Pleasant Stone Devotional Meditation: August 24

“David … poured it out unto the Lord.” ~ 2 Samuel 23:16

David wrote many of our “purple stone” verses. He knew suffering and he also knew the One who “continues to give His joy” in the midst of that suffering. “Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary.”

God never deserted David, and when the pitcher of water from the well at the gate of Bethlehem, was brought to him at the risk of the spilled blood of his friends, David “poured it out unto the Lord” who had never forsaken him. The most precious thing, he gave to the Lord. But also the most grievous. “… as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord … Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink … Hear me, O Lord; for thy lovingkindness is good …”

David “poured it out unto the Lord,” no matter what it was. Good or bad. Sinful or holy. He knew even then that the Lord is a redeemer! That He is continually redeeming everything we give Him willingly. Resentments, grudges, bitterness, heartbreak, pain. The hands with the nail-marks in them will take it, what ever it is, and redeem it. Change it into something useful and creative. He is the Creator-redeemer. David knew this, and so he “poured it out unto the Lord.” A woman who had just “poured out’ her resentment against her young son, reminded me that if we pour something out on the ground, it soaks in! We can’t get it back. I rejoice in this.

Take hold of that thirst, that agony of the soul, that hatred, that temptation, that grief, and pour it out right now. If He took our sin into Himself on the Cross, can’t He take our every circumstance now? Pour it out now onto the ground at the foot of the Cross of Jesus Christ. It will soak in!
“[Then] let the people praise thee, O God, let the people praise the, [and] … the earth shall yield her increase.”