Been emotionally overloaded recently? Or maybe you have felt mental recently. Well, you’re in good company. King David, the conqueror of giants and archetype for the Messianic King of Kings, was the quintessential emotional basket case.
However, somehow, David was able to transcend his mental moments and live in a way that inspired artists like Michelangelo and saints for ages. What was it? Is it something you and I can do?
Misery loves company, right!?
The Apostle Paul, in Ephesians says to speak to one another in, “Psalm, hymns and spiritual songs.” Jesus and the Apostles regularly spoke to one another and interpreted their struggles through the grid of things that David wrote in the Psalms.
Apparently, there is some key emotional, mental coping mechanism found in those Psalms. (Though to say it that way minimizes the spiritual power really at work.) Apparently, there is no shame in having your soul overwhelmed and downcast. (Remember, soul, is the Bible’s word for what we now tend to call our mind, will or emotions. I like the word soul better, it’s more Biblical.).
In fact, the Bible seems to give us the impression that because life has been corrupted with sin (both our sins and others), our souls will often feel like they are in muck and mire. Or sometimes our soul will feel torn to shreds like a Lion’s prey by things other people say. Other times our soul will be full of joy and confidence. Or perhaps it will feel dry and empty.
Simply put, biblically, if we are anything like David, we should expect our soul to run the gamut of emotional struggles depending on how many sinful people we have had to put up with. (Or sometimes, maybe even oftentimes, the distraught in our soul is due to our own sin.)
Nevertheless, David never gives the impression (in the Psalms) that his soul should naturally respond to the sinful world around him with joy and rejoicing. Yet, David still sets the example as someone who rejoiced in the Lord always. How did he do it?
Basically, David regularly went to pray. As he did, he seemed to persistently let God set his soul back on a rock, hidden under the Shadow of God’s wings, protected in the strong tower of God’s name.
It’s a soul shift. For David, it happened in prayer.
Prayer was the way that David seemed to regularly (daily/weekly?) take time to shift his soul from the “crazies” of the sinful world he faced everyday.
David seemed to do four things regularly in his prayers in the Psalms. First, he honestly, and often in an emotional manner, told God what was happening to him and how he felt about it. “I am surrounded by enemies on every side.” “They seek to devour me.” “Why do the wicked prosper?” “I am dry and empty.” “My soul is downcast and anxious.”
Now, we have so often been taught the power of “rejoice in the Lord always” that I think we forget to go through the human process of righting our soul. We forget to be honest. We might have been led to believe that we can just snap our fingers, quote that verse and force ourselves to smile and rejoice. If that is the case, then we have probably felt also the miss in our soul, wondering if there shouldn’t be more to it. Perhaps, we just wondered that maybe rejoicing worked for some people, but not for us.
But David never in the Psalms forced his soul to rejoice. If he was in tough situations, he never tried to just snap his fingers into rejoicing. Rather, he always started with a brutal, emotional and honest description of how he felt, how fearful he was, how discouraged he was, how distraught he was. In that description he would not hesitate to place blame as to what was causing his soul’s struggle. (Remember, sometimes he actually did feel joyful in which case he started with a description of that joy).
We must not be dishonest with ourselves or with God about how we feel and why.
However, that is just step one. Though step one must not be skipped and must not be rushed, there are three more steps that I discern in David’s prayers. Step one is a vital preparation for a genuine soul shift, but it is the second step that is the beginning of the actual soul shift. We find that David begins to refocus on God’s perspective of his situation. Remember, David started with an honest description of what he saw happening and how that made him feel. However, next, little by little David would remind his soul of God’s perspective. Things like, “I know Lord that you will punish the wicked.” Things like, “The one enthroned in heaven laughs…” Another time it’s, “You, O Lord are a shield about me.” Or perhaps, “the Lord will hear when I call to him.” One of my favorites is, “you record all my tears.” There are so many of these soul-shifting, soul-soothing truths that we would have to quote much of Psalms to hit them all.
But that is the point. We must not be men and women who have our own perspective at the center of our heart and soul. Rather, we must put God’s perspective at the center. David was called a man after God’s own heart. David was called that because his habit, his practice, was to go to God in prayer and after being honest (and sometimes taking a while to say what he really felt) he would begin to refocus on God’s perspective.
It is likely that David was called a man after God's own heart because of these soul shifting prayers he prayed.
So, thirdly, David would make statements that seem to show that David is choosing to believe God’s perspective. It’s just not enough to know what God thinks. We have to believe that what God thinks really changes the game; that it really makes a difference. David says, “Lord, I take refuge in you.” Another time he says, “find rest O my soul in God alone.” Or he says to his soul, “put your hope in God.” Or, “But, you O God do see trouble and grief.”
Of course, this is why David can start a Psalm so anxious and stressed and then by the end of the Psalm he can sound as though he is really rejoicing in the Lord. He IS NOT FAKING IT. His soul has really shifted from despair to confidence in the Lord; from dry and thirsty to refreshed; from fearful and scared to peace and joy.
As David’s perspective changed to God’s perspective, his soul’s state would change also.
So, let’s summarize: David’s rejoicing always started first with honesty. Let’s start there with him. Let’s take however long we need to express what we are really feeling. Then, second, he refocused on God’s perspective and reminded/told his soul to believe God’s perspective. Third, he actively chose to believe God’s perspective. And fourth, as a result, David genuinely rejoiced in the Lord always.
He just simply never faked it. David prayed through each situation UNTIL his soul had genuinely shifted. Then the power of rejoicing seemed to invade his entire soul and burst forth with real victory. Jesus’ beatitudes seem to follow a similar pattern of honesty, God’s perspective and rejoicing.
Let’s learn to read the Psalms and let David teach us how to honestly deal with our soul’s struggles with the difficulties of a world full of sin. Then, let’s speak to one another with Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs…
…for the sake of your soul…all you mental, emotional basket cases. Join with David and me, your compatriots in anxiety, fear and struggle… and pray through to a genuine soul shift.
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