Psalms 4:1 “Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.”
In times of great “distress”, we are encouraged when we recall how our Almighty “God” has delivered us through and saved us from our past troubles. When in “distress” we feel severely confined and restricted by the source of our “distress”; we feel that we are in a strait wherein we are daily plagued with obstacles and hindrances; and life seems so hard that we can barely continue, often not knowing which direction to go or what decisions to make. But, when we remember, that in our past distresses, our Lord “hast enlarged” us, we begin to revive with hopeful anticipation that our Lord will again come to our aid. We are “enlarged” when the Lord shows us that we are not as confined and hindered as we thought we were; for, the Lord begins to show us His way and lead us through our present distress, giving us a blessed sense that surely better days are ahead. The Apostle Paul wrote of “our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life. 9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: 10 Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;” (II Corinthians 1:8-10). Whatever the source of our “distress”; whether it’s political issues in our Country, family troubles, Church troubles, financial troubles, health troubles, social troubles, sin troubles, etc.; our “God” has power over them all and He has helped us in past times, so let us pause for a bit and pray and reflect upon how our “God” “hast enlarged” us “when” we were in some previous “distress”! Our Lord is abundantly merciful and gracious; He pushes back those things that confine us, guides us around the obstacles in our path, and He even gives us strength to stand up and go when we feel that all our strength is gone. We have every reason to “be of good courage” (Psalms 31:24), “be of good comfort” (Matthew 9:22), and “Be of good cheer” (Matthew 14:27)!