GROAN--HOW MUCH LONGER? (Psalm13)

Part of a continuing series on 48 psalms that speak to “feeling down.”

Stuck in a thorny situation!  That’s the main complaint of Psalm 13, that David wrote during one of his many “feeling hopeless” times.  Four times he wails, “How long?” (my paraphrase):

*How long—forever?---will you forget about me, God?

*How long will it seem that You, God, have hidden Your face?

*How long must  I deal with negative and sad thoughts?

*How long will the enemy seem to have the upper hand?

What I like about this psalm is that David is talking to God  about his serious doubts. He’s not giving up his faith, although it’s a bit ragged right now. We don’t know his precise circumstances but he sounds like he’d come to the end of his rope, again, in staying a step ahead of King Saul and his murderous desperados.

The things that put me in a funk aren’t as life-threatening as David’s. But at different times in my life I have run into spiritual mountains I cannot scale, deep river gorges I cannot cross—except for God.

 But the big “BUT” is the word to hang on:

But I trust in your unfailing love; My heart rejoices in your salvation. 

I will sing to the LORD for he has been good to me.

David’s saying, “We have a history together, God.  You’ve helped me in the past. First of all, I thank you for the gift of salvation that allows me to be in relationship with You and trust You. Then I just need to praise You.  Where’s my harp? That’s how I express my ‘love language’ to God. I’ll sing a song that praises God’s goodness.  That may not solve my problems immediately, but it will keep my focus on God, who rescues and helps me.”

Thorns are part of life.  But even a cactus can put out a blossom, like a reminder of God’s help even when life seems sticky for much too long.

RESCUE ME! (PSALM 6)

These are called "Knockout Roses" and are a hedge variety.

I decided they were an appropriate illustration for 

the month I got "knocked out" by pneumonia!

T

Today's entry begins a series on psalms to read when you feel down, as recommended by David Seamands in his book Healing for Damaged Emotions (Victor, 1981). 

Pneumonia recently claimed a month of my life.  I woke up one day just feeling “off.”  Then came chills and a high fever, body aches including a horrific headache, no appetite, and finally a nasty cough.  After a week, my husband took me into our “walk in” clinic.  The doctor who listened to my chest said it sounded like pulling Velcro apart.  “You have pneumonia,” she said.  An X-Ray confirmed it. Her choice for an antibiotic (given this was my second bout with pneumonia in two years) had some scary side effects.  But I lived. 

When I read the opening of Psalm 6 after this experience, I wondered what a modern doctor would have diagnosed for David’s illness.  He was faint, his bones in agony.  He was totally worn out and emotionally in the pits.  And depressed—so much so that his pillow become a sponge for copious tears. 

My pillow got wet from an ice bag, but David’s tears are a hint that his illness was emotional, too.  Tears come easily when we’re at the end of ourselves.

The psalm’s turning point is verse 8:

Away from me, all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping.

The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer. (v. 9)

Just when David wrote this psalm isn’t known. He had his share of “down times” as he tried to elude the murderous intents of mad King Saul.  His physical life and destiny were in jeopardy. He faced utter hopelessness—except for the Lord.  When David cried out for mercy, the words of his heart weren’t bouncing off the cave ceiling.

The Lord has heard....the Lord accepts. I’ve highlighted those verses in my Bible. I need their reminder that when I face bewildering events and hostile people, I am not alone! I may not see the answers right away, but God is at work—in me, and in my circumstances. 

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.

WHAT'S WRONG HERE?

Once upon a time, people communicated on things called “land line telephones.”  For the recent generation that grew up with smart/cell phones the size of a deck of cards, that’s probably hard to imagine. These old-fashioned phones needed to be plugged into a special wall outlet which in turn connected to long snakes of “phone lines” either below or above ground. If a phone wasn’t plugged in, you couldn’t get or receive calls.  (Believe it or not, we still have a “land line” in our house!)

So what’s wrong with this picture of two “old” phones? They’re not plugged in.  (See the plug-in at the bottom of the photo.) They can’t send or receive signals.

Thanks to wireless technology, we have new opportunities in communication.  With it have come new problems, like Facebook’s recent admission that its users’ personal information had been hacked.  Those private accounts aren’t really so private any more.

I am not on Facebook, although as a proud grandma (with photos in purse) I certainly would be a good candidate. I know many who use Facebook in healthy ways.  But I also have been a victim of cyberbullying (the accusations were false), and such abuse makes me very careful about any media platform.

I've long been concerned about negative effects of social media, so I wasn’t surprised when I read this report:

“While social media is still too new to gauge its long-term effects on human psychology, a handful of studies seem to confirm conventional wisdom to the effect that social media—including online gaming—can have addictive qualities that are harmful to vulnerable people who over-use the new technologies.” The researcher also observed that “teens who log into Facebook more than average are also more likely to be ‘self-absorbed,’ ‘narcissistic,’ belligerent, paranoid, and—ironically enough—antisocial.” In addition, the author concluded, “I believe excessive social media use is closely related to the sense of incompleteness and insecurity which bedevils many teens (not to mention a good number of adults): like alcohol, tobacco, drugs and sex, it serves to occupy a restless, wandering, attention-seeking personality, which believes itself totally unable to find peace and tranquility on its own terms.” (1)

Another study said that “these constant forums for self-expression could be baiting, even feeding, the symptoms of personality disorders, such as narcissistic personality disorder and borderline personality disorder.”  It’s not surprising, given that both mental health issues seem to crave an audience for sharing every detail of their lives, whether good or bad. (2)

Mental health professionals refer to “emotional intelligence” as a gauge of mental healthiness. Its components include “self-awareness, personal motivation, empathy, and the ability to love and be loved by friends, partners, and family members.”  (3) Authentic face-to-face interaction is involved in building those aspects of personality. In other words, people are connected, like those old-fashioned phones.

I’ve been reading through Proverbs in different translations lately, and am struck by how its timeless sayings can apply even to the pros and cons of modern communication devices, like social media.  On the plus side (those who use it for good):

He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed (Proverbs 11:25)

But on the other hand:

Do you see a man who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for him. (Proverbs 29:20)

People-smart and people-sensitive connections do matter, modern technology or not.

(1) https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/155523/social-media-overuse-linked-to-unhealthy-behaviors.html

(2) www.borderlinepersonalitytreatment.com.personality-disorders-social-media.html

(3) Randi Kreger, Essential Family Guide to Borderline Personality Disorder (Hazelden, 2008), p. 54

G.R.A.C.E.

I never expected a “grace war” as my son and family sat down for dinner.  The oldest, now nearly five, had been the “grace say-er” ever since he could talk.  But now his brother, 3 ½, was being asked to give thanks for the food. They know three “graces” at this point: “Come Lord Jesus,” “God Is Great” and the Johnny Appleseed song (which really, at its “core”—pun intended—does express gratitude).  That day, grandson #2 was asked to pray. His choice did not please grandson #1. We ended up “gracing” the food twice that day.

I smile over the memory, but I also realize that the Bible’s use of the word “grace” is so big that I cannot get my mind wrapped around it.  I once heard this acrostic for GRACE, acknowledging Christ’s death on our behalf:  “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.”  It’s easily remembered, but barely touches the depths of true grace.

Many of us have also learned a Gospel song whose fourth verse expresses gratitude for this “marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, freely bestowed on all who believe.”  The hymn we know as “Grace Greater Than all our Sin,” written in the late 1800s, didn’t come out of some ivory writing tower.  Instead, it was the fruit of a livf of service to the local church by a never-married woman whose pastor-father died when she was only fifteen.  Julia Harriette Johnson (1849-1919) wrote about five hundred hymn texts, but this remains her best known.  In 1997 it was included a treasury of best-loved hymns.

Who was she? A pastor’s daughter.  A woman who remained single all her life, which allowed her to extravagantly serve her large Peoria church for forty-one years as a leader of the church’s Missionary society, Sunday school superintendent, teacher, and leader of the infant’s class, where she loved on hundreds of babies.

She was 61 when she wrote “Grace Greater Than All Our Sin.”  I try to imagine her at her desk, wrestling with poetic ways to contrast God’s abundant grace with our deep, dark stain of sin.  Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace....  Those lines bring to mind Romans 5:1-2:  “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

About a decade earlier she wrote “Saving Grace,” whose chorus expresses her solid hope of eternal life in Heaven:

Then I shall know as I am known,/And stand complete before the throne;

Then I shall see my Savior’s face,/And all my song be saving grace.

It’s important to acknowledge that talented musicians helped bring such wonderful poetic texts to our worship times.  The music for “Grace Greater Than All Our Sin” was composed by Daniel Towner, who besides writing for and compiling many hymns was music director at Moody Bible Institute. That’s why, in many hymnals, the tune is called “Moody.”  Others of his better-known tunes were written for “At Calvary” and “Trust and Obey.”  Coincidentally, they both died the same year, 1919—he, while leading music for an evangelistic meeting!