The Cry That is answered...

 

Sunday Mar 30^th 2025 – Ps 6; 1 Cor 2:19-20; 1 Peter 1:13; Eph 6:17

Hi folks! Blessed Sunday to you all! I continue to share stuff with friends as I work on the text of Jacob’s ladder. These posts are exactly that. You will find what you will.

Psalm 6 embodies the Israelite cry to God, always answered as long as covenant relationship is there. Psalm 6 is not about pie in the sky when you die, but a here and now!

The Psalmist suffers; tradition calls this a prayer for healing from severe illness; it affects mind, body, and soul. Note the ‘languishing; troubled bones, troubled soul; weeping; eye wasting away…’ certainly grievous.

Small clue in the ‘how long’ – will you stay mad at me? Your anger, wrath; don’t chasten me or rebuke me; be gracious to me. Turn and save. Deliver me! For the sake of your steadfast love – the love a Father has for his children. It’s relational. Ignore or destroy the relationship, risk losing the safekeeping of the Father. Know (that word again) your Father loves you and cares for you. He will not ignore you. If this knowing is there, ask. It has a lot to do with the access path you have created as you have chosen. The entire history of Israel is proof of this. Whenever the people cried to God, God answered. From Exodus through to that neat story about Gideon saying but I’m the least of my tribe!

Yet there are no guarantees? God’s answer sometimes is not to answer? Interpretive tradition looks at the loss of David’s 1^st born, post his Bathsheba fling. That might have turned out ok, except that she was with child and David tried to get around it, failed, and so had her husband, Uriah the faithful, killed so he could marry Bathsheba. Common understanding is that it displeased God, who appreciates faithfulness. And the prophet Nathan comes to the King. The story is told; the King demands justice; then discovers ‘you are the man!’ So that scene was set. No more than cause and effect, almost. In taking Bathsheba and getting Uriah killed, David had acted intentionally. Now David cries, fasts, hopes. Nothing.

Is there more to it? Consider, as we go, the Fatherhood of God and the nature of our childhood in the Kingdom. David wanted God to heal the child, but did he ignore his now broken relationship with God, for which he needed to seek healing first? Fix the broken relationship first before you seek healing and forgiveness. Think and pray on it, for we all figure in this. David in Israel’s history is special, there is no other closer to God in relationship. God gives the power to do but also gives the power to be. And the two combine. 

The conclusion has been that if we sin, we suffer the consequences of cause and effect. But maybe sin is not so much as a matter of doing but as one of being in relationship and then separating from it. Fathers do not necessarily seek to punish, as much as to teach. Consequences can vary. In Jesus there is new covenant, new growing edges, new meanings. This is important and we will figure it out as we go.

The Psalmist seems more fortunate. Much suffering. Much waiting. We have no idea for how long. Patience is a virtue in a time of illness. You can’t go anywhere. You steady your mind to motivate your body to heal. Time to log into the mind of Christ. You focus on the healing itself.

The body is a strange thing. A God given vehicle for much earthy and earthly enjoyment when kept finely tuned. Some of us know this, some of us don’t. Behavior can be inconsequential, and we may not age well. We expect MDs to help, but PCP healing ability is limited. Skilled surgeons can help, but the healing itself is your task. Effective medication can help, but you must learn to balance and control it. Body is not meant to be dependent. We get by when it becomes so.

The implications for mind, body and spirit are important. The right nutrition and exercise, the right use of the body. Our school systems don’t teach our children useful essentials, never mind moral judgements. John Wesley once said God help me if I think I’m a better man just because I don’t smoke or drink. That route is indeed too easy. Every talker needs to be a doer of good things or they will not grow.  It is never so much what I don’t do as what I do that can make a positive difference to myself and to others. Bad habits can be replaced by good ones. It just takes time and effort of will. But it is doable.  And when the interface is held in correct tension, we are on our way to the earthly realization of Psalm 8. The body is a prep vehicle, and as needed, can do strange and wonderful things, because God is also in the mix. As we age, we may have to balance the limits, but we can extend new capability, like wisdom and insight.

And the X factor – not just the accord with God, but the inherent power of that accord whose functional level depends on the depth of our consistent walk. The stronger this is, the more capable we are in mind, body and spirit, unbelievably. Must be tested out to realize its truth. Hence the ‘O taste and see that the Lord is good.’ Spiritual growth is work. Self- awareness and self-realization, like the Greek Oracle’s ‘know thyself’. Knowing scripture, testing scripture, for not all of it applies; knowing and listening to the Spirit – the practice of stillness in mind, body and spirit being perhaps most difficult of all, learning and practicing just what human will can do. Then seeing the results. And marveling at them.

So the Psalmist, somewhere around vs 7, erupts into a “Cheers!’ mode. Don’t know what changed, but it has passed. There is recovery. There is healing. There is confirmation of my childhood before God, the Heavenly Father. Healing – be it of mind, body or spirit, is an uplifting restoration, one that God always desires for us.  May it be so always, for each one of you. Every blessing in Jesus. G.