The teenagers were posing on the rim of the Grand Canyon.

​

Having hoisted themselves past the handrails, they were performing handstands and flips near

the edge. (Now, to their credit, the drop they were poising over was about three feet...but it

looked great on the selfies.) An older man shuffled past and looked on with some appreciation.

"Not for the faint of heart," he said.

​

But sometimes we ARE faint of heart.

​

Toward the end of his reign, King David of Israel endured a usurpation by his son, Absalom.

After he had escaped into the wilderness, David wrote a psalm for stringed instrument.

(Aside: amazing to me how David can write psalms in times of crisis...).

​

Here's what it says in Psalm 61:

​

"Hear my cry, O God; give heed to my prayer." The word "cry" in the original Hebrew gives

the sense of screaming and wailing. In other words, it wasn't a silent shrugging of the shoulders

in private. His cry - to GOD - was audible and loud.

​

"From the end of the earth I call to Thee, WHEN MY HEART IS FAINT..." 

​

Just the other day my heart was faint. Career was fine. House was standing. Food on the table. My daughters weren't usurping me. My knees were a little cranky, but that's about it. Still...my heart was faint. God was silent. In some ways, spiritually, I could identify with being at the end of the earth. 

​

Maybe you've felt faint-hearted. It's unsettling, to say the least. It can be an overpowering sensation of weakness and loss and wandering. There may be a clear cause, or none at all. But it's really more than just "feeling blue." It's an awkward sense of empty. Discouragement or disillusionment. It can and does happen to anyone.

​

I also note in this Psalm the silence of God. David speaks. David cries. David wails. All in just eight verses. He knows God heard him previously, and seems to hope God hears him now.

​

And God does. God hears

​

By the end of the Psalm, David has moved from crying aloud to singing praise. And that includes a short pause for reflection midway through!

​

Not to be overly dramatic here, but sometimes life feels a little like being on the edge of a canyon. It's a long way down and the heart grows a bit faint.

​

So grab on to the Rock which is higher than you. He hears when you cry out, when you make promises, and when you praise.