The honesty and passion of the Psalms floors me. Picks my snoozing heart right out of the rocker and sets it on a course toward integrity. It doesn’t matter who you are. If you’re human, you experience the gamut of emotions to which the Psalms witness.
And sometimes those emotions are dark.
What is this really saying? This is no romantic notion of fainting from happiness or desire. This is an all out cry of despair. My eyes fail. My soul faints. This is an admission that the circumstances around seem overwhelmingly dark. The Psalmist’s cry for comfort is borne from suffering, from a restless, weary soul.
But look at the faith: looking for your promise . . . longing for your salvation. This is faith in action, albeit, coming from a disillusioned believer. When will you comfort me? The Psalmist knows the comfort will come when it comes, when God releases it.
Are you in a dark forest where beams of light do little to warm you or direct your path? Let the honesty of the Psalms encourage you. Sometimes you have to admit that you can’t see–your eyes have failed. And sometimes you have to admit that your soul faints–becomes so overwhelmed you can’t function.
I’ve been there. More than others might think. Faith isn’t necessarily strong in that moment, bt faith knows to keep looking for what comes later. The comfort that will come, even if not on this earth. Faith knows the Promise and the Salvation that gives that comfort.
Sometimes my dreams reveal despair in my heart that I had stuffed when awake and busy. I awoke this morning at 3 am, sobbing and agonizing over feelings of loneliness that I could not conquer. I turned on the soft light of my Kindle and snuggled up in the Father’s arms. As I read His words of comfort to me, my spirit lightened and I felt wrapped in Jesus’ protective embrace.