The Miry Pit

"The Miry Pit" – Psalm 23:3 "He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." The pastor says she had several titles for this message and settled on the miry pit: a deep hole with a bottom full of thick mud, where the more one tries to walk the deeper the feet sink, and where the mud, once dried, sets hard as cement and binds. That is the portrait of the soul cast down. From there she works through Psalm 23:3 phrase by phrase and completes it with Psalm 42:11, Isaiah 40:31, Isaiah 41:10 and Psalm 37:23-24, where the answer lies: though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.

I. Reading the word for a lifetime

A. "I was reading the Scriptures from the day I was converted. I did not understand, but I read. I could not interpret, but I read it. And I marked it."

B. She marked it because she felt that verse became, at that moment, something she needed to know.

C. No one will teach you the way the word can teach you. It is the truth, and the more we read it the more knowledge we have — not what we presume.

D. That truth is what makes us free, what makes us mature, and what lets us know where we are going.

E. Different trials come to each one. None is fully absorbed: what one does is shrink, become small. Because the best thing is to bend the back and go to God.

F. The trials come to teach us, so that one stops being small and faces them. And yes, it is hard, because it is hard.

G. Life is individual for each one: it is not lived saying "that one did this to me, the other did that." What is done today is paid tomorrow; what you did not fight for today, you lost tomorrow.

II. What a miry pit is

A. Picture a deep hole with a bottom full of thick mud. The more you try to walk, the deeper your feet sink.

B. Unable to walk, one does not arrive where one ought to arrive; and you find no firm surface to stand on.

C. A mire is a place full of mud and clay, where the feet sink and it is hard to get out — not to say impossible.

D. And the feet stay buried: the wind dries the mud, and once dry it is hard as cement and binds the feet.

E. That miry pit comes to everyone in life. Not to some people: to everyone.

III. "He restoreth my soul" — the soul that must be restored

A. To restore means that God restores; and it is God who wants to restore our soul.

B. The soul is joined to the flesh, and is full of feelings and insecurities. It is troubled: that is the capacity of the soul.

C. The soul is vulnerable: it has no security, it has nerves, it does not see things clearly. We are flesh, soul and spirit — we are made of three.

D. You think it is your mind that leads you; but who leads your mind? The soul may lead it, the flesh may lead it, and the body, which is willful.

E. If we do not pray and do not read the word, we are carried here and there: today I give my opinion, tomorrow I pull away, I do not know what to do.

F. If you let yourself be led by the soul, the soul tears you apart. And easily, because your soul knows your weakness and knows your deeds: it knows the whole of you.

G. That soul will try to manipulate, control and destroy. "So no one does harm to anyone: one does the harm to oneself."

H. The soul must be taught, so that God may restore, renew and give strength to our inner being when we are tired, worried or cast down.

I. "If we are not cast down we are tired; and if we are not tired we are worried. It is as though living in stress delighted us."

J. One rises empowered and lies down troubled. "Never lose sleep over anyone."

K. "Lord, when my soul loses strength, you give me back my courage; when I am restless, you give me peace; when I do not know which way to go, you guide me."

L. And if one is not alert, one grows depressed; and getting out of a depressed state afterward is complicated: the face stays troubled for a long time, and even bread turns bitter.

M. What is inside you, you keep quiet: the husband does not know it, nor the wife, nor the mother, nor the neighbor. Only one knows one's own soul; and the soul controls, lies and deceives — itself.

N. Where we are contaminated is within, because we are very clever about what we let out of our mouths. Our circumstance is our inner being.

IV. "He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness"

A. I do not have to walk alone: God directs my steps. And what does God want to direct? Your steps.

B. Look at what is before you, look at your circumstances, look at your problems. "Stop looking at someone else: look at yourself, and watch your steps."

C. He leads me by the right way; and if you seek God, there is prayer and there is seeking.

D. "For his name's sake": we learn to love God as God deserves to be loved.

E. God remains faithful, because that is His nature and His character. It is the mortal who is not faithful — and to no one.

F. God sees us afflicted and strokes our head; sees us oppressed and takes it upon Himself to free us. He gives to you, and you do not give Him your love; He made a complete sacrifice, and you make none for Him.

G. "God, restore my soul" — that is what must be begged of Him. It is not about salvation: it is about restoring the soul, which drives, shouts, opines, suggests and accuses.

H. And that God direct my way. It occurs to no one to ask it, and we need it daily: because you have children, a marriage, a mother, a father. Life is made today and paid tomorrow.

V. Psalm 42:11 — "why art thou cast down, O my soul?"

A. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."

B. Why are you discouraged, sad and without strength? You cannot get up in the morning, or you live through something and feel yourself going; you do not know what to say or what to think.

C. Why are there so many circumstances and everything seems about to collapse? Because we have not been able to do battle, nor to speak plainly, face to face, with words of wisdom.

D. "I am asking your soul, because in your flesh and with your mouth you will not say it": say it to yourself when you get home.

E. Be honest with one another. "We live in a soap opera; the human being lives merely in a soap opera."

F. And it is David who is writing this. This is a psalm.

G. Why do you let worry and anguish fill your inner being? Because it does fill, and when one speaks it shows.

H. It is like the parents who learn the child's grades were not what they thought: they came to live in worry and began to feel the anguish. "Anguish is right behind the door."

I. But because we want to be the excellent ones and keep up the story, the soul is left wholly cast down — and there is the thick mud again.

J. And we start looking for solutions instead of going to prayer and setting aside a day of fasting, which costs nothing.

K. Hope is not lost if one keeps in prayer, reads the word and keeps a day of fasting.

L. Why do we not stop at moments of our life? Because there is a lack of brave people: they dare not fight, nor speak the truth, nor face what is wrong.

M. And instead of developing confidence in God, it is easier to hide: "there goes the river, and with the river I go."

N. When hope is lost, God is still on His throne and wants to work. What does He need? That we beg Him: "God, rise up and help me to fight, to overcome, to say what I must say, to face what I must face."

O. "For I shall yet praise him": though today I pass through difficulty, I will lift my voice again in praise.

P. "My soul, do not give up": David constantly held a conversation with his soul. What troubles you today will not have the last word.

VI. Isaiah 40:31 — new strength

A. "But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

B. Those who pray wait upon the LORD. You quarreled with the children, with your spouse, with the neighbor, because you think that is how you set your life in order.

C. Our hope is not in the son, nor the mother, nor the father, nor the neighbor: our hope is the LORD.

D. "The hard part is bending your knees. Your knee does not like to go down to the floor. The one who prays — it shows."

E. "I am a good person" is nothing: it is prayer and seeking, it is loving the word. That is what makes your life.

F. As one seeks, the new strength appears. Strength is spent on circumstances and problems, when no way out is seen; that is why it must be renewed.

G. "Nothing is of the earth. Everything must come from heaven for there to be blessing in our life."

H. The soul wants you to save it, because it already smells the smoke. The spirit wants to be saved; but the flesh does not. "I will leave it all and follow the Lord": that is the decision of the righteous.

I. "They shall mount up with wings as eagles": God can lift us above what meant to keep us cast down. What has you cast down today is what you have not fought.

J. "They shall run, and not be weary": He gives continual strength, even when the road is long.

K. "They shall walk, and not faint": the more one seeks, the more one wants to know of the Lord.

L. The other way is to be lukewarm, and the lukewarm is spewed out. A lukewarm mother brings lukewarmness to her family; a lukewarm father wrecks the home, for on the man rests the responsibility of leading his home, correcting, and saying the yes and the no. "This is not machismo."

M. When my strength ends, God's does not. It is not that one is braver than another: it is that when we trust fully in God, He is the one who renews us and lifts us.

VII. Isaiah 41:10 — "fear thou not; for I am with thee"

A. "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."

B. However hard it is, God says "I am with thee." The trouble is that you do not dare to fight.

C. "Be not dismayed": though my strength diminishes, He remains my God and my security.

D. "I will strengthen thee": when I feel I can do no more, God strengthens.

E. "I will help thee": the help is not occasional, it is always. You can count on Him.

F. "I will uphold thee": God not only lifts, He also sustains, so that one may go on.

G. "With the right hand of my righteousness": God offers His right hand, where righteousness is. And He offers it because God has no need: it is we mortals who are in need.

H. If God wills, He goes on creating angels, thousands upon thousands. We are creatures: we have nothing supernatural beside the millions of angels ascending and descending.

I. Do you think this planet is the only one? It is a multitude of creation; and on a small globe called earth we are preaching and teaching of God.

J. "Are we working to be saved, or for the little church story?"

VIII. Psalm 37:23-24 — the hand that upholds

A. "The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand."

B. God directs and settles the way of whoever walks with Him. "Now ask yourself: are you walking with Him?"

C. "It is your salvation I am fighting for. It is eternal life. For who assures you that you will be alive tomorrow?"

D. Not to go on giving excuse after excuse, but rather to say: "Lord, forgive me; lift me up."

E. "Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down": the believer may stumble and pass through trials and hard moments.

F. "For the LORD upholdeth him with his hand": the reason he rises again is that God has not let him go.

G. One may fall into weakness, but will not stay on the ground.

H. And she says it out of her own history: there were months when she stopped and did not go to the missions, because she could not; she collapsed, and covered it by talking, but the excess of worry had taken hold. Until, within a few hours, God began to work and some barriers broke.

I. "The hand that upholds me is stronger than the one that made me fall. He drew me out of the pit, set my feet upon the rock, straightened my steps, and now He holds my hand."

J. And the memory of a five-year-old boy who, seeing her arrive at a house, leapt and shouted "God has come! God has come!" — he knew nothing, and yet that house was converted and became a house of prayer and seeking, because God came into that life at that moment.

K. "Then the rest is history. And in that history there were tears, in that history there was much pain. And that history reaches to this day."