“I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.” Psalm 40:1–3 (emphasis added)

Have you ever been so unsure of your next step that all you know to do is hang on to Jesus and desperately hope that you make it through your day? In those times, you know that if God does not get you through, you will not make it. Truly this type of life displays a picture of passionate trust. And, contrary to every feeling inside your body, passionate trust results in freedom. Believers in Jesus Christ are never freer than when Jesus is their only hope—when Jesus is the only way out of the slimy pit. Think about it for just a moment. Passionate trust requires us to crucify self-sufficiency and self-trust. The result?

We recognize that Jesus is our only hope. King David knew about passionate trust. He knew about being in the depths of desperation and God graciously saving him. David knew what it was like to have a target on his back and experience God’s deliverance time and time again. He also knew about falling into sin and reaping God’s holy consequences.

Throughout David’s life, his experiences brought him to a place of complete desperation for God to work and move in his life. Certainly this is a picture of passionate trust and humble transparency.

In today’s passage, David has survived a life-altering situation. A life-altering situation is one where life takes a dramatic turn and things are never the same. David experienced many life-altering situations. One such situation occurred as a result of David sleeping with Bathsheba, who became pregnant. In order to try to cover up the sin, David sent for Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah the Hittite. Uriah came home from war but did not sleep with his wife, and David later had Uriah killed. David thought he got away with his sin, but God did not miss this offense. God confronted David and sent holy consequences into his life. Bathsheba gave birth to the child, but he became sick and died.

How did David make it through these crucial experiences? David cried out to God for help. He cried out to God because he often found himself at a point where he could not fix his problems. He could not correct his mistakes. David needed God to intervene and save him from himself. In response to David’s cry for help, God saved him and delivered him from the slimy pit.

Psalm 40:1–3 is a hymn of praise from David’s heart for the work God performed in his life. Once God worked and moved, David not only renewed his passionate trust in God, 7 he also exclaimed that others would see the work of God and experience passionate trust in their lives as well.

Today you may be in the midst of your life-altering situation. This situation may or may not be in your life as a result of sin. Regardless of the cause, you have the chance to cry out to God for help. If you feel bound up by the uncertainty of life, not knowing what will happen next, you can find freedom in God’s Word. Wait on the Lord. Hold onto the Lord. Know that the Lord will deliver you. Even if you are in the depths of desperation, God is with you. Even if nothing in your life makes sense and by all earthly accounts hope seems gone, hang on to Jesus!

Certainly passionate trust does not happen in our own strength or as a result of anything good inside us. We develop passionate trust when we dig deep in our faith and know that just like God delivered David from his painful situation, He will deliver us!