3 Things the Psalms Teach about Emotional Health

The Psalms are a treasure-trove of
scriptural delight. In fact, many
memorable worship songs are drawn
from this part of the scripture. From
Marty Nystrom’s “As the Dear” (Psalm
42 ) to Matt Redman’s “Better is one
day” ( Psalm 85 ), contemporary praise
and worship often re-articulate the
psalms in modern language.
Reliance on the psalms also occurs in
more traditional, or liturgical, churches.
Congregations may pray The Venite
(Psalm 95 ), or The Jubilate (Psalm 100) as
part of their regular rhythm of prayer.
Indeed, monastic communities
throughout the ages have even sought to
pray through the psalms monthly, or in
rare occasions, daily.
Yet more than a resource for worship
songs or liturgical texts, the beauty of the
psalms is the visceral articulation of the
full range of human emotion.
From rejoicing to sadness, from
frustration to deep ire, the psalms give
voice to the deep emotions of human life.
Sure, this makes for some hard passages
to read. Who doesn’t cringe at the thought
of heads dashed against stones? Yet
even these difficult verses are instructive
—for we find that the psalms depict just
what it means to communicate our raw,
sometimes ugly, emotions to the Lord.
In this way, reading through the psalms
(or better yet, praying the psalms) has a
lot to teach us about emotional health.
The psalms help us uncover how to be
faithful when we are filled with our
negative or ugly emotions. There are
three main lessons the Psalms teach
about emotional health.

  1. It’s Okay to Struggle
    You can’t get too far into Psalms without
    noticing that they’re rarely written from
    palaces of ease and comfort. In fact, the
    very second psalm references nations
    that conspire and people that plot in vain.
    Many of the psalms articulate the
    personal struggle of the psalmist. This
    struggle could be because of the
    presence of an enemy, the schemes of
    the wicked, or a general lament over
    personal sin. Whatever the reason, the
    psalms give voice to how we feel when
    things are not right in our lives.
    Take the first couple of verses from
    Psalm 77 for example. We read:
    I cry aloud to God, aloud to God
    that he may hear me. In the day of
    my trouble, I seek the Lord. In the
    night, my hand is stretched out
    without wearing. My soul refuses
    to be comforted. I think of God and
    I moan; I meditate and my spirit
    faints” (Psalm 77:1-3 ).
    While we may not know exactly what the
    situation is at hand, these verses give
    voice to someone who is struggling in
    his/her life. Further on, the psalmist
    articulates questions that arise from such
    struggling. Questions like: Will the Lord
    spurn forever and never again be
    favorable? Has his steadfast love ceased
    forever? Has God forgotten to be
    gracious?
    Who has not, from time to time, asked
    such questions? Who has not been thrust
    into an uphill battle and found their faith
    stretched, or their patience wearing thin?
    It’s a mistake to believe that faithfulness
    to God means we’re always pleasant and
    stoic in our lives. Worse yet is the belief
    that only the weak in faith go through
    times of struggle. This is not true. The
    psalms present to us, in vibrant fashion,
    the biblical truth that even the strongest
    in faith struggle at times. Struggling
    against some hardship, an enemy, or
    even against our own human failings,
    doesn’t indicate a weakness in faith.
    Struggling is part of life, and of faith.
    As the after-school specials used to
    always remind us, it is okay to not be
    okay.
  1. It’s Okay to Feel
    Did you ever have a Bible that included a
    list of where to turn when feeling a certain
    way? Whether one felt angry, or sad,
    confused, or frustrated, the list pointed to
    an appropriate verse for divine comfort.
    Most of the Scriptures suggested in these
    lists are either reminders of God’s
    promises, or a call to perseverance. While
    this is valuable, in some regards, it could
    lead to the assumption that the faithful
    response to negative emotions is to push
    past them.
    For example, imagine you’re feeling
    angry. Acknowledging your anger, you
    turn to the previously mentioned list in the
    back of your Bible, searching for an
    appropriate Scripture. Undoubtedly, the
    suggestions will be along the lines of
    Ephesian 4:26: “In your anger do not sin,
    don’t let the sun go down on your anger.”
    Or perhaps it would point you to James
    1:20 : “for your anger does not produce
    the righteousness that God desires.” A
    passage from the psalms, likely, would
    not be mentioned.
    The point is, such lists of what to read
    when you are angry rarely give voice to the
    anger.
    Too often they point to the verses that
    speak to how anger is contrary to the life
    of faith . This can leave us with the
    impression that the faithful response to
    anger is to not feel angry! We come away
    with the impression that it is wrong to
    feel angry, or whatever emotion we are
    feeling. Thus, we attempt to move past
    the emotion, or deny it altogether.
    All this does is produce feelings of guilt
    and shame, for the fact is, we do feel
    angry!
    Anger is a human emotion like all the
    rest, and it is common to all people.
    Furthermore, our anger may, in fact, be
    an appropriate response to whatever
    situation we are facing. Even Jesus got
    angry, and sad, and frustrated. Emotions
    are never wrong. They may be
    misdirected at times, and we may
    wrongly act on such emotions, but the
    feeling itself is not wrong in and of itself.
    When we deny our emotions, we allow
    them to fester within us. We may trick
    ourselves into believing that we have
    dealt with the matter at hand, but all we
    have done is turn a blind eye to the deep
    matters of our heart and soul.
    The psalms give us license to hold our
    feelings before the Lord. We are given the
    freedom to feel, and to feel deeply,
    viscerally, and passionately.
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3. It’s Okay to Scream
The psalms often give voice to the deep
inner emotions that we feel. The sadness,
frustration, and anger that we so often
experience in our lives are articulated in
gritty detail. In this way, the psalms do
not just give us license to feel the
emotion, the psalms also allow us to
voice our emotions.
Psalms point us to the ability to bring our
hurts to the Lord.
When we are filled with negative
emotions, and let’s be honest, we all have
these types of emotions from time to
time, we are encouraged to express those
feelings to the Lord. God is big enough.
So, instead of reading Ephesians or
James when we feel angry, what would it
be like to read Psalm 13 ?
Instead of denying our anger, what would
it look like to express it?
Psalm 13 does just this. It begins “How
long, O Lord, will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from
me? How long must I bear pain in my
soul and have sorrow in my heart all day
long?” In this psalm, David pours his heart
out before God. He gives voice to the
deep emotion that he feels. Nothing is
withheld. The psalms show us that we
are free to scream, or yell, or shout, or
weep.

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Praying the Psalms
Praying the psalms can be a healing
experience. When we give voice to our
deep emotions, not hiding from them or
pretending they do not exist, we invite
Jesus into the deep inner places of our
lives. We open the door to his healing
presence.
What would it look like for you to try this
the next time you’re faced with an
uncomfortable emotion? Instead of
turning to a prepackaged list of what to
read when you feel x , what if you turned to
the psalms and prayed from within the
emotion itself?
The process is simple. Simply read each
verse of a psalm, pause, and then pray
the verse again, this time using your own
words and referencing your own
situation. For example, retuning to the
opening of Psalm 13 , your prayer may
look like this:
Lord, I feel like you are forgetting me. How
long must I feel like this?
Are you hiding from me? Do you care for
me?
I feel in pain. I feel angry. I feel burdened,
and I feel that you do not even notice!
Praying this way may seem
uncomfortable, but it is deeply honest.
More to the point, praying this way
honors the deep emotions within us,
thereby helping us move toward health
and healing.
Emotional health is not about only living
with positive emotions. Faithfulness to
God is not about pasting smiles on our
faces and singing “Shine, Jesus Shine,”
no matter what we may be feeling inside.
No. Emotional health, in the life of faith ,
is about inviting Jesus into our emotions,
whatever they may be.
Emotional health is about knowing that it
is okay to struggle, it is okay to feel, and
it is okay to cry out to God. The psalms
teach us these lessons beautifully.

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