“The RoseBouquet”

Where do you go when you feel emotionally distraught? When you need someone to identify with you and assure you that they got through this kind of experience, and you will too?

It often happens that the ones we most thought we could depend on, turn away, or are the very ones who wound us. Now what? To curl up and have a good cry does relieve some pressure, but it can also be a slippery slope into a deep blue funk and depression. There’s got to be somewhere one can get help, like right now.

I’m happy to tell you there is such a place!

It’s in the Christian Holy Bible, a collection of 66 inspired books. The book called, Psalms, is smack in the middle, with 150 short chapters for the most part. These Psalms are like a song book written mostly by David, the shepherd boy, who later became the King of Judah and Israel.

David was an emotional person who knew how to express himself very vividly to God. He was not hesitant to tell God when he was depressed to the point of tears, or frightened because enemies surrounded him. Nor did he hesitate to ask God to vindicate him, when he’d been wronged. On the other hand, when David (and some of the other song writers in the temple) wanted to worship and praise God, he was very versatile with his choice of words too.

I have found, as have many others through the centuries, that when I’m feeling emotional and not sure how to pray, the best place to go is the Psalms. By the time I’ve read two or three I’ve usually found exactly the words to express what I’m going through. It validates my feelings and shows me how to talk to God about those things bothering me. This applies to all ranges of emotion, from sighing with longing, or when tears are coming down in sheets - to when I’m beside myself with excitement and joy.

Even when I seem to have no particular mood, reading a few Psalms soon helps me identify with one. I recommend it!

You might be puzzled as to where to begin; you like some regular reading pattern instead of reading at random. That is a very good attitude. Reading in the Psalms and Proverbs regularly saturates our mind with the material, and then when we have a crisis, we know where to zero in.

May I suggest a habit that Billy Graham is said to use. Treat the Psalms and Proverbs as your daily spiritual vitamins. Read the Psalm that corresponds with today’s date on the calendar. Today is the 28th of the month, so I start with the 28th Psalm, then count 30 Psalms forward and read the 58th, and the 88th, and the 118th, and the 148th. That gives you five Psalms a day, and surely one of those is likely to sound like your own feelings.

(By the way, the 119th Psalm is 176 verses, the longest chapter in the Bible, and about God’s Word. For that reason it is suggested that we skip it when we count the usual fives, and save that long chapter for the 31day of the month).

You should see my current Bible. It’s about 25 years old, and has lots of verses shaded in various colours and with dates and notes in the margins to remind me of certain events in my life, when a particular passage became the horn by which I hung on to the Lord, and poured out my heart to Him, using those very words.

Beside Psalm 10:14 I’ve written Apr/22/79.

In the inner margin beside verses 16-18 in the same Psalm I have in bold, “Please Do!”

At the top of Psalm 16 I have this note; “vs.2,3,5-7 outline for a public testimony speech.” Those verses are underlined and marked with bold purple brackets.

In Psalm 18, by verses 18-19, I have “Please! May/21/79″ beside these words, “…but the LORD was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.”

Above Psalm 20, I wrote, “A Blessing to Give someone…”

There are many others of course. These days I’m going back a lot to Psalms 25 and 27, particularly the last two verses of Psalm 27. “I am confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.”

Even when your best Christian friends misunderstand or turn away, you do have a resource, a spring of living words, to turn to where you can be assured of understanding and loving promises of help. Doesn’t matter whether you are sighing today or singing, you can meet with Someone there who loves you!