11-27-2013

   Good Morning All, 

    Psalm 103:4; “who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,”

    Many years ago, Erma Bombeck wrote a book entitled, “If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What am I doing in the Pits?”  It was her humorous look at life in suburbia.  She had many quaint sayings and observations that were somewhat insightful and usually funny.  Yet it asked a serious question if it was intended to be funny, why am I always in the pits?

    We use the phrase “in the pits” to describe a feeling of despair and or loneliness.  We feel we have a problem and that no one has an answer to it.  This feeling can run the gamut from the high school athlete who just can’t beat his opponent to the employee who just can’t seem to get that promotion to the person who keeps losing a job or some other type of calamity.  We usually associate this feeling with being down as in “down in the pits”.  This is actually a very old idea and goes way back to Scriptural and pre-Scriptural time when a person was punished by being thrown into a literal pit.  Often times this pit would be at the low end of the village so rain water and sewage would flow freely into it.  Sometimes it would have a cover of some sort over it to keep out the light and any chance of escape.  So life in the pit was a dark, dank, cold, smelly and lonely existence.  It was a punishment at a time when punishment was very mercurial and completely dependent upon the whims of the ruler.  The length of time was often arbitrary as well.   

    So as we look at our verse, we should have the image of a person, unjustly and cruelly judged, being thrown into a pit of punishment.  How long he will stay there is yet to be determined.  He will have little, if any, contact with those who love him; he will just sit in the smelly, cold pit until the ruler or judge decides to let him out.  Also, remember this was at a time when they put you in prison for a debt and didn’t let you out until you paid it so he could be in that pit long enough to die.

   There are times in our lives when the devil puts us in a pit like this.  First, something goes haywire; it might be accidental like a car wreck.  This spins into not being able to get to work on time.  This could lead to being fired.  Now you are in the pits.  It might be a relational issue with your hormonally challenged teenager that explodes into a real war.  It might be the declining health of an aged parent or worse it might be a combination of all these events with a know-it-all neighbor with all the answers for you.  Yikes!! This is really the pits.

    So we see our Savior pulling us out of the pit and not only pulling us out but lifting us up.  He holds us with his everlasting love and mercy.  He sees our condition and sends his spirit of hope to us; he sends his Spirit of comfort to us.  We need to trust in his mercy that the pit is usually of our own doing and we only need to focus on Christ for our deliverance.  

Father of all mercies, you extract us from the pit of despair with your love.  Be especially with those who are struggling with the battles of the pit, depression and despair, ad give them the refreshing breath of your Spirit.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,