The Psalms are an “in and out”

book of feelings

These “in and outs” are

condensed into poetic verse.

The lyrics swing down into
the depths of depression.

Then the ode launches up to
the heights of the delightful enchantments of praise.

When we go “in” to
depression light vanishes.

The gears of our life
crust up with rust.

Every movement can
screech with groans.

We are “out” of it, in a frame
where joy is drained
and despondency oozes
“in” to the void that’s left.

The flood of Depression has
tripled during the last 9 months
of the covid nonsense.

The power of this depression
is drowning us.

It drags us like victims
into a ubiquitous gloom.

Nicole Kaufman suggests:

“Despair gushes
into every moment”

Discouragement stains
the brilliancy of life

It steals our hope.

As one has described it

“The compulsion to cry lodges perpetually in the throat, but the relief of weeping
never comes”.

We need a new
perspective of an

“out”

We need to delight
in our Saviour

We need to relish in the luxury
of His salvation and His truth.

Depression makes our mind
twist and warp everything.

Suddenly an encounter
with someone,

Abruptly an unfortunate
awkward circumstance,

throws us into
a downward spiral.

Everything becomes warped
and our limited perceptions
become our truth.

The Psalms express
these “out” emotions.

“I am utterly bowed
down and prostrate,”

the psalmist laments.

“All the day I go
about mourning.

My sides are
filled with burning,

There is no soundness
in my flesh.

“I am feeble and crushed”

“I groan because of
the tumult of my heart”

I am
“like an evening shadow,”

I feel that I

“wither away like grass”

The psalmist grieves;

“My heart is in
anguish within me;

the terrors of death
have fallen on me.

Fear and trembling
come upon me,
and horror overwhelms me”

The root Hebrew word
“Psalms” is “mizmor”

This term has to do with
the pruning or cutting
off of superfluous twigs.

Every couple of days we
cut stuff on our plants
in the garden

Pruning is a must
to a fruitful plant.

Pruning is a must of
a fruitful developing life

Poetry is, short sentences,

cuttings

an economy of words.

Not lengthy flowery phrases.

When we’re in trouble,

We don’t want to waste time

with fine elaborate words

and prolonged expressions

and extended arguments.

When we are desperate

we need to get right to

the point.

The psalm prune away

wordy speech.

The Psalms are full of

“Selahs.”

Selah means “to lift up”

Selah is a Word thought
expressing a crescendo.

Selah is a high point

to stop and think deeply.

A filter to rise above.

An “out” from the low to

an “in” to the high.

One writer claims that Selah!

Means

“Boom it out!

Pull out the stops!

There is a roar of music
to draw attention to the
sentence being sung,

a kind of musical
punctuation mark.

Another explanation is
that the selah means,

“There, what do
you think of that!

Or, as we would say today:

“Print that in italics!

Print that in capital letters!

“SELAH!”

In Psalms 3 we read:

“There is no help for
him in God. Selah.”

In other words;
What do you
think of that?

“I cried to the Lord …
and He heard me
out of His holy hill.
Selah.”

What do think of that?

“Salvation is of the Lord.…

Selah.”

What do you think of that?

We need salvation constantly.

We are weak.

We are susceptible.

We are vulnerable to copping
a weird despicable perspective.

Salvation is not
something
we find in us.

One has suggested:

Our salvation is not
in crying and tears,

Our salvation is not
in promises and resolves,

Our salvation is
not in sacrifices
and good works.

Our salvation is
not in the church.

Our salvation is not in
creeds, baptisms,
communions, rituals,
and many ceremonies.

Salvation is of the Lord.

God shuts us
up to Himself.

And He says

“Selah”.

What do you
think of that?

We need the Psalms

“the pruning”

the cutting away
of dead branches.

We need to “Selah”

to think deeply

into God’s perspective.

To meditate and chew deeply

and continuously on the Truth.

We need to hear
our Lord Jesus.

“Selah”

“In and out”

Put Jesus in

Cut that out

I have 4 “in and out”

t-shirts

The cups and packaging
of the “In and out” business
has bible verses in each item

What do you think of that???