EDELWEISS

 

Did the title make you think back half a century to a sweet little song in the hit musical, "The Sound of Music"? I admit that the lullaby-like "Edelweiss" was one of my favorites, along with the Do-Re-Me song through which star "Maria" (Julie Andrews) taught her charges how to sing.  And I have something in my jewelry box to remember it: a real edelweiss on a necklace from Switzerland, homeland of my maternal aunt's husband. It's how I remember my Aunt Agnes, who spent much of her life teaching in Panama,  and where she and Uncle Willy met and married--both employees of a banana plantation.

But what of the edelweiss? Yes, it's a mountain flower that belongs to the daisy or sunflower family. But it prefers thin, cool air: rocky limestone places at about 5,900-9,800-feet altitude. Yes, high, rugged places. It blooms only between July and September. The hardy people who lived in the Alps and Carpathian mountains used it for traditional medicines to treat abdominal and respiratory diseases. But they had to search hard for it. It was scarce and short-lived. It eventually became a national symbol of those mountain countries, which of course included Austria, the setting for “The Sound of Music.” Embroidered likenesses of the flower decorated many military badges—thus the veiled message behind the film's Austrian military leader (“Captain Von Trapp”) who sang the song with his musical family before a daring escape from the Nazis.

Oh yes, it's associated with royal love. In 1856 the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph and his wife, Empress Elisabeth, went on a high mountain hike. He picked an edelweiss from a steep rock just for her. In 1865 the empress posed for a portrait with diamond jewelry depicting edelweiss in her hair.

I also think about this flower when I read a favorite old book, Hannah Hurnard's “Hind's Feet on High Places,” a classic fictional “journey” about growing in the Christian walk. Set in Switzerland, it draws lessons from the gorgeous scenery and scary aspects of alpine living. The author described “pure white flowers through whose half-transparent petals the sun shone, turning them to burning whiteness. In the heart of each flower was a crown of pure gold” (Tyndale/Living Books edition, paperback, p. 191). She didn't use the name “edelweiss” but the description fit. The author likened the flowers to heaven's “cloud of witnesses” in Hebrews 12:1. She also wrote that such alpine flowers "speak of the beautiful loving-kindnesses and tender mercies which [God} wants to shower on others through us" (p. 287).

About the time I was writing this blog, I heard from my nephew David, who enjoys metal crafting with around-the-shop things like nuts. He sent a photo of a metal flower he'd created for a family member. I remarked that if he'd done it in white and yellow, it would have some resemblance to an edelweiss. A few weeks later, here came one as a gift! I'm keeping it on my desk as a reminder that when I go through life's exhausting climb to eternity, it's the high places, where the going is tough (and the most beautiful blossoms of hope and trust grow), that bring me closer to sensing God's presence.

It's a truth I encounter often in scriptures. I'm to be rooted in Christ Jesus (Col. 2:7), depending on Him instead of my inadequate coping skills. Enduring hardship (like those alpine flowers enduring storms and thin soil) is part of following Christ (2 Tim. 4:5). And in the end, perseverance in trials will have its reward: the "crown of life that God has promised to those who love him" (James 1:7). That's the best analogy for these hardy, crown-like blooms.

Some years ago, someone wrote hymn words to the Edelweiss tune. I really liked them, and wrote them down in my devotional journal. The same for a spiritual adaptation of the "Do-re-me" song from that film. But I have learned I cannot share them in print because of copyright rules with heavy penalties.(1) Sorry. But someday, when Heaven voids all those man-made copyright rules, maybe they'll be among the praise songs we sing with robust voices, around the throne of God. “Sing a new song unto the Lord” we're told in various scriptures.* I can hardly wait.

*Psalms 33:3, 96:1, 98:1, 144.9, Isaiah 42:10.

1. Here is a discussion of the tune infringement: Discipleship Ministries | “Edelweiss” - A Song We Love But Must Not… (umcdiscipleship.org)

FINDING JOY

Blind since infancy, living to her nineties, Fanny Crosby 

showed the power of praise in her thousands of hymn texts,

like this one

My first job (no surprise) came with its share of humbling and challenging experiences, plus a fresh appreciation for the practical wisdom in the epistle of James.  Like this: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4).

Pure joy? Who was he kidding when I trudged home at night reeking of my colleagues’ second-hand smoke and nursing a headache from the press of deadlines and constant phone ringing?  This was newspaper work in the early 1970s—but I had a job! That was the joy. I remembered how I was hired—a series of “just happened” things.  Disheartened by “not hiring” answers to my job queries at local papers, faced with impending joblessness as my studies ended in mid-March, one day between classes I just happened to go down the hall of offices for journalism professors. One of my profs just happened to have his door open. He told me it just happened that a managing editor from a mid-size daily was interviewing that day for their summer college intern. The job wouldn’t start for three months, but it was something. 

I signed for an appointment, and showed up in business attire with my resume and writing samples. A few days later the editor called and offered the summer job. Plus, their women’s editor needed time off for surgery. Could I come early (like March 17!)  and fill in for her?  By mid-summer, my “intern” job became permanent.  Not only did I grow professionally but personally and, most important, spiritually, as I connected with a Bible-teaching church.

POUT OR PRAISE?

In my five years at that job, I began learning that God was ready to patiently teach me how to “do life.” One big lesson was to look for the little blessings. Despite all the pulpit-pounding admonition I hear in the book of James, there are “look-up” messages. “Is any one if you in trouble?” James asks, “He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise” (5:13).

Decades and several jobs later, I am still learning that. But it is a sweet lesson. And I am learning to pray-through-the-day, not just during the get-down-to-business “quiet time.” I wake up (praise!) and step in the tub for a quick shower (praise: Hot water! Towel! Clothes!). I fix and eat breakfast (praise: food, appliances). I plan my day (praise: I have the health to do something useful).  Things happen, and I find myself saying, “Thank you, Lord.”

William Stoddard, a pastor and teacher of a previous generation, observed in his devotional  First Light (Multnomah, 1990, p. 349): “Prayer is the time to be renewed in our love for God.  Think of all the gifts we have received.  Think of the days of sunshine and blessing.  Think of the cup that overflows with the joys of health and family and loving companions.  Think of the times that love warned us and, to our good, we heeded the warning. Think of the open doors we might never have entered without the gentle and persistent nudge of God’s love.”

Open doors!  Yes, even praise for an open faculty door in 1970 that led to my first full-time job and a writing career. 

PURIFIED PRAISE (Psalm 147)

(The final psalm in the list of 48 commended by pastor-counselor David Seamands for study during times of “feeling down,” from his book Healing for Damaged Emotions.)

It was winter when I turned in my Bible and reference books to Psalm 147, and I soon realized that the weather outside (snow!) was an appropriate illustration. Hundreds of years earlier, King David saw snow (rare in the Holy Land) as a picture for what needed to happen after his sins of adultery, deceit and murder. In Psalm 51 (discussed in this blog on Oct. 12, 2018), he wrote:

Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. (51:7)

In his repentance, David wanted to be restored to purity and fellowship with his God. It wasn’t much different for the circumstances behind Psalm 147. After David’s reign, Israel fell apart and divided under various kings, some good, many bad. Finally, God’s discipline came when Babylon brutally conquered the nation and dragged the people north as prisoners. Seventy years later, Babylon was itself captured, and the new Persian king allowed the Israelites to return. But their beloved homeland was devastated and their temple in ruins. The book of Ezra recalls their challenges in rebuilding a lesser temple. Then Nehemiah came to supervise rebuilding the city’s walls for critical safety. Psalm 147 belongs to the end of Ezra, when enough of the temple was rebuilt for a celebratory worship service. The psalm is a model for praising God for his purifying and redeeming Hand.

HE RESTORES

Like all the psalms that conclude the book of Psalms, it begins, “Hallelu Yah!”—Praise the LORD!  Doing so is “good,” “pleasant,” and “fitting.” What had just happened to them, well, just didn’t happen in ancient societies. Returning to the ancestral lands was likened to healing the brokenhearted and binding up their wounds (v. 3). Such an event was a God-thing.

HE REVEALS HIMSELF IN HIS CREATION

If you stop to think about it, just what happens every day around us in what we call “nature” points to an all-powerful creator God. Thus the psalmist looks at creation. (That reminds me of wonderful hymns like “Morning Has Broken,” “I Sing the Mighty Power of God,” and, of course “This Is My Father’s World.”) From the stars to clouds, to weather (rain, snow, frost, hail), vegetation, and animals, there’s plenty to remind us of God’s creative power and pleasure.

HE REMEMBERS US!

What pleases Him the most?

The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. (v. 11)

The nation of Israel was lovingly planted, entrusted as a conduit of God’s laws and the lineage of Jesus, then disciplined severely with exile, finally—amazingly!--returned to its original lands. It became Exhibit A of God’s lovingkindness and longsuffering. Verse 20 emphasizes the uniqueness of it all: “He has done this for no other nation.” Even better, “redemption” isn’t limited to the ancients who returned to a broken-down city. The apostle Paul, explaining that “belonging to God” is now open to any, wrote, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26).

God comes to us in our brokenness and replants us in places of promise. That truth should make every day a Thanksgiving day. Yes, life is messy. We’re not slaves and exiles in the ancient sense, but often we’re enslaved by negative circumstances and emotions. Yet Jesus said, “I have come that they [us!] may have life and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

As I end this nearly year-long study of psalms for “feeling down” times, I almost wish there were more in Pastor Seamands' recommended list. The problems that inspired this series still exist, but I have a better, God-perspective for them. It’s human to want life perfect and comfortable, but this is earth. It’s not heaven yet. In John 9, a blind man was brought to Jesus. The crowd asked if the man or his parents sinned so as to cause his blindness. Jesus answered neither, but that “this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (John 9:5). 

The blind man saw right away when Jesus healed him. It’s my prayer that this series will restore spiritual sight to those who’ve struggled with life’s inequities and hard places. God knows about every one of them, and our appropriate response should be that which rings loudly at the end of psalms:

Praise the Lord!

SOUND-BITES (Psalm 141)

Does this truck bed full of trash remind you of the destiny of trash-talk?

(Part of an ongoing series on the 48 psalms commended for study during times of "feeling down," from a list in counselor-pastor David Seamand's book, Healing for Damaged Emotions.)

One of the trendy phrases today is “sound-bytes,” which I understand to mean tiny bits of communication. Change one vowel and you get “sound-bites,” which could refer to what I’ve heard called the most destructive weapon of all. They’re related to a muscle just a few inches long found in our mouths.

Words that bite and hurt have been around a long, long time. Some of the best-known passages in the epistle of James refer to controlling one’s tongue. We’re to be “quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (James 1:19). An unruly tongue is called a fire capable of great damage (3:5-6) and ironically able to both praise and curse (3:10). Not surprisingly, Proverbs says a lot about the destructive power of words, like this one: “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger" (Proverbs 15:1).

PURITY

Harsh words can also stir up deep hurt and division, something that David as a leader of warriors and then of a nation experienced often. Learning to speak wisely was part of his training to be king, and Psalm 141 suggests how he practiced that in his personal worship:

May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD, keep watch over the door of my lips. Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil....(vv. 3-4 a)

Probably he prayed with hands pointed to the skies, as symbolized with the upward wafting of smoke from the tabernacle’s incense burners. It’s important to remember that the incense used in worship was meticulously prepared to be as pure as possible. In coming to God with the day’s recall of words, he knew he was facing a Holy God. Even in his high position, David wanted a heart open to reproof and kindness, and one that guarded against sinning with words:

Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness; let him rebuke me—it is oil on my head.(v.5)

There’s a similar thought in Proverbs 15:31:

He who listens to a life-giving rebuke will be at home among the wise.

Plus, centuries later, the apostle Paul counseled:

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently (Galatians 6:1).

There’s a big difference between a life-giving rebuke and a self-serving complaint or condemnation. Lately, I’ve become especially attuned to the warnings about this in scripture. I often read a chapter of Proverb that corresponds to the date of the month, and frequently run into verses like these:

Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult; whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse. Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you. (Proverbs 9:7-8)

The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit (Proverbs 15:4)

A rebuke impresses a man of discernment more than a hundred lashes into a fool. (Proverbs 17:9)

ENDINGS

The psalm ends with a vignette of the wicked not receiving honorable burials, something important in Jewish culture. That seemed out of place until I realized that Psalm 141 is holding up God’s standards of purity and propriety in a world that’s riddled with snares and traps of polluted hearts and foul mouths. All of these contribute to “feeling down.” Instead of returning mean-spirited “sound-bites,” we’re to look at how Jesus, handled such things.

Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:3) 

CREATED/SUSTAINED (Psalm 104)

I'm looking forward to summer and another crop of blueberries! Every

handful reminds me of God's creativity in providing us with food.

(A continuing series of the 48 psalms recommended for study during times of “feeling down,” as listed in pastor/counselor David Seamands’ book, Healing for Damaged Emotions.)

Getting away from it all, like going to an inspiring outdoors location, is a well-known “medicine” for times when life gets you down. Psalm 104 is the guidebook for such mental health rehabilitation. From time to time we need respite to just absorb in the splendor of God’s creation. If getting away isn’t possible, then there’s value in finding a quiet corner and reading thoughtfully through Psalm 104.

If music aids you in worship, find a hymnal and sing through Robert Grant’s 1830 hymn, “O Worship the King,” based on this psalm. Pause as its lyrics exalt God as King, Shield, Defender, Ancient of Days, Maker, Redeemer, and Friend. Marvel at the poetic expressions for things that are hard to wrap our minds around: His power, might, grace, bountiful care, love, and majesty. In singing this hymn, bear in mind that Grant was born into British political privilege in India. Both he and his father served in high British political positions, including posts in Parliament and India governance. Yet Grant was also known for his love and zeal for the Lord and his mission efforts. India, his adopted homeland, named a medical school in his honor.

Yet despite his worldly honors, his heart remained true to scripture study and worship. His study one day of Psalm 104 led to the lyrics later matched to a hymn tune. Though nearly two centuries old, they still instruct us in how to “gratefully sing [of] His pow’r and His love.” 

CREATOR

Psalm 104 strands in awe of God as Creator and Sustainer, the One “clothed in splendor and majesty” (v. 1) .We get a hint of that in just drinking in the beauty of nature—the land, water, foliage, skies. The psalm restates in poetic form the Genesis-revealed sequence of creation, starting with Genesis 1:3’s “Let there be light.” That’s followed by expressions of God separating out the waters, rising up land and plants, assigning time to the sun and moon, creating animal life (fish, birds, animals), and providing food and a “sprinkling system” to grow them. Finally, there’s the crown of creation—people—with work (purpose) and sustenance. 

In a nod to Genesis 2:7, which described the first man coming alive through the breath of God, Psalm 104:29 reminds us of the mortality that sin imposed: “When you take away their breath, they die and return to the earth.” We depend on God for our very breath.  As someone who takes medicine for my asthma, I’m acutely aware of that—and also that some day, I will take the final breath that separates my earthly existence from eternity.

My blessings far outnumber the generous number

of berries from this picking!

WORTHY

Life would be a meaningless churn of birth, living, and death without a purpose under God. That’s where Psalm 104 ends:I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the LORD. (vv. 33-34).Then it breaks in with disturbing reality: But may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. (v. 35) That’s reality. Those who reject God will not enjoy eternity with Him.  How much better the attitude reflecting in the psalm’s ending high note of praise: Praise the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord. (v. 35b). In Hebrew, that phrase is “Hallelu jah!” It acknowledges the vast and amazing creation of God and His comprehensive care of it all.  He opens His hand, and we are filled with good (v. 28). No wonder the psalmist urges us to look around and be lifted up in realizing we know and serve such a great God. 

ANOTHER ‘SUSTAINED’ ILLUSTRATION A little over seven years ago, the then-pastor of my church challenged the congregation to “be the church” in the community. That led to a day of volunteerism involving repairs, painting, and cleanup among our community’s needy. The planned projects weren’t the greatest for me as an asthmatic, but I can sew—and in the past had taken patchwork baby blankets to our community’s pro-life ministry, to give women deciding to keep their babies. Others were now fulfilling that agency’s needs, but I learned our local hospital could use these blankets to give babies born into impoverishment.Can you imagine being so poor you don’t even have a nice blanket for your baby, and maybe “home” is a car? Some, I was told, would go with newborns placed in foster homes. I put a way-out-there goal for myself--50-- obviously to be accomplished in more time than just that one “be-the-church” day. With each completed blanket (usually a two-hour effort) and each delivery of several at a time, I sensed the smile and sustaining presence of God. The "50" became 100 and more. People started giving me fabric, batting, and thread, even gift cards to fabric stores. I found other supplies at thrift stores and yard sales.  A few weeks ago, I finished blanket #1,000 and took it to one of five hospitals within 100 miles where I donated regularly. Yes, the staff knows they’re for “people in need”—“and we have many of those,” the head obstetrics nurses in those hospitals have assured me. Who would have guessed that a simple baby blanket could be a ministry?

COUNT (Psalm 103)

Psalm 103:15 talks about how even flowers of the field (like this

one) are transitory, just as we are in our earthly existence.

(Part of a series on the 48 psalms recommended for study during times of "feeling down," from pastor/counselor David Seamands' book Healing for Damaged Emotions.)

Psalm 103 has a lot in common with an old hymn, “Count Your Blessings,” that from time to time has helped lift me out of emotional doldrums. First published in a hymnal for young people, it later reached an international audience when evangelist Gypsy Smith used it in his London crusades. The London Daily reported: “Men sing it, the boys whistle it, and the women rock their babies to sleep on this hymn.” During the great revival in Wales, it was a must-sing at every service along with “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah” and “O That Will be Glory.”  Its author, Johnson Oatman Jr., wrote hymns on the side after his “day job” in the mercantile and insurance businesses. When he died in 1922, he left behind 5,000 hymn texts, the best-known probably being “Higher Ground,” “No, Not One,” and “Count Your Blessings,” whose chorus resounds:

 Count your blessings—name them one by one; 

Count your many blessings see what God hath done.

With that, Oatman summarized the whole of Psalm 103, in which David simply praises God. Praise and gratitude are God’s remedy for “feeling down,” and this psalm is a great starter list for any of us.
  

ALL, ALL, ALL

The word “all” is prominent:

*ALL his inmost being praised God (v. 1)

*ALL God’s benefits were remembered (v. 2)

*ALL our sins can be forgiven (v. 3)

*ALL healing comes from Him (v. 3). I’m aware that some sectors of faith claim that if you’re a true Christian, God will give you perfect health. Miracles of healing do happen, but they are rare and are not the norm.  It is true that when we’re sick and get well, it’s the grace of God that we can overcome illness. (I write this as I cough off the remnants of a cold, remembering times when I gasped for breath with pneumonia, but through modern medicine—a grace of God—I lived.)  If healing is in the atonement, why hasn’t healing come for people like “Joni,” paralyzed Christian author and artist who has inspired millions toward a closer walk with God? The answer to that must wait until heaven.

*ALL the oppressed will find justice (v. 6). This may not happen suddenly, but it’s God’s will that this wrong will be made right. For example, witness today’s ministries to women caught in sex slavery—pulled from it, one at a time. Or children removed from abusive homes and put in Christian foster homes.

The final “all’s” of this psalm refer to the scope of praise to God. It’s “all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will” and “all his works everywhere in his dominion.” 

THAT PART ABOUT SIN

Many years ago I received a phone call from a young woman who was frantic about losing God’s love because she’d yielded to sexual sin. I went to her apartment and listened to her cries for mercy. I wondered how to comfort her with the assurance of God’s forgiveness for confessed sin. At just the right time, God reminded me of this duo of verses, memorized long before:

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. (vv. 11-12)

This was written long before Columbus sailed across the ocean and didn’t fall off the ledge—contrary to the common fear that the earth was flat. Later, others would sail around the world, “proof” of roundness. North and south are established points on our globe--there are north poles and south poles. But east to west have no “poles.” They blend continually.

THE BIGGEST THANK-YOU

After exploring the grandeur of the universe, the psalmist comes back to our human condition. Like flowers and grass, we don’t live forever on this planet. Yet through the promise of eternal life we can anticipate His mercy and a life after this one—with Him. Johnson Oatman got it “right,” reminding us (as do the final stanzas of Psalm 103): 

So, amid the conflict, whether great or small,

Do not be discouraged, God is over all;

Count your many blessings, angels will attend,

Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.

LONGING (Psalm 84)

Grain elevators--symbols of God's abundance

(An ongoing series on psalms to study during times of depression, as recommended in pastor-counselor David Seamands' book, Healing for Damaged Emotions.)

She was physically blind, but spiritually she saw much. One day in 1874, prolific hymn-lyricist Fanny Crosby was visiting with a New York hat-maker who also composed music. He played his newest tune and asked if it suggested any words to her. She exclaimed, “Close to Thee,” and soon dictated the poem that came to her. It began, “Thou my everlasting portion.”  This phrase, used often in the psalms, referred to how the Levites (who took care of the tabernacle, and later the temple) didn’t get land allotments in Canaan like other tribes because God was to be their “portion.”

Whenever I re-read Psalm 84, composed by a Levite whose job description was “temple doorkeeper,” I think of that phrase. “Blessed are those who dwell in your house,” he wrote (v. 4), “they are ever praising you.” Even though they weren’t out farming or doing other jobs, God provided for them. His supply (as symbolized by these grain elevators) and His presence were enough.

PRESENCE

This sweet psalm is one I’ve marked up a lot in my Bible. Even this morning, as I prepared to write about it, I found myself moved to tears in thinking about the writer’s enjoyment of God’s presence. Through the day, the Levites who protected the tabernacle’s physical location (as did this writer as “doorkeeper,” v. 10) or carried on tasks connected to sacrifices, had a constant awareness of God’s holy presence. Steps away was the secluded gold-covered chest or “ark,” crafted after the exodus from Egypt, and holding the stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. 

But ordinary earth life still took place: the sparrows (considered worthless birds, selling for the least valuable coin) and the swallows (symbols of restlessness) flitted around, their nests in nooks and crannies.

PROTECTION

Verses 5-7, which speak about “pilgrimage,” bring images of ragged, tired Jews making the long, dangerous pilgrimage to this sacred worship center. The author speaks of them passing through the “Valley of Baca.”  “Baca” implies “weeping.” Depression has a way of keeping tears close to the surface. Even this morning as I prayed for someone in spiritual need who has maligned me, I wept. I knew God saw those tears, and true to Fanny Crosby’s hymn, the Lord Almighty seemed close to me.

For such times, I have this psalm’s promise: 

The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.” (84:11).

PURPOSE

From the heart of this nameless doorkeeper come these reminders:

*Dwell on the loveliness of Jesus (v. 1)

*Praise (v. 4)

*Trust (v. 12)

As we continue our pilgrimages (v. 7) our weaknesses will grow to strengths, our low times to joy and ecstasy when we pass through eternity’s doors to see Him in all His glory. From time to time, I need to be reminded of this truth, and Psalm 84 does that for me.

WHOM...BUT YOU? (Psalm 73)

Ever feel as empty as an old crock?  This is the psalm for you!

(A continuing series on the 48 psalms listed as “recommended reading” for times of depression, from pastor/counselor David Seamands, author of Healing for Damaged Emotions.)

Some psalms are like good friends who just get better and closer, the longer you’re around them. That’s how I feel about Psalm 73. It’s attributed to “Asaph,” one of the worship leaders in David’s time. He’s also credited with Psalm 50 and most of the psalms (#73-83) in the third division of the book of Psalms. While thinking about the message of this psalm before writing about it, I felt led to read the entire book of Job because both wrestle with the age-old problem of why the righteous suffer.

LOOKING AROUND, DOUBTING GOD (1-14)

Depression deals with such questions as Asaph poses in comparing his life to that of the ungodly who seem to have health, riches, fame, and more:

Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning. (vv. 13-14)

In reading this, I think of Job, slumped in a dump in utter physical misery and personal devastation after his fall from riches and respect. The friends who dared to come around spilled their advice, but none of it reflected the mind of God.

LOOKING INWARD, ACKNOWLEDGING GOD (15-22)

I’ve been around people who know one song, “Woe is me, woe is me.” Sung in a minor chord, of course. Asaph’s song was set on that course until verse 17:

…I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.

To borrow a cliché, the end of the book hasn’t been written yet, but God knows what will go there. People who don’t follow God live on slippery ground (v. 18) and will be swept away when eternity commences (v. 19). Here’s where Asaph changes his tune from “woe is me” to “I was wrong”:

When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.(v. 22)

That’s one way to describe “entitlement,” the selfish mental state that demands special treatment—whether it be social situations, education or jobs, housing, or other areas. Instead of thanking God for what one has, “entitlement” wants more and more, without the sweat equity that might be involved in bettering oneself.

LOOKING UPWARD, PRAISING GOD (23-28)

Oh, here are the verses that repeatedly have encouraged me, adjusting my heavenly focus:

Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.Whom have I in heaven but you? And being with you, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (vv.25-26)

You can be certain that they are underlined in red in my Bible! The phrase “take me into glory” gets more precious by the year. I almost went there 21 years ago when a drinking driver totaled our car as we returned home from a vacation—but we lived. And now, dealing with physical issues of aging, I know my time on earth is shortening. If my family wants to use these verses at my funeral, that would be fine!

In the meantime, this psalm reminds me that I can’t do “life” in my own strength. Lately I have felt worn down from criticism and bullying from someone. But every morning, as I get out of bed and put my achy legs on the floor to start the day, I remember my Creator and Savior:

Whom have I in heaven but God? He is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

As Asaph concluded, “But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds” (v. 28).

SINKING DOWN (Psalm 69)

This culvert near our home takes an irrigation ditch under the street for

about 100 feet. Not something I'd want to crawl through, which

makes me think all the more of what happened in Thailand

(A series on the 48 psalms recommended for times when depression comes, from the book Healing for Damaged Emotions by pastor/counselor David Seamands.)

All the scandals and attacks of our troubled planet took a back news page in July when twelve Thai boys and their soccer coach went missing. Their excursion into a complicated cave system turned into a two-week nightmare of darkness as rains poured, the cave flooded, and hope for their survival waned. But they were rescued!

The opening sections of Psalm 69 reminded me of this tense, despairing situation. Attributed to David, it begins:

Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. (vv. 1-2)

Similar to Psalm 40, David likens his emotional state to a drowning or being sucked down in quicksand. If he’d gone to a counselor, his “get to know you” session might have sounded like this:

“I’m hoarse from screaming for help.” (v. 3)

“Everybody hates me for no reason.” (v. 4)

“Even my family has given up on me.” (v. 8)

“I’m scorned, disgraced, and shamed.” (v. 20)

Now, attach those descriptions to Jesus, for Psalm 69 is more than one man’s take on his dive from popularity. The One who perfectly showed us God’s love was hated for no reason.  Except for His mother, many doubted that He was who He claimed to be. He was scorned, disgraced, and shamed all the way to the cross where his executioners gave Him vinegar for his thirst.”  Yes, verse 21 and many other snippets of Psalm 69 are prophetic of what the Lord Jesus went through in dying for our sins. Seven of this psalm’s 36 verses are quoted in the New Testament.

This is one of twelve “imprecatory” psalms, and the only one chosen for Dr. Seamands’ list of “study” psalms for people battling depression. These psalms are full of revenge, even bitterness, toward people around them. This bothered me because Romans 12:19 says to leave vengeance to God. But here’s the basis for the psalms’ harshness. The people being called “enemies” in these psalms have rebelled against God, His chosen people, or His anointed king. 

Go ahead and skim through Psalm 69 and pause at verse 20:

I am in pain and distress; may your salvation, O God, protect me.

Then head into the last seven verses that start, “I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.” Draw a line from “name” in that verse to “name” in verse 36. When life is the pits (or we feel like we're drowning in one), one remedy is to deflect our attention to what is “praiseworthy.”  It is good medicine for “down times” to simply focus on God and His attributes. 

This is the other end of the under-the-street culvert,

so narrow that it would be impossible for a person to 

crawl under it. Maybe that's an analogy for the saying

that our impossibilities are God's possibilities.

I keep a little prayer notebook that fits into the outside pocket of my Bible. One of its tabbed sections is titled “God’s names,” and in there, in A-Z order, are the names of God as I have encountered them in my scripture reading. When I am feeling down, it is helpful for me to go there and just read those names and praise God for Who He is and All that He is. Sometimes at night when I can’t sleep, I lay in the darkness and go through the alphabet, speaking those names to God as worship. The negative circumstances and people who  contribute to my feeling “down” may not go away. But focusing on the One who is Light and Hope reminds me that there’s a way out of my temporary “miry depths.”

I can only imagine the astonishment of those Thai lads when a rescuer popped into their chamber. They weren’t entirely rescued yet, but the hope was there. Maybe that’s why there are psalms like this one, to remind us that when we feel lost and hopeless, as Christians we’re not really alone.

RX FOR DUMP DAYS

This white rose in my garden, about to open, reminds me of how Jesus 

presented us with an example of a life of purity

My reading pile the last few years has included a number of books on mental health issues as I seek to understand problems that people I care about are going through.  The books have reminded me that “bad stuff” and trauma are part of our fallen condition. I find myself saying, where would we be without the Lord? 

In re-reading David Seamands’ Healing for Damaged Emotions (Victor Books, 1981), I again appreciated his counsel for dealing with depression. He noted that that Martin Luther (the great Protestant reformer of 500 years ago) and Samuel Brengle (19^th century Salvation Army commissioner and teacher on holiness) both struggled with depression—and both found praise one way of counteracting the negative pull on their lives. Seamands said that when Brengle struggled with feeling God’s presence or hope in prayer, he’d thank God for simple things, like the leaf on a tree or the beautiful wing of a bird.  Reading that helped me realize that my own “Thank you, God” every-day prayers—for simple things like this beautiful rose, one of the first to bloom in our yard—were acceptable and  healing forms of worship.

Seamands also had this advice: “Lean heavily on the power of God’s Word”  (p. 129).  Although God can use any portion of scripture to help people, he likes to recommend that people read the psalms. A whole range of depression emotions come out in psalms—in fact, he said, 48 of the 150 psalms express depression. To people struggling with depression, Seamands often gives out a list of the 48 to read and think about. Now, some people may find that depressing!  But it’s not.  It’s encouraging that God led the writers to be brutally honest about how they felt, and to share how they found their way up and out.  Psalms are real.

In 2014 (January to October)  I shared my “Top Fifty” psalms in this blog.  Seamands’ list and mine overlap at times.  Starting next week, and over the next few months, I’m hoping an honest look at the psalms that Seamands selected for the “dump days” (when you feel down in the dumps or feel like dumping on God) will help you as they will me.

Sent God-mail lately?

Early in my writing career, before the internet, old-fashioned mail connected me to the publishing industry. Yes, I once put manuscripts to editors in a box like this, flipped up the flag, and waited.  If they returned as “rejected,” I also hoped they wouldn’t have coffee stains, meaning tedious retyping. A common writer’s joke concerned how many cobwebs would adorn a mailbox before an overworked editor responded.  Now, my computer translates keystrokes to words, corrects my spelling, and zips a submission in seconds to a publishing house. What a world!

Recently, picking up the usual bills and flyers, I realized how busy my local spiders had been. A what-if occurred to me. What if, instead of receiving this type of mail, I was charged with sending love notes to God? What would I say? Right away, this phrase came to mind: “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.”  I found it at the beginning of Psalm 107, and behold: it’s a chorus that threads throughout the psalm.

This psalm opens “Book V” of the Psalms, and it’s believed to include those collected after the Jews returned to their land.  Bible scholars say this psalm specifically mentions hurting and at-risk populations: refugees (4-7), prisoners (10-16), the sick (19-22), and victims (seamen, 23-32). These people didn’t have the soft life of a roof over their heads, a grocery store down the road, and decent medical care. Life for them was tough. Yet when they cried out to God, He heard them.

The last image, of seamen in a horrific storm (vv. 23-30) is terrifying, something like a Moby Dick drama or worst. Yet, when life crashes in around us, there couldn’t be a better metaphor.  I have several friends on the wild waves of serious illness.  They’re waiting for that time when they’ll be guided to a haven (v. 30), when they can “give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men.”

 The key here is “his unfailing love.” No matter what trial assaults us, God’s unfailing love is there. Who of us hasn’t felt tossed around violently by life’s cruel storms? Yet, through it all is God’s unfailing love.

What does this have to do with a cobwebbed mailbox?  Maybe that there ought to be “thank you” notes to God going out regularly-- a box full of praises for God’s unfailibng love, headed to heaven via journaling, prayer, or public testimony.  I know I could improve on that area of my spiritual life! “Whoever is wise,” ends the psalm (v. 43), “let him heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord.”

Speaking of thanksgivings....

Oh, the awe of holding a newborn!  James, my son’s third son and our fourth grandchild, made his entrance a week ago.  Yes, it’s now “my three sons” at their household—bringing a smile to us “oldies” who remember the popular sit-com (1960-72) by that name featuring a fictional widower (starring Fred MacMurray) and three sons.  I always liked the perky housekeeper hired to keep things going! So, James, welcome as you grow up with brothers just 2 ½ and 4 years older.  I pray that as you grow up, you will embrace your heritage of faith.  “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom” (James 3:13 NIV).

Singing when you least feel like it

A dark cloud of gloom over “people problems” hung over me as I started my errands the other day. Then, just blocks from home, the words of an old hymn welled up within me and I was soon singing:

Come Thou fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing thy praise.
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.

Hymn histories fascinate me, and I learned this one was composed in 1758 by Robert Robinson, a 23-year-old pastor who just three years earlier left a life of drinking and gangs to follow Christ. Written specifically for his Pentecost Sunday sermon, it is the best known of his two published hymns.  As for “Tune thy heart to sing thy praise,” I’d often heard that the best antidote for sadness and worry is to sing praises to God.  The other morning, thinking of this hymn, I tried coming up with an acrostic for PRAISE:  Here’s one:

            Prayerfully

            Releasing

            All

            Inexplicable problems to the

            Savior’s

            Eternal perspective

Song has a way of expressing the deepest parts of us.  Recently while reading Beth Moore’s To Live is Christ (Broadman, 2001), I was profoundly touched by a story she told of entering into a friend’s excruciating grief. This friend’s 15-year-old son was killed in an auto accident. Moore and two other women went with the grieving mother to the mortuary to choose a casket. Afterwards, they drove away, saying nothing for several blocks.  Then one friend began singing the contemporary chorus, “I love you, Lord.” A second friend joined in, and finally Beth Moore. At that point I had to put down the book, tears in my eyes as I imagined myself in that car as friends, voices broken by grief, lifted up Jesus! Moore added: “When praise is the last thing that comes naturally to us and we choose to worship Him anyway, we’ve had the privilege of offering a genuine sacrifice of praise” (To Live is Christ, p. 96).

The problems that prompted my unexpected recall of a classic praise-hymn  haven’t gone away. But God continues to teach me about His love and power. As the end of that hymn’s first stanza says:

Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of God’s unchanging love.