Sermon Central
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Mental Health In The Psalms: 69 Series
Contributed by Troy Borst on Apr 26, 2023 (message contributor)
Summary: God can completely heal mental illness, but even if He does not He still is steadfast in His love and a firm saving grace to us. He gives power to us in our weaknesses and struggles.
MENTAL HEALTH IN THE PSALMS: 69
#mentalhealth
INTRODUCTION 1 … POOR BISHOP HOOPER PSALM 69 (EVERY PSALM) youtube.com/watch?v=BRE6-mBWkc8 [3:50]
INTRODUCTION 2… Tremper Longman III, How to Read the Psalms. IVP Academic; Inter-Varsity Press, 1988, 76–85. [adapted]
We are in a series of sermons where we are focusing on the Psalms. 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 also 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 is 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 to encourage you in these 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. See the blessing of therapy or medicine as a tool given by God to help. 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 soul mirror that we are going to look at today is Psalm 69. Let’s read God’s Word.
READ PSALM 69:1-36 (ESV)
Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. 2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. 3 I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God. 4 More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies. What I did not steal must I now restore? 5 O God, You know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from You. 6 Let not those who hope in You be put to shame through me, O Lord GOD of hosts; let not those who seek You be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel. 7 For it is for Your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face. 8 I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother's sons. 9 For zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. 10 When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach. 11 When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them. 12 I am the talk of those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me. 13 But as for me, my prayer is to You, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of Your steadfast love answer me in Your saving faithfulness. 14 Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters. 15 Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me. 16 Answer me, O LORD, for Your steadfast love is good; according to Your abundant mercy, turn to me. 17 Hide not Your face from Your servant, for I am in distress; make haste to answer me. 18 Draw near to my soul, redeem me; ransom me because of my enemies! 19 You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to You. 20 Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. 21 They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink. 22 Let their own table before them become a snare; and when they are at peace, let it become a trap. 23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually. 24 Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them. 25 May their camp be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents. 26 For they persecute him whom you have struck down, and they recount the pain of those you have wounded. 27 Add to them punishment upon punishment; may they have no acquittal from You.
