I eat ashes as my food and mingle my drink with tears. (Ps. 102:9)
Expanded Passage: Psalm 102:1–17
My friend was struggling. Nothing was going right. The girl he was supposed to marry was struggling, as well. She asked him a question that completely changed everything for both of them. “Are you doing everything you know to do to live a life pleasing to God?”
This question set each of them on a new path, though separate. His honest response over time brought him to a place where, for him, he found peace for his troubled heart. He found clarity in his calling as a family doctor and found freedom in turning loose of his life and future to God. He found the girl he was meant to marry. It was beautiful and it worked out for everyone.
He has since passed, and he left the legacy of a life well lived, poured out for others and pleasing to God in every way.
Psalm 102 is one of those night and day psalms. It begins with the psalmist struggling without God, a dark place to be. Something happens in this psalm between verse 11 and verse 12. The focus shifts from the psalmist to God, and as it does, the darkness goes away, and the speaker finds hope in the goodness of God. May we remember this psalm when we reach a dark point in our lives where nothing seems to go right.
When in darkness, shift your focus to God and let in the light.
Dan LeRoy is a retired Wesleyan pastor, church planter and district superintendent. He and his wife Cynthia live in Kernersville, North Carolina.
