The Psalms are a treasure-trove of spiritual delight. In fact, many memorable worship songs are drawn form this part of the Bible,
Reliance on the psalms occurs in more traditional, or liturgical, churches. Congregations may pray from Psalm 95, or Psalm 100 as part of their regular rhythm of prayer. Today some churches pray the entire book of Psalms monthly or daily. The beauty of the Psalms is that it teaches about a full range of human emotions.
From rejoicing to sadness, from frustration to deep anger, the Psalms give voice to deep emotions of human life. But this makes for some hard verses to read. Who doesn’t cringe at the thought of heads being dashed against stones, or hiding in a cave in fear of your own son? Yet even these difficult verses are instructive- we find that the Psalms depict just what it means to communicate our raw, sometimes ugly emotions to the Lord.
In this way, reading through the Psalms or better yet praying the Psalms) has a lot to teach us about our emotional health. I used to think the book of Psalms was all about a bunch of poetry. But, thanks to my Pastor who taught me these scriptures help to uncover how to be faithful when are filled with our negative or ugly emotions.
There are three main lessons the Psalms teach about emotional health.
It’s Okay To Struggle
You can’t get too far into the Psalms without noticing that they are rarely written and places of ease and comfort. In fact, the very second Psalm tells us about nations that conspire and people that plot in vain.
Many of the Psalms Articulate the personal struggle of David. The struggle could be because of the presence of an enemy, the schemes of the wicked, or general sorrow over personal sin. Whatever the reason, the Psalms give voice to how we fee, when things are not right in our lives.
Look at this example from Psalm 77:
I cried aloud to God, aloud to God, that he may hear me. In the day of my trouble, I seek the Lord. In the night, my hand is stretched out without wearing. My soul refuses to be comforted. I’ll think of God and I moan, I meditate in my spirit faints
Psalm 77:1-3
While we may not know exactly what the situation is at hand, these verses voice to someone who is struggling in their life. Further on David articulate questions, That arise from such struggling. Questions like: Well, the Lord’s spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love ceased forever? Has he forgotten to be gracious?
Who has not, from time to time, asked such questions? Who have not been thrust into an uphill battle and found your faith stretched and their patients wearing thin?
It’s a mistake you believe that faithfulness to God means we always have pleasant and easy lives. Worse yet is the belief that only the weak in faith go through times of struggle, The song present to us, In the vibrant fashion, the biblical truth, that even the strongest in faith struggle at times. Struggling against some hardship, an enemy, or even against our own human. Failing, doesn’t indicate a weakness in faith, struggling as part of life, and of faith.
It’s Okay To Feel
Did you ever have a Bible that included a list of where to turn on feeling a certain way? whether one felt angry or sad, confused, or frustrated, the list pointed to an appropriate verse for divine comfort. Most of the scripture suggested in these words are either a reminder of God’s promises, or a call to perseverance. While this is valuable, in some regards, It could lead us to the assumption that the faithful response to the negative emotions is push past them.
Imagine you are feeling angry. Acknowledging your anger, you turn to the previously mentioned list in the back of your Bible, searching for an appropriate scripture. undoubtably, this suggestion will be along the lines of Ephesians 4:26: “ in your anger, do not sin, don’t let the sun go down on your anger.” Or perhaps it could point to James 1:20: “ For
your anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” A passage from the Psalms likely, would not be mentioned.
The point is, such lists of what you read when you are angry rarely give voice to the anger you’re feeling.
Too often they point to the verses that speak to how anger is contrary to live a life of faith. This can leave us with the impression that the faithful response to anger is to not feel angry. We come away with the impression that it is wrong do you feel angry, or whatever emotion we are feeling. Then we attempt to move past the emotion, or deny it all together.
All this does it produce feelings of guilt and shame, for the fact is, we do feel angry
Anger is a human emotion like all the rest, and it is common to all people. Our anger, may, in fact, be an appropriate response to whatever situation we are facing.Even Jesus, got angry, and sad, and frustrated. Emotions are never wrong. They may be misdirected at times, and we may wrongly act on such emotions, but the feeling itself is not wrong in and of itself.
When we deny our emotions, we allow them to fester with, and us. We may even trick or so into believing that we have dealt with the matter at hand, but all we have done is turn a blind eye to the deep matters of our heart and soul.
The Psalms give us a license to hold our feelings before the Lord. We are given the freedom to feel, and to feel deeply and passionately.
It’s Okay To Scream
The farms often Genevois to the deep inner emotions that we feel. The sadness, frustration, and anger that we so often experience in our lives are articulated and gritty detail. In this way, the Psalms do not just give us a license to feel the emotion, the songs allow us to voice our emotions.
Psalms point us to the ability to bring our hearts to the Lord.
When we are filled with negative emotions, and let’s be honest, we all have these types of emotion from time to time, we are encouraged to expressed those feelings to the Lord. God is so much bigger than earth He is enough.
So, instead of reading, Ephesians or James, when you feel angry, what would it be like to read Psalm 13?
Instead of denying your anger, what would it look like to express it?
Psalm 13 does just this? it begins “ O’ Lord, will you forget me forever! How long would you hide your face from me? How long must I bear pain in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all day long? In this Psalm , David pours his heart out before God. He gives voice to the deep emotion that he feels. Nothing is withheld. The songs show us that we are free to scream, or yell, shout, or weep.
I have learned that the Psalms can be a healing experience. When we get our voice to our deep emotions, not hiding from them, or pretending that they don’t exist, we invite Jesus into the deep inner places of our lives. We open the door to His healing presence.
From Pity to Praise 