“Return, O Lord, and rescue me. Save me because of Your unfailing love. For the dead do not remember You. Who can praise You from the grave?” – Psalm 6:4-5 (NLT)
If you’re a regular viewer of my articles, you have probably picked up on the emphasis that the Lord has placed in my heart concerning the cry of maranatha. It has, and is continuing to, become a fire inside my bones. The roar of it is getting louder and louder with each passing day. And as I am reading through the Psalms, I am realizing that, though not having the word maranatha available to him at that time, even David understood the cry of his heart for the coming of the Lord. All of creation cries out in one voice for the coming of the Lord. And the closer we get to the Lord in our relationship with Him, the deeper and louder the longing for this becomes.
This is our highest goal. This is our ambition. Nothing else matters in light of this. The only thing that our hearts should desire is to be forever with Him, held in the safety of His hands and His Spirit. Wrapped in the light of His goodness and righteousness.
In the midst of his grief and turmoil, David’s cry is for the Lord to come to him and rescue him. This is the maranatha cry. The cry of, “Come Lord Jesus, come!” For we long for Him to be with us and for us to be with Him. It is when He comes that we will not only be forever with Him, but there will be no more turmoil, no more strife. There will only be the peace and goodness of the Lord, reigning in all His splendor!
This understanding on the part of David is why we always see him running to the Lord in the midst of the trials in his life. He understood that the only place where help would come is the Lord, which in turn gave birth to the understanding that he needed more of the Lord. This understanding is what gives birth to the cry of maranatha from our hearts. And this cry will only increase and grow louder as the days go by, until ultimately the Lord returns.
In the midst of your grief, in the midst of your storms and turmoil, do you turn to the Lord for rescue? Or do you fill the space with things that only satisfy for a short time, only to leave you right where you were to begin with? Does your heart cry for the Lord to come, or does it cry for the next episode of whatever TV series you’ve been watching lately? Are you so desperate for Him that you turn to Him in the moments of weakness, or do you choose the numbing of whatever it is you use as your “fix” for the pain?
There is only one place from which our help comes, only One who can truly give us peace and soundness of mind. It is the Lord, the only Living God. The Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. All things find their beginning in Him, and He is the One who brings them all to their end.
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