LOVING-KINDNESS! (Psalm 118)

This trellis arch of climbing roses is a summer delight--

and a reminder that His banner over me is love.

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

Critical, demeaning, abusive--enduring such behaviors inevitably contributes to feeling emotionally and spiritually down. But Psalm 118 tries to define the healing potion, a quality that’s spelled chesed or hesed in Hebrew and requires many English words to define. The common one is “loving-kindness,” but in reference to God it embraces His steadfast love, grace, mercy, faithfulness, goodness and devotion.  Want a challenge? Trying writing a hymn about that!

Surprise: someone did, and it’s found in Psalm 118. Five times (1-4 and 29) it proclaims:

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love [chesed] endures forever.

BIG THANKS

Scholars believe Psalm 118 was composed around 400 B.C. when an estimated 50,000 Jews returned from seven decades of Babylonian captivity, only to find their homeland and its crown city, Jerusalem, in ruins. First, they put up a worship structure. It wasn’t as glorious as what Solomon had built, but it gave them a worship center. Later, with Nehemiah's leadership, they restored the walls that provided safety to the city.

Psalm 118 was also composed with public worship in mind.  Its repeated phrases suggest how a worship leader, chorus, and common people all had a part in what might be tagged a responsive “liturgy.” As a child growing up in a liturgical church, I participated in this ancient practice. When this "responsive" or liturgical psalm was introduced centuries ago, no doubt its inclusion in worship brought vibrant and enthusiastic participation. I can almost hear the worship leader’s voice ringing out the first phrase and the hundreds of worshippers shouting back the end of it. Wow.

What’s this have to do with getting through depression? This: that worship gets our eyes off our negative circumstances and onto the praiseworthy chesed of God. Psalm 118 reminds us to find joy in what the Lord has done. Choosing joy means refusing to harp about the trivialities until they grow into trials and despair.

BIG IDEAS

Besides such long, liturgical prayers, God hears short, desperate, and bold prayers. “In my anguish,” the psalmist said, “I cried to the LORD, and he answered by setting me free. The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (vv 5-6). God doesn’t necessarily snap His fingers and take away problems, but He promises to be our Refuge and Helper. Four times the psalmist speaks of calling on “the Name of the Lord” (vv. 10-12, 26). To do so is not some magic trick, but a deliberate turning over a problem to Him as capable of handling it.

The psalm also looked prophetically forward to a Messiah. When Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem, people heralded Him with waving palm branches and chanting the words of Psalm 118:26:

Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord!

A few days later they would yell, “Crucify him.” Yet all was part of God’s plan to bridge the sin-gap between Himself and humans. We know now that the psalmist’s remark about the rejected stone becoming the critical temple “capstone” really referred to Jesus Christ. The cross put the last essential piece in place.

Trials will come in this life. Sometimes they’ll really knock us down:

I was pushed back and about to fall… (v. 13a)

But hang onto the “but”:

 ….but the LORD helped me. The Lord has become my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.(vv.13b-14)

And all of that goes back to God’s chesed. He loves us more than we can imagine. Even the days we feel less than celebratory, He waits. The celebration parade, with a risen Jesus at the front, will happen. Count on it.