When you're at a dead end

What's your Red Sea?

My last four posts were focused on the real estate industry. This post is under the “Faith Lessons for Anyone” section of my blog.

I need help!

Psalm 77 has a total of 20 verses which are nice-and-neatly halved. The first 10 verses I’ve nicknamed, “The Distress Call.” Perhaps you can identify with these feelings:

Psalm 77:1-10 (NLT)

¹ I cry out to God; yes, I shout.
    Oh, that God would listen to me!
² When I was in deep trouble,
    I searched for the Lord.
All night long I prayed, with hands lifted toward heaven,
    but my soul was not comforted.
³ I think of God, and I moan,
    overwhelmed with longing for his help. Interlude

⁴ You don’t let me sleep.
    I am too distressed even to pray!
⁵ I think of the good old days,
    long since ended,
⁶ when my nights were filled with joyful songs.
    I search my soul and ponder the difference now.
⁷ Has the Lord rejected me forever?
    Will he never again be kind to me?
⁸ Is his unfailing love gone forever?
    Have his promises permanently failed?
⁹ Has God forgotten to be gracious?
    Has he slammed the door on his compassion? Interlude

¹⁰ And I said, “This is my fate;
    the Most High has turned his hand against me.”

The dead ends of life

The psalmist’s feelings describe the human condition: troubled, inconsolable, overwhelmed, sleepless, too distressed to pray, searching, questioning, longing, rejected, forgotten. When we reach a dead end in life, we send up distress calls to God—then wonder if He will respond. What’s your dead end today?

Another failed pregnancy?

A bottomless hole of bills?

A divorce?

For Moses and the Israelites, their dead end was a hot pursuit by the Egyptians up to the banks of the Red Sea.

The impassible Red Sea

The Red Sea was the ultimate dead end. It’s so impossibly impassable it wasn’t until 2022 that a human named Lewis Pugh was the first to swim across one part of it. It took Pugh 16 days to swim 123 km (over 76 miles).

Whether you picture the 1956 Charlton Heston epic, The Ten Commandments, or the more recent The Bible miniseries from 2013, the parting of the Red Sea is evidence of God doing the impossible to rescue His people.

God can save you from your impossible dead end, too.

The Rescue

The second half of Psalm 77 pivots in tone. The psalmist remembers the Red Sea and his feelings change from distress to hope. I’ve bolded verse 16—when you get to it, note how the psalmist personifies the Red Sea:

Psalm 77:11-20 (NLT)

¹¹ But then I recall all you have done, O Lord;
    I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.
¹² They are constantly in my thoughts.
    I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works.

¹³ O God, your ways are holy.
    Is there any god as mighty as you?
¹⁴ You are the God of great wonders!
    You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations.
¹⁵ By your strong arm, you redeemed your people,
    the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Interlude

¹⁶ When the Red Sea saw you, O God,
    its waters looked and trembled!
    The sea quaked to its very depths.
¹⁷ The clouds poured down rain;
    the thunder rumbled in the sky.
    Your arrows of lightning flashed.
¹⁸ Your thunder roared from the whirlwind;
    the lightning lit up the world!
    The earth trembled and shook.
¹⁹ Your road led through the sea,
    your pathway through the mighty waters—
    a pathway no one knew was there!
²⁰ You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep,
    with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.

I’ve nicknamed the second half of Psalm 77, “The Rescue.” God never leads His people to a dead end. He already had a plan to rescue the Israelites with a miraculous feat of nature: He created a dry pathway through the sea—a pathway no one knew was there! (Verse 19)

If your Red Sea was a person

Try personifying your dead end situation like the psalmist did the Red Sea in verse 16. You may be filled with fear and worry, but your dead end is the one who’s more afraid.

Your Red Sea is looking at God right now, and trembling. Your impossible situation is quaking to its depths.

You might see an impossible dead end, but God knows the path through your Red Sea. The path to walk across might be long, but it will be dry—and easier than swimming!

God never intended for us to suffer the human condition alone. (He also never intended for there to be evil and turmoil in the world—a topic for another post.) Life is full of challenges that may seem like dead ends, but if we believe in God—the Impossible-Buster—He changes our doubt and distress to wonder, awe, reverence, strength, confidence, and hope!

God will hold back the waters of your Red Sea so you can pass through safely.

¹⁹ Your road led through the sea,
    your pathway through the mighty waters—
    a pathway no one knew was there!

Prayer prompt: Dear Lord, thank you for being the Impossible-Buster for your people and for me. Thank you for knowing and caring about me and my troubles. Please show me your dry pathway, and protect me from drowning. Please strengthen my faith and guide me, one step at a time. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Please message me—I would love to pray for you! Take care and God bless! —Ali