1 I will exalt you, Lord,
    for you lifted me out of the depths
    and did not let my enemies gloat over me.
2 Lord my God, I called to you for help,
    and you healed me.
3 You, Lord, brought me up from the realm of the dead;
    you spared me from going down to the pit.

4 Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people;
    praise his holy name.
5 For his anger lasts only a moment,
    but his favour lasts a lifetime;
weeping may stay for the night,
    but rejoicing comes in the morning.

6 When I felt secure, I said,
    ‘I shall never be shaken.’
7 Lord, when you favoured me,
    you made my royal mountain stand firm;
but when you hid your face,
    I was dismayed.

8 To you, Lord, I called;
    to the Lord I cried for mercy:
9 ‘What is gained if I am silenced,
    if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
    Will it proclaim your faithfulness?
10 Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me;
    Lord, be my help.’

11 You turned my wailing into dancing;
    you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
12 that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent.
    Lord my God, I will praise you for ever. NIVUK

‘All prayer is prayed in a story, by someone who is in the story. There are no storyless prayers…Prayers are prayed by people who live stories. Every life is a story. We are not always aware that we are living a story; often it seems more like a laundry list. But story it is.’ Eugene Peterson

As in many other psalms, this one reflects parts of David’s story. Verses 6,7, in particular, seem to look back to a time when he was at the height of his powers. He had ‘success’. It was a time when he was riding high ‘in the polls’ because God was blessing him. It is so easy for us to get above ourselves – for things to ‘go to our heads’ – and we start to believe in our own publicity. We forget that our flourishing is a divine gift, and not our own doing. ”A person can receive only what is given them from heaven.” John 3:27

Self- confidence is perilous to the spiritual life.

There is a story told about a young preacher. It’s possibly apocryphal, but it speaks truth and makes a great point. This youthful fellow bounded up the pulpit steps to preach his first sermon, full of a sense of his own capabilities. He was going to show them! Five to ten minutes later he walked slowly down those same steps, head bowed with embarrassed shame, feeling he’d done very badly. An old elder came up to him, put his arm around him, and said, ‘Young man, if you’d gone up as you came down, you’d have come down as you went up.’

‘If, in this pride-inducing period, the Lord in grace humbled David by a sickness which dashed the cup from his hand before he had time to drink it, the terms of the psalm are most perfectly suited and David learned that as grace had brought him safe thus far, only grace can lead him home.’ Alec Motyer

PRAYER: Lord, please forgive us and deliver us from all pride, conceit and self-assurance. May our trust be in you alone, and not in ourselves.

THOUGHT: ‘The Church always fails at the point of self-confidence.’ Samuel Chadwick