My mother, LaVonne, was faced with a dilemma. It was September 16, 1962, and her husband, Ed, along with Ed’s brother Henry, had just flown Henry’s Piper Cub nose first into a soybean field, igniting a huge ball of fire. All that was left when the fire died down was a scrap of shoe leather here and a piece of fabric there. Ed and Henry had been, by all practical description, cremated.
LaVonne was a month pregnant with her eighth child. The family lived in southeast Minnesota, where wintertime temperatures often reached 30 below zero. The house they were residing in was in the country, and it was drafty and uninsulated. Lavonne knew they couldn’t face another winter there. What to do?
Someone from her church showed her Psalm 86:7: “In the day of my trouble, I will call to you, for you will answer me.” That was all she had. And it was all she needed. For the next five years, LaVonne navigated by faith.
She had given her life to Jesus as a teenager in Wisconsin, and that had been her guiding star ever since. But for some reason, in the months before the crash, she had felt an increased compulsion to read Scripture, to pray. And now she knew why.
She knew she was poor and needy. But she also knew of the Old Testament’s frequent reminders to care for the widow and the fatherless. Boy, did she need that now! In the next five years, she would put it to the test again and again. And time and again, the Word of God proved itself trustworthy and true.
Psalm 86 had been written by David, quite possibly either in his 10-year flight from Saul that prepared him for the kingship, or in his flight from Absalom that resulted from his sin of adultery, and worse yet, murder, with Bathsheba and her husband, Uriah. (The second would have been cause for severe self-flagellation for most people. But David knew that God loved him, unconditionally. Period.)
In either case, he is being pursued by trained warriors who are intent on killing him. “Hear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy,” he writes. “Guard my life, for I am devoted to you. You are my God, Save your servant who trusts in you.”
That trust is all he has, and it is all he needs.
He goes on. “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to you all day long. Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.”
Bring joy? What in the world is that all about? What is a desperate man, on the run from his enemies, doing calling out for joy? It is a sign of his rock-solid identity as a believer that he can do this. He knows that God loves him! Joy is what he asks for and joy is what he will get.
“You are forgiving and good, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call on you. Hear my prayer, O LORD; listen to my cry for mercy.” Oh my goodness! He is calling for grace, and then more grace. And grace is what he will get.
And then the verse that my mother leaned on: “In the day of my trouble I will call to you, for you will answer me.” God’s faithfulness stretches three thousand years!
The next three verses segue to God’s character. “Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord; no deeds can compare with yours.” Not Jannes and Jambres, not Dagon, not Baal.
“All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, they will bring glory to your name.” Not to Dagon’s name, or Baal’s, but to yours, O Lord. “For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God.” And there is no other.
Then he turns back to his own relationship with God. Yes, he is poor and needy!
“Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth. Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.”
Undivided! He knows his soul’s propensity for idolatry, and he prays against it.
“I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart, I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of the grave.”
Next a verse about his enemies. “The arrogant are attacking me, O God; a band of ruthless men seeks my life — men without regard for you.”
But the last three verses are back to God and His love for His servant. “But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. Turn to me and have mercy on me; grant your strength to your servant and save the son of your maidservant. Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, O LORD, have helped me and comforted me.” It is typical of David that he ends by emphasizing God’s love. I don’t think you can find a Biblical character who experienced more of that love. Perhaps that is why his kingship is the one on which the Messiah is based.
Psalm 86 is at once a prayer of desperation and a prayer of faith. We do not know exactly what historical situation elicited it, though I have mentioned a couple of candidates, but David had plenty of desperate situations. And he also had lots of faith. That 10-year run from Saul was, in my opinion, divinely ordained to build faith in God’s love. What else does a human being need? If we have His love and place our confidence in it, we have what my mother discovered 62 years ago — that GOD IS ENOUGH.