The following is an entry from my personal journal dated August 30, 2015.
"Your way was through the sea, Your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen." -- Psalm 77:19, ESV
The psalmist is a man in trouble.
He emphasizes, not once but twice, in verse 1 that he is crying aloud. Not praying silently or murmuring under his breath. He is shouting his prayer to God! His is a desperate situation. There seems to be no way out. He can't sleep. He can't speak (v. 4). He is so troubled that it is literally debilitating.
So what does he do? I love these next few verses. They are so raw, so honest, so unflinching...
"I said, 'Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.' Then my spirit made a diligent search: ..."
This desperate man makes a diligent search in the deepest places of his being. He asks a series of questions to himself. He is grappling with how to interpret his circumstances. He is taking what he has always believed to be true about God and holding it up to what he is experiencing and asking the really hard question: "Is it really true?" Was it just a nice little faith, a quaint set of beliefs for when times were good? Or does it stand up in the storm? If I could sum up his questions in verses 7-9, I would say it like this: "Has God given up on me? Does He care?"
What follows is nothing short of amazing. God answers his question. Not audibly. Not in a miraculous show of thunder and fire from heaven. In the deepest places of his soul, the Spirit of God whispers, "Remember..."
And that is exactly what he does. He rehearses the things God has done in the past when everything seemed hopeless and, by all appearances, God had abandoned His people. In pondering these things one particular story comes to his mind: the parting of the red Sea to deliver Israel from the Egyptian army.
If you go back and read the story in Exodus, the people of Israel were freaking out. Behind them, the armies of the largest, most powerful kingdom in the world were bearing down on them, intent on slaughtering every single one of them. In front of them was the impenetrable barrier of the Red Sea. They were trapped, it seemed, with no way out.
Ah, that's the magic word: way.
God's specialty is making a way where there is none. It's His signature move, ultimately perfected in the resurrection of Jesus. The psalmist remembers this and it dawns on him like an epiphany: "Your way was through the sea, Your path was through the great waters..." Key word: through.
When the Israelites in Exodus 14 saw their predicament, they did exactly what the psalmist did: they cried aloud. "What have you done, Moses?! Have you brought us here to die? What's the matter, there weren't enough graves in Egypt, so you hadda lure us out here so they could kill us?!" All their questions amount to one big misinterpretation: There is no way. We are doomed. God has given up on us.
Moses' response to their questions is beyond epic. It's so epic that Bible publishers should just go ahead and pre-highlight it for people...
"Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. (Now you see them; now you don't!) The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent."
Freaking awesome. "God's got this! Your part is to shut up an watch!"
Then God did something no one expected. He took no way and made it The Way! He took the very thing that trapped them and turned it into the escape route. He took a wall and made it a door.
When the psalmist remembers this his heart is lightened. That changes everything! Maybe the reason God has not delivered him from his troubles is because they are the very thing He is working through to bring true freedom and deliverance.
"Your footprints were not seen..." We may not be able to distinguish a clear set of footprints to track the movement of God, but that doesn't mean that He isn't working. Verse 20 reminds us that "You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron." Then the psalm abruptly ends. Boom. Over. No neat wrap up or summary or conclusion statement. In the words of the great Stan Lee, "'Nuff said!"
God didn't deliver from trouble; He delivered through trouble. And though His footprints were not visible to the naked eye, His direction and provision were obvious in Moses and Aaron.
Why? Why does God make a way through instead of just avoiding the trouble to start with? The answer to that question is in what He said to Moses at the Red Sea:
"... I will get glory over Pharoah and all his hosts, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten glory over Pharoah, his chariots, and his horsemen." (Exodus 14:17-18)
When the psalmist reflects on the story of God's deliverance through the Red Sea, he makes an astute observation that I completely missed on the first reading -- God led them there on purpose! "You led Your people like a flock..." It was no accident that they ended up at the Red Sea. God led them there "by the hand of Moses and Aaron," knowing full well that Pharoah's armies would come charging after them and trap them against the waters. Here's the crazy thing: It was God's plan to do that the whole time! Why? Why would He do something like that? That seems so.... mean.
We often misinterpret our circumstances because we are working at cross purposes with God. We are not interested in what He is doing or why. We just want out.
We are looking to return to comfort as quickly as possible.
God is looking to make Himself known to the nations.
We are interested only in our pleasure.
He is interested only in His glory.
Knowing God's agenda in advance puts us at a remarkable advantage over our "day of trouble." Endurance is made effective by knowing the end to which we are suffering. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus endured the cross "for the joy that was set before Him." How we handle the "day of trouble" will reveal whether we are on the Kingdom plan, or if we have a plan all our own we are trying to get God to endorse.
The psalmist, the Israelites, and I all have something in common: In the "day of trouble" when we are so desperate that we can't sleep or speak and we cry out to God, "Why have you abandoned me?!" -- we forget stuff. And we need to remember. We need to remember that God's way is through, not from or around or over or under. We need to remember that we don't always see His footprints but we can trust that He is leading us.
The question then is: Are we following? Am I yielding to His leadership by submitting to godly leaders He has placed over me with a proven track record of walking with God and experiencing His power? Am I so busy trying to find a way out or around the "day of trouble" that I am missing "the salvation of the LORD" that runs right through it? Am I so busy complaining that I can't hear God saying, "You have only to be silent."?
Thank you, God, for this great reminder. Help me to remember in my day of trouble that Your way is THROUGH the sea, Your path is THROUGH the great waters, even though your footprints may remain unseen. You lead Your people like a shepherd leads his sheep. By Your grace, make me to trust Your promises. Help me to look for the ways You are getting glory and making Yourself known in my day of trouble. Help me endure for the joy set before me, of knowing You are leading me and bringing Your Kingdom through me. In Jesus' precious and holy name I pray this today.
