere, anywhere. This would mean giving up his crown and his position of leadership and letting someone else take over. For us, it might mean giving into temptation, taking the path of

least resistance, giving into our addiction to numb ourselves, giving into pressure by lying or cheating, maybe throwing someone under the bus, giving in to selfishness, drawing inward, and ignoring the needs of others. But these choices won't save us because there is no shelter apart from God. Now David starts to him with what he wants to do in his flesh. He wants to run away, flee the responsibility, take a grand vacation, forget about it, soar above it all without caring, leave it for someone else to do, start over. And then later in the Psalm, he gets to life in the spirit and a better solution. This might not be our first instinct, but David says,

cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. Let's look at a couple of people in the New Testament that did this. From Mark 4, when the disciples were in a boat with Jesus and a windstorm came across the Sea of Galilee, their friend Jesus was asleep on a cushion in the boat, and they woke him and said, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? This is what it sounds like when we come to God at first. Don't you care? Why are you allowing this to happen to me? And then Mark goes on to say, Jesus woke up, and he rebuked the wind and the sea, and the wind ceased, it died down,

and there was a great calm. And Jesus said to them, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? Jesus always cares, not only about our external circumstances, but about our inward circumstances. Are we trusting him? Are we growing in our faith? If we're in a storm, he hears us, and he may calm the storm, or he may help us like he did for Peter in Matthew 14, walk through the storm without sinking. In this case, when the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water, they thought he was a ghost, but Peter said, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. And Jesus said, come. So Peter got out of the boat and he walked on the water and he started coming to Jesus. But when Peter looked away from Jesus and saw the wind. He was afraid. And he began to sink and he cried out,

Lord, save me. And Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him saying to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? Well, Peter doubted when he thought the storm was going to overwhelm him. But making it through the storm with Jesus and the other disciples, they got into the boat and the wind ceased. And then Peter said, truly, you are. are the son of God. Peter had to keep his eyes on Jesus to make it safely to the boat. And that whole experience helped him see the reality of who Jesus really was. Truly, you are the son of God. When we face storms or even see them coming on the horizon, we often want to check out. Being the mom or the dad or the friend or the Christian or the student

God calls us to be can seem really hard. We can come up with all kinds of ways to numb our pain, to ease it, to get rid of the angst we feel inside. But when we develop the kind of relationship with God, where we are talking with him about our troubles, he will patiently help us. First, he helps us see things as they really are. When we're aware of his presence, we realize that while what we're going through is really hard, the things we want to do to handle it on our own are infinitely harder. Second, he reorients our things. thinking about which path to take. The path of least resistance doesn't look so great anymore. We live for a greater purpose, and the long and the winding road looks more appealing when we see

Jesus walking with us there. And third, he grows our faith. He gently calls us to put less trust in ourselves and more trust in him. We literally cannot walk on the water on our own. We know the sinking feeling all too well. We must cast our care. cares on him to make it through the storm. Why can we do this? Well, because we know he suffered the worst kind of suffering and betrayal for us. And that Jesus did that, we can trust him to help us patiently walk through our own suffering. We also know there really is no other place to go. Mark 6 describes a time when the disciples were with Jesus. And they saw many who had been following him, turn and walk away. And when this happened, Jesus said to the 12, do you want to go away as well?

And Peter answered, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Do you believe with your heart that Jesus has the words of eternal life? If you do, will you make the choice to keep following him today instead of going your own way? Will you cast your cares upon him and talk to him about the choices you want to make. Will you sit in his presence and let his words of comfort surround you? In the Psalms, God takes the faithful person above the water that rages at their feet

and sets them firmly upon a rock. He is the rescue we need. And if we call on him, he will be our support and will keep us on the path of eternal life.