When I Feel Overwhelmed, What Should I Do?

 

For the enemy has persecuted my soul;
He has crushed my life to the ground;
He has made me dwell in dark places, like those who have long been dead.
Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me;
My heart is appalled within me.  I remember the days of old;
I meditate on all Your doings;
I muse on the work of Your hands.
I stretch out my hands to You;
My soul longs for You, as a parched land.
                         Selah.
                Psalm 143:3-6

When I am persecuted, crushed, in a "dark place", overwhelmed, what is my response to be?  What was David's response?  He remembered the days of old and meditated on God's doings, the work of His hands.  What days of old?  Well, it's interesting that the psalms and the prophets seem to constantly remind God's people of one particular event in their common history.  Take Psalm 77:16-20 for example:

The waters saw You, O God;
The waters saw You, they were in anguish;
The deeps also trembled.
The clouds poured out water;
The skies gave forth a sound;
Your arrows flashed here and there.
The sound of Your thunder was in the whirlwind;
The lightnings lit up the world;
The earth trembled and shook.
Your way was in the sea
And Your paths in the mighty waters,
And Your footprints may not be known.
You led Your people like a flock
By the hand of Moses and Aaron.

We have the same common history, if we have been grafted in to Israel.  (For information on what "grafted in" means, see http://www.graftedin.com/graftedin.html). As God's chosen people, dearly loved, we are led by the hand, not of Moses and Aaron, but of Jesus, our Savior.  He rescued us from our slavery and bondage and freed us to follow Him to the Promised Land.   When we feel overwhelmed, let us remember the seas that God has parted for us in the past, and most importantly, remember how He has set us free and saved us.  If He has been faithful in the past, taking care of our greatest need (to be reconciled to Himself) will He not faithfully bring us through this current set of circumstances, and finally, bring us home?