LOW, LOW, LOW (Psalm 142)

"God, can you hear me?" These satellite disks made me grateful that

prayer doesn't need such technology to access heaven!

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

What do you say to God when you’re so spiritually and emotionally low that you don’t know what to say?  Welcome to Psalm 142, introduced by this note: “A maskil of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer.” A “maskil” is some sort of musical term. But the words “the cave” are an important clue. Psalm 57 (identified as a “miktam,” another music term) also says it’s for “when he [David] had fled form Saul into the cave.” That despairing time in David’s life is recorded in 1 Samuel 21-22. David had risen to be a hero in Saul’s royal court because of his military prowess and musical skills. But Saul had come to hate the man who’d succeed him instead of his own son Jonathan, and tried to kill David. In his escape, David ended up in an enemy town that wanted nothing to do with him. After all, he’d killed their hero giant, Goliath! On the run again, he ended up in a desert cave—homeless, hungry and friendless.  Was this how God treated His faithful followers?

GUT-WRENCHING PRAYING

As I read this psalm, I’m also hearing the despair of Psalms 42-43:

Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me? (42:5b, 11a; 43:5a)

Utterly alone in the wilderness, no doubt afraid to show his face outside, David faced hopelessness—and told God about it. Only imagination can describe his tone of voice—whether a hoarse whisper in the echoes of the cave, or bold shouts. But his despair spew in honest, hard words.

I cry aloud to the LORD, I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy. I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble. (vv. 1-2)

What’s the lesson here? That God can take it! We don’t have to crawl into Heaven’s throne room and say in a meek voice, “Any chance we could talk?” David complains from his tortured heart, “God, you know the mess I’m in. Evil men are out there, wanting to snare me. Everywhere I look, there’s no out. I’m cornered. Nobody cares about my life” (my paraphrase of vv. 3-5).

DARING TO HOPE

Maybe you’ve said something like this: “I’m in desperate need!” You’ve just quoted verse 6. Life couldn’t be any bleaker, and David wanted God to know it (as if He didn’t already). The soldiers Saul dispatched to find and kill David planned to thoroughly carry out their orders. “Rescue me from those who pursue me,” David cried, “for they are too strong for me” (v. 6b).

We may not be listening from a cave for the sounds of approaching hooves, but life can sometimes be “too strong” for us. A broken relationship, job loss, disaster, financial hardship, a loved one’s death, false accusation, wayward children—all of these and more can make us feel like David, ready to curl up in a cave and give up. But Psalm 142 isn’t just about despair. It’s about looking up to God when you’re down:

Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name.

Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me. (v. 7)

David knew God was capable of turning things around. If God didn’t, then He had lied in having David anointed as the next king. But stuck in a blind alley, David knew his impossible “rescue” could do only one thing: bring glory to God.  That’s a big change from the “glory” that came to a lad who slew a giant, then grew to a strapping young man who outclassed all of Saul’s other warriors.

“Low, low, low” isn’t God’s “forever” plan for His own. We may have to go through those “dark caves of crying” at some time in this fallen world. But someday our Redeemer will come. The righteous will gather about HIM, and—like the end of this psalm says--praise Him because of His goodness to us.

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) 

SEARCHED (Psalm 139)

Distributed by a right-to-life group, this represents a baby at about 11 to 12

weeks in the womb. He already squints, swallows and makes a fist. He has

fingerprints and can kick. He sucks his thumb. He weighs about one ounce

and all body systems are working. "Knit by God" in a mother's womb!

 (Psalm 139:13-16)

  

(Part of an ongoing series of psalms to study when "feeling down," from pastor-counselor David Seamand's book, Healing for Damaged Emotions.)

A 24-year-old Irishman, J. Edwin Orr, had gone to the north island of New Zealand in 1936 to preach at evangelistic services. Revival broke out. People publicly confessed their sins.  Believers were reconciled. So many wanted to come that midnight services were added. As Orr prepared to leave the island, four Maori girls sang him a native song of farewell. He couldn’t forget the tune nor what he’d experienced in his ministry there. As he stood in a New Zealand post office, he jotted on the back of an envelope verses to a hymn inspired by the words of Psalm 139. A brilliant man, Orr would go on to earn several doctorates and write many well-known books on revival. But this simple hymn with its haunting melody, inspired by Psalm 139, has left its mark on worship. It begins:

Search me, O God, and know my heart today;
Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray.
See if there be some wicked way in me;
Cleanse me from every sin, and set me free.

DIVINE DIMENSIONS
Psalm 139 has no match in its comforting assurance that God is everywhere-knowing (“omniscient”), everywhere-present (“omnipresent”), and everywhere-powerful (“omnipotent”). It’s the psalm I go to when I need assurance that nothing, absolutely nothing, escapes God.

ALL KNOWING: God knows us. Nothing is hidden. What we do, what we say, what we think, where we go—He’s on top of it all. He’s behind and before the events of our lies. Scary. Yet comforting. His perfect knowledge and awareness defies comprehension. But, He is God.
ALL PRESENT: God is with us, everywhere, all the time. Verse 7 asks, Where can we go from His Spirit or presence? Nowhere. No place in heaven, earth, in dark or light. “Darkness is as light to you,” David said (v. 12).
ALL POWERFUL:We live in scary times of complex scientific efforts toward health and reproduction. Yet the mystery of sperm and ovum becoming a complete human being remains God’s work. “Fearfully and wonderfully made,” David described each of us being “knitted” in our mother’s womb. Those first kicks, the moving “bump,” the crush of labor, the excitement of new life squawking as air expands lungs for the first time. It’s God-work, and always will be.  
GOD-MATH
I’m glad God isn’t afraid of superlatives:

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. (vv. 17-18)

When you think about it, “infinity”—symbolized by something like the number “8” on its side—cannot be thought about. It is too huge, too unfathomable, too "out-there.” Infinity needs “God” in its definition. Try counting to “infinity” to get to sleep! Maybe David did, thus his remark, “When I awake, I am still with you.”

GOD-DEFENSE 
From praise to perturbed: David expresses a little righteous anger over the hateful actions of non-believers. Are we any different? Does not a lot of hurt originate with those who deny or distort a holy God? Turn back to Psalm 11:4-6 for a description of the destination of those who oppose God-followers.

EXPLORATORY SURGERY
 A well-known minister of our times remarked that a lot of contemporary worship omits an important element of approaching God: confession of sins. This is where the ending verses fit in:Search me. O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (vv. 23-24)

David’s willing to undergo “exploratory spiritual surgery” to make sure all is right between him and God. Can we expect any less as we stand before a God who is all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful?  

Psalm 139 is not for the arrogant believer. It’s not a bandage for times we feel beat up. It’s a reminder that we bow at the feet of a holy and all-present God who knows our weaknesses and yet has loved us lavishly since the egg and sperm joined to become “us.” 

For those reasons, yes, this is a psalm to study, dwell in, pray over in “times of feeling down.”  As Orr’s hymn declared, God can set us free.

PURPOSED (Psalm 138)

We have lots of squirrels in our neighborhood, and they "squirrel" 

away their walnuts where I weed my flowers! This sprouted walnut

reminded me that if nuts have purpose (to make more nuts!), then

absolutely God is working out His purposes, even in places we can't see.

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

I needed a miracle, that summer of 1980. I’d just finished a master’s degree and was job-hunting. I was nearly out of money. Part-time jobs like babysitting and filing had helped buy food. Within weeks I’d have to vacate college housing. Going “home” to my parents’ home—which would mean a trip from Illinois to Washington state--was no longer an option. They’d both died in 1978, and I’d spent a year cleaning out their home and on other death tasks. I left my car behind when I flew back to Chicago to finish my program, relying on Chicago’s public transportation to get around. My “out” was an offer from some older women roommates—one of them the college librarian who heard my story and reached out to me--to temporarily sleep on their couch.

One morning, despairing yet wanting to trust God as all-sufficient, I came across Psalm 138 in my devotional reading schedule. Over and over the psalmist praised God as his help in trouble. Then I came to verse 8. I’d read it before, but now it burned into my heart as hope against hope:

The LORD will accomplish what concerns me;

Thy lovingkindness, O LORD, is everlasting;

Do not forsake the works of Thy hands. (NASB)

SOMEHOW

Though I didn’t know how—and it might not be the way I had planned things out—the Lord would take care of me. He saw my tears, my angst, but He saw much, much more. As it turned out, I’d be offered a nearby job in my field just days before I had to vacate the college housing. The company arranged for an employee to pick me up and temporarily house me until I could secure and afford my own housing.

Whenever I come back to Psalm 138, that scenario replays in my heart and reminds me to obey the psalm’s first verse: “I will give Thee thanks with all my heart” (NASB). Many Bibles offer chapter titles or summaries as guideposts outside of the actual translated text. In the various translations on my shelf, the title summaries for this psalm have included:

David praises God for the truth of His Word.

Thanksgiving for answered prayer.  God works out his plans for our lives and will bring us through the difficulties we face.

Thanksgiving for the Lord’s favor.

The Lord’s goodness to the faithful.

Give thanks to the Lord.

GRATITUDE

My need of a job was peanuts compared to what King David experienced as a national leader in rough-and-tumble times, and which led to him writing this psalm. But he hit on essential truths of an “attitude of gratitude” as we live out our days on this planet. The psalm makes these points:

*Make sure God gets the glory (vv. 1-3)

*Make sure the lost hear your witness of God’s help and favor (vv. 4-5)

*Experience how God imbues our weakness with His strength. (vv. 6-8)

I could pick apart and cross-reference this psalm a lot. But I go back to this truth: Jesus came low to lift me up! The end result is praise and glory to Him. If we think our circumstances are too dismal, it’s time to re-read Philippians, Paul’s epistle of joy written from a prison. Especially note these verses:

He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (1:6)

Rejoice in the Lord always…I will say it again: Rejoice! (4:4)

Do not be anxious about anything, but in prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (4:6-7)