‘Footprints in the Sand’ is a much loved poem which talks of life as a journey, walking on sand, often with two sets of footprints visible (representing ours and God’s) and in the places where only one set of footprints is visible, this is not a sign of God abandoning us but of Him carrying us through the trials and difficulties of life:

Someone has written a more modern twist on the poem which goes on to say that ‘at the lowest and saddest times in my life, there was one set of footprints along with gouges and irregular lines in the sand’, the explanation for which is this is when God carried and dragged the person ‘kicking and screaming like a spoiled brat’, which made me smile ruefully because that is often how I do react, alas…

But what about the times when there are no footprints at all? Ps 77, a psalm which begins in complaining self-pity and ends in meditation on God’s wonderful works, says ‘Your path led through the sea, Your way through the mighty waters, though Your footprints were not seen.’ (Ps 77:19) On our journey through life there are times when we don’t see footprints at all; the mighty waters, after all, erase all trace of footprints and there can be no ‘evidence’ at all of God’s presence. We are called to walk by faith and not by sight. (2 Cor 5:7) These musings inspired the poem that follows.

The one set of footprints we see

Is, they say, where the Lord carried us,

But what about the days

When footprints can’t be seen at all?

What do we do, then,

When there is no trace evidence,

No footprints to follow?

Where is this guidance You promised us?

Where is the clearly illuminated path?

We trudge on in obedience,

Following the only path we see,

Wondering where it will lead.

Our scouting skills

Search assiduously for signs of Your presence,

For strategically-placed twigs and branches,

For carvings in the tree trunks,

For arrows pointing ahead,

As we frown over compressed leaves,

Trying to trace the imprint of a shoe,

The pressure of a foot’s presence.

But then we’re at the sandy shore,

Water lapping around our feet,

Vastness before us as we gaze at crashing waves.

You want us to walk through that?

Unseen footprints

Leading through impossible terrain,

Calling us to walk by faith and not by sight.

One step of faith –

The waters recede.

Our muddy footprints soon erased

As the waters gush back,

Eradicating the evidence of this tumultuous journey.

But we remember.

We’re on the other side.

There may be no footprints,

No evidence, no proof,

But our very presence here

On the other side

Shows us Your presence with us.

So walk on by faith,

When there are no footprints to be seen,

Listening alertly for the voice that says,

‘This is the way; walk in it.’

The Psalms have to be read as poetry, but that begs the question ‘What is poetry?’ Poetry uses language in a condensed form to convey layers of meaning and is often meant to be read aloud, with the sound, rhythm and form important to its effectiveness. It’s very different to the prose style we are used to in newspapers, magazine articles and novels, and tends to convey emotion and feeling as well as fact, causing us to ponder and ‘enter in’ to its meaning.

English poetry uses metre and rhyme for effect, but Hebrew poetry tends to rely on parallelism (which links two ideas and either compares or contrasts these ideas, with the repetition helping the listener to remember the points being made) for effect. This explains why there seems to be a lot of repetition at times in the Psalms (see Ps 70:1, Ps 120:2, Ps 3:1 and Ps 93.) Sometimes ideas are contrasted in pithy couplets (see Ps 1:6, Ps 34:15-15, also Proverbs 10:1-9). Sometimes the psalmists use anaphora (repetition for dramatic effect, as in the refrain ‘His love endures for ever’ in Ps 136) and inclusio (where an idea is stated at the start and repeated at the end, see Ps 118:1 & 29).

Alphabet acrostics are also great favourites in the Psalms (see Ps 9, 10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119 and 145). Each line or stanza begins with a different letter of the alphabet; in Ps 119, for example, there are 22 stanzas of 8 lines each, with each line in a particular stanza beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This signifies completion, but is also a great aid to memory!

Metaphor and simile, whereby two things are compared, are also a feature of poetry. Similes compare two things using ‘like’ or ‘as’ (see Ps 42:1, Ps 92:12), whereas metaphors compare two things by saying something is something else (see Ps 23:1, Ps 18:1-2). ‘Metaphor uses the language of sense experience to lead us into the world of the unseen.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘Answering God’, P 73) By submerging us in the familiar world of things we see around us, the psalmist is able to help us to see the invisible God and understand more of His nature.

We can read the Psalms without any knowledge of poetic form and God can still speak to us and bless us. But so often, having some idea of these things can enhance our understanding of the Psalms. Instead of dismissing them as over-the-top or boring because they repeat ideas, we can see that this is deliberate and that the psalmists use language to teach us many things. We can also see how language is used to convey emotion, to express feelings, to convey a sense of awe and wonder and we are drawn into God’s wonderful world. After all, God spoke creation into being and Jesus is the Word (Jn 1:1), so words clearly have enormous value and worth!

We also had a birthday to celebrate last Sunday:

Stephen asked the question tonight ‘what proportion of God is in your life?’ God desires our total surrender to Him, but many things can interfere with that. Our earthly desires, work, family, hobbies and other things can interfere with our devotion to God, but He desires to be at the centre of our very being.

Isaiah 1:27 talks of penitent ones being delivered with righteousness. When we realise God does not have our whole heart, we need to come to Him in repentance, allowing Him to fill our hearts with His presence. Num 24:4 speaks of total surrender (we need to hear and see God in all His glory and then will fall prostrate before Him.) As we come before God in repentance and allow Him to remove the problems, we can then have a greater proportion of God in our lives. He wants more than just a ‘slice’ of our lives; He wants all the cake!

We are urged to give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord. (1 Cor 15:58) Submission involves surrendering our whole lives to God, so that we can stand firm and let nothing move us. It’s an ongoing challenge for us, but as we decrease and allow God a greater proportion of our lives, we find satisfaction in service.

Troubles without number may surround us; our sins may overtake us so that we are left facing all kinds of peril, but we can still be confident that as we wait patiently for the Lord and call to him out of the depths of our distress, He will hear our cry for help and rescue us. Whatever the pit is and however dark and lonely you feel, God is there with us. The psalmist said, ‘In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from your sight!”’ (Ps 31:22) and when we’re in a dark place, we often feel cut off. Yet that verse goes on, ‘Yet You heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help.’ (Ps 31:22) God hears us and is our rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save us (Ps 31:2). The God who saved Joseph, Jonah and Jeremiah can also save us from our pits and give us a firm place to stand and a new song to sing. We can testify that God is able to deliver us from evil and rescue us from danger. We ask God for help, as the psalmists did: ‘Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.’ (Ps 31:2)

When we face opposition and persecution from people, we pray, ‘Rescue me from their ravages, my precious life from these lions’ (Ps 35:17) and learn to say ‘He rescues me unharmed from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me.’ (Ps 55:18)

When we sin and mess up, we come before God in repentance and ask for His cleansing and forgiveness: ‘Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.’ (Ps 51:1)

When we face opposition and persecution, even though we are not aware of having done anything wrong, we take heart from Jesus’ words to His disciples: ‘In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’ (Jn 16:33)

Most of all, we are blessed because we know God’s deliverance and rescue are not dependent on our righteousness and our goodness, but on His unfailing love, mercy, compassion and kindness. Ps 44:26 says, ‘rescue us because of your unfailing love.’ Whatever our pit of peril today, we can have hope that blessings will run alongside the troubles and that rescue will come in God’s time because of His unfailing love. Our response to trials is to cry out to God from the depths and to wait patiently for His rescue.

Joseph, Jonah and Jeremiah are all examples of people who found themselves in literal pits at one time or other, but who also experienced God’s rescue, help and blessing.

Joseph ended up being thrown into a cistern by his own brothers, who later sold him into slavery (Gen 37:19-20). He experienced relationship problems and ended up estranged from his family and living in a foreign country for years. Whether his brothers’ reaction was partly caused by his own boasting about dreams, it must have been difficult for him to come to terms with the animosity he faced – and animosity from those nearest and dearest to us can be very hard to take.

Jonah‘s ‘pit’ was caused by his own rebellion and disobedience. Running away from God, he ended up on a ship to Tarshish and was thrown overboard in the middle of a storm. Instead of drowning, he found himself in the belly of a large fish (Jonah 1:17), describing this experience in Jonah 2:3, 5-6. When we end up in trouble through our own foolishness and sin, we often think there is no way back to God, but Jonah is a reminder of God’s grace to us in rescuing us even from our own sin and giving us a second chance.

Jeremiah, on the other hand, ended up in a pit through no fault of his own. A faithful prophet, he was condemned by those in authority who did not like his messages of judgment and calls to repentance. They plotted with the king to have him thrown into a cistern (Jer 38:8) – scant reward for one who had served God faithfully all his life.

We see, however, how God provided help and deliverance for all of these people.

1. God used Reuben and the Midianites to save Joseph’s life and to lead him to Egypt, where ultimately, one day, he would save the whole world during a great famine. The pit and prison, which were definitely unpleasant experiences for Joseph, ultimately turned out to be God’s great plan of salvation, so that when he was reunited with his brothers years later, he could say, ‘You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.’ (Gen 50:20) Joseph’s dreams were fulfilled in ways he could never have predicted as a seventeen-year-old! God can use unexpected people to help in our deliverance; as Proverbs 16:7 says, ‘When the Lord takes pleasure in anyone’s way, he causes their enemies to make peace with them.’ God will constantly surprise us in how He rescues us using unexpected people! – He even got a foreign king, Cyrus, to issue a decree to allow His people to return to Israel after the exile, for example. We should never underestimate God’s ability to rescue us, even when there seems to be no way out at all.
2. In the case of Jonah, we see how God used a large fish not to harm Jonah, but to rescue him and give him the opportunity to serve Him again, even when he had messed up. What would have been a disastrous time of drowning and death was actually turned into another opportunity for praise: ‘In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and you listened to my cry.’ (Jonah 2:2) God is able to use all circumstances to work things together for good for us (Rom 8:28).  Jonah reminds us that God is able to save and rescue in the most unlikely ways and is prepared to give us second chances.
3. In the case of Jeremiah, God had people in high places who were prepared to risk their lives to save Jeremiah’s (Jer 38:8-12). God is never taken by surprise, never left floundering around to sort out things as we are. He is always in control and He can use all kinds of people and all kinds of ‘coincidences’ to rescue His people from pits of peril.