Category Archives: The Psalms
5 basic steps in dealing with grief
Waves of grief: I remember it well, and it is coming again, over and over again. Washing over me and my family. Its like the ocean. You think the water has stopped, all is calm, and suddenly wave after wave begins to splash all around you, above you, and sometimes carries you away. I had forgotten how grief comes in waves.
One of my call verses to ordained ministry comes out of my first story of grief. When my own young husband died suddenly in a car accident 22 years ago leaving me behind with two babies the unbearable grief almost got the best of me–but God was there all along. God is with you too, though you may not feel it at this time.
2 Corinthains 1: 3 has the Apostle Paul’s greeting the people from Corinth with these words:, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
Now I am here to help others in their own grieving process. In all that experience it still does not “prepare” you for the next time when you will be in the midst of grief. The second worst day of my life came a little over two weeks ago, when my brother-in-law, the very one who had stepped in to help me when my husband had not been there, died suddenly of a massive heart attack. This kind of heart attack is called the widow maker, and virtually there is nothing anyone can do when it strikes. One day he was healthy, working out in the pool and helping strangers in the nursing home, the next morning he woke up not feeling very well, and died shortly thereafter. Ron was only 61, loving life, and serving others.
So how do we cope? How do we survive? How do we go on living when sometimes there seems to be very little to live for? Over the next few weeks I will be writing about grief. For today, here are 5 basic steps, a very good place to begin. Sometimes in the beginning of grief, we need to go over these basic steps daily for a long time:
1) Grief is a process, it takes time. While this seems basic sometimes we forget that grief is not something we “get over” quickly. We can be grieved over many things: Loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, kids moving out of the house, divorce, a change in our own health status or that of one we love. I remember when I attended a grief support group for young widows and they told me I would not feel whole again until 5 years. I remember thinking, “There is no way I can make it that long in this condition.” 5 Years was right, I did not feel fully alive again until 5 years later. (Sorry to be the bearer of that bad news, but keep reading there are things you can do NOW.)
2) Take time to grieve. Give yourself space and permission. Some circles call this the “white space.” This is unplanned time to allow yourself to be, to remember and to be sad.
3) Tears are healthy. Use them. Take time to cry. It might seem that you have already been crying far too much, maybe it seems that there are no more tears left. Tears also help you process. There is a chemical element of tears that is cleansing. After the two year point when my tears no longer came at regular intervals several times a day, I would take some space and listen to music that would MAKE my cry. This did two helpful things: It helped me control my emotions in public, and it allowed the grief process to continuing working in me.
4) Find out how you “process” things and DO it. I have discovered that I process life events with pictures. So I pull out pictures of my loved ones and go over them and remember. (I even did this when my dog died, I loved my dog!) Maybe you process by telling your story. Find a trusted friend or a pastor who will listen to your story. Tell it over and over again, this helps the processing. I have also found that writing to my loved one in a journal helps me process. This had an added benefit in that months later I could reread my journaling and really see that I HAD made progress in my grief work even though sometimes it FEELS like you are standing still.
5) Don’t leave God out of the mix. The Risen Christ Jesus promises to be with us until the end of the ages. (Matthew 28:20) The biblical witness reminds us from the beginning to the end that we have a God who loves us, who cares for us and who will be an abiding presence with us. (I will delve further into these references in a future post.) But in the midst of our grief sometimes we feel that God HAS abandoned us, we feel that God has forgotten us and we feel like God doesn’t care about us. God is big enough to hear your cries of pain and hurt. There are very real persons of faith, particularly in the Psalms of Lament (Psalms 22, 88 and many others,) who cry out in their pain and they ask the question, “God where were you and where are you now?” (Psalm 22 is what Jesus cried from the cross, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me.”) Cry out to God, and when you cannot seem to pray for yourself, ask others to pray with you and for you. (Get on a church prayer list, have faithful friends pray for you, find a Christian prayer and healing service near to you.)
This is a contemporary praise song that helps me in times of being in the desert by Hillsong United entitled, “The Desert Song.”
Grief work is hard, but whatever you do do NOT do nothing. Doing nothing will only help you become bitter and self destructive. REALLY! May the God of all comfort comfort you in your pain and grief.
In Christ,
Pastor Sarah
The Story Chapter 12 Post Sermon
King David is on his death bed. His life has been mostly good, but there were some huge mistakes in there. Does that give us comfort? His life has been like ours, full of ups and downs; full of joy and disappointments. Yet David is still called a “Man after God’s own heart!”
Here is the deal, God’s grace is for everyone. God’s forgiveness is for all who repent and ask for a fresh start: If you ask, God is there, ready to receive you back into God’s arms of love and grace.
I have been with many folks in their “last days.” Some face this time with dignity, and others fight it to the end. I hope that I can be like King David. He reflected upon his life, according to Chronicles, he gave much of his wealth towards the building of the temple, but most importantly, he was still singing praise songs and writing Psalms to God, even as he reflected on his time of being king.
I hope I can be like that, that my last words in my last breaths will be giving Thanks to God for allowing me to be here on this earth and allowing me to experience His grace and love. Amen.
Psalm 134
What does it look like to live a life praising God? The psalmist calls us once again to praise the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. In other words, praise the sovereign God of the universe.
We praise God in many ways. We praise God by offering of our times, our talents and our finances to God. We also praise God by spending time with God and by worshiping God. We worship through song, through prayer and through meditation on Scripture. (Like this one, for example.)
How do we position our bodies when we praise God? There are many ways, one way is not “right”. But there certainly is evidence in this psalm that one way is to lift our hands in praise to God. Lifting our hands to God is one way of surrendering to our sovereign God. It is one way of saying, not my way, but your way Lord. Try it sometime! At first it might seem awkward, especially if you are the only one raising your hands in praise during a worship service, but as you try this more and more it becomes a natural way of reaching out to God and giving your life over to your maker.
This psalm might have been a benediction due to the final words, may the Lord bless you……Amen.
Psalm 133
Can you imagine what it would be like to live in harmony with all people? It seems impossible to even think of, yet that is exactly what God calls us to do–god calls us to form community, and it was to be modeled by the Hebrew people and it was modeled by Jesus, who taught his disciples how to form community. To live in harmony with each other or to get along with each other. Can you imagine what that would look like? No more wars, serving each other in love. That is part of what heaven is, where the lion and the lamb will lie down one with another.
And so, the psalmist describes the best thing he can think of that would represent this idea of human harmony. “it is like oil running down Aaron’s beard.” At this point we might be saying, “really?” Is that all you can think of?
While oil running down a beard might not speak to us, for those in the psalmist’s day it reminded them of the anointing of kings. When a king was anointed by God the prophet would come and pour his horn of oil on the one who was to be king. ( For Christians, we see a correlation of anointing for Jesus when the woman anointed Jesus with precious oil.)
Anointed by God, that is what it is like to live in harmony with one another. Living in harmony with one another–in families–in worship communities–in countires–and in the world. Living in harmony is God’s idea, but we have a lot of growth to do. Where could you use anointing for living in community in your life today?
Psalm 132
Psalm 132 continues to be a psalm of ascent but it was written post exile, that means after the time the Israelites came back to Jerusalem after the city had been destroyed and they had been in exile in Babylon. This is often called a royal psalm because it focuses on both David, the powerful king patriarch and it focuses on Zion, the place where the temple is located in Jerusalem.
Notice the strong connection between this psalm and the account of David’s bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. You can read that story in 2 Samuel 6: 1-19.
So the psalmist remembers David, and asks God to remember God’s people on the account of David.
Notice this is a prayer. How would you make this your own prayer? How could you follow a similar pattern in your prayer? For Christians, maybe it would begin like this, “Lord, we remember your saints who have gone before us. We especially remember your Son Jesus, who was willing to sacrifice everything for us. He gave us a new covenant in you. Remember this covenant Lord, do not forsake us, remember your anointed one Jesus, who lived, died and was resurrected so that we might have eternal life. Lord we remember too, and we believe.”
Psalm 126
Read Psalm 126 here in the New Living Translation
This is a powerful psalm of praise and renewal of life. It was written to celebrate the return of the Hebrew people from exile in Babylon. This event was a dream come true. They couldn’t believe the good news that they could return home to Jerusalem. They were so happy that they were singing and shouting for joy. Most importantly, they gave all the credit and glory to God.
How many times in our lives has the amazing thing that we dreamed about come true? This could be a wedding, a good job, a baby, a good grade, a new friend, whatever seemed to be the impossible. Did we shout for joy? Did we dance? Did we give the credit and glory to God?
This was true renewal of life itself. The writer tries to describe this renewal as best as possible. Then the writer begs for more. Lord, now restore our fortunes like a stream flowing and giving life in the desert.
We are reminded that the people of God live “by both memory and hope.”(Clinton McCann’s words) Even if you are in a time of tears now, new possibilities await. God is the author of all good things. You might be planting in tears now, but the harvest will come. Be patient and continue to make your request to God in faith that through God, all things are possible.
Psalm 125
The psalms we are currently reading continue to be psalms of ascent, psalms that were sung as the pilgrims made their way to Jerusalem. It is no wonder that the pilgrims sang of Mount Zion, as that was, at the time, synonymous with the Temple. The Temple of course was the Holy place, and the Israelites understood that God was in residence in the temple. The temple housed the Ark of The Covenant, which was the most holy relic for the Israelites. It was often said that the Ark of The Covenant was the footstool of God. So, it is no wonder that the people sang of what they were about to see as they approached Jerusalem; they spoke of the places they were going to see in relation to their God. (Note, they would not have seen the Arc itself, as that was in the most holy place within the temple.)
Notice that the closing statement is, “Peace be upon Israel”. This is no ordinary peace, this is the Shalom that is full wholeness–completeness for all people and all lands. The Hebrew word is Shalom, and this Shalom refers to the final reign of God. This is the Shalom that existed in the Garden of Eden prior to what we call The Fall, when human disobedience ushered in Sin which destroyed the Shalom.
Christians see this ultimate Shalom in the fulfillment of the second coming of Jesus. Jesus’ ministry brought in the beginning of the Kingdom of God, the spark that was the beginning of what will come. Ultimately Jesus is the one that offers peace to all followers (See John 20.) Christians understand that the final peace will come when Jesus comes again and a new heaven and earth will be ushered in where the “lion and the lamb” will lie down one with another.
May peace reign in your home and in your land.
Psalm 121
Psalm 121 is a Psalm that reminds us and assures us of God’s protection. This is a joyful Psalm and one that perhaps produces joy in the mist of struggle. If we look at the question in verse one: “I lift up my eyes to the hills – from where does my help come from?” we may begin to think and remember times when we have asked that question.
When we look at the overwhelming issues that surround the world today and when we look at our own lives that are often accompanied with brokenness and pain, we ask “from where does our help come from?” There are moments in our lives where we all ask this question.
Praise God we have an answer! We see that whether we are overflowing with joy in life or struggling to make it another day God is the one who provides us help. God is the creator and is bigger than any issue or circumstance that we face. God is the creator of all and is loving enough to be our help and ever present strength in the good and tough times.
In verse six we read “the sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.” Some scholars say this phrase including both the sun and the moon indicates that God’s care is day and night, it is continual! God’s love is not conditional or seasonal but it is all the time to all people.
God is with us, God cares for us, and God is active and alive in the world. This Psalm is a beautiful prayer of us proclaiming that we believe God to be concerned with God’s own creation and proclaiming that God is our keeper and our help.
Psalm 120
Psalm 120 begins a group of psalms which are called the psalms of ascent. The psalms of ascent were recited (probably sung) by the Hebrew pilgrims as they made their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. A good Jew was required to make several pilgrimages to the temple for the high feasts, one of which was Passover. Usually the people would travel in caravan–with other groups of people.
Jerusalem is situated on a series of hills that are the highest point of the land. In order to get to Jerusalem, no matter which direction you come from, you have to go uphill. So, these psalms of ascent were sung by the people as they were making their pilgrimage to Jerusalem, while they were going UP to Jerusalem.
Does this psalm not begin with our human condition? “I called upon the Lord in my distress and he saved me.” What are we asking God to deliver us from?
Psalm 119
Psalm 119 is the longest psalm, some people like it, and others find it tedious.
You might want to finish reading these comments on the psalm prior to digging in from this link to Psalm 119.
The first important thing to know about this psalm is that each of the 22 sections correspond to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. (Remember Hebrew is read right to left.) Each poetic line in each of the sections begins with that letter of the alphabet.
The other important thing to know about this psalm is the repeated use of the word torah, which can be understood as “teaching”, “law” or “instruction.” Other important related words are “decrees”, “statutes”, “Commandments”, “ordinances” and “word”.
The psalmist is giving us an artistic way to understand that God has revealed God’s self to us through the instructions of the Torah, or the law. The writer wants us to understand the importance of following these instructions, this revelation of God, at all times during our lives. Following God is not for sissies, it is hard work. The writer wants to be faithful to God, but knows that on his own, he cannot be faithful. The writer is aware of his/her own failings and recognizes his/her need for God’s grace and mercy.
Christians understand this to go one step farther. They understand that humans found it impossible to follow the law, and thus we were in need of a savior. A savior who would make a path of righteousness for us, that savior is Jesus. Jesus, who knows our failings and provided grace and mercy through his work on the cross.
Happy reading
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