Insight for Today
A Daily Devotional by Pastor Chuck Swindoll

Let's face it; most problems are people problems. You can have a job that demands long hours and great physical effort, but neither the hours nor the energy drain gives you the problems difficult people do.

If Martin Luther's great hymn, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," is any indication, he often turned to Psalm 46 for comfort. When you read his story, you can appreciate why.

The psalmist's inner battle with the grind of personal weakness, recorded in Psalm 46, ended with a truce. He arrived at a critical decision that required every ounce of faith he could muster. He decided to withdraw from battle.

The psalmist's reaction to nature in upheaval was, "I will not fear" (Psalm 46:2–3). His response to feelings of personal weakness continues in Psalm 46 with a change of scene, which prompts another resolution.

The psalmist was most likely a priest. As a man of letters, he would have known the history of Israel better than most. And their path had not been a smooth one. They continually faced dangers from foreign armies.

We deny it. We fake it. We mask it. We try to ignore it. But the truth stubbornly persists: we are weak and inadequate creatures! Being sinful, we fail. Being prone to illness, we get sick. Being feeble, we get hurt.

Psalms 42 and 43 capture for us David's situation of inner despair and disturbance. The source of his turmoil didn't go away after his visit to the headwaters of the Jordan River (42:6).

David's songs of inner turmoil don't offer easy answers; he's too realistic for that. David had seen the lowest of lows several times in his life, so he knew that counting your blessings won't work every time.

God certainly has not forsaken His child, but at low moments all of us could testify that there are times when it feels like He has! What do we do to become reassured? How can we find the hope of God's care when we are feeling low?

This song recounts those days when we feel like curling up in the fetal position and quitting. Fortunately, David doesn't leave us on the ground. He advises how we can conquer those feelings rather than succumb to them.

I have a "churning place." It's in my stomach. On the upper, left side, just below the rib cage. When disturbing things happen, when troubling words are said, . . . my inner churning starts.

No one can tell me that Scripture, though written more than two thousand years ago, is not relevant today. David's poem is both beautiful and practical.

As David's celebration song about God's forgiveness continues, he recognizes that confession is costly. He also acknowledges the fact that we have a window of opportunity that may, one day, close.

David's celebration of God's forgiveness takes a dark turn as he recalls his anguished past. He remembers—perhaps accompanied by a gloomy minor key—the days of misery he spent in the isolation of secret sin.

I once asked my sister, Luci, to name the emotion she considered the most powerful and enjoyable of all. She surprised me with her answer: relief. After thinking for a moment, I had to agree. Relief is everyone's favorite feeling!

Your conscience may be invisible but it is certainly not inactive! Who hasn't been kept awake by its pleadings? With incredible regularity, an unforgiven conscience can rob us of an appetite, steal our sleep, and drive us to distraction.

David's cry for help doesn't end with an account of God's sudden and miraculous provision. Instead, the songwriter committed to doing what comes least naturally to people in fear. He committed to doing nothing.

While David's first response to fear wasn't a panicked plea for help, he didn't live in denial. He merely chose to celebrate God's power and to recall His past triumphs. Eventually, however, David did ask the Lord for what he needed.

When fear has us in its icy grip, we quickly turn toward self-preservation. We hope to avoid loss, escape pain, or cheat death. Not David! His composition, preserved for us as Psalm 27, gives priority to eternal matters.

As David faced his fears and expressed them to God in Psalm 27, he began with worship, celebrating the power and faithfulness of his God. The key to the entire song is verse 1. It consists of two similar sentences.