Bitter Ingredients, Good Outcome: Psalm 71

“The unknown psalmist speaks on behalf of God’s people of all times, declaring that God has done great things while honestly affirming, ‘You have made me see troubles, many and bitter.’” - Randy Alcorn

Discussion

This is a great Psalm. One that I have clung to over the last year or so. When you are in the midst of the troubles that are many and bitter, this is a Psalm that you must preach to yourself and pray through over an over and over again. You must cling to the hope that He "will restore my life again".

When you are in the depths of pain and despair, you will hear from God what C.S. Lewis so eloquently articulates for many of us, "A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence." You hear nothing from God, except overwhelming silence and emptiness but what you do have is Psalm 71. And you must stand at that door and preach to yourself and pray to this emptiness, the truth and the promise that He "will restore my life again".