GRIPPED

I'm guessing that—if you are human and breathe—you've had times you felt a vise twisting you tighter and tighter. That pressure may have come from job problems, people conflicts, health issues, or unexpected negative events that left you feeling “pressed in” with little hope of relief. At such times in my life, Psalm 34 is among scriptures that helped me quit looking around at my circumstances, and instead up to God:

This poor man called and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. (Psalm 34:6)

The next verse was always a reminder that God's help isn't always visible:

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.

Further on in this psalm, we're told:

*God sees: “The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous” (v. 15)

*God hears: “And His ears are attentive to their cry” (v.15b); “The righteous cry out and the Lord hears them” (v. 17).

*God advocates: “The face of the Lord is against those who do evil” (v. 16)

*God takes appropriate action: He delivers them (v. 17), comes close (v. 18) and “saves those who are crushed in spirit” (v. 18).

 This is a psalm with a “prelude” that explains the writer's desperation. First Samuel 21 tells how David fled his crazed “king-employer,” King Saul, ending up in the last place Saul would want to go: Gath. That prominent city of the enemy Philistines had produced the giant hero, Goliath, whom David had slain. Wisely, David didn't stay long, and fled to the wilderness. No wonder he felt alone, vulnerable, and desperate.

 In the grip of desperation and fear,  David looked to the only real hope: the power of God. And—to borrow the title of a book by Max Lucado—the grip of God's grace.

My life story included times when I felt squeezed tighter and tighter by life's challenges. It would have been easy to despair and think (wrongly) that God was busy elsewhere helping somebody who had greater needs. But when desperation pushed me to earnest prayer, a quiet voice to my spirit reminded me that no matter the pressure, no matter the pain, God would never leave.

This poor man  called and the LORD heard him ...Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. (Psalm 34:6a, 8b).

I could go on and on, quoting verse after verse of this precious psalm. If you opened my Bible to the page with this psalm, you would see circles, lines connecting words and verses, red-pencil highlights, notes in the margin. They attest to the many times I've found myself there, seeking God's comfort and assurance, encouraged that God's “Ad-vice” is able to take care of any life-“vise.”

IF (Psalm 124)

The trash bin at a local thrift store had this warning--maybe to keep

people from getting entrapped in it!

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

Flash flood!  I’ve never lived where flash flooding rated national front-page news, but our arid valley has endured a few minor-league floods. Decades ago, one sedate stream turned into a death machine, killing people in a hotel on its banks. A few years ago, a severe storm turned the street a few blocks away, into an angry brown river. Israel, similarly an arid land, is also known for flash floods that its usually dry wadis cannot handle. That’s the picture King David provides in Psalm 124 as he seeks ways to illustrate how God is our Help when we feel inundated by life’s problems and threats. The opening word, “if,” emphasizes how they depended on God for victory:

If the LORD had not been on our side—let Israel say—if the Lord had not been on our side when men attacked us….they would have swallowed us alive. (vv. 1-3)

Context matters in Bible study, and this one is believed to have been inspired by one of King David’s more challenging battles against the Philistines. Recorded in 2 Samuel 5:17-25, it tells how David’s army prevailed in what threatened to be a “flash flood” of intense fighting (Psalm 124:4-5).

TRAPS

Though probably written in different historical settings, Psalms 123 and 124 are linked in subject matter. Psalm 123 speaks of verbal oppression (ridicule and contempt form the oppressor). Psalm 124 goes to all-out attacks—maybe not sword to shield, but demeaning choices meant to overwhelm us, like a flood. Then, as if to be sure he covers all the bases of spiritual attack, David throws in the image of a bird trap:

We have escaped like a bird out of the fowler’s snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped. (v. 7).

The psalm doesn’t give a clue as to how “meaty” those snared birds were, but the entrapped birds didn’t have a chance. The apostle Peter picked up on that image when he said Satan prowls around like a lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). David’s saying that God cares so much for us that He reaches down and releases those dangerous traps. How does that translate to real life, and real days when the negatives get you down?  These truths, I believe:

*No overwhelming flood of problems is too overwhelming for God.

*No entrapment by someone’s negative words or actions is outside God’s power. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ broke the power of the trap!

The psalm ends on a note of praise, as well it should—and as well we should do as an antidote to prolonged complaints about negative circumstances:

Our help is in the name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.(v. 8)

Do you hear an echo from Psalm 121:2?

My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

It’s said that French Protestants in the late 18^th century opened every public worship service with this verse. If you have a spot to post inspirational verses, consider displaying this one. If (there’s that important word again!) you feel attacked or entrapped, it’s a reminder that our omniscient, omnipresent, all-powerful God is adequate for any discouraging challenge out there.

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.