I Believe, Therefore Have I Spoken
Psalms 116
I received a message from my new place of business last night, almost a week ago now, that read in part:
"The office doesn’t have power and we’ve just been in survival mode for a few days. I think it’s best to start next week. Can we talk later this week to schedule? Apologies for the inconvenience."
This is at a time when comprehending what has taken place all around those of us in the southeast of the United States is undescribable. A once delightful town that was a go to place for my family nearly every New Year's Day for many years holding deep memories for us with my late wife, well, it was completely washed into the river. It doesn't exist. In what has been called the path of a 250 mile wide tornado the word devastion takes on a surreal meaning. About five years ago a tornado went right over my house. Dozens of trees were down in the a quarter a mile away along with a tree in front and one in back of my house and on further for about five miles. That fifty to one hundred yard path of destruction was swift and comparatively nearly immediate lasting ten to fifteen minutes on the ground over all. That was scary, terrifying.
Before this storm arrive two days previous there was another storm system drenching the area with inches of water. But this storm that began south of Cozumel, Mexico in the Caribbean Sea when it reached the Florida coast early Friday morning on September 27, 2024 was quantified as a Category 4 hurricane. From that unprecedented hurricane in this area, in this century or the last, wreaked that devastation across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee just in the main path alone. It had traveled hundreds of miles across the Gulf of Mexico to destroy country, towns and villages, and whole cities in its hundreds of miles path on land affecting the lives of millions of people. It's what hurricanes do.
The damage on my property, even all around me is nothing in light of lives, homes, businesses, and cities completely gone. Now in the last couple of days there was a neighborhood I drove through that had a house that five trees fall on it, and the rest of the houses near it not any better, maybe the worst destruction I had seen personally in my small part of all affected by the storm.
Efforts were being made before the storm arrived to be prepared. A member of an electrical crew I spoke with said they were called and had assembled on the Wednesday before storm hit that Friday and were already on their way here before anyone even knew what damage there would be. After the storm hit many calls were made seeking information about family and loved ones. I made a call at 5:59 AM Friday morning to my power company when I lost power, only one of millions of people in my state alone who lost power. Others have called insurance offices, tree removal companies, electricians, builders, and many other services that help when severe weather occurs. When these calls were answered a wide range of emotions were heard on the other end. Some were frantic, some were very uncertain what to ask, what to say, in any case what to expect.
Very thankfully it matters not who calls, what they are calling about, when it comes to calling upon the Lord.
I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my prayers. For he hath inclined his ear unto me, when I did call upon him in my days.
Psalms 116:1-2 GNV
Throughout this psalm calling upon the Lord is a frequent desire. There are many reasons for calling on the Lord. The first is that historically He has inclined His ear. He has been listening to the one calling Him.
When the snares of death compassed me, and the griefs of the grave caught me: when I found trouble and sorrow. then I called upon the Name of the Lord, saying, I beseech thee, O Lord, deliver my soul. The Lord is merciful and righteous, and our God is full of compassion.
Psalms 116:3-5 GNV
During these hours and days before the storms pounded our region, while we knew not what was ahead certainly the prayers of many were calling on the Lord for early preparations. And in the storm we called upon Him more fervently. Whether overrun by an enemy, or the death and destruction of the actual storms, or even the anguish of life from the wicked at the work place around us the trauma can be to much for the tighteous. Again, there is the need to continue to call on the Lord. Yes, the necessities of life, shelter, food, clothing are primary to us, but before even those the cry is "deliver my soul". This writer like all those who wrote these Psalms were real, very real. The Lord didn't keep back the storm of whatever nature, by people or weather, armies or by coworkers or friends turning against them, these literally went through what we have experienced here these days. And only in that because these evils have encompassed us can we know and be encouraged with the truth that the Lord is merciful, righteous, and full of compassion.
For me personally was my home destroyed, my automobile destroyed, my city swept out of existence? No, not this time. Then am I experiencing soldier's remorse, I'm the one that should have have experienced the death or the loss that my neighbors and friends experienced this time? No, the truth is that this is how I recognize what the Lord has done for me. Because of Him I can mourn with others. I can be of help to them who have great loss. And I can know:
The Lord preserveth the simple: I was in misery and he saved me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul: for the Lord hath been beneficial unto thee, Because thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I shall walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed, therefore did I speak: for I was sore troubled.
Psalms 116:6-10 GNV
Those who don't believe will neither trust nor understand who God is or what He has done through all of this, the same as they haven't for thousands of years They may call me a fool for trusting such a God, but that does not, cannot change who the Lord is or what He has done. The fact remains, I believe, therefore have I spoken