God Rises Up

Have you ever had to scream for help? Like, honestly scream in the middle of public for someone, anyone to help you?

I have. A couple of times. And guess how many times it has resulted in someone, anyone coming to actually help me. 

Zero. 

The most recent couple of times I have had to do this have involved less-than-friendly "stray" dogs aggressively approaching and pursuing me and my dog while we were out on walks. We've made friends all around the neighborhood, and I have seen friendly houses with lights on, teenagers who pet my dogs who are standing at bus stops, runners that I wave to every day...and no help to be found. Nobody wants to get involved.

When the world that we can see and that is so familiar to us won't come to our cries for help, it's easy to think that the God we can't see won't, either. It's hard to believe that He would come running when the human being that we talk to on a regular basis leaves us hanging. 

But Psalm 12 says differently. 

These are David's words, but it isn't David speaking. It isn't the experience of the "man after God's own heart," as though we have some kind of radical righteousness to attain before God would help us. This isn't one man's experience of some kind of one-off experience, a miraculous intervention by a God who happened to hear and have some time and inclination to respond. 

These are God's words. 

And what God says is, "I will rise up." "I will rise up because the poor are being trampled and the needy groan for my saving help. I will lift them up to the safety they long for." 

When you scream for help in the middle of a broken, worn-out, backward universe, wrapped in darkness that seems impossible to break free from, God Himself will rise up to help you. He promises.

When the stray things of this world are coming aggressively at you and you look around for help, you're not alone. God is already listening; He's already rising up. 

When it looks like you're all on your own, you aren't. God will rise up. 

And if you find yourself in that living nightmare where you're trying to scream for help but no sound will come out, when you desperately need someone, anyone, and there's no strength in your voice, God will rise up. 

When you're being trampled and your spirit is groaning for saving help, God is already rising up to help you. 

You've got this. 

Because He's got you.