Mental Health In The Psalms: 28 Series

MENTAL HEALTH IN THE PSALMS: 28

PSALM 28:1-9

#mentalhealth

INTRODUCTION 1… POOR BISHOP HOOPER PSALM 28 (EVERY PSALM)… youtube.com/

watch?v=Pcazsb9uGNs [3:08]

INTRODUCTION 2… Tremper Longman III, How to Read the Psalms. IVP Academic; Inter-Varsity Press, 1988, 76–85. [adapted]

We are beginning today a series of three sermons where we are focusing on the Psalms and mental health. Last April (2023) we focused on this same topic with the Psalms and I feel led to continue our conversation about mental health and the Scriptures. It is not a topic that is spoken about often in Church, but is a worthy topic for us.

The Psalms are songs in the Old Testament part of the Bible. Psalms are worship songs that the people of Israel would sing when they gathered together to worship and confess and support each other. Psalms teach us about God and ourselves.

Psalms are very emotional. We can’t read the Psalms without an emotional response. As the psalmists cry out in joy or grief, they stir us as we identify similar emotions in ourselves. Many people call the Psalms mirrors of the soul. The Psalms are soul music. The Psalms speak to us in a wide variety of situations and a wide variety of emotions.

SG Meyer, a psychologist, wrote in the Journal of Psychology and Theology (1974): “The range of emotional expression often allows the reader to express [his or her] inner life. They assist [us] in verbalizing what [we] have been unable to communicate. In doing so, [we] often crystallize the nature and identity of [our] problem[s].”

The Psalms put us in touch with our deepest emotions. As readers of the Psalms, we feel seen and understood. The Psalms can also make us sensitive to the emotional struggles of others. These Holy Spirit inspired songs show us that emotions and struggle are part of a relationship with God and not separate and can help us understand our emotions. The Psalms were born from life struggles and speak to people who struggle today. They also arose from people who had experienced liberation in God from struggle whether a permanent victory or victory that comes day by day.

TRANSITION

It is my hope and prayer to overall encourage you in these three weeks as we dig through the Psalms to look at mental health and to see it as a normal regular important part of life and health and wholeness. I want you to see the spiritual and the mental together rather than something that is separate. Mental health and spiritual health are not mutually exclusive. I want you to see that therapy or medicine is a blessing or a tool given by God to help. I want you to see that God provides healing or also grace to make it just through one day… for He does both. My prayer is that you know that God cares about your mental health.

The mirror to the soul that we are going to look at today is Psalm 28. Psalm 28 is a psalm by King David. When he refers to God’s “anointed” one in verse 8, we see that he is referring to himself as the anointed covenant king. Psalm 28 is a royal prayer and a call out for help to God. We can tell from the verses that he is praying in the midst of some crisis. To be honest, if you look at David’s life, he lived through one crisis after another. It was either trouble from an enemy that wasn’t his fault or the results of poor parenting on his part or a boneheaded move that created heartache or just a natural disaster. No one knows what particular trouble David may have been in and it could have been any of his issues!

Let’s read God’s Word.

READ PSALM 28:1-9 (ESV)

To You, O LORD, I call; my Rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if You be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. 2 Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to You for help,

when I lift up my hands toward Your most holy sanctuary. 3 Do not drag me off with the wicked, with the workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts. 4 Give to them according to their work and according to the evil of their deeds; give to them according to the work of their hands; render them their due reward. 5 Because they do not regard the works of the LORD or the work of His hands, He will tear them down and build them up no more. 6 Blessed be the LORD! For He has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy. 7 The LORD is my Strength and my Shield; in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to Him. 8 The LORD is the strength of His people; He is the Saving Refuge of His anointed. 9 Oh, save Your people and bless Your heritage! Be their Shepherd and carry them forever.