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.

SOFT (Psalm 95)

A sheep (this one a puzzle piece--thank you, grandsons)

and a strong rock--two major symbols for Psalm 95

(An ongoing series on the 48 psalms recommended for reading during times of “feeling down,” as suggested in pastor-counselor David Seamands’ book, Healing for Damaged Emotions)

The soft strains of a 1980 worship song birthed in southern California always come to mind when I read Psalm 95:

Come, let us worship and bow down,

Let us kneel before the Lord our God our Maker,

For He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture,

And the sheep of His hand (2x)

For a couple years, I lived and worked within a few miles of that song’s origins in the Maranatha! music ministry produced from Calvary Chapel, which greatly ministered to the hippie culture of that era.  I wonder how many people realized it was lifted right out of Psalm 95:6-7, or that this psalm has a strong message for hard hearts

So, how can warnings about “hardness” bring any comfort to times we feel down? I think the answer is in looking at place-names attached to an incident from the Exodus 17, when the newly-freed Israelites found themselves facing death because there was no water in the desert. They were blaming God, not worshipping Him.Then God told Moses to strike a certain rock, and out came a huge flow for all. From then on, the location was called “Massah” (meaning “testing”) and “Meribah” (meaning quarreling) because “they tested the LORD saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’” (Exodus 17:7).

DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN

Baseball great Yogi Berra was known for his odd sayings, including the redundant “it’s deja vu all over again.” With spiritual maturity comes the ability to see ourselves in the mistakes of the past, such as the grumbling over lack of water. Thanks to living in a country where tap water is chlorinated and tested, I don’t face what the Israelites did with thirst and deprivation. But our culture sends griping and complaining into new areas. That can lead to a high sense of entitlement—what we think God should supply—without simply grateful for what we already have. Constantly I have to ask myself if I can say, with Paul:

I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. (Philippians 4:12)

JUST PRAISE

During that same time that I lived in southern California, I was part of a Fullerton, Calif., church choir that sang a worship concert with the Gaither song, “Let’s Just Praise the Lord.” I still find myself humming that tune and thinking of the words, realizing how praise helps lift me when I am feeling down. When I feel “hard” and besieged, focusing on God’s mercies and greatness help to “soften” my heart. And that is the lesson that opens this psalm with its exhortation to praise God:

Come let us sing for joy to the LORD,

Let us shout aloud  to the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come before him with thanksgiving 

And extol him with music and song. (vv. 1-2)

The psalmist goes on to consider God as Creator of the world (vv. 3-5), then creator of us, humans, by allegory “people of his pasture, the flock under his care” (v. 7). Can you not help but stop here and think of Jesus as the Great Shepherd? Psalm 95 teaches that there are many ways to praise God: sing, shout aloud, extol with music, bow down, kneel... Even silence can be worship: “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

“Count your blessings,” begins an old hymn, “name them one by one.” When I feel down and a bit hard-hearted, it’s the best spiritual medicine I can take.

SLIPPING (Psalm 94)

Boots with hearty traction (or at least pull-on cleats) are our choice

 for January traction. But in posing these boots for a photo,

 I thought of the scripture that urged us to "walk" with care in representing 

Christ--to be "shod" with the Gospel of Christ (Ephesians 6:15)

(Part of an ongoing series on the 48 psalms recommended for times of “feeling down,” from pastor-counselor David Seamands’ book, Healing for Damaged Emotions.)

We expect super-fast in our lives. Microwaves, internet speeds, supersonic flights—any ways we can shave time off things, we want them. But it doesn’t work that way in life’s tough places. “How long,” the psalm-writer whines to God, “will the wicked be jubilant? (Psalm 94:3). He feels his hope and opportunities are slipping away (v. 18). The psalmist wants God to do something about the bad people and situations in his life—and quickly. He’s saying, “I can’t do anything about it, God, but You can.” He addresses God as “the God who avenges”—and that last little word is a key to unlocking this psalm’s truths.

REVENGE VS. AVENGE

It’s human (and sinful) to exercise vengeance—to act negatively out of revenge for a hurt. But a slightly different word, avenge, rightly describes God’s role as our legal advocate upholding His holiness and sovereignty when we are wronged. Long ago, He clearly stated that His role is to avenge and pay back an enemy (Deuteronomy 32:35, quoted Romans 12:19-20). Our role when wronged is this:

Do not repay anyone evil for evil.  Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.  Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath. (Romans 12:17-19a)

IT’S GOD’S PROBLEM

I tend to bottle up my hurts and problems, with unwanted results for my physical and emotional health. I echo the psalmist’s complaint:

Who will rise up for me against the wicked?

Who will take a stand for me against evildoers? (Psalm 94:16)

But God’s way is reflected in this quote attributed to Martin Luther:

I have held many things in my hands and have lost them all; but whatever I put in God’s hands, I still possess.

The psalmist reached a similar conclusion:

When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your love, O LORD, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.” (Psalm 94:18-19)

IT’S OUR EARTHLY HOMEWORK

One day my body demanded that I rest but my mind swirled with thoughts of someone’s negatives toward me. “Change the channel, Lord,” I prayed. “I don’t want to keep thinking about this.” I believe the Lord wants me to recall just enough to keep praying for this person,  but to leave to Him the issue of avenging for the wrongs done against me. In learning the grace of letting go, especially of bitterness, and letting Him handle it, I experience the lesson of Hebrews 12:14-15:

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.  See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

The psalmist ended up with that conclusion, too, calling God his fortress and the rock of refuge (v. 22)

I’d like God to right all wrongs and make things all happy-and-dandy during my lifetime. But it may not happen that way. So when I ask, like the psalmist, “How long?” and He answers, “Trust me,” I must. He sees life from eternity past to eternity future. The negatives I may experience now are but a blip on eternity’s screen.

REFUGE (Psalm 91)

(Part of an ongoing series on the 48 psalms recommended for study during times of depression by counselor/pastor David Seamands, author of Healing for Damaged Emotions.)

When a wildlife education group brought these critters to our county fair, I was grateful for their cages! But “safety” is not always a given, as the author expressed in Psalm 91. The author is unnamed, but besides the natural threats of the wilderness, he apparently lived under the constant threat of human enemies. His solution: abiding under the “shadow of the Almighty” (v. 1) amidst the very real dangers he faced. The assurances that God is my refuge and fortress, worthy of trust (v. 2), are the stakes that affix this psalm to my heart.

There are lessons in every verse, but one image has become especially poignant for me in recent years:

He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge. (v. 4)

The initial picture this presents, of course, is a hen gathering her chicks under her for safety. Jesus drew on this image when He lamented Jerusalem’s (and the world’s) spiritual issues:

Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. (Matthew 23:37, also Luke 13:38)

PROTECTED

What doesn’t come across in English translations—and this is where I think it most deeply can reach the heart of a disheartened person—is the powerful word in Hebrew for “wings”—kanaph. It’s prominent in the book of Ruth, who was the great grandmother of King David. Whether or not he wrote the psalm, it still intensifies the hope that rides above the dark images of danger.

Ruth, of course, was the Moabite widow who came back to Jerusalem with her glum, widowed mother-in-law, Naomi. Their desert journey, fraught with dangers like many of those described in the psalm, took them to even more desolation as helpless, landless, starving women. But Ruth rolled up her sleeves and gleaned to help feed them. God was in the shadows in having her glean from the field of a distant relative, Boaz. When Boaz commended her work, he remarked:

May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings [kanaph]you have come to take refuge.(Ruth 2:12)

When Naomi heard of his favor toward Ruth, then connected the dots that he was a distant relative and marriageable, she saw a solution to their desperation. A marriage to Boaz would bring both of them under his protection. So Ruth went to threshing floor, where he slept during harvest, to encourage a “proposal.” It sounds strange to us, but remember, it’s not our culture.  Quietly, she uncovered his feet and lay down.

With his feet getting cold, Boaz woke and was shocked to see Ruth there. Ruth shared their need and how his being the “kinsman-redeemer” could help them. She added:

Spread the corner of your garment [that’s the “kanaph” part] over me. (Ruth 3:9)

He readily accepted her proposal, and set about to make it happen.

ENOUGH

There’s more—so much more—in this psalm, including prophecies about Jesus and Satan. But just the one idea of God as our protector carries immense comfort for those times when we feel down from all the negatives of life and troublesome people. When we have to go through trials, God promises to go through them with us (vv. 14-15). Even better, He can turn our sense of loss to a sense of victory:

With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation. (91:16)

This is not necessarily a formula for long life. Only God knows the length of our days. Psalm 90 emphasized that. Rather, I think it’s saying that “in the God-ordained fullness of our days” He will be all we need or want. And that is wonderful, encouraging news!