All Shall Be Well! Psalm 6

I sometimes feel really bad for feeling bad, until, that is, I read the Psalms. These guys would be prescribed an anti-depressant in our day, and quit possibly needed one. In this Psalm the psalmist is flooding his bed with tears, soaking his couch with weeping and his eyes are wasting away with grief. He is not just glibly singing the blues, he is singing some down home, Memphis delta blues. His chariot is swinging low, coming forth to carry him home. Ok...I'm getting a bit dramatic, but you get the point. He is deeply sad, driven to tears and feeling really alone, if not abandoned.

That is how he feels. I saw a post on Facebook yesterday that read, "Feelings should neither be ignored, nor placed in charge." I think the psalmist would agree and I need to hear that! The world assumes there is a drug, a relationship, a sexual hook up, job or cruise that will drive away the pain. We Christians are as bad assuming that heaven can, if not should, be now. Few of us will share our real hurt and pain even with fellow Believers for we fear having Philippians 4:4 splattered in big bold letters on our windshield with shoe polish. God's Word is THE answer, no doubt, but it seems, from the psalms, it must come in time. I guess what I am saying he is saying is that it is healthy and good to hurt in this broken world. It seems we must grieve in the night to appreciate, if not relish the morning. It is OK to not be OK. We should feel lonely, abandoned, incomplete, hurt for that is precisely what we are, not ultimately, but in a real sense, certainly. Even in the best relationships, the best churches, colleges and families, we will be all these.

Yet, for us, the dawn will break, the sun will rise and hope will be renewed. Hope, for us, has a name. He writes, "The Lord has heard my plea; the Lord accepts my prayer." Someone good sees, hears, feels our cries, our pain, our suffering and He is one who can empathize. There is nothing we can experience that He hasn't. He knows what it means for good friends to ignore, betray and even deny ever knowing Him. There is not a tear we can cry that He hasn't cried. His suffering, redeems our suffering. All this nonsense about cheering up too soon is just that, for He, not a milkshake (I know you eat your feelings), is our real cure. And He is only experienced in the act of crying out from deep need, for in the crying we are connected to Him. We are in a living relationship that must be experienced relationally. 

How many tears have I dried from your face? How many embraces have we shared in the midst of hard times? Now that I think of it, you have dried some of mine too. This has drawn us close, and given us strength and hope. It is the same with God. We must go to him with our tears and know that He hears the cries and sees the tears and because he is our Father, He will come, He will act, He will make things good. 

A friend signed an email to me this week with these words, "All shall be well." She is in the midst of some deep suffering. This seems to be how the psalmist ends his psalms, namely, honesty about how he feels, ensuing tears, but a deep affirmation that, "All shall be well," and it will. 

Love, 

Dad