Help us

Give us help from trouble,
For the help of man is useless.
Through God we will do valiantly,
For it is He who shall tread down our enemies. – Psalm 108.12-13

It is pretty obvious that when we face this world we don’t have much power. We are weak and there is not much we can do. This passage reminds me of the time that Peter stepped out on to the water to walk to Jesus. The thing is that he made it for a while. But then he looked around and saw the storm around him, lost faith, and sank into the water. All he could do then was to cry out ‘Lord, save me.’

And Jesus reached out His hand to do just that. He helped Peter up out of the water and back into the boat.

Peter is not that much different from us. I think we all have, or have had, or will have times in our lives when we get off track or unexpected news comes or the bottom falls out or we just flat out reach the end of our ropes and we can’t see any good in our situations.

Those are the times when we, like Israel above, can cry out ‘give us help in our trouble.’

But I think the Christian’s clearest application here is what we read in Hebrew 2 -
‘Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.’

Jesus became like us so that He could help us in our struggles. His struggles let us know that He knows what it is like to suffer. We don’t have a high priest who doesn’t get it.

He does, and He came to help when we struggle.