READ Psalm 38:9–14. 9 All my longings lie open before you, Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you. 10 My heart pounds, my strength fails me; even the light has gone from my eyes. 11 My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds; my neighbors stay far away. 12 Those who want to kill me set their traps, those who would harm me talk of my ruin; all day long they scheme and lie. 13 I am like the deaf, who cannot hear, like the mute, who cannot speak; 14 I have become like one who does not hear, whose mouth can offer no reply.
ALL MY LONGINGS. The psalms are remarkable for recording with brutal honesty the cries of those who are sick and suffering. The Bible knows nothing of “Pain is an illusion” or “Just don’t let it get to you” or “If you really believed with all your heart, you would get your deliverance.” These views make human will the solution. But it is not “mind over matter”—it is God over matter. God alone can restore a body or a soul to health. Not a molecule of our bodies or a faculty of our soul does its appointed job without his upholding hand. If he removes his hand, even for a moment, we face the truth we so often ignore: Without his help, we perish.
Prayer: Lord, what a frail creature I am, in body and soul. Without your sustenance of both, I fall apart. So I come to you for both forgiveness and my health. “Though I fail—I weep. Though I halt in pace—yet I creep, to the throne of grace.”33 Amen.