"When My Heart is Overwhelmed"
(Psalm 61)
Lately, I have been reading a book titled "The Christian Warfare" by Dr. Lloyd-Jones. The reason I started reading this book was because, while discussing the story of Job with a beloved co-worker, I felt the need to understand more about the forces of Satan and spiritual warfare. As I read this book, I became particularly interested in Dr. Lloyd-Jones’ point about one of Satan’s strategies: that the devil has some authority even over nature.
When Satan began to afflict Job with God's permission, one of Job's servants came to him and reported that his oxen and donkeys had been stolen, and the servants who were guarding them had been killed. While he was still speaking, another servant came and told Job: "The fire of God—meaning lightning—came down from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I alone have escaped to tell you" (Job 1:16). This passage clearly teaches that the power to cause lightning and destruction through it lies within the realm and ability of Satan.
The devil, who possesses such incredible power, is primarily concerned with attacking the human mind, which is one of God’s greatest gifts to mankind. The devil uses various strategies to assault our minds, and one of these is through the spirit of fear, which seeks to suppress us. A prime example of this is when the apostle Peter, who had once said he would never abandon Jesus, even if everyone else did, ended up denying Jesus three times, claiming he did not know Him at all. Why did Peter do this? The reason was that Satan, with an overwhelming spirit of fear, stirred in Peter the fear of losing his own life (Jones).
Dr. Lloyd-Jones recently made a powerful statement about the church: “The church is anesthetized, confused, and asleep, unaware of the battle (spiritual warfare).”
Satan, who always lays traps and snares, seems to be succeeding within the church today. Dr. Lloyd-Jones also said, "Discouragement, despair, feelings of defeat, and complete hopelessness are usually the results of the devil’s activity." How many of us, as Christians, live in discouragement, despair, and a sense of defeat? How many of us are living with a sense of hopelessness? We must fight in this spiritual battle with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has already won the victory. We must live our lives as victorious, combatant Christians, fully confident in our victory. We must engage in spiritual warfare.
An example of this can be found in Psalm 61. In verse 2, the psalmist David says, "When my heart is overwhelmed..." The word "overwhelmed" here means "self-enveloping." This refers to a state of being surrounded by various burdens, becoming exhausted, and descending into despair (Park Yun-sun). David was becoming overwhelmed due to the persecution of his enemies (v. 3). Through this passage, I want to share four lessons on how we should fight and overcome when, like David, our hearts are overwhelmed by the evil forces of the devil.
First, when our hearts are overwhelmed, we must cry out to God, just like David did.