“I will praise You with my whole heart; before the gods I will sing praises to You.  I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word above all Your name.” Psalm 138:1-2.

“In the day when I cried out, You answered me, and made me bold with strength in my soul.” Psalm 138:3.

Verses one and two have been added to maintain context because verse three gives an insight into the feelings King David expressed in the first two verses.

“In the day when I cried out, You answered me…” notice here that the psalmist cried out. Crying out would indicate an immediate crisis, not something there was time to pray about.

What was the crisis? Unknown, but take your pick:

“And Saul said to David, ‘You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.’  But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock,  I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it.  Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.’  Moreover David said, ‘The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.’ And Saul said to David, ‘Go, and the Lord be with you!’”
1 Samuel 17:33-37.

It is likely that when faced with a lion and a bear that David did not drop to his knees and pray, rather he would have gone immediately after these alpha predators and cried out, “Lord save me!” as he ran.

Something similar may have occurred as he ran toward Goliath. Though there was no question in David’s mind that he had the skill to do this, he may have whispered to God, “Oh Lord, guide my hands!”

“So it was, when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.  Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.  So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David.  Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it. And when the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.” 1 Samuel 17:48-51.

Below we see another example of the need for David to cry out as he faced instant death, “Oh Lord, Help me!”

“Now the distressing spirit from the Lord came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing music with his hand.  Then Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he slipped away from Saul’s presence; and he drove the spear into the wall. So David fled and escaped that night.” 1 Samuel 19:9-10.

“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; and in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, until these calamities have passed by.” Psalm 57:1.

Below is proof that even brilliant young men can do something profoundly stupid. I am assuming that David in his panic forgot to consult God as to where to go. For this reason he wound up in a serious life or death trap. Again, David must have whispered a muffled cry to God, “Oh Lord, I have sinned, please rescue me!”

God’s rescue of David is almost comical when you read the king’s response to having a madman in his presence.

“Then David arose and fled that day from before Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.  And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing of him to one another in dances, saying: ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?”  Now David took these words to heart, and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.  So he changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his beard.  Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is insane. Why have you brought him to me?  Have I need of madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?” 1 Samuel 21:10-15.

“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Psalm 34:1.

These things are not just for King David, but for all who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and are seeking a close relationship with our God in Christ.

God is close to all His children in Christ, yet it is those who diligently seek His presence who feel the closest as David did.

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6.

Some years ago, a group of Christian women were having a meeting when a small child put a metal object in an electrical outlet, the charge threw him down unconscious. Two things happened immediately, one woman, a nurse began to resuscitate the child while the other women began to cry out to the Lord in prayer. The toddler awakened shortly thereafter with no apparent harm. While I know the child was alright, I do not know if he spent any time in the hospital. What I do know is that God answers our cries for help.

“In the day when I cried out, You answered me, and made me bold with strength in my soul.” Psalm 138:3.

“In the day when I cried out, You answered me…” in these moments when we cry out and the answer comes to us, this is when our faith is strengthened and it is important for us to give thanks to God for His lovingkindness in rescuing us.

Thanksgiving is not only the right thing to give to anyone who does something for you but, it is more important always to give thanks to our Father in heaven. And a heart of thanks brings genuine praise. And heartfelt praise and thanksgiving bring about true worship of our blessed Father in Christ Jesus.

“…You answered me, and made me bold with strength in my soul.” Sometimes the answer to our cries comes from God strengthening our heart with boldness and the confidence that He is with us and will help us see it through.

“…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man…” Ephesians 3:16.

I have included more of this beautiful passage below so you may see the full context.

“ For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,  that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height –  to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:14-19.

Psalm 138:3 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 5-21-26 ck.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.