PERSONAL CAUTION V.1-3

IN WHAT I SAY V.1

MY WALK                  

I said, I will take heed to my ways,

MY TALK                    

that I sin not with my tongue:

IN WHAT I SUPPRESS

DISCIPLINED COMMUNICATION 

I will keep my mouth with a bridle

DAMAGE CONTROL                    

while the wicked is before me

DIPLOMATIC CONTAINMENT

I was dumb with silence

IN WHAT I STIFLE V.3  

I held my peace, even from good

REPRESSED FEELINGS

My heart was hot within me         

DEPRESSED MISERABLY

while I was musing the fire burned

RELEASED FEELINGS

then spake I with my tongue,

PRAYER FOR CONSIDERATION V.4-7

MY FATE                    

LORD, make me to know mine end,

MY FUTURE              

and the measure of my days,

MY FRAILTY            

what it is that I may know how frail I am

ACCELERATION    

Behold, you have made my days short

AGE                          

and mine age is as nothing before thee:

ACHIEVEMENTS  

verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity

ACTIVITIES            

Surely every man walks in a vain show:

AGGRAVATIONS  

surely they are disquieted in vain:

ATTAINMENTS      

he heaps up riches & knows not who shall gather them

ANTICIPATION      

And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in You.

PRAYER FOR COMPASSION V.8-13

DELIVER FROM IMPERFECTION

Deliver me from all my transgressions

DELIVER FROM INSULTERS          

make me not the reproach of the foolish

DELIVER FROM INDISCRETION  

I want to see your hand in everything

DELIVER FROM IGNORANCE        

I was dumb

DELIVER FROM IMPERTINENCE

I opened not my mouth because you did it

DELIVER FROM INJURY V.10-13

YOUR CHASTENING HAND

I FEEL DEVOURED  

Remove thy stroke away from me I am consumed by the blow of your hand

I FEEL DECIMATED

When you with rebukes correct man for iniquity you make his beauty to consume away like a moth

I FEEL DRAINED      

surely every man is vanity. Selah.

I FEEL DISTRESSED

Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry hold not thy peace at my tears:

I FEEL DESERTED

for I am a stranger with you, and a sojourner, As all my fathers were.

I FEEL DESTROYED

O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.

Feelings are a odd thing and as one has said poetry is the language of feelings. It reaches beyond sight and sound into the senses. It is The language of the heart. The psalms are an invitation to explore those feelings. It’s thought that feelings describe our inner reactions to our horizontal relationships with people and events, but even deeper, to our vertical relationship to God and the way he allows life to work, in the unpredictable patterns as they do. It’s an exposure to God and his dealings and many of the Psalms could be titled Psalms of disorientation, as raw feelings are exposed and naked before God, or in reality to ourselves.