Psalm 31: The Foundation of David's Trust in God
verse 23 : I thought, "I am out of the Lord's sight in my distress," but when I cried out to You, You heard my prayer.
When I was about to graduate from elementary school or in the first year of middle school, a man called "Frozen Elder" came to our church and held a testimony meeting in the winter. He earned the nickname "Frozen Elder" because he had died and went to the freezer but came back to life. After finishing his testimony, he suddenly collapsed from the pulpit. The congregation cried out, "Oh, Lord!" and a cloud of concern arose. I also repented at that time, shedding tears and snot, and received a tremendous amount of grace. What great sins could a child have committed? Time passed, and it turned out that the Frozen Elder was a fraud. I met him again on TV. His words still ring in my ears, "Even if it's a lie, you received grace well." This became the decisive reason for me not to accept his testimony pleasantly.
The framework of a testimony is failure and frustration - prayer and resolution - recovery - pursuit of universalization of experience. The more the testifier's experience moves the audience, the more successful the testimony becomes. Psalm 31 is also a testimony meeting of David. Broadly speaking, most of the Psalms are David's testimony meetings. This time, David experienced pain turning into dance. Some sympathize with David's lamentation of his situation. The one who entrusted himself to David hopes that David's recovery will be the same for him. Thus, he sought to universalize the experience.
David became a person "out of the Lord's sight" and hit rock bottom. God created humans and saw that they were good, so it's unlikely that He would not even look at them. Wasn't the core of Christianity that Jesus shone the light of love on all humans, and even all creatures, transcending time and space from the cross? Professor Han emphasized in a lecture not to pray, "God, take care of those poor people, give them bread." It's not that God doesn't have eyes, but the one praying doesn't have eyes; it's not that God doesn't have money, but the one praying doesn't have money to buy bread. Why do people pray, making God seem blind and poor, and then ask for money from a poor God? It was not God but people who made David feel like he was out of the Lord's sight. God never put David, or even those who acted against him, out of His sight.
Having gone through the components or process of testimony, David, on one hand, praised God and, on the other hand, told those who wait for the Lord to take courage and strength. However, David didn't seem to base this on the process of the reality of near-death pain - begging for salvation - God's response. The probability of hitting this process is surprisingly low. Look around, isn't a low probability more realistic? Rather, the fact that "God never put David out of His sight" is the reason and basis for David to encourage those who wait for the Lord to take courage and strength. This is the foundation of David's trust in God. If God answers the plea for salvation, He is the living God, and if He doesn't, how shameful would it be for the living God? Let's trust in God like David did.