HOLD ON TO THE 'YET' (Psalms 42-43)

This pier on the Columbia River symbolized for me

the emotions of being launched into unknowns

(An ongoing series on the 48 psalms listed as “recommended reading” for times of depression, as listed in counselor/pastor David Seamands’ book Healing for Damaged Emotions.)
Despair and hope thread through this duo of psalms, which scholars say should be read as one. Their link is the thrice-repeated refrain:

Why are you downcast, O my soul, Why so disturbed within me within me? Put your hope in God, For I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. (42:5, 11; 43:5)

The phrase “been there, done that” rings through my heart when I read these psalms. Bible teachers say the author (attributed to Korah’s sons, who served in the tabernacle) was apparently away from his work and home, possibly north toward Mt. Hermon. He admits to crying day and night (42:3), suggesting some real physical and spiritual lows—yes, depression.  He misses his temple work, which kept him in an attitude of worship and joy (v. 4). He’s been subjected to ridicule by people who mock, “Where is your God?” (42:3, 10). Such people are ungodly, deceitful, wicked, his enemy (43:1-2).

It’s hard to live for God when your assaulted by so many negatives. He chose a picturesque simile when he compared his feelings to a deer that’s panting with thirst (42:1).

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? (42:2)

I know people who live in the past, in “glory years” when their skills brought approval and admiration.  But life isn’t static. There are deaths, moves, job and financial changes, family adjustments, or health crises--and if we can’t adjust to our new “normal,” we’re candidates for depression. We can’t expect to forever “meet God” in the old comfortable and maybe stale ways.

STUCK IN THE PAST

The writer opens his song pining for the “good old days”—when he led worship processions in Jerusalem. But he ends it with a vital truth: that God can be worshipped wherever we are, in new ways as He grows us spiritually. For the psalm-writer, the new place is finding God’s light and truth where God has placed the believer (43:3).

Circumstances change. People change. Churches change! Hopes are raised, hopes dashed. But the constant is God, who never changes but whose character would take more than a lifetime to discover and savor.

That’s why I latch on to the little word “yet” in these two psalms. I can rehash my troubles and questions, but at the end—in the “yet” of life—I need to come back to praising Him, claiming Him as my joy and delight (43:4).

It’s a verse worth writing out on a 3x5 card and putting where you’ll see it regularly, maybe next to your computer or the bathroom mirror:

Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

THAT SINKING FEELING (Psalm 40)

(An ongoing series on the 48 psalms listed as “recommended reading” for times of depression, as listed in counselor/pastor David Seamands’ book Healing for Damaged Emotions.)

It's my grandsons' sandbox, not the tar

pits in Los Angeles, but I hope you

get the idea of being overwhelmed.

Sorry, Tigger.

A few miles from where I was born in Los Angeles there’s a park devoted to a prehistoric “sinking feeling.”  The La Brea Tar pits trapped the remains of thousands of animals that waded in for a drink of water, only to be sucked in by the black goo underneath. Though I’m not aware of any “tar pits” in the Holy Land, that’s the image I often associate with the opening verses of Psalm 40:

I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.He [God] lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire.

I wonder if these words came to mind for the prophet Jeremiah about four centuries later when he found himself dropped into a cistern as punishment for his negative prophecies. It didn’t contain much water, but it did have accumulated centuries of gooey mud, and he sank helplessly to his armpits. The improbable, dramatic rescue is told in Jeremiah 38.

Like a pit of quicksand, tarry goo, or slimy guck, depression sucks a person down into its dark pit.

David was likely “sucked down” into discouragement when he was hunted and hounded by crazed King Saul, then,  later, as king himself, trapped by his own sins (adultery and murder). One respected Bible teacher* suggested these additional pits:

*Pit of bad habits—an uncontrolled temper, a “poor me” outlook, laziness, and addictive habits with alcohol, drugs, or even media devices.

*Pit of circumstances—severe trials which seem to leave us no breathing room. The apostle Paul experienced these—everything from being mobbed and stoned, to a clandestine escape from murderous foes, to a shipwreck. Our “pits” can be sickness, suffering and sorrow.

But the thrust of Psalm 40 is not about being in the pits but in what happens after being lifted out:

He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.

Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust. (vv.2b-4a)

IT’S A FALLEN PLANET, NOT A FAIRY CASTLE

Someone once sent me an unsolicited “woe-is-me” letter that detailed complaints back to childhood. I thought of Job 5:7: “Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.” This is earth, the fallen planet!  In this psalm, David didn’t focus on what he didn’t have, but on how he could praise God for the positives that did come his way:

I speak of your faithfulness and salvation.

I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly. (v. 10)

Jesus said that we speak out of the overflow of our hearts (Matthew 12:34). Good fruit comes from good trees. God didn’t create us to lounge in comfort, but to live for Him through life’s conflicts and confusion. Jesus modeled how to “seek not to please myself but him who sent me” (John 4:30).

There are times when depression needs medical treatment to bring our body chemistry back in line. Overwhelming problems and disappointments should heighten our awareness of self-care. My doctor’s counsel to distance myself from an abusive person helped lift me out of one miry pit. But scriptures like Psalm 40 also remind me of my spiritual resources, distilled into these steps:

            *Wait patiently (v. 1)

            *When help comes, praise God (vv. 2, 9-10)

            *Determine to keep following God’s will (v. 8)

            *Keep waiting patiently (v. 17) 

One more suggestion: find a hymnal and sing the hymn whose chorus goes: “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand!”

*I commend the exhaustive study of Psalms by James Montgomery Boice, three volumes, (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1994)

TRUST (Psalm 37)

Who's in the driver's seat?  I chuckled when I saw this dog had taken 

over his owner's seat in front of the steering wheel. I wouldn't trust

my life to this furry driver!  But there's truth in this humor--how often 

do we think we can go solo without God at the controls? 

A series on the 48 psalms recommended for times of depression by pastor/counselor David Seamonds, author of Healing for Damaged Emotions.

I was a young Christian, struggling to trust God in all the changes of young adulthood and first job, when I came to Psalm 37 in my Bible reading. I’m sure I’d read it before, but the challenges and disappointments I was then facing made it almost throb with truth for my particular circumstances.

Trust in the Lord…Delight yourself in the Lord…Commit your way to the Lord…Be still before the Lord.

This represented a shift in thinking for me. I’d just come out of college where diligence and planning were rewarded with academic honors. I was the ultimate planner whose desk calendar was full of deadlines to achieve so I wouldn’t come to “Dead Week” (finals) half-dead. The work world was different. I put on a lot of unpaid overtime to meet my workload expectations. I had a boss with a deserved reputation for being hard to please. I felt I had good work relationships with my colleagues. But for many, Jesus wasn’t first in their lives, and as a believer, I felt lonely. When a young Christian man came into my life, I felt I was about to see God fulfill verse 4:

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

But the relationship ended. I wondered, had I missed “the desire of my heart” because I hadn’t delighted enough in the Lord?

ROLL IT OFF

I also missed the meaning of “Commit your way to the Lord.” It wasn’t like signing a mortgage agreement. Instead, the verb in Hebrew means to “roll off your burden.” God has stronger shoulders than I do, especially when I’ve been slandered. Instead of limping around with somebody’s negative words hanging on me like a burdensome backpack, I’m to roll that ugly, demeaning load into His care.

I feel I’ve barely begun to understand and live out Psalm 37. But it always encourages me to see God as a gracious, loving Father who understands all the disappointments we face as we live in an imperfect world. He will satisfy all our desires. This is not to say He will give us all the “things” we think we need or are “entitled” to, but He will satisfy those who want more of Him in their lives.

David wrote this psalm in his old age, when he had the time and experience to deal with the puzzle of why the wicked seem to prosper and the righteous suffer. I’ve wondered about that too, as some sort of “suffering” has been a part of every decade of my life. But I’ve also known the blessing and mercy of the Lord, and I think this is what Psalm 37 is getting at. These, for me, are some of its key verses:

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their way, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil. For evil men will be cut off, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. (vv. 7-9)

In other words, the end of the story hasn’t yet been written. The wicked may seem to be in control now, but their drama on this fallen earth isn’t forever: “The Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming” (v. 12). Just wait, God says--patiently (v. 7). He won’t disappoint.

ZIP THE LIP? REALLY? (Psalm 39)

Part of an ongoing series on the 48 psalms recommended by pastor-counselor David Seamands for people struggling with depression.

When things don’t go our way, the natural reaction is to gripe to others about it. But David struggled with a “spiritual muzzle,” if you will. He didn’t want to sin by complaining about God.  He lived long before the advice of the apostle Paul: “In everything give thanks” (see Philippians 4:6-7). But the David who wrote Psalm 38 was miserable in every way—sick and tired of it. If we’d been in his sandals without reliable medical help, we’d probably also complain that God hadn’t vaccinated us from the world’s woes. 

David says he tried to tame his tongue and muzzle his mouth “as long as the wicked are in my presence” (v. 1). But without good news to share, his self-control burst. Some testimony his “woe is me” showed unbelievers!  But right away. David reflects on wisdom gleaned from saints who preceded him. He quotes Moses from Psalm 90 about the brevity of life, then brings up Job questioning why God was so heavy-handed with him (Job 13:21). In other words,  David implies that he’s not the first to experience how life is no bed of roses, even for those who love and follow God.

PERSPECTIVE

By this time, David’s getting to some essential truths: that we weren’t created for this world. “Faith” is not about getting what we want now. It’s “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1)—what ancients from Abel on through Abraham, the patriarchs, Moses, the judges and prophets, and martyrs of the faith lived for and died by. We’re in prep for that heavenly “city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10).

Must we “zip the lip” when we’re hurting? It’s not a “yes” or “no” answer.  We’re to watch out for complaining to others (especially unbelievers) about our jobs, money or personal situations when doing so causes these people to think God can’t take care of us. It’s wrong to gripe when it comes out as blaming God. Unbelievers will jump at anything to discredit the love and wisdom of God.  And marginal believers won’t be helped at all!  

Tell your woes privately to God?  Absolutely. Ask Him for perspective, strength and perseverance. He promises to supply. Seek God-honoring counsel from those equipped through life experience or training? Yes. You may need help in achieving “attitude correction.” As Moses affirmed in this psalm that David paraphrased:

Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,

That we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.

Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,

For as many years as we have seen trouble. (Psalm 90:14-15)

Finally, in the “for what it’s worth department,” I wrote this note in the margin of my Bible beside Psalm 90:12: “Kum Ba Yah,” plus a music note. The old camp song (“come by here”) seemed to match David’s plea, “Hear my prayer, O Lord.” 

DIAGNOSIS NEEDED (Psalm 38)

(An ongoing series on the 48 psalms suggested as “recommended reading” for times of depression, as listed in counselor-pastor David  Seamands’ book Healing for Damaged Emotions.)
“Sick as a dog”: the expression goes back to the early 1700s, when dogs weren’t pampered pals their owners took to veterinarians. If a dog was too sick to get well on its own, nature took its course. Not so today, when pets visit vets not only for illness and wound care, but also for wellness checks and vaccinations, dental care, neutering, and more.  

The “sick as a dog” idea has even come to the floral industry, which offers a special bouquet for somebody having a “ruff” time. You’ve guessed it: a cheery yellow and white bouquet with get-well balloon.  Oh yes, the white flowers are arranged to look like a dog, and there’s a bandage on one of its “paws.”  Only $55.

In Psalm 38, David would have probably called himself “sick as a dog.”  Given the primitive state of medicine in his times, he likely was sick often. You get a glimpse of medicine in his last days, when he was so old and cold that there just weren’t enough blankets to keep him warm. His caretakers’ solution: a beautiful young woman as a real-life heating pad. He was failing so badly that there was no hanky panky (1 Kings 1:1-4).

But at the time of this psalm, earlier in his life, we’re left to guess the medical diagnosis for the foul and festering wounds he attributed to his foolishness (v.5) or being bent over and racked with pain (v. 6, NLT). Nor do we have a medical name for “my loins are full of inflammation” (v. 7), or verse 10’s panting heart, failing strength, and dimming eyes. He was so sick that friends and relatives avoided him (v. 11). He had numerous “vigorous enemies” who hated and slandered him (v. 19-20),  adding to his emotional burden.

David would have had a full medical chart, but he identified his biggest problem as sin-sickness. The psalm begins with an appeal for God’s grace:

O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath,
For your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down upon me. (vv. 1-2)
My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. (v. 4)

I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin. (v. 18)

The Bible describes David as having a heart for God (1 Samuel 13:14), and when serious illness slowed him down, he became introspective about his relationship with his Creator.

Sickness has a way of reminding you of eternity.  Despite good medical care, I am feeling the downward pull of aging.  Serious illness seems to hit me more often and harder. Two recent illness that lasted weeks (including pneumonia) reminded me that I won’t live forever on earth.  I faced again the question: am I ready to meet the Lord?  That’s why I “get” Psalm 38.  When physical illness or the downward pull of negative people become a burden, I seek the Lord’s perspective. David’s prayer becomes mine:

…be not far from me, O My God,

Come quickly to help me, O Lord, my Savior. (v. 22)

The encouraging news is that God is not far away. He’s behind the scenes of medical treatment.  But He’s also in the shadows when illness shuts me away for a time, ready to listen to my heart.

OUT BUT NOT DOWN (Psalm 34:11-22)

(An ongoing series on the 48 psalms listed as “recommended reading” for times of depression, as listed in counselor/pastor David Seamands’ book Healing for Damaged Emotions.)

A reminder of abundant blessings....

Some churches have a “children’s sermon” time of about five minutes when the little ones gather around the pastor or an assistant for a simple Bible story or instruction. The second half of Psalm 34 seems to do that with its invitation, “Come, my children, and listen to me, and I will teach you to fear the Lord” (v. 11). Where the first part of this psalm is a testimony of trusting God in dire circumstances, the second half relates practical spiritual and relational skills. These, too, matter a lot when we’re trying to get through difficult and depressing times. Among the classes David was authorized to teach:

Tongue Control 101 (v. 13).  Avoid lies. Don’t do evil. Do good. Have a peaceable disposition.  Romans 12:18 aligns with this: “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peacefully with all men.”  I’m grateful for that middle phrase—“as much as depends on you”—as I’ve encountered people so hardened by negativity and bitterness that kindness seems to bounce off them. But God sees my efforts, and understands when I have to tell Him, “They’re your problem now, God. I’ve done the best I can and it’s damaging to me emotionally to remain in contact with them.”

Graciousness 101 (vv. 14-16). Don’t answer “meanness” (ungracious, demeaning words and behavior) with the same. Peter’s letter says “amen” to that: “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing” (1 Peter 3:9a).

Divine Dependence 101 (vv. 17-18). Ask God for help in trouble. Tell Him if you’re brokenhearted. Imagine: an instant audience with the Lord Most High! He knows already, but He’s ready to reach out to those with crushed spirits.  He has something better ahead.

Back to the verse highlighted in last week’s exploration of Psalm 34:1-10:

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Broken hearts litter the emotional landscape. There’s a breach in a relationship, and two people are hurt badly as they draw apart. The brokenness may come from abandonment, rejection, oppression, abuse, or even death. Dreams are shattered and there’s typically a physical reaction, like a heaviness that rightly is called “heartache.” Fear, loneliness, and despair arise along with reluctance to love or trust someone again.

But that’s not the end of the story. Jesus came, as Isaiah prophesied, to heal the broken- hearted (Isaiah 61:1-3, Luke 4:18). He showed us up-close the character of a God who wants us to know peace, and to give us a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11).

Such verses brought me hope in the late 1970s when the man I thought I’d marry decided to end our relationship. That’s when Psalm 34:18—about the Lord being close to the brokenhearted—became my healing hope.  I moved away. Each of us completed graduate degrees and settled in our careers. One sad year, I buried both my parents. As the years ticked by, I figured he had already married someone else. Then, one day eight years later, out of the blue, he called. I was now living two thousand miles away. Friends had given him my phone number. He'd never married. When he asked if he could write, I was astonished. The end of the story is that we got back together and married. And for our wedding verse, we chose this:

O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.

Did you guess? Yes, Psalm 34, verse 3.

DOWN BUT NOT OUT (Psalm 34:1-10)

Look closely: the bees are busy--as is God in the details of our lives.

(An ongoing series on the 48 psalms listed as “recommended reading” for times of depression, as listed in counselor/pastor David Seamands’ book Healing for Damaged Emotions.)
I’ve lost track of the times I’ve gone back to Psalm 34:18:The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

It provides perspective and hope when life doesn’t always go as we think it should. In this psalm David wrestles with the coulda-woulda-shouldas of his life. 

The psalm’s inscription describes his circumstances: “Of David.  When He feigned insanity before Abimilech, who drove him away, and he left.” First Samuel 21 tells how, after King Saul threatened to kill David (his already-anointed successor), David fled a nearby town whose worship center also housed the enormous sword of the Philistine giant Goliath, whom David had killed during his boyhood. He took that sword along to a Philistine town where he hoped to find refuge. Bad idea. His reputation preceded him, and his life was again at stake. Despite their bloodthirsty reputation, the Philistines did grant immunity to crazy people. So David pretended to be mentally off, scratching the doors of the gate and drooling all over his beard. The ruse worked and they shoved him out of the city.  From there he found his way to wilderness caves where he could hide.

David was the one who was brokenhearted and crushed. Yet He doesn’t blame God. Instead he praises Him:

I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.

My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. (vv. 1-2 NIV)

His ability to trust God in the worst of times may be why this psalm is among those suggested for study by those prone to a sad and hopeless outlook on life. When we’re down, we’re less likely to perceive two graces of God: His protection and His blessing.

UNSEEN PROTECTION 

The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. (v. 7)

David’s experience of divine protection wasn’t unique.  Sometime later in Bible history, the prophet Elisha was a marked man for prophecies the king of Aram didn’t like. When the prophet and his servant got up one morning, their town was surrounded by the enemy. The servant reacted as I might have: “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?”  Elisha replied with prophetic coolness: “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (2 Kings 5:16). Then the servant’s eyes were supernaturally opened to see the hills full of angelic defenders.

That’s not just a Bible history event. Another such story came from Dr. Clyde Taylor, founder of the National Association of Evangelicals. As a young missionary in Peru, he called on a tribal chief to explain their presence in the area. Later, at dusk, he noticed a big canoe with several men whistling what he knew were signals. Sensing something amiss, he and his friends decided to stay in the jungle that night, not in a hut.  Two years later, when the chief became a Christian, he admitted to Dr. Taylor: “We intended to kill you that night.  But you were too many. On your roof were crowds of men, all in white robes.” (1)

UNLIMITED BLESSING

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. (v. 8)

Many claim this verse like a Costco tasting station. They make the rounds of the carts where helpers in white netted caps encourage shoppers to try those tooth-picked or mini-cup food samples. We do the same in sharing Christ when we say, “Try God.” But God can’t be chopped into spiritual samples. Truly knowing Him and His goodness means taking that first step of obedience to follow Him, finding out that He is indeed good. To those who know and trust Him, He offers “good things.”  Not “entitlements” or luxuries, but “good things” that rise from a trusting relationship with the One who holds our futures in loving Hands.

 Next: Psalm 34:11-22

(1) Leslie B. Flynn, Thanks: Seeing God’s Word with a Thankful Heart (Carlsbad, CA: Magnus Press, 2005), p. 143.