The Power of Prayer in Distress: Psalm 118:5

Psalm 118:5 NKJV

I called on the Lord in distress;
The Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.

My Thoughts

How many times have we come to the end of ourselves and have nothing else to do but pray? That is the one thing that is everything: we can pray, we can call upon the Lord. No worry, disaster, or depression can keep us from calling out to the Lord, and nothing can overcome us when we pray.

Praying under these circumstances comes from our heart and goes to God’s heart. It is important to always pray, not only in times of despair but especially when all there is to do is praise the Lord for all the wonderful things He has given us. The Lord’s answer is in the way He delivers us and brings us into a place where He frees us and rescues us by His mercy.

This reflection on Psalm 118:5 emphasizes the power and importance of prayer, especially during times of distress. The psalmist highlights how calling upon the Lord in moments of anguish allows for divine intervention, leading to liberation and relief. Various commentaries underscore that heartfelt prayers, even in dire situations, reach God’s heart and evoke His mercy. Ultimately, the message encourages believers to consistently pray, not just in trouble, celebrating the freedom and joy that comes from God’s answer and presence in their lives…..Bill

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Commentaries:

Charles Spurgeon

“I called upon the LORD in distress,” or, “out of anguish I invoked Jah.” Nothing was left him but prayer; his agony was too great for aught beside; but having the heart and the privilege to pray, he possessed all things. Prayers which come out of distress generally come out of the heart, and therefore they go to the heart of God. It is sweet to recollect our prayers, and often profitable to tell others of them after they are heard. Prayer may be bitter in the offering, but it will be sweet in the answering. The man of God had called upon the Lord when he was not in distress, and therefore, he found it natural and easy to call upon him when he was in distress. He worshipped, he praised, he prayed: for all this is included in calling upon God, even when he was in a straitened condition. Some read the original “a narrow gorge,” and therefore it was the more joy to him when he could say

“The Lord answered me, and set me in a large place.” He passed out of the defile of distress into the well-watered plain of delight. He says, “Jah heard me in a wide place,” for God is never shut up, or straitened. In God’s case, hearing means answering, hence the translators rightly put, “The Lord answered me,” though the original word is “heard.” The answer was appropriate to the prayer, for he brought him out of his narrow and confined condition into a place of liberty where he could walk at large, free from obstruction and oppression. Many of us can join with the Psalmist in the declarations of this verse; deep was our distress on account of sin, and we were shut up as in a prison under the law, but in answer to the prayer of faith we obtained the liberty of full justification wherewith Christ makes men free, and we are free indeed. It was the Lord who did it, and unto his name we ascribe all the glory; we had no merits, no strength, no wisdom, all we could do was to call upon him, and even that was his gift; but the mercy which is to eternity came to our rescue, we were brought out of bondage, and we were made to delight ourselves in the length and breadth of a boundless inheritance. What a large place is that in which the great God has placed us! All things are ours, all times are ours, all places are ours, for God himself is ours; we have earth to lodge in and heaven to dwell in—what larger place can be imagined? We need all Israel, the whole house of Aaron, and all them that fear the Lord, to assist us in the expression of our gratitude; and when they have aided us to the utmost, and we ourselves have done our best, all will fall short of the praises that are due to our gracious Lord.

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Enduring Word

I called on the LORD in distress: The never-ending mercy of God was shown when the LORD answered the singer’s cry of distress. God answered by setting the psalmist in a secure, broad place where he could confidently stand. (Guzik)

i. I called on the LORD: “Thou must learn to call, and not to sit there by thyself, and lie on the bench, hang and shake thy head, and bite and devour thyself with thy thoughts; but come on, thou indolent knave, down upon thy knees, up with thy hands and eyes to heaven, take a Psalm or a prayer, and set forth thy distress with tears before God.” (Luther, cited in Spurgeon)

ii. “The true value of every deliverance is to be estimated by the nature of the ‘distress’ which required it.” (Horne)

iii. It is wonderful to think of Jesus confidently singing these words with His disciples on the night of His betrayal and arrest, and before His suffering and crucifixion. Like none other ever, Jesus would call on the LORD in distress and see God’s faithful answer. (Guzik)

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Albert Barnes

I called upon the Lord in distress – Margin, as in Hebrew, “out of distress.” In the very midst of trouble he called upon the Lord; his voice was heard, as it were, coming from the depth of his sorrows. See the notes at Psalms 18:6.

The Lord answered me – That is, he heard my prayers and delivered me. See the notes at Psalms 18:6.

And set me in a large place – I was before pressed on every side; sorrows compassed me around; I could not move; I had no liberty. Now he gave me space and freedom on every side, so that I could move without obstruction or pain. This is literally, “The Lord” – (not יהוה Yahweh here, but יה Yâhh) “answered me in a large place.” See Psalms 4:1, note; Psalms 18:19, note.

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John Gill

I called upon the Lord in distress,…. Or “out of that strait”; when David was encompassed by Saul and his men, or when at the court of Achish, or when his own people talked of stoning him. As this may respect the Messiah, it may design his distresses in the garden, when surrounded with sorrow, and being in an agony prayed the more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood; and may be applied to his members, as it often is their case to be in distress, straits and difficulties, through outward afflictions and pressures, inward corruptions, temptations, and desertions, and through the low exercise of grace; when they are as it were imprisoned, and so straitened they cannot come forth in the free exercise of it; at all which seasons prayer is necessary; and nothing is more proper than to call upon the Lord, which is both duty and privilege, and often attended with success, as follows;

the Lord answered me, [and set me] in a large place; as he did David, when he delivered him from all his troubles, placed him on the throne of Israel, and gave him rest from all his enemies round about; see Psalm 31:8. And so he did the Messiah, when he raised him from the dead, received him to heaven, where he sits at the right of God in human nature: this is a large place indeed, large enough for the innumerable company of angels, and for all the saints, for whom everlasting habitations and mansions of bliss are preparing by him; and which is the glories liberty of the children of God; see Psalm 18:19; and these also, upon calling on the Lord in distress, are heard and answered, and brought into large places, where they walk at liberty; so at first conversion, when distressed about their souls, and cry for help, they are answered and brought out of the pit, and have their feet set upon a rock and their goings established; and when at other times their grace is drawn forth into exercise, their souls are enlarged in duty, are favored with large views of the love of God, with an increase of spiritual light, knowledge, peace, and joy; and are delivered from their troubles, and out of the hands of their enemies. Or it may be rendered, “the Lord answered me largely”; as he did Solomon, when he gave him more than he asked for; and as he does his people, when he gives them a sufficiency, and an abundance of his grace, and even not only above their deserts, but above their thoughts and expectations; see Ephesians 3:20.

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Matthew Henry

God heard his prayer (v. 5): “He answered me with enlargements; he did more for me than I was able to ask; he enlarged my heart in prayer and yet gave more largely than I desired.” He answered me, and set me in a large place (so we read it), where I had room to bestir myself, room to enjoy myself, and room to thrive; and the large place was the more comfortable because he was brought to it out of distress, Ps. 4:1.

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The Pulpit Commentaries

DIVINE RELIEF. We call on God, and he answers us, and sets us “in a large place” (Psalms 118:5). He takes us out of the straits in which we were hemmed in, and places us where we can breathe freely and can act happily and fearlessly. He has become “our salvation” (Psalms 118:14). Our liabilities are met, our enemies disarmed, our reputation cleared, our position secured, our friends reconciled and restored, our path is made plain; we “return unto our rest.”

God’s power in a human life.

The figure in Psalms 118:5 is very striking and suggestive. The Hebrew is, “I called upon the Lord from the straitness;” or, “From the narrow gorge I called upon Jah, and Jah answered me in the open plain.” It is not necessary to fix any historical associations to the psalm in order to see the point of such a figure. It does, but poetically represents a common experience. Continually in human life, we come upon times of straitness; our way is hedged up; it is as if we were in a narrow gorge, full of fears lest the overhanging rocks should fall on us, and seeing no way out. Who has not thus felt hemmed in? “All these things are against us.” Human wisdom, energy, and persistency alike are baffled and beaten back. “We cannot do the things that we would.” Everyone and everything seems to be against us. And at such times, we easily think hard things of our fellow men, and think that they are actively against us, when they are only indifferent. What can the psalmist say of such times?

I. FROM THE NARROW GORGE HE CALLED UPON GOD. That, at least, we can always do. No circumstances of human life need ever prevent the soul’s uplook, or silence the soul’s cry. Bunyan pictures his pilgrim in sore straitness, picking his perilous way through the Valley of the Shadow. Weapons are of no use there. Human care and skill and watching are of small avail there. But there is one thing the pilgrim can do, and that one thing is everything—he can pray; he can “call upon the Lord.“ It is well to fix that truth of fact, and to illustrate it fully. There is no perplexity, worry, disaster, or depression that can ever come to any man and destroy his power to pray. Oppress and alarm a man how you may, in any narrow gorge of life, he can always pray. Nothing can overwhelm a man while he can call upon God.

II. IN THE OPEN PLAIN BE HAD THE RESPONSE OF GOD. The figure is kept up. The pilgrim-soul, with the uplifted eyes, presses forward through the darkness or the mist, which permits him to see but one step at a time; and then suddenly the dawn breaks or the mist lifts, and he is filled with a joyous surprise. He is in the gorge no longer; behold, it is the “open plain.” There is plenty of space all around, and the restful blue sky up above, and a clear way before his feet; God has heard his call; he is on his side. Neither man nor things can hurt him now. And such is the experience of all the saints.—R.T.

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Cross-References

Psalm 18:19 (KJV )

¹⁹ He brought me forth also into a large place;

He delivered me, because he delighted in me.

Psalm 4:1 (KJV )

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.

Psalm 18:6 (KJV )

⁶ In my distress I called upon the Lord,

And cried unto my God:

He heard my voice out of his temple,

And my cry came before him, even into his ears.

Psalm 77:2 (KJV )

² In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord:

My sore ran in the night, and ceased not:

My soul refused to be comforted.

Psalm 99:6 (KJV )

⁶ Moses and Aaron among his priests,

And Samuel among them that call upon his name;

They called upon the Lord, and he answered them.

Psalm 40:1–3 (KJV )

¹ I waited patiently for the Lord;

And he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

² He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay,

And set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

³ And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God:

Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.

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Geneva Bible 1560

Psalm 118:5

5 I called upon the Lord in (b) trouble, and the Lord heard me, and set me at large.

(b) We are here taught, that the more that troubles oppress us, the more ought we to be instant in prayer.

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Closing Thoughts

Matthew 6:9-13 New King James Version

9 In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.

And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.