Overcoming the Overwhelming

Psalm 42 is one of the most heartfelt and personal psalms David ever wrote.  It came out of a time when he faced not only overwhelming problems, but betrayal from the very people closest to him—his own family.  There is something about this psalm that speaks deeply to everyone who has been in a dark season where you can’t seem to find your way out.

When David wrote this psalm, his son Absalom was leading an insurrection against him.  It didn’t happen overnight—it had been developing for five years.  David didn’t even know it until everything suddenly blew up in front of him.  Talk about betrayal; talk about heartbreak!  David trusted his son and had no idea what he was doing behind his back. 

You may be in a time right now when it feels like everything is falling apart or even that life as you know it is about to explode.  Perhaps someone you trusted has turned on you.  Maybe your finances are under attack, your health, your marriage, your reputation.  You feel overwhelmed, and it doesn’t seem like God is saying anything to you.  You’ve prayed, you’ve confessed the Word, you’ve done everything you know to do, yet there’s no voice from heaven speaking step-by-step instructions or even an encouraging word.  Varvah and I have been there.  We’ve walked through seasons like this ourselves many times.  But here is what we have found; here is what we know—God is faithful!  After all David went through, in the later days of his life he concluded unequivocally, “I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread (Ps. 37:25).”

God doesn’t always give us a gift of wisdom, where we see the whole picture.  He gives us a word of wisdom—just a piece, just enough light and just enough faith to take the next step.  And even when the Holy Spirit is silent, God’s Word is still true.  David learned this as he wrote Psalm 42.

Psalm 42: When Your Soul is Overwhelmed

David began this psalm with the words, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God.”  He’s not talking about a casual desire—he’s talking about desperation.  The deer’s thirst is aggravated by running, and so is ours.  The more you run from God, the thirstier you become.  And that’s exactly where David was.  He had gotten so used to being king, to the routine, to the leadership, to the system, he missed what the enemy was doing behind his back—his own son plotting his downfall.

David had forgotten what it meant to long for God’s presence.  He got busy doing the work of the kingdom while neglected the King of the work.  Sound familiar?  It happens to all of us—ministers, parents, workers, leaders.  You serve, you work, you give, and one day you wake up and realize you’re dry.  You’ve been living on yesterday’s anointing and yesterday’s revelation.

And what did David do?  He didn’t gather his advisors.  He didn’t try to fix the problem himself.  He got away to a place called Beth Amerbach, which in Hebrew means “the city farthest away.”  It was a secret place where David could be alone with God.  You need a place like that—a place where you shut the world out and get before the Lord with no distractions.  Not to ask for anything.  Just to be in His presence.  Just to listen.

Real Problems, Real Pain

David was heartbroken.  Absalom had turned the whole nation against him—from Dan to Beersheba.  Even David’s most trusted advisor, Ahithophel, defected and joined Absalom.  Ahithophel wasn’t just any counselor—he was Bathsheba’s grandfather and David’s finest war strategist.  He knew how David thought.  He knew the military strategy.  He knew the plan, and now he was helping David’s enemy.

David could have panicked.  In fact, for a moment, he probably did.  But as he stood on the Mount of Olives, looking back at the city and hearing that Ahithophel had turned, the Holy Spirit dropped one line of wisdom into his spirit: “Let the counsel of Ahithophel be turned into foolishness” (2 Sam. 15:31).  But that word had to be spoken, it had to be prayed out loud.  That word turned everything around.

When you finally quiet yourself before the Lord, He will speak. Maybe not with thunder. Maybe not with a full sentence. But one line from heaven is all it takes to win the battle.

The Enemy's Strategy

Absalom had been stealing the hearts of the people for five years.  David never knew what was happening.  And when the time came, Absalom took over and even convinced Ahithophel to join him.  But what Ahithophel, in all his wisdom, didn’t realize was he hitched his wagon to a fool.  Absalom wasn’t driven by a calling from God or a hunger for righteousness, he was driven by fleshly pride and ego.  So David, under the unction of the Spirit, sent his best friend, Hushai the Archite, to pose as a defector and give Absalom foolish advice.  David said to him, “Go. Pretend to be on Absalom’s side.”

Ahithophel gave Absalom wise counsel. He said, “Send a few men. David’s weak, he’s tired, he’s in some far-off place.  Go now and strike.” And he was exactly right.  But then Hushai stepped in and appealed to Absalom’s pride.  “Oh no, your father is angry.  He’s a warrior.  You need to take the whole army and lead the charge yourself.”  And Absalom, driven by ego, listened to the wrong voice.  

Who was Hushai?  Not someone important.  He was David’s friend who loved him enough and was humble enough to submit to his leadership and be used of God.  James 4:6 explains why David’s plan worked so effectively: “God resists the proud (Absalom) but gives grace to the humble (David and Hushai).”

God’s Wisdom Always Wins

The moment Absalom followed Hushai’s advice instead of Ahithophel’s, everything shifted.  Ahithophel saw it, packed his things, and hung himself.  He realized he had backed the wrong man, but now it was too late.  His perfect counsel had been turned into foolishness—just like David prayed.

The next thing that happened was David’s army regrouped.  Absalom’s forces chased him, but during the battle, Absalom got his hair caught in a tree.  He was left dangling, helpless.  And Joab, David’s commander, ended the rebellion by killing Absalom. 

In Scripture, long hair is a sign of glory, covering, or anointing (1 Cor. 11:15), all of which Absalom wanted and thought he could obtain in the flesh by usurping it from his father.  But getting his hair tangled in the tree (which symbolized the cross), brought immediate exposure of his prideful delusions of possessing Gods glory and anointing through his own human ability and thinking.  Absalom is a type of all men who think they can escape Adam’s death by passing under the cross, rather than going through it.  When Jesus prayed, “Let this cup pass from me (Mat. 26:39),” He was speaking as the First Adam. 

Tribulation is NECESSARY to become an OVERCOMER!

The enemy’s greatest weapon is FEAR!  Since the First Adam sinned and hid from God, the world has been filled with fear which can only be overcome through the Second Adam.  And what is required to overcome fear at its spiritual roots?  We don’t like it, but Jesus revealed the secret to overcoming fear when He said, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer (have courage rather than fear), I have overcome the world (John 16:33).”  And how did Jesus overcome the sin of the world and all the fears that come with it?  Through His suffering (tribulation) and death on THE CROSS as “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8).” 

Initially, you might look at this and think, how would that tree represent the cross, since the Cross had never even been thought of or never even constructed; it was a thousand years later?  No, the cross was in place before the world was formed. It was in place in the Spirit. It was already in the heart and in the mind of God.  You see, salvation didn't wait until Jesus died on the cross and then we could believe in him.  Salvation began with whoever would believe in the Messiah, whether it was the Messiah to come or the Messiah that had come, this was already done.  So the picture here is applicable in the fact that it's not about trying to avoid the cross, it's about humbling yourself and embracing the cross.  It's about seeing yourself as a sinner deserving the cross, because the wages of sin is death, and therefore believing that you need a savior, because you are not able to save yourself from your sins.  It’s about believing that Jesus Christ is your savior, and He had to come and be nailed to that cross as the perfect sinless sacrifice to atone for your sins, and every sin of every man, past, present and future.

Christ destroyed the Power of Sin and Fear in YOUR Life!

Furthermore, when Christ died on that cross, He destroyed the power of sin in your life and the power of fear which comes with sin, by perfectly fulfilling and satisfying the law.  It’s about believing that Christ forever freed you from following and serving the law of Moses, first written on stone tablets, which is dead, so you could be free to follow and serve the law of love, written on your heart by the Holy Spirit, which is alive.  This new life of freedom begins the moment you repent and turn from your old life and believe and accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior and begin to love and follow Him with your whole heart and with every fiber of your being and asking Him daily to reveal the infinite magnitude of His unconditional love for YOU!

Paul understood not taking suffering and tribulation personally by trying to figure out how to overcome the overwhelming alone, but as an opportunity to know Christ more intimately, while becoming an overcomer together with Him and His Body.  As Paul experienced great suffering and tribulation, he had one single focus: “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Phil. 3:10–11)   

“Overcoming the overwhelming” is about much more than overcoming obstacles in life.  it’s about knowing Christ so intimately we become so like Him that we become one with Him in His suffering that we pass with Him not under the cross, but through the cross into His RESURRECTION.  Hallelujah!