Psalm 107
English Standard Version, David Cochran Audio Bible
for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
whom he has redeemed from trouble
3 and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.
4 Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to a city to dwell in;
5 hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.
6 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
till they reached a city to dwell in.
8 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
9 For he satisfies the longing soul,
and the hungry soul he fills with good things.
10 Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
prisoners in affliction and in irons,
11 for they had rebelled against the words of God,
and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
12 So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor;
they fell down, with none to help.
13 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
and burst their bonds apart.
15 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
16 For he shatters the doors of bronze
and cuts in two the bars of iron.
17 Some were fools through their sinful ways,
and because of their iniquities suffered affliction;
18 they loathed any kind of food,
and they drew near to the gates of death.
19 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
20 He sent out his word and healed them,
and delivered them from their destruction.
21 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
22 And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving,
and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!
23 Some went down to the sea in ships,
doing business on the great waters;
24 they saw the deeds of the Lord,
his wondrous works in the deep.
25 For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
which lifted up the waves of the sea.
26 They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths;
their courage melted away in their evil plight;
27 they reeled and staggered like drunken men
and were at their wits' end.
28 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
29 He made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
30 Then they were glad that the waters were quiet,
and he brought them to their desired haven.
31 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
32 Let them extol him in the congregation of the people,
and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
33 He turns rivers into a desert,
springs of water into thirsty ground,
34 a fruitful land into a salty waste,
because of the evil of its inhabitants.
35 He turns a desert into pools of water,
a parched land into springs of water.
36 And there he lets the hungry dwell,
and they establish a city to live in;
37 they sow fields and plant vineyards
and get a fruitful yield.
38 By his blessing they multiply greatly,
and he does not let their livestock diminish.
39 When they are diminished and brought low
through oppression, evil, and sorrow,
40 he pours contempt on princes
and makes them wander in trackless wastes;
41 but he raises up the needy out of affliction
and makes their families like flocks.
42 The upright see it and are glad,
and all wickedness shuts its mouth.
43 Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things;
let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord.
The secret to long life is lack of worry. False. The root of all worry is money. False. Success is guaranteed with hard work. False.
My grandmother was the world's worst for worrying. "No, no, no don't go sailing - you'll get a brain amoeba." She had her brain with her until her death at age 94. One of the most vigorous prayer warriors in the world. She took her natural tendency to worry and changed it into prayer.
I was 25 years old when our first child was born. Cal was born prematurely weighing in at 5 lbs and a hourly tendency to forget to breathe. I had to learn infant CPR before he could come home. Scared? I was terrified. He came home with an infant breathing monitor, a box about the size of a Direct TV box and wires attached to his chest with a patch of rubber cement.
Terrified. Petrified. I wondered if my Edward would come home to find me sitting with our beautiful, beautiful son dead and if he'd forgive me. Add to that hernia surgery at 6 pounds and the hospital giving him to a volunteer and not retrieving us from the waiting room. They left us in the waiting room so long that when I ran to the recovery room the volunteer greeted me by saying she'd held him for so many hours she hoped he was abandoned. The nurse said she thought the volunteer was the mom. Then a chest cold that was one step from pneumonia setting off the alarms constantly. His heart was at tachycardia for trying to keep up. The home visiting nurse saying the next 24 hours would be telling. I wondered if Cal wasn't so beautiful if he wasn't for this world. Then the episode of the special nipple for preemies collapsed and filled Cal with so much milk when I looked down - he was blue - the CPR did come in handy. I didn't stand up for the rest of the day.
We were so stressed, we told visitors about our stress level and asked them to stay for only 30 minutes. It didn't help when people gasped and said he was the smallest baby they'd ever seen and how did we stand seeing the poor thing with wires all over him. Some people were better with it. Cal had looked like an NFL quarterback when placed in the hospital with the rest of the preemies.
How did the home nurse visiting with the infant monitor deal with us? Like Professor Snape. (I apologize to the people who are offended by the Harry Potter quote. I see it as the equivalent as eating meat sacrificed to idols - I know who my Lord is and the rest is fiction.) I knew several people through the home monitor system and they all had the same experience.
Professor Snape:
"Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow themselves to be provoked this easily -- weak people, in other words -- they stand no chance against his powers! He will penetrate your mind with absurd ease, Potter!"
We were told to get over our wimpy emotions - the other families were brave..... it wasn't true, but it got the home monitoring service out of the need for sympathy for the families.
Then later after our infant daughter Isabelle did pass on, I thought about fear.
Most people want you to put your chin up and not be fearful or emotional because it is uncomfortable for them.
The Scriptures tell us many, many things about worry and circumstance. If you are ever in grief or trauma worry, you can look at almost all of the Old Testament and see people walking a particular journey in life they don't want to do. They learn like Job, you have to walk that walk yourself. And trust God.
The Scriptures have something fortifying about worry. And what we are to do with people in distress. Now, I could show you the passage of Solomon being clothed in all his glory and the lilies of the field, but you've probably got that one. Don't worry. I think this has two meanings - don't be fretful and put your trust in God. God doesn't mean put away the cause for real emotion in real need and hair shirt it through your problem. But don't let it consume you.
What about this one? Cast your cares upon Him, He cares for you. (A rock! A Scripture worth hanging on to!)
But how are you going to deal with your "stop signs" and your "speed bumps" in life??? Let's look at Claude Monet. He didn't have a particularly tragic life for his time. But he had some set backs and some tragedies that he had no qualms saying - he was virtually unproductive for 2 years. At least 5 times in his adult life he experienced love one's death. That is a lot of Monet paintings the world is missing.
God does not put stop signs and speed bumps in our lives for us to continue to go 80 mph through them. We are supposed to cry. Search. Feel alone. Look for meaning. It is my take on life - the importance of life and its struggles - to grow up enough to go Home. Not just plowing down the highway going mach 1 with our hair on fire. Guaranteed to miss the narrow gate.
We had a friend who lost a twin in utero and the surviving twin was born with some intense swallowing trouble. The mom said she felt so angry at God. She said she was so mad, she wanted to call me and say why has God done this. Why did Cal suffer - his parents suffer and their family suffer. She didn't stop and she said, "What did you learn from THIS?" And the answer came to me - one I'd been probing like a tongue with a sore tooth - not verbalizing. "Because I know I wouldn't have appreciated the miracle my son is - just as a person - if I had not endured this." It wasn't necessarily her answer. But. it. was. mine.
Okay. Now back to the answers for all of us together.
Ephesians 4:14
so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes
The Bible tells us there are times to mourn. Times to built up.
We just aren't supposed to be the ones who will hold the hand of a friend and pretend it is okay for them to still be gasping and crying a week later because they almost had a car accident. We aren't supposed to say to the person with cancer news to be braver. We aren't supposed to say to the widow to buck up - for years. Or avoid them. Or pretend we can save them.
God says to us - when we recover from grief, trauma and small set-backs. We are to willingly give the same Jesus gave. Heal the sick, comfort the afflicted, cleanse the leper.
Matthew 10:39
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
James 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Be the one who comforts, visits, forgives. This time in life is so troubled. So much bad news. Partially it is because we've made it so okay to be comfortable. Speak to the people you like. Ignore the rest. An email is delightfully ignorable. Manners are the beginning of opening the door for Jesus Christ. As I look down my street of 12 houses, I can tell you the truth - there is a 'situation' in all of them. Friends have lost jobs, children and relationships. I couldn't say the same for Church. I'd tend to think that people are just afraid to be transparent. In the place where Jesus would have us come for refuge. When all of our 30 area Churches met - the pastors said that when they gather to strengthen each other they say, "all is not right behind the trees."
Nothing is new in - the world has trouble. We can make it new. Being the Light of Jesus to others. Today. Renewal, redemption, hope. (Never be a sponge. Sit. Soak. Sour.)
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