Monday, February 21, 2022
O Lord, don’t
rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your rage! Your arrows have struck deep, and your
blows are crushing me. Because
of your anger, my whole body is sick; my health is broken because of my sins. My guilt overwhelms me—it is a burden
too heavy to bear. My wounds
fester and stink because of my foolish sins. I am bent over and racked with pain. All day long I walk around filled with grief.
A raging fever burns within
me, and my health is broken. I
am exhausted and completely crushed. My
groans come from an anguished heart. You know what I long for, Lord; you hear
my every sigh. My heart beats
wildly, my strength fails, and I am going blind. My loved ones and friends stay away,
fearing my disease. Even my own family
stands at a distance. Meanwhile,
my enemies lay traps to kill me. Those
who wish me harm make plans to ruin me. All
day long they plan their treachery. But I am deaf to all their threats. I am silent before them as one who cannot
speak. I choose to hear
nothing, and I make no reply. For
I am waiting for you, O Lord. You
must answer for me, O Lord my God. I
prayed, “Don’t let my enemies gloat over me or rejoice at my downfall.” I am on the verge of collapse, facing
constant pain. But I confess
my sins; I am deeply sorry for what I have done. I have many aggressive enemies; they
hate me without reason. They
repay me evil for good and oppose me for pursuing good. Do not abandon me, O Lord. Do not stand at a distance, my God. Come quickly to help me, O Lord my
savior. Psalm 38:1-22
David’s self-diagnosed situational distress symptoms
parallel takotsubo, commonly known as broken-heart syndrome.[1] Assaulted by raging
fever, exhaustion, and difficulty breathing, the heart, crushed and broken, groans
in shock-induced cardiomyopathy; it’s a sad parallel to what modern-day pandemic
grief is pushing on the world’s human family.
Our reality the past two years has developed a worldwide
epidemic of languishing in lethargy and misery as a response to the ruin of COVID’s
bio-physical symptoms. It is the essence
of King David’s spiritual malaise, his sins have “found him out,”[2] and his life has come to a grinding halt in an
overwhelming sense of guilt/grief. His
heart can only stand in shock against the revelation of life’s fragile and tenuous
nature. What looms before him is the very-real
possibility of slipping into the darkness; all else, kingdom, family, riches, and
even the simple act of breathing, are superfluous compared to getting relief
from the approaching darkness. If it’s
truly possible to “languish” in a panic-attack mode…this is it!
David’s reaction to the monster that stands ready to chew
him (even the memory of him) to pieces, is confession. As one who, in his youth, knew the presence
of God well, David’s understanding of his guilt brought an outpouring of shame
and inner urging to return to the place of forgiveness. He longed to be clean. Accepting responsibility for the calamity
which now defined his character, David asked God to purge his guilt and shame,
and come close.
Perhaps the pan-human response to the takotsubo broken-heart
pandemia is a return to God the way David knew was right…confession…owning who
we are, and what we’ve done in ignoring our Creator’s way. That seems to be the only first step in the
right direction.
For You Today
Each of us can only
take the first step in our own journey.
I cannot take yours, nor can you take mine. With God, repentance is a singular
affair. Like breathing, air in my lungs
does no good in keeping your life afloat.
There are some things each of us needs to do to address that which
breaks our Heavenly Father’s heart.
You chew on that as
you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
[1] Title and other images: Harvard Health Publishing Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
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