Be Still And Know

Psalm 40:1-2 I waited patiently for the LORD to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. I was born and brought up in Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex on the Thames Estuary. As a boy I loved exploring the coast, which is well known for its generous expanses of mud! At low tide it is possible to walk out more than a mile from the shore. However, you have to be careful. In places the mud is of such a fine quality that you can easily sink into it; I remember being told gory stories of people who got caught in the mud when the tide turned, with disastrous consequences. The psalmist here is reflecting on his own life and recognises that he had once been totally stuck – just like being stuck in mud. He had been in a hopeless situation but he cried out to God, who had reached out to him and lifted him to a place of solid ground. What a relief! There are some predicaments in life