At Wits’ End

by

Rev. Richard Fisher

Psalms 107:27 “They reeled and staggered like drunken men; they were at their wits end.” Notice the end of the verse which says they were at their wits end. What do we do when life is difficult and we don’t know how we are going to handle a crisis that has come our way?

One Sunday night in April, 1912, an American woman was very weary, yet could not sleep because of an oppression of fear. At last she felt a burden of prayer, and with tremendous earnestness began to pray for her husband then in mid-Atlantic, homeward bound on the……Titanic. As the hours went by she could get no assurance, and kept on praying in an agony, until about five o’clock in the morning when a great peace possessed her, and she slept.

Meanwhile her husband, Colonel Gracie, was among the doomed hundreds who were trying frantically to launch the lifeboats from the great ship that vitals had been torn out by an iceberg. He had given up all hope of being saved himself, and was doing his best to help the women and children. He wished that he could get a last message through to his wife, and cried from his heart, “Good-by, my darling.” Then as the ship plunged to her watery grave, he was sucked down in the giant whirlpool. Instinctively he began to swim under water, ice cold as it was, crying in his heart.

Suddenly he came to the surface and found himself near an over-turned life boat. Along with several others he climbed aboard and was picked up by another lifeboat about five in the morning - the very time that peace came to his praying wife!

I hope that the crisis you are facing is not this difficult but the answer is still the same. Notice what verses 13, 14, of Psalms 107 says, “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains.” Sometimes God calms the storm and sometimes He calms us in the storm. Praying and trusting God makes the difference.

Having the peace of God in the midst of a crisis is a wonderful blessing. Isaiah 26:34 talks about this peace. “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. T rust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal.”