“I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love,
because you have seen my affliction;
you have known the distress of my soul.”
(Psalm 31:7 ESV)
Afflicted and Distressed
Are you in distress? Your mind and heart are occupied at all hours of the day and cannot rest. Plenty of things could be the source of your distress. Perhaps there’s a decision to make, a relationship that needs mending, a problem pending with no solution, or a fear has taken hold of your heart. You’re in danger. You’ve lost something precious. You’ve acquired responsibility beyond your abilities. Pressure has morphed into panic. You’ve moved from stressed to “in distress.”
At the root of this distress is an affliction—one of the difficulties listed above or maybe an especially unique one not listed. Some source of misery has taken root in you. As a result, you’re chronically unwell either in spirit or body. Something always hurts—in your heart, mind, or body. Something is broken in your experience, and it makes life very difficult.
Pain comes in many forms and has many names. It affects us in a multitude of ways. Psalm 31:7 expresses what many of us experience—some affliction has thrown your soul into a state of distress.
God Sees and God Knows
It’s hard to think when you’re in distress. It’s hard to do anything when you’re in pain. God knows this. In his kindness, God’s Spirit wrote this prayer for you in Psalm 31—he preserved the prayer of someone who has been in distress, whose eye feels “wasted from grief,” whose life felt “spent with sorrow” and [their] “years with sighing” (Psalm 31:9-10). He wrote this so that your choking soul might find expression in your pain, and comfort too.
What does this prayer say to God? “You have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul.” God has seen your affliction. God knows—from beginning to end—the distress disrupting your soul.
Hear that again, friend. God sees you. Do you believe that he sees you? Someone sees.
God knows the distress of your soul. He knows the duration, intensity, and acuteness of your pain. He knows how troubled you are. Elsewhere Scripture says that he counts your tears and the times you toss about in your distress (Psalm 56:8).
Do you believe that though no one else may know your distress, God does? Someone cares enough to pay attention to you—to your pain.
A Prayer for Your Afflicted Soul
This truth that God sees and God knows led the psalmist to rejoice in God’s love for him. It infused his suffering soul with joy and gladness. I believe this truth from God’s Word can also infuse real soul-felt gladness into your day, no matter how deep your affliction.
These words can become your words: “You have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul.” By the power of the Holy Spirit, you can believe these words. The Lord has seen your affliction, and he knows the distress of your soul—how hard it is, how deep it hurts.
If he sees you—down to the details—and if he knows, paying attention to your pain, then surely he cares.
The rest of the Bible tells us that God has known our affliction and distress more intimately than we ever imagined he could. Jesus suffered unmatched distress as he faced the wrath of God for our sins (Luke 22:44). He suffered the worst of human pain as he bore the punishment for our sins on the cross (1 Peter 2:24). And he has known weakness and temptation of every sort (Hebrews 5:2; Hebrews 4:15).
The Lord you pray to understands suffering better than anyone. Though no one sees, he sees. Though no one knows, he knows.
May that truth alone ease your distress and even move you to gladness today. Make this your prayer today from a heart that trusts in the Lord’s compassion for you: “Lord, you have seen my affliction. You have known the distress of my soul.”