King David was a long way from home.  Far from the home and the comfort zone he was accustomed to.  Far from the day to day routine that brought the normal and occasional (but nothing he couldn’t handle) ripple.  He found himself, as he put it, at the “end of the earth.”  And maybe at the end of his rope as well.  Now, instead of just ripples, he found himself facing, as someone once put it, “troubles which struggle with us, as it were, for life and death; troubles which would leave us helpless wrecks; troubles which enter into conflict with us in our prime, which grapple with us in our health and strength, and threaten to conquer us by sheer force, no matter how bravely we may contend.”  He explained it in Psalm 61:2 in one word.  “Overwhelmed.”  Huge, pounding waves eroding his heart and sapping his strength.  Desperately overwhelmed.  By the way, I’ve felt like that myself at times.  Have you?  But in David’s case, he withstood the onslaught and moved on to write the words of verse 8, “So will I sing praise unto Thy name….”  How did he survive that storm?  How was he able to still praise the Lord?  He tells you how in the last phrase of verse 2 when he cried out, “lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.”  Charles Spurgeon, the godly 19th century pastor, explained it well.  “It is hard to pray when the very heart is drowning, yet gracious men plead best at such times.  Tribulation brings us to God, and brings God to us.  Faith’s greatest triumphs are achieved in her heaviest trials.  It is all over with me, affliction is all over me; it encompasses me as a cloud; it swallows me up like a sea; it shuts me in with thick darkness, yet God is near, near enough to hear my voice, and I will call Him.”  Good thoughts.  But they’re not just for Mr. Spurgeon.  God is near to you today.  Cry out Him.  Go to that Rock.  Then you will be able to praise Him, too.