LOOK ABOVE (Psalm 57)

Part of a continuing series on the 48 psalms that speak to getting through depression, recommended by pastor and author David Seamands (Healing for Damaged Emotions).

There’s an old humorous ditty that goes like this: “To dwell above with the saints we love, that will be glory. But to dwell below with the saints we know, well, that is a different story.” I think David would have half-laughed upon hearing that, then remarking, “I’m dwelling below with folks who aren’t exactly saints.” In reviewing our work, church, and social networks, we’d probably say the same.  With Psalm 57 comes yet another “they’re after me” complaint.  The preface says David had fled to a cave to try to elude King Saul’s “murder David” campaign.  David likened his pursuers to ravenous beasts (v. 4), and the dangers he faces to net traps and pits. That reminded me of the jungle warfare, especially during the Vietnam era.  Scary.

THE UPWARD LOOK

But Psalm 57 isn’t just a battlefield report. It’s interlaced with remarkable praise, making it a good model for looking “above” when things below are scary, troublesome, and depressing.  Twice David writes this chorus:

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. (vv. 5, 11)

In other words, look above. I wonder if at times David crept out to the entrance of his cave and then, seeing no enemy about, dared to stand and drink in the skyscape. Perhaps he remembered the poetry of Job, who declared:

He wraps up the waters in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight. (Job 26:8)

Or as Job’s “comforter” Elihu observed:

Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds, how he thunders from his pavilion? (36:29)

Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who is perfect in knowledge? (37:16)

Then God breaks into the conversation, reminding Job and his friends that He, the Creator, made the clouds as a garment for the newly-born earth.

I’m not saying that looking at the clouds is a quick and cheap way to chase depression. But God can use the skyscape to remind us of His power and authority from all time, and how the threats we face from fellow humans are not beyond His notice.

SHADOW OF SAFETY

Psalm 57 contains another powerful verse:

I take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. (v. 1b)

“Shadow of your wings,” also a key image of Psalm 17:8, brings forth two possible scenarios.  One is of chicks being gathered to safety under the mother hen.  Jesus used this imagery when He mourned the state of spiritual affairs in Jerusalem:

O 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 (Luke 13:34) 

But in another interpretation, those “wings” are of the golden cherubim on each end of the sacred Ark of the Covenant, the golden chest containing the Ten Commandments and the most holy piece of furniture in the Jewish worship system. They believed that the presence of God somehow resided under the golden wings stretched out over the chest.  I’ll have to wait until Q&A time in heaven to understand what really went on there. But David, who wasn’t a priest and therefore couldn’t go behind the curtain where the chest was secluded, still considered that a special “God-place.”

Stuck in hiding in a cave, there was no way for him to even get close to that sacred place. But he could fix his heart on God and worship even there.  William Cushing, a 19^th century pastor who turned to hymn-writing after losing his voice, gave us a musical reminder of “looking above” our difficult circumstances when he wrote this hymn:

Under His wings I am safely abiding, Though the night deepens and tempests are wild;

Still I can trust Him, I know He will keep me, He has redeemed me and I am His child.

Chorus: Under His wings, under His wings, Who from His love can sever?

Under His wings my soul shall abide, Safely abide forever.

----------------------

For another very "sing-able," encouraging reminder of this psalm, find a copy of Brent Chamber's scripture-based "Be Exalted, O God," copyright 1977 by Maranatha! Music. 

BETRAYED (Psalm 55)

At left, what my hydrangea should have looked like. At right, what was left

of it after two years. It reflects how I felt when I let go of a difficult relationship. 

Part of a continuing series on the 48 psalms that speak to getting through depression, recommended by pastor and author David Seamands (Healing for Damaged Emotions).

It really hurts when somebody you tried to befriend becomes your adversary. You grieve both for the lost relationship and the mental and spiritual brokenness contributing to the other person’s choice of bitterness and anger. Been there, experienced that. Please note: I am not identifying this person in any way—neither gender, age, nor relationship. I pray daily for this person and for their spiritual and emotional healing. But this difficult relationship has personalized Psalm 55 for me.

The psalm expresses David’s profound grief and depression over a friend who turned against him. That friend is presumed to be Ahithophel, his close government counselor who betrayed David by backing his son Absalom’s rebellion.

David was so stranger to betrayal. He started his God-anointed journey to the throne by running away from increasingly-crazed King Saul. At first David was utterly alone, then joined by what I once heard described as the 3-D guys: the “distressed, or in debt, or discontented” (1 Samuel 22:2). David’s chagrin over being viciously betrayed and hunted is also revealed in Psalms 52 and 54 (also “psalms of lament”).  But this psalm comes years later, when  David is king, and experiences anguish over one person who had been his intimate friend.

Learning how David depended on God for staying-power, through hard and depressing situations, modeled for today's believer how to respond when negative people and circumstances leave us despairing of the future.

WHAT LIFE FINDS IN US

I appreciate the wisdom of Bible teacher Warren Wiersbe in his book Be Worshipful (Cook, 2004, p. 196). In discussing this psalm, he observed that David’s difficult pre-king years in the wilderness were excellent preparation for trusting God when he became king. In contrast, David’s son Absalom, who tried to usurp the throne, had grown up in luxury and without a true fear of God. Wiersbe added:

A prosperous life is an easy life until you find yourself in the midst of the storm, and then you discover how ill-prepared you are; for what life does to us depends on what life finds in us.

Blunt and transparent, David began the psalm with descriptions of the negatives he faced. He wished he could fly away from it all and not have to go through it (vv. 6-7). But it is in the “going-through” that we learn how to draw on the strength of the Lord. When all was said and done, David concluded with this verse, echoed in 1 Peter 5:7:

Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.

David ends with a kick, asking God to drag his enemies into the pit of corruption. Strong language! But today, because of Christ's death for all (including the "hurters" and the "hurt"), we're to pray that those who hurt us will be convicted of their sin and wrongdoing and be reconciled to God. Then, in the next step, that they'll seek reconciliation with those they have wronged. These may be the hardest words they ever say:  “God has shown me how wrong my behavior toward you has been. I want to make a fresh start and turn away from acting like that. Could you find it in your heart to forgive me?” The apologies should conveyed in person, if possible. If the sin was on social media, there needs to be a public retraction.

I grieve my "difficult" relationship. Painful memories of their wrongs against me still resurface. Over and over I give them to Jesus, who understands my hurt and their deep need for Him. I continue to pray for the miracle of reconciliation and transformation.

ENTRAPPED (Psalm 51)

Critters dining on our tomatoes and strawberries turned

out to be RATS! Strands of thread wrapped around peanut

butter on the trap caught several. Sin is like that--it

may feel or taste good at first, but watch out!

(A series on 48 psalms recommended by pastor/counselor David Seamands for getting through depression.)

If somebody ever did a Bible version called “The Happy Scriptures,” this is one psalm they’d omit. Ditto the other seven “penitential” psalms (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143) in which the writer admits his shortcomings. They almost groan with agony over spiritual realities pulled out of the sludge of life. To be honest, I’ve resisted writing about Psalm 51.  Maybe it’s a déjà vu, all the muck today’s media is reporting about sexual sin in high places. My church recently offered a meeting for men willing to admit they had problems with sexual issues. I thought of the courage it would take for someone just to walk in the door for that….

NO SECRETS

But here, David is walking through the door to a public confession of what was whispered about throughout his nation. He lusted after a woman, got her pregnant, then had her husband killed to cover up his act. It didn’t work. Sin is a termite in the foundations of our lives. It’s a rat trap laced with peanut butter. We can’t ignore it forever. If we try to overlook it or explain it away, its stench grows. Alongside, depression festers.

It’s not just sexual issues. We’re entrapped whenever we dare cross boundaries of morality or propriety, someone is hurt, and no confession or restitution is made. It covers the range from adultery and murder (David’s traps) to physical or emotional abuse. Get mad, call someone a wretched name in anger, and never apologize?  Abuse. Sin.

Bible teachers point out that David covered the bases when he described his sins with three different Hebrew words that English translates this way (vv. 1-2):.
“Transgressions”—crossing the law’s boundaries.
“Iniquity”—yielding to the twisted sin nature.
“Sin”—missing the mark God set for him.
 “Purge me with hyssop,” he says (v. 7), referring to a bushy plant used to sprinkle blood on sacrifices for sin.  “Wash me,” he adds. He felt plain old dirty in his heart. “Create in me a clean heart…renew a right spirit” (v. 10). “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation” (v. 12)..

PEACE OFFERINGS DON'T SUFFICE

To feel better about ourselves, we don’t have to go to some religious shrine and perform rites over and over, hoping some god will show favor and get us out of the hole. Depression may be symptomatic of a need for spiritual heart surgery: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (v. 10). It’s not about peace offerings.  David was wealthy enough to keep the temple slaughter house busy for years with offerings! It’s about a broken spirit that says, “I was wrong. You, God are right.”

"Avoid every kind of evil," says 1 Thessalonians 5:22. That includes sexual sin, relational discord, anger and bitterness, laziness and selfish entitlement. Deliberate disobedience leads to a muddied testimony and ministry, and opens a back door for depression to sneak in. 

David knew only the Old Testament sacrificial system, but he also knew that only God could take him out of his angst and depression. On this side of the cross, we look to a Hill where the Son of God was murdered, weighted by every sin in the book, paving the way for us to say, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” He who sees into the darkest corners of a rebellious heart is also the One ready to transform it. “Cleanse me,” David pleaded (vv. 1-7). “Restore me” (vv. 8-12). “Use me” (vv. 13-19).

THEREFORE (Psalm 46)

Ordinary "buttes" like this one in central Washington would leave

 me breathless to climb. That's why Psalm46 and its image of
 mountains falling into the sea is so powerful!

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

Whenever I run across the word “therefore” in scripture, I’ve learned to pause and ask, “What is it there for?” Typically this adjective means “consequently, for that reason, because of that, to that end.” In Psalm 46, it links God’s sufficiency as our refuge, strength, and help when our world is falling apart.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

And the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

Though its waters roar and foam

And the mountains quake with its surging. (vv. 1-3)

For years while reading this psalm, I’d find myself humming the tune to Martin Luther’s hymn, “A Mighty Fortress,” based on it. He had composed it while his own life was in danger from religious leaders. When Luther felt discouraged or depressed, he’d ask his co-worker Philipp Melanchthon to sing this hymn with him. Its sturdy, confident lyrics (so blunt and strong in the original German) would lift him spiritually.

IT’S STILL RELEVANT

Fast-forward five centuries from Luther. Four passenger planes hijacked by terrorists plunge into landmark high-rise business buildings in New York, the Pentagon in the nation’s capital, and a farm field, missing its presumed target of the White House. Nearly 3,000 are killed, 6,000 injured. Damage estimates are ten billion dollars. Stunned by this sick enemy attack, a reeling nation looked to an aging spiritual leader, Billy Graham, then 83. From the podium at the National Cathedral three days after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, he brought the timeless message of Psalm 46.  His points:

*This event was a reminder of the mystery and reality of evil.  God is not the author of evil.

*This event showed us our need for each other.

*This event can give a message of hope for the present and the future as it shows our nation how much we need a spiritual renewal and hope for this life, and the life to come, in Heaven for those who believe in Christ.

HISTORY REPEATED

The history woven into Psalm 46 most likely is when the Assyrians lay siege against Jerusalem during the reign of Hezekiah (725-696 B.C.). Verse 4 (“a river whose streams make glad the city of God”) probably infers Hezekiah’s public works project of an underground channel that brought water under Jerusalem’s walls (2 Kings 20:20). That pool inside the city sustained it during a long siege. The end of verse 5, “God will help her at break of day,” sounds like 2 Kings 19:35-36, when, overnight, a mysterious illness (“the angel of the Lord,” v. 35) killed thousands of enemy soldiers. The enemy king lived, but he high-tailed it out of there for safety at his palace in Assyria. Imagine having today’s on-the-spot news coverage of such events! Yet in the midst of these scary, bewildering threats to Jerusalem, God was there.

REFUGE AND STRENGTH

Therefore…as the psalm’s refrain reminds us, “The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”  Jacob was the rascal who deceived his twin Esau out of the birthright.  He was the schemer who deserved retribution and punishment.  But God saw bigger things for Jacob and broke his stubborn spirit. He was renamed “Israel,” prince.

Verse 1 says God is our refuge and strength. The concluding verse says the “LORD Almighty is with us.”  What better hope for when we’re under spiritual attack—or even the real physical attack masterminded by the forces of evil? Verse 10 reinforces that message for scary and depressing times: “Be still, and know that I am God.” Therefore, when I’m troubled, scared, or depressed, He is my refuge and strength, my ever present help in trouble, the only true place of safety.

Interested in another study I did on Psalm 46? Go to my blog for April 25, 2014:
http://jeannezornes.blogspot.com/2014/04/making-psense-of-psalms-psalm-46.html 

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.