“The Pressures Within”
Psalm 39:1-5
August 5, 2007
The Psalms, from which we take today’s Bible reading, originally
referred to instruments and then to songs sung to their accompaniment.
They are Praises to God. Written by a variety of people, including King
David, they reflect both the wonderful moments of life and the moments
when the author just can’t seem to take one more step forward.
The 39th Psalm and those before and after it are praises being sung to
God... although it might not seem that way.
You see... David was struggling for survival. Not just physical survival, but
emotional survival. In fact, I would venture to say that David was
struggling for control of his spiritual health. His very soul.
He was battling the frustration of illness. Battling the darkness that can
come when the illness… the pain… the loneliness… is overwhelming. If
you were to turn to Psalms 38, previous to what we just read, we can
hear the agony that he was in.... and who he blamed:
“O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger...Because of your wrath there is
no health in my body; my bones have no soundness because of my sin.
My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. My
wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly. I am bowed
down and brought very low; all day long I go about mourning. My back is
filled with searing pain; there is no health in my body. I am feeble and
utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart.”
Locked in the belief that he was being punished by God for some past
sin, or sins, David was in the bottom of that light-less pit we call
depression. Caught in a quagmire of guilt and outrage, we hear the
expressions of his pain as he attempts to stuff the shame and anger
inside; how he tries to repress the feelings that are building up... Tries to
repress them in the fear that God would punish him even more if he were
to express those feelings.
And the pressure continued to build. While the illness was within, David
felt the pressure building from without... building to a point of exploding
his soul... and David finally lashes out at God.
David’s expression of depression was an almost obsessive focus on
the sin which God was supposedly punishing him for, (a sin, which by the
way, he never names). In that depression there is an almost obsessive
attempt to deny his feelings. Feelings... it seems to me... toward the one
he thinks is the cause of his current pain. David feels that God is
punishing him for some past sin and David feels that God considers
David’s life as nothing - a non-entity. “You have made my days a mere
handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's
life is but a breath.”
Thoughts, that occupy our focus away from the strength that God gives
us - and instead on a hopelessness born of the world - are not
uncommon. A while back The Utne Reader had a Web Page on the
Internet called “Café Utne.” It was a chance for people to discuss a
variety of issues. It’s now renamed the “New Café” and is under new
ownership, but when it was “The Café Utne” it asked readers to share
what they were obsessing about. The responses mirrored the concerns
that many have shared with me over the years and I would assume that
many of you have shared with the different pastors you have had. For
example:
“As usual I have been obsessing about death. Such a depressing topic
but I find my mind straying to it at all kinds of weird moments... I think its
amazing that we are not in an all out knock down drag out race to beat
death! I don't think it’s possible but how can we not be concentrating all
our efforts on it? I don't know how we manage to concentrate on anything
else frankly!” (Dena from Beuford, SC)
“Keeping life sailing on an even keel is far from simple. It seems that just
about everyone I know is over committed, over extended, over taxed and
over worked. We are led into the state of being over whelmed, over
wrought and often over weight. It truly seems we are all just about over
the edge! Many of us have capsized. (Laurel from Baltimore, MD)
“Obsessing, am I that obsessive? Well I guess that I am, the problem is
that I have too many obsessions so I end up running around worried
about that. Actually the real obsession of my life right now is how to
make the community of close friends a better place to be for myself
and them. Lately life has been hectic enough to be completely
distracting.” (Eric from Charleston, SC)
My obsession these days is that I seem to have adopted a post modern
attitude toward life ironic, detached, entranced with the appearance of
things. Like many others of my generation, I have become disillusioned
by too many interactions with people and institutions who/which claim
impeccable moral and philosophical groundings, but who/which
nevertheless behave with ruthless self interest, albeit dressed up with
impeccable moral and philosophical rhetoric. The result is a deep
wariness when I meet people who say their highest priorities are
community, justice and peace. (Karen from Chicago, IL)
Allow me to suggest this morning that the physical pain, the fears, the
frustrations, and the anger that David... and so many of us also feel... at
times, can become destructive if we shut ourselves off from the
presence and peace that God offers. The negative thoughts intensify,
even darken, as we pull away from God and those around us who could
be our community of support... The pent-up feelings can destroy if we fail
to find an adequate way to relieve the pressure.
It seems to me, there are two ways of handling the potentially destructive
pressure of thoughts that negatively obsess us. One is illustrated by a
bathysphere, the miniature submarine used to explore the ocean in
places so deep that the water pressure would crush a conventional
submarine like an aluminum can.
Bathyspheres compensate with plate steel several inches thick, which
keeps the water out, but at a cost? The armor makes them heavy and
hard to maneuver. Inside they're cramped. And, while they are self-
contained… the freedom is an illusion. After a matter of hours you have
to surface or the oxygen gives out and you die.
When these craft descend to the ocean floor they encounter darkness
and a pressure that would suggest no possibility of life outside the steel
plate. However, that’s an assumption that would be wrong. If you were to
turn on the lights of the bathysphere and look through the tiny, thick plate
glass windows, what would you see? Fish! And, you would see not only
a few fish, but hundreds of different species, both strange and beautiful.
These fish provide us with the example for coping with extreme pressure
in an entirely different way. They don't build thick skins: they remain
supple and free. They compensate for the outside pressure through
equal and opposite pressure inside themselves.
Think for a moment of the remarkable difference.
Locked in a thick barrier for protection from the pressure, the outside
world unable to enter and the passenger unable to get out, the
bathysphere works - for a time. The fish, however, are free to maneuver
because the pressure from the outside is offset by a greater pressure
from within.
David had allowed the pressures of the outside to build and build. His
response was to develop an outer shell that became thicker and thicker,
until his method of survival almost became his destruction. He, in a
sense, had shut himself off from God and lost his trust of others. Rather
than appropriating God's power within to equal the pressure without,
David, for a time, began to panic. Then in Psalm 40 David writes: “I
waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted
me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a
hymn of praise to our God.”
There is a possibility for each of us to sing a new song. One that can
help regulate the pressures that seem to build from all directions. It is a
song that comes when we allow the presence of the Holy Spirit to fill
us… when we allow the peace of Jesus Christ to radiate from within us,
outward, to offset the world’s pressures... it is a new song that we can
sing when we allow the power of God to transform us.
David regained his sense of peace and balance when he realized that
God was not punishing him for wrongs committed. The reality is, God
was not punishing him at all, but reaching out to him in his distress. God
was there to give David the strength to overcome the pressures.
Can you grab hold of the Good News in David’s song of praise? God is
not out to get you. God is not looking to punish you for past
indiscretions... real or imagined.
Instead of punishing you, God wants to fill you with a presence of love
and peace. God wants to fill you with life and give you the strength to
overcome the pressures that would destroy.
In the midst of your pain, in the darkness of the pit, listen for the new
song that will fill you with peace. Allow the presence of God to fill you
with peace, a presence that will offset any pressures from without.
AMEN
Psalm 39:1-5
August 5, 2007
The Psalms, from which we take today’s Bible reading, originally
referred to instruments and then to songs sung to their accompaniment.
They are Praises to God. Written by a variety of people, including King
David, they reflect both the wonderful moments of life and the moments
when the author just can’t seem to take one more step forward.
The 39th Psalm and those before and after it are praises being sung to
God... although it might not seem that way.
You see... David was struggling for survival. Not just physical survival, but
emotional survival. In fact, I would venture to say that David was
struggling for control of his spiritual health. His very soul.
He was battling the frustration of illness. Battling the darkness that can
come when the illness… the pain… the loneliness… is overwhelming. If
you were to turn to Psalms 38, previous to what we just read, we can
hear the agony that he was in.... and who he blamed:
“O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger...Because of your wrath there is
no health in my body; my bones have no soundness because of my sin.
My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. My
wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly. I am bowed
down and brought very low; all day long I go about mourning. My back is
filled with searing pain; there is no health in my body. I am feeble and
utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart.”
Locked in the belief that he was being punished by God for some past
sin, or sins, David was in the bottom of that light-less pit we call
depression. Caught in a quagmire of guilt and outrage, we hear the
expressions of his pain as he attempts to stuff the shame and anger
inside; how he tries to repress the feelings that are building up... Tries to
repress them in the fear that God would punish him even more if he were
to express those feelings.
And the pressure continued to build. While the illness was within, David
felt the pressure building from without... building to a point of exploding
his soul... and David finally lashes out at God.
David’s expression of depression was an almost obsessive focus on
the sin which God was supposedly punishing him for, (a sin, which by the
way, he never names). In that depression there is an almost obsessive
attempt to deny his feelings. Feelings... it seems to me... toward the one
he thinks is the cause of his current pain. David feels that God is
punishing him for some past sin and David feels that God considers
David’s life as nothing - a non-entity. “You have made my days a mere
handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's
life is but a breath.”
Thoughts, that occupy our focus away from the strength that God gives
us - and instead on a hopelessness born of the world - are not
uncommon. A while back The Utne Reader had a Web Page on the
Internet called “Café Utne.” It was a chance for people to discuss a
variety of issues. It’s now renamed the “New Café” and is under new
ownership, but when it was “The Café Utne” it asked readers to share
what they were obsessing about. The responses mirrored the concerns
that many have shared with me over the years and I would assume that
many of you have shared with the different pastors you have had. For
example:
“As usual I have been obsessing about death. Such a depressing topic
but I find my mind straying to it at all kinds of weird moments... I think its
amazing that we are not in an all out knock down drag out race to beat
death! I don't think it’s possible but how can we not be concentrating all
our efforts on it? I don't know how we manage to concentrate on anything
else frankly!” (Dena from Beuford, SC)
“Keeping life sailing on an even keel is far from simple. It seems that just
about everyone I know is over committed, over extended, over taxed and
over worked. We are led into the state of being over whelmed, over
wrought and often over weight. It truly seems we are all just about over
the edge! Many of us have capsized. (Laurel from Baltimore, MD)
“Obsessing, am I that obsessive? Well I guess that I am, the problem is
that I have too many obsessions so I end up running around worried
about that. Actually the real obsession of my life right now is how to
make the community of close friends a better place to be for myself
and them. Lately life has been hectic enough to be completely
distracting.” (Eric from Charleston, SC)
My obsession these days is that I seem to have adopted a post modern
attitude toward life ironic, detached, entranced with the appearance of
things. Like many others of my generation, I have become disillusioned
by too many interactions with people and institutions who/which claim
impeccable moral and philosophical groundings, but who/which
nevertheless behave with ruthless self interest, albeit dressed up with
impeccable moral and philosophical rhetoric. The result is a deep
wariness when I meet people who say their highest priorities are
community, justice and peace. (Karen from Chicago, IL)
Allow me to suggest this morning that the physical pain, the fears, the
frustrations, and the anger that David... and so many of us also feel... at
times, can become destructive if we shut ourselves off from the
presence and peace that God offers. The negative thoughts intensify,
even darken, as we pull away from God and those around us who could
be our community of support... The pent-up feelings can destroy if we fail
to find an adequate way to relieve the pressure.
It seems to me, there are two ways of handling the potentially destructive
pressure of thoughts that negatively obsess us. One is illustrated by a
bathysphere, the miniature submarine used to explore the ocean in
places so deep that the water pressure would crush a conventional
submarine like an aluminum can.
Bathyspheres compensate with plate steel several inches thick, which
keeps the water out, but at a cost? The armor makes them heavy and
hard to maneuver. Inside they're cramped. And, while they are self-
contained… the freedom is an illusion. After a matter of hours you have
to surface or the oxygen gives out and you die.
When these craft descend to the ocean floor they encounter darkness
and a pressure that would suggest no possibility of life outside the steel
plate. However, that’s an assumption that would be wrong. If you were to
turn on the lights of the bathysphere and look through the tiny, thick plate
glass windows, what would you see? Fish! And, you would see not only
a few fish, but hundreds of different species, both strange and beautiful.
These fish provide us with the example for coping with extreme pressure
in an entirely different way. They don't build thick skins: they remain
supple and free. They compensate for the outside pressure through
equal and opposite pressure inside themselves.
Think for a moment of the remarkable difference.
Locked in a thick barrier for protection from the pressure, the outside
world unable to enter and the passenger unable to get out, the
bathysphere works - for a time. The fish, however, are free to maneuver
because the pressure from the outside is offset by a greater pressure
from within.
David had allowed the pressures of the outside to build and build. His
response was to develop an outer shell that became thicker and thicker,
until his method of survival almost became his destruction. He, in a
sense, had shut himself off from God and lost his trust of others. Rather
than appropriating God's power within to equal the pressure without,
David, for a time, began to panic. Then in Psalm 40 David writes: “I
waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted
me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a
hymn of praise to our God.”
There is a possibility for each of us to sing a new song. One that can
help regulate the pressures that seem to build from all directions. It is a
song that comes when we allow the presence of the Holy Spirit to fill
us… when we allow the peace of Jesus Christ to radiate from within us,
outward, to offset the world’s pressures... it is a new song that we can
sing when we allow the power of God to transform us.
David regained his sense of peace and balance when he realized that
God was not punishing him for wrongs committed. The reality is, God
was not punishing him at all, but reaching out to him in his distress. God
was there to give David the strength to overcome the pressures.
Can you grab hold of the Good News in David’s song of praise? God is
not out to get you. God is not looking to punish you for past
indiscretions... real or imagined.
Instead of punishing you, God wants to fill you with a presence of love
and peace. God wants to fill you with life and give you the strength to
overcome the pressures that would destroy.
In the midst of your pain, in the darkness of the pit, listen for the new
song that will fill you with peace. Allow the presence of God to fill you
with peace, a presence that will offset any pressures from without.
AMEN
| The Pressures Within |
DeWitt United Methodist Church
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