If you are new to this blog, on Friday or Saturday I will post something from my Vault, or one of my other Writing Projects. The Psalms Project is my attempt to take the spirit of the Psalms and re-apply them and write new ones for today. I am NOT trying to replace the amazing Psalms already in the Bible! I am in no way trying to paraphrase or restate each Psalm, but I do pay homage to them and other Bible passages, of course. While often meant as songs in the Hebrew Scriptures, mine are more like meditative essays. I invite you to play along, see what you might identify with or relate to in these. So, here is another Psalm for a Modern Day. (And yes, I did refresh the Picture for this segment, again. I was at the beach.)
UNSETTLEDNESS
Quiet. Oh my soul longs for quiet. I feel the pull of conflicting emotions, conflicting thoughts, like a great torrent all around me. Drowning! I am drowning in myself.
Selah.
But I am trying to hold on to these things, these shadows. Just as I cannot hold water in my hands very well, so I cannot hold on to all of this me-ness, self-ness. But awareness is not enough, for I am sinking. I am pulled down to darkness below.
Selah.
And then there is a Voice. He speaks over my (inner) clamoring waves—He speaks:
I AM HERE. I AM IN YOU. BE STILL.
But if I be still, surely I will drown! Should I not thrash about more, surely I can save myself?
BE STILL AND KNOW.
Against my better judgment, I STOP. I stop my ruminations, and my wrestling, and my justifications, and my…
For a moment, I sink, and I think this will be the end. But then there is LIGHT, and the heaviness falls away. I am lifted up, above the waters, and there is peace.
MY BURDEN IS LIGHT. DO NOT ADD TO IT.
Suddenly I am on dry ground, and the Breeze blows gently, and He is in the Wind. He brings peace when you obey. He brings peace when we stop ourselves. He may let you “drown”, so that He may raise you up! Do not add to His burden. Praise Him—for He calms the waves of the seas and the waves within—for neither is too hard for Him!
Amen.
(Some of the ideas here are a reworking of Psalm 46, and Matthew 11:28-30)
-Eric, the Wordsmith
BP31-P9
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