SIGNIFICANCE (Psalm 90)

(A continuing series on the 48 psalms commended for study during times of feeling down, from counselor/pastor David Seamands’ book, Healing for Damaged Emotions.)

Above my kitchen sink is a framed calligraphy of Psalm 90:12, 14, in a refreshing version, prepared and gifted to me by a friend. In his retirement, this smart engineer-type guy took up calligraphy! I knew his wife better, as she was co-leader (with my mother) of a pre-teen girl’s “Horizons Club” (a version of long-ago Camp Fire Girls). Her daughter and I were classmates from grade school through high school, though we went our separate ways after graduation and lost touch. He died in 2004 at age 85, she at the same age two years later. Still, I will never forget their investment in me as one of their “girls” during the awkward adolescent years. I love the simple but beautiful script he chose for these verses:
Our lives are over in a breath.
Teach us to count how few days we have and so gain wisdom of heart.
Let us wake in the morning filled with Your love, and sing and be happy all our days.

LIFE LESSON

“Teach us to number our days aright,” wrote Moses, the psalm’s author, “that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Living to 120, Moses outlived his predictions of typical life span of 70 to 80 years (v. 10). Those years “quickly pass,” he declared. Bible teachers observe that Moses spent the first forty years of his life thinking he was “somebody” (favored adopted royal son). For another forty years, he was a nobody (a criminal refugee in the wilderness). In the third forty, he found out God can do with a nobody (leading thousands upon thousands of former slaves from Egypt to the Promised Land). If we were to review our biographies, how we’d position those age numbers for ourselves would be telling!

Did Moses ever get depressed?  No doubt! Think of his fall from royalty to obscurity when his anger and resulting choice of murder sent him to obscurity amidst baa-ing sheep. Then came a God-task that needed God-enabling-power: the Exodus. Leadership is a lonely place, and mistakes are costly. Moses’ anger cost him the privilege of stepping foot in the Promised Land . The story is in Numbers 20; in reading it, notice the “we” of verse 10.The Israelites were grumbling about no water. God told Moses to speak to a certain rock and He—God—would cause it to burst forth water. Instead, Moses yelled, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water our of this rock?” With that little pronoun, he put himself on the same level as God in bringing about a miracle Then he angrily struck it instead of speaking to it.

LIFE PURPOSE

At life’s end, Moses had to just look across the horizon to Canaan, realizing that for all his labor in leading the unruly refugees, he would not enter it. Sometimes we don’t know why certain things we feel we deserved are kept from us, but we need to trust the wisdom and love of God for what we lack in this life. As sinful humans, we pack a lot of “entitlements.” Our consumer culture doesn’t help. We want more, and more. Moses’ attitude adjustment comes in verses 14-15:

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.

Many mornings my “quiet time” is tear-soaked as I pray for difficult situations and people in my life. I want things solved, not to drag on and on. But my husband keeps reminding me that I can’t fix the world.  Only Jesus can. I’m just to do the best I can with the abilities and opportunities God has put before me. My “significance” is measured in a different way when life is done. Thus I pray with Moses:

May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands. (v. 17)

MERCY (Psalm 86)

One of the miniature railroad enthusiasts at our local 

county fair had this "perfect" winter display for our

enjoyment. Fun to look at--but not our real world.

(A continuing series on the 48 psalms recommended for reading and study during times of depression by counselor/pastor David Seamands, author of Healing for Damaged Emotions.)

Like a pep rally of almost galactic proportions, the frenzied shopping and hoopla that now seem to define the Christmas season will soon end. I’m probably in the minority but I vote for simplicity: less stuff, more of Jesus. Millions do not have what our culture considers the “normative” holiday. Disaster and discouragement dog each day. King David, who lived centuries before Christ, had his share of those days even after rightfully ascending the throne. When I began to study Psalm 86, realizing I’d unwrap its message right before Christmas, I thought how inappropriate. I was wrong.

This is the only psalm by David in the entire “Book III” of Psalms, the majority written by Asaph or other Levites who led worship. I can’t answer why except this is the way the ancients organized psalms. But as only God could arrange things, there is a Christmas message here:

All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord. They will bring glory to your name.  For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God.  (vv. 9-10)

GLORY TO HIS NAME

On a bitter night in Bethlehem, a marvelous thing happened: God become flesh. Rough-and-tumble shepherds were the first visitors of a Baby who, though born into poverty, was an earthly descendant of King David. The infant’s birth was announced by angels, heralding that this was now (as Bible translator J.B. Phillips famously said) the visited planet. Later, a curious star led royal seers from far away. Some day, as David wrote, all nations will worship God alone.

David had no idea this was in the works when he wrote this psalm. Much of it reflects the message from the prophet Nathan to newly-enthroned King David, found in 2 Samuel 7 and often called the “Davidic Covenant.” It’s full of good and hopeful things, including this prophecy about Jesus:

Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.(2 Samuel 7:16)

This is a psalm about mercy. “Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I call to you all day long” (v. 3). “Hear my prayer, O LORD, listen to my cry for mercy” (v. 6). David appealed to God to help him on the basis of God’s character. Consider circling verse 15:

But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. 

GOD-GIFTS

It’s easy to let lists like this fly over our heads, like kids fling wrapping paper on Christmas morning as they tear into their gift piles. But each of these qualities is a precious gift. When I am discouraged from negative circumstances or critical people, I find help in simply focusing on these qualities of God.  Even this morning, as I prayed for the person who has verbally abused me, God visited in simply bringing to mind the chorus of an old hymn written by George Young, a preacher and carpenter. One time when he was away preaching, some thugs who didn’t like his message burned down his humble home. Out of that experience he wrote the hymn “God Leads Us Along.” Its chorus reached across a century to cloak me with a sense of God’s care in my “cares”:

Some thro’ the water, some thro’ the flood,

Some thro’ the fire, but all thro’ the blood;

Some thro’ great sorrow, but God gives a song,

In the night season and all the day long.

It's not in the “Christmas” section of my hymnal, but it reminds me of God’s incomprehensible love for me—that He would send His Son to this messed-up planet to show us up-close what “mercy” really looks like. Glory to His Name. Blessed Christmas!

LONGING (Psalm 84)

Grain elevators--symbols of God's abundance

(An ongoing series on psalms to study during times of depression, as recommended in pastor-counselor David Seamands' book, Healing for Damaged Emotions.)

She was physically blind, but spiritually she saw much. One day in 1874, prolific hymn-lyricist Fanny Crosby was visiting with a New York hat-maker who also composed music. He played his newest tune and asked if it suggested any words to her. She exclaimed, “Close to Thee,” and soon dictated the poem that came to her. It began, “Thou my everlasting portion.”  This phrase, used often in the psalms, referred to how the Levites (who took care of the tabernacle, and later the temple) didn’t get land allotments in Canaan like other tribes because God was to be their “portion.”

Whenever I re-read Psalm 84, composed by a Levite whose job description was “temple doorkeeper,” I think of that phrase. “Blessed are those who dwell in your house,” he wrote (v. 4), “they are ever praising you.” Even though they weren’t out farming or doing other jobs, God provided for them. His supply (as symbolized by these grain elevators) and His presence were enough.

PRESENCE

This sweet psalm is one I’ve marked up a lot in my Bible. Even this morning, as I prepared to write about it, I found myself moved to tears in thinking about the writer’s enjoyment of God’s presence. Through the day, the Levites who protected the tabernacle’s physical location (as did this writer as “doorkeeper,” v. 10) or carried on tasks connected to sacrifices, had a constant awareness of God’s holy presence. Steps away was the secluded gold-covered chest or “ark,” crafted after the exodus from Egypt, and holding the stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. 

But ordinary earth life still took place: the sparrows (considered worthless birds, selling for the least valuable coin) and the swallows (symbols of restlessness) flitted around, their nests in nooks and crannies.

PROTECTION

Verses 5-7, which speak about “pilgrimage,” bring images of ragged, tired Jews making the long, dangerous pilgrimage to this sacred worship center. The author speaks of them passing through the “Valley of Baca.”  “Baca” implies “weeping.” Depression has a way of keeping tears close to the surface. Even this morning as I prayed for someone in spiritual need who has maligned me, I wept. I knew God saw those tears, and true to Fanny Crosby’s hymn, the Lord Almighty seemed close to me.

For such times, I have this psalm’s promise: 

The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.” (84:11).

PURPOSE

From the heart of this nameless doorkeeper come these reminders:

*Dwell on the loveliness of Jesus (v. 1)

*Praise (v. 4)

*Trust (v. 12)

As we continue our pilgrimages (v. 7) our weaknesses will grow to strengths, our low times to joy and ecstasy when we pass through eternity’s doors to see Him in all His glory. From time to time, I need to be reminded of this truth, and Psalm 84 does that for me.

REMEMBER! (Psalm 77)

One of my uncles lived through a similar attack in World War 2

(An ongoing series on the 48 psalms recommended for study during times of depression, as listed in David Seamands’ book, Healing for Damaged Emotions. This week marks the half-way point in this study begun in June. It's helped me to sense God's purposes in the challenges I've faced. Hope you've found encouragement in this journey, too.)

Our home’s wall calendar has “Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day” noted on this day, Dec. 7.  My older sister was barely a month old in 1941 when Honolulu’s Pearl Harbor was attacked and filled with death. Several of my mother’s six brothers served in the military, and one, Norman, was a Marine aboard the Enterprise,  supporting battles in the Pacific. In 1945, two years before I was born, his ship and crew endured a Kamikaze (suicide pilot) attack that killed 12 and wounded 72. Later, his duty over, Norman returned to civilian life, but did little more than entry-level jobs. He never married. But bring up the subject of war, and he would remember its death, despair and distress.

DESPAIR AND DISTRUST

When I realized that my weekly study of the “depression psalms” would land this one on Dec. 7, I thought, how appropriate. Like the author, Asaph, we can get dragged down by memories of the past. The first part of the psalm is full of personal pronouns: I, my, me. I identified with his response when sleep eluded him at night:

When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out my untiring hands and my soul refused to be comforted. I remembered you, O God, and I groaned; I mused and my spirit grew faint.(vv. 2-3)

In those dark-night and emotionally-dark times, Asaph remembered better times long ago before it seemed that God had turned His back and gone away. His hurting heart spewed out six angry questions about the very character of God:

1. Will God reject us forever?

2. Will He never show favor again?

3. Has His unfailing love vanished forever?

4. Has His promise failed for all time?

5. Has God forgotten to be merciful?

6. Has He in anger withheld his compassion?

DELIVERANCE!

The answer to all those questions is “no!” Even when life is dismal and distressing, God’s love never goes away. Asaph realized that, as well, in remembering. In his case, it was recounting the astonishing history of the Hebrews leaving slavery in Egypt. The miraculous plagues were followed by the miraculous parting of the sea, described in powerful poetry in verses 16-20 of this psalm.

At first reading, the last verse of his psalm seemed out of character with the strong language earlier:

You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. (v. 20)

Sheep have poor memories. They need their shepherd. When times are tough, when life is an ocean filled with mines and battleships, and a sky with kamikaze suicide pilots (Satan seems to enjoy that type of warfare), I need a wise commander. When I remember the other times He has helped me in life’s battles, I am encouraged to keep going.

WHOM...BUT YOU? (Psalm 73)

Ever feel as empty as an old crock?  This is the psalm for you!

(A continuing series on the 48 psalms listed as “recommended reading” for times of depression, from pastor/counselor David Seamands, author of Healing for Damaged Emotions.)

Some psalms are like good friends who just get better and closer, the longer you’re around them. That’s how I feel about Psalm 73. It’s attributed to “Asaph,” one of the worship leaders in David’s time. He’s also credited with Psalm 50 and most of the psalms (#73-83) in the third division of the book of Psalms. While thinking about the message of this psalm before writing about it, I felt led to read the entire book of Job because both wrestle with the age-old problem of why the righteous suffer.

LOOKING AROUND, DOUBTING GOD (1-14)

Depression deals with such questions as Asaph poses in comparing his life to that of the ungodly who seem to have health, riches, fame, and more:

Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning. (vv. 13-14)

In reading this, I think of Job, slumped in a dump in utter physical misery and personal devastation after his fall from riches and respect. The friends who dared to come around spilled their advice, but none of it reflected the mind of God.

LOOKING INWARD, ACKNOWLEDGING GOD (15-22)

I’ve been around people who know one song, “Woe is me, woe is me.” Sung in a minor chord, of course. Asaph’s song was set on that course until verse 17:

…I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.

To borrow a cliché, the end of the book hasn’t been written yet, but God knows what will go there. People who don’t follow God live on slippery ground (v. 18) and will be swept away when eternity commences (v. 19). Here’s where Asaph changes his tune from “woe is me” to “I was wrong”:

When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.(v. 22)

That’s one way to describe “entitlement,” the selfish mental state that demands special treatment—whether it be social situations, education or jobs, housing, or other areas. Instead of thanking God for what one has, “entitlement” wants more and more, without the sweat equity that might be involved in bettering oneself.

LOOKING UPWARD, PRAISING GOD (23-28)

Oh, here are the verses that repeatedly have encouraged me, adjusting my heavenly focus:

Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.Whom have I in heaven but you? And being with you, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (vv.25-26)

You can be certain that they are underlined in red in my Bible! The phrase “take me into glory” gets more precious by the year. I almost went there 21 years ago when a drinking driver totaled our car as we returned home from a vacation—but we lived. And now, dealing with physical issues of aging, I know my time on earth is shortening. If my family wants to use these verses at my funeral, that would be fine!

In the meantime, this psalm reminds me that I can’t do “life” in my own strength. Lately I have felt worn down from criticism and bullying from someone. But every morning, as I get out of bed and put my achy legs on the floor to start the day, I remember my Creator and Savior:

Whom have I in heaven but God? He is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

As Asaph concluded, “But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds” (v. 28).

PORTENT (Psalm 71)

Smile--an illustration of "ripe old age"! This is an 

"heirloom" tomato.

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

This is often called the “old peoples’ psalm,” but one little one in verse 7 kept gnawing at me as I read the psalm in several translations.  It’s from this verse, rendered in the New International Version (also the English Standard Version) this way:

I have become a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge.

My notes next to it---perhaps from a long-ago sermon or other study—said this: "a barometer or sign; others took faith cues from him.” In other translations it’s rendered “example” (New Living), “wonder” (1611 and New King James), “marvel” (New American Standard), and “mystery” (Today’s English Version).

WHAT'S THAT WORD?

Sometimes it’s important (not related to portent) to understand specific words, and I think this is the case here. The enormous Thorndike Barnhart dictionary defines it as “a warning, usually of coming evil; sign, omen.” The original Hebrew, mopheth, denotes something conspicuous, a sign or a perhaps ominous event. Think of Moses and his “signs” or miracles before Pharaoh. So how, in old age, can we be a “portent” to many?

 I think the answer is in reconsidering the new attitude toward aging. Long ago, the aged were respected and looked up to. Today, we dread turning 55, when the mailbox begins to bulge with AARP and cremation options literature. Our culture has shifted to worshiping the youth culture. I think of that when I see a mature woman with beautiful silver hair—and an orange or purple stripe through it.

So what can the psalmist teach us about growing old well?

First, some housekeeping business.  Who wrote it?  This psalm and Psalm 43, which commentators believe was really the second half of Psalm 42, are the only ones without an author credit. As such, it’s anonymous, though some think it was written by a Levite about to retire from temple service.  In those days, such service was so aging and exhausting (think: constant slaughtering and heaving of carcasses up onto the altar) that Levites could only serve between the ages of 25 and 50. Others attribute it to an aging David, and that might be closer to the truth if it is attached to the five verses of Psalm 70, which pleads for God to help him.  It reads naturally into the beginning of Psalm 71. From the “help!” of Psalm 70 we go right to images of how God is our help in Psalm 71. From the first three verses, He:

*Is a refuge and rock of refuge.

*Never lets us be put to shame.

*Rescues us.

*Delivers us.

*Turns his ear toward us and saves us.

*Is our fortress

His enemies have no such perspective. They claim that God has forsaken him (v. 11) so it’s time to pursue and seize him.  To this, the psalmist counters that he will have hope and praise God more, declaring His mighty acts (vv. 14-16).

The psalm, I think, turns on verses 17-18:

Since my youth, O God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds.  Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O Lord, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.

That’s the “portent,” the example of steadfast faith even to old age. Yes, the psalmist has his godless enemies and distracters. So do we, and sometimes our “distracters” are people who claim to know God but don’t behave like it. I heard it said that “Hurting people hurt people.” I’ve experienced that. But God is bigger than their mean words and actions, which nibble at me, pushing me into the blues or even depression. To be a “portent,” a warning against such things, I need to turn back to praise.

My tongue will tell of your righteous acts all day long,

For those who wanted to harm me have been put to shame and confusion. (v. 24)

Someone once said that when we get to Heaven, God’s not going to check us out for beauty but for battle scars. Troubles and trials are inevitable. Praise turns us into “portents”—older people to lead the way in loving and honoring Jesus Christ.

SINKING DOWN (Psalm 69)

This culvert near our home takes an irrigation ditch under the street for

about 100 feet. Not something I'd want to crawl through, which

makes me think all the more of what happened in Thailand

(A series on the 48 psalms recommended for times when depression comes, from the book Healing for Damaged Emotions by pastor/counselor David Seamands.)

All the scandals and attacks of our troubled planet took a back news page in July when twelve Thai boys and their soccer coach went missing. Their excursion into a complicated cave system turned into a two-week nightmare of darkness as rains poured, the cave flooded, and hope for their survival waned. But they were rescued!

The opening sections of Psalm 69 reminded me of this tense, despairing situation. Attributed to David, it begins:

Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. (vv. 1-2)

Similar to Psalm 40, David likens his emotional state to a drowning or being sucked down in quicksand. If he’d gone to a counselor, his “get to know you” session might have sounded like this:

“I’m hoarse from screaming for help.” (v. 3)

“Everybody hates me for no reason.” (v. 4)

“Even my family has given up on me.” (v. 8)

“I’m scorned, disgraced, and shamed.” (v. 20)

Now, attach those descriptions to Jesus, for Psalm 69 is more than one man’s take on his dive from popularity. The One who perfectly showed us God’s love was hated for no reason.  Except for His mother, many doubted that He was who He claimed to be. He was scorned, disgraced, and shamed all the way to the cross where his executioners gave Him vinegar for his thirst.”  Yes, verse 21 and many other snippets of Psalm 69 are prophetic of what the Lord Jesus went through in dying for our sins. Seven of this psalm’s 36 verses are quoted in the New Testament.

This is one of twelve “imprecatory” psalms, and the only one chosen for Dr. Seamands’ list of “study” psalms for people battling depression. These psalms are full of revenge, even bitterness, toward people around them. This bothered me because Romans 12:19 says to leave vengeance to God. But here’s the basis for the psalms’ harshness. The people being called “enemies” in these psalms have rebelled against God, His chosen people, or His anointed king. 

Go ahead and skim through Psalm 69 and pause at verse 20:

I am in pain and distress; may your salvation, O God, protect me.

Then head into the last seven verses that start, “I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.” Draw a line from “name” in that verse to “name” in verse 36. When life is the pits (or we feel like we're drowning in one), one remedy is to deflect our attention to what is “praiseworthy.”  It is good medicine for “down times” to simply focus on God and His attributes. 

This is the other end of the under-the-street culvert,

so narrow that it would be impossible for a person to 

crawl under it. Maybe that's an analogy for the saying

that our impossibilities are God's possibilities.

I keep a little prayer notebook that fits into the outside pocket of my Bible. One of its tabbed sections is titled “God’s names,” and in there, in A-Z order, are the names of God as I have encountered them in my scripture reading. When I am feeling down, it is helpful for me to go there and just read those names and praise God for Who He is and All that He is. Sometimes at night when I can’t sleep, I lay in the darkness and go through the alphabet, speaking those names to God as worship. The negative circumstances and people who  contribute to my feeling “down” may not go away. But focusing on the One who is Light and Hope reminds me that there’s a way out of my temporary “miry depths.”

I can only imagine the astonishment of those Thai lads when a rescuer popped into their chamber. They weren’t entirely rescued yet, but the hope was there. Maybe that’s why there are psalms like this one, to remind us that when we feel lost and hopeless, as Christians we’re not really alone.