“Regard, great God! my mournful prayer”

Samuel Medley

Regard, great God! my mournful prayer; Make my poor trembling soul thy care; For me in pity undertake, And save me, for thy mercy’s sake.

My soul’s cast down within me, Lord, And only thou canst help afford; Let not thy heart with sorrow break, But save me, for thy mercy’s sake.

I’ve foes and fears of every shape, Nor from them can my soul escape; Upon me, Lord, some pity take, And save me, for thy mercy’s sake.

I’ve scarce a glimmering ray of light; With me ‘tis little else but night; O, for my help do thou awake, And save me, for thy mercy’s sake.

To me, dear Saviour, turn once more; To my poor soul thy joys restore; Let me again thy smiles partake; Lord, save me, for thy mercy’s sake.

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The Cries of Our Hearts

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Every believer has prayed a prayer similar to this one. Whether it was when you passed from death to life, or afterward when you were in the pit of despair, every believer has cried, “Lord, save me!” Could I spare you the wait and just tell you? If you are a believer in Christ, he has and he will save you. Now that I’ve said that, let me qualify the two elements of that statement. If you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, he has saved you from the debt of your sins. That’s a one-time done deal, in the past, and while it is truly the single most wonderful event in our lives that we will never fully comprehend, that’s not what I mean when I say that God will save you in the future. God can and will save you again and again and again, but from some things other than being dead in your sins.

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“Save Me from My Guilt”

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I find it impossible to read this hymn without hearing the cries of David. Some of the lyrics are actually straight from his psalms, after all. This man after God’s own heart had some quite serious sin issues of his own, and he recognized it. In Psalm 51, David is confessing his sins to God and begging him to cleanse him from them. He appeals to God’s mercy first. “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions” (Ps. 51:1). The word used for lovingkindness is also translated as “mercy,” and if we replace “lovingkindness” with “mercy,” we’d see the word “mercy” three times in a row. It’s as if he’s crying to God, “Mercy, mercy, mercy!” And if our God were not a merciful God, it’s not likely that David would have lived to write any more psalms after that one. But it’s a great thing that our Father is, in fact, the “Father of mercies” (2 Cor. 1:3). Besides saving David from the debt of sin, God also saved David from the guilt and shame of his sin. Remember what John tells us: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

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“My Soul Is Downcast, Lord”

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God also saved David from his downcast soul. I think of Psalm 42, where David tells God three times that his soul is “cast down.” And three times, he reminds himself of his hope in God. Specifically, David says, “O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar” (Ps. 42:6). He reminds himself of specific events and places in his life in which he has seen God’s saving hand. “God, you’ve saved before, and you will again,” is David’s knowledge and expectation. It’s possible that even in the course of writing this psalm, God did save David once again from his downcast soul.

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“Foes and Fears Are on Every Side”

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Let’s stick around in Psalm 42 just a bit longer, because in it David also addressed his enemies and his greatest fears. He says, “My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?” (Ps. 42:3), and “As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?” (Ps. 42:10). Surely, the nagging doubt thrown on the presence and power of David’s God was enough to sway even this man after God’s own heart. But David answers these fears once and for all when he says in another psalm, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Ps. 27:1). David recalls that God has been, is, and will always be his salvation. Remember, “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (1 Tim. 1:7). God indeed saved David from his enemies and his fears.

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Salvation Is Spiritual

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So why am I only telling you about God’s saving David time and time again? You might be thinking, “Well, that’s great and all that God did that for him, but what about me?” I shared those psalms with you because I wanted you to see how God responds to a broken spirit, and, by extension, how he will respond to our broken spirits. We’ve all had our low points, and if you’ve gotten out of them before, you know that it was only God who saved you from them, and it’s only God who can and will do it again. The things we need to be saved from above all while we’re here on this earth are spiritual pitfalls. I want to be clear here: God has not guaranteed to save us from our physical problems. In fact, he sometimes will even allow physical issues in our lives in order to save us from far more dangerous and damaging spiritual problems like bitterness, wrath, envy, fear, constant sorrow, or spiritual stagnation. The Apostle Paul requested three times that God remove his “thorn in the flesh,” a physical issue, and what was God’s answer? “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12:9). God helped Paul recognize and remember that his affections should be set on things above, and not on things on this earth (Col. 3:2). I would gently remind us to do the same. Remember, Christian, that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). The most important battles we fight are spiritual, and God is willing and able to save us from them because he has already overcome all of them himself.

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The One Who Is Able

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Are you haunted by the guilt and shame of your sin? Are you heavy with a downcast soul? Do your enemies and fears seem to close in, shutting out all semblance of light? Do you need salvation, Christian? If you don’t now, I assure you that you will. When that day comes, cry out to the only one who is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20), and let him once again pull you out of your pit of despair. I assure you, he will.

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