It was my birthday a few weeks back and a friend sent a card with some photos on, one of which is me at the helm of a sailing boat. I’d quite forgotten about it and the memory made me smile. If you didn’t know the context, you could even look at that photo and think I knew what I was doing. What you can’t see is the storm we were sailing into – only minutes later I was wrestling the helm as the wind and rain lashed the boat and the sea reminded me of my amateur status.
In those moments, everything felt troubled. The work of sailing was harder. The elements seemed set against us and it was hard to see a clear way ahead. Sometimes life is a bit like that, isn’t it? One moment everything seems fine and the next your heart is sinking and your soul is struggling.
Maybe it’s coronavirus, social isolation, or politics. Perhaps you have uncertainty around work, finances or relationships. It could be that you don’t even know why you’re feeling unsettled, worried or fearful.
At times like that I’m drawn to the words of the psalmist, probably King David but possibly a later writer, in Psalm 116.
Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
– Psalm 116:7 (ESV)
It’s an interesting thing to say, the words are beautiful and poetic and you could easily brush past them as a twee statement of well being. But the statement is an instruction, not a commentary. You don’t tell a soul that is at peace to return to rest, those are words to a troubled soul, words to a soul that finds itself quivering.
The words are prophetic because they speak the truth and the promise of God into a temporal circumstance. They announce that regardless of the present feeling, the truth is that God has dealt bountifully with us.
So how does this look in practice? How can we speak peace into our own disquiet and chaos? The verses that immediately follow this statement give us some insight into how this works.
For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
– Psalm 116:8-9 (ESV)
There’s a progression at work here. In verse 7 the Psalmist speaks into the present – following this by remembering God’s faithfulness in the past, in the confident hope of the future.
Telling the soul to rest is not just a nice thought, an upbeat mantra or a troubled mind looking for an out. It’s a statement that is backed up by evidence. The soul can rest because of what God has done in the past, because He has came through so many times before, and that gives us a confident hope in the future.
I’d encourage you if you’re feeling troubled to do just that. Take five minutes from your day and follow these steps:
- Still yourself as best you can, and invite the Holy Spirit.
- Pray for peace in your soul.
- Recount some times when God has brought you through uncertainty or hardship in the past.
- Confess your belief that he will be faithful to you in the future.
I’ve put an example prayer beneath this post, if you want to fill in the gaps and use it as a guide to get started.
There’s a memorable phrase used in the King James translation of the bible; when David’s men are considering killing him in 1 Samuel 30, it tells us that “David encouraged himself in the Lord”. It’s a thing that we all need to be able to do and yet can also seem like such a challenge in moments of distress.
In this Psalm, however, we find a template for doing exactly that. We must speak into our present – recounting the great things He has done for us, and reminding ourselves that He will once again bring us through.
Selah.
(I’d love to clarify that, while I’m writing about a way of praying that can help us when we’re feeling troubled, if you have persistent problems with anxiety, stress or depression then you should seek help by going to your doctor.)