The Psalms & the Seasons of Life
Dr. James Smith
Psalm 8, 13, & 30
5 September 2004
September is upon us and that means that we are beginning to enter into the fall season of the year. Everyone has their favorite seasons and mine has to be summer.
In fact, this was probably the best summer that I have had in many years. And I think one of the key reasons why it was so good for me was that I have become more aware of the importance of different times and seasons in my own life.
The four seasons have been compared with different times and stages of the human life for many centuries. Artists and musicians have all sought to capture in different ways the numerous meanings and emotions that are experienced by people during these periods of their lives.
For me, however, when I think about the seasons in my own life, I categorize them a bit differently then the spring, summer, fall and winter cycle that naturally occurs over the course of any given year.
You see, I struggle with doctors call “seasonal affective disorder.” This is a rather recent diagnosis for me and a relatively new category within the medical and psychological professions.
For most of my life, I have more or less dreaded the coming of winter. I grew up in Michigan and if you have ever heard people saying that Midwestern winters used to be a lot worse and more severe then they are now . . . believe them!
There was just something about going from October to April and only seeing the sun maybe a dozen times or so. And while February is the shortest month of the year, it always seemed the longest to me.
So I did something new last winter that helped me tremendously, I planned on visiting my parents at their new place in Florida for the first week in March.
Just that thought alone, knowing that I was going to be surrounded by the warm sun, blue skies and palm trees helped me thorough the ugly, gray winter here in Chicago.
But I also know that all seasons have their place in life, whether it is always like it or not. In fact, it has been those “fall and winter times” of my life that really have helped me to grow spiritually.
After all, we can’t expect it to be summer all year round and somehow, I can’t shake the feeling that those who live in places that are warm and sunny all year, aren’t missing some valuable spiritual lessons along the way.
I guess there is just something about having to cut wood, lay up provisions as well as just “keeping your head down” and moving forward that are important character builders.
Christians have turned to the Book of Psalms to help them understand the spiritual landscape of their hearts as well as articulate and express the many different times and seasons of life.
In fact, in a recent book by the Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann, he has come to see that in the Book of Psalms, that Hebrew hymnal of the faith, 3 important categories or seasons that parallel the Christian life.
He notes first that there are those times of orientation in life. These oriented times express a “well ordered world” . . . times of life where there are no surprises and nothing to fear.
These are the seasons in life when things are going well, everything is good and God is generous. These are happy times when life seems simple and the love of God for us appears certain.
There are numerous Psalms that reflect this kind of oriented life. These include the songs of creation such as Psalm 8 as we have read this morning. These are Psalms that celebrate the wonder of God’s creative hand and his generosity toward men and women made in His own likeness.
Psalm 8 reflects the natural created order as God intended it. A world where God reigns and is praised, where human beings are ranked just under the angels in the created order and where the animals are beneath us.
These are like those warm and reliable “summer times” of life when things are predictable, equitable and reliable and when all things safely rest under the “sacred canopy.”
But summer doesn’t last forever, nor do such times of clear orientation in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ.
Sooner or later, we as Christians begin to notice some changes around us. Sometimes, they come almost imperceptively, while other times they seem to come without warning.
It may be due to some sin in our lives or it may simply rush into our lives unexpectedly and completely apart from either our control or consent.
It may be a death of a loved one, the loss of a job or those moments of uncertainty and aimlessness.
These are seasons of disorientation when we feel the rush of fear and terror of death in some way or another.
It is significant that these late fall and winter seasons of life are amply attested to in the Psalms. In fact, at least 1/3 of the Psalms are expressions of disorientation of one kind or another.
Psalm 13 that we read this morning is a personal complaint by someone who has entered “the dark pit” and who despairs of his own life.
He’s angry and terrified by the “incoherence, loss of balance and unrelieved asymmetry” of his own experience.
“God will you forget me forever?” “How long must I bear this pain?”
Ironically, these are not the kinds of Psalms that you hear quoted among Christians or used in church settings. Why? Because they are so unhappy and they dare to do something that many Christians would never dare to do . . . they complain.
They dare to question our modern notions that everything can be “managed and controlled,” as well as declaring that the life of faith is not simply about those oriented times when everything is going well, but rather life is really about a “pilgrimage or process.”
Be careful to notice however, that though the Psalmist is in the “pit,” he has not turned away or taken his eyes off of God. In fact, he has done anything but given up his faith, rather he is realizing that faith is much more then he once thought it was.
Finally, there are those times and seasons in life when after a long cold winter, the sun begins to peek through the clouds and new life returns. Spring has sprung and it could never be a more welcome thing then to the believer who has been through a painful season of disorientation.
These times of new life are reflected in the Psalms as well and can be called the new orientation.
These are those seasons that God surprises us with His grace when we least suspect it. And more often then not, this “newness cannot be explained, predicted or programmed” no matter how much we may like to.
These Psalms talk about going down into the pit and then coming back up again.
Psalm 30 as we read this morning, is a good example of the new orientation since it is a personal thanksgiving Psalm.
It clearly tells us that God drew him up from the grave and healed him after he had cried out to the Lord and so he naturally sings a song of thanks.
This is a person who is joyful and deeply grateful as well as a person who knows that he has grown immeasurably from the experience. This person has been forever changed by the process and can never return to that somewhat naïve oriented faith of the past.
As I have been studying the Psalms in recent weeks, I have been thinking about the different seasons of life and have been greatly encouraged by the honesty and breadth of experience that can be found in the Psalter.
And I confess that I have enjoyed this summer as a kind of season of orientation and that I really hope that it doesn’t end despite the coming of fall and worse yet, winter.
But I think that we all can agree that it is in those unpleasant seasons of disorientation that shake us from our easy and untested faith. Disoriented times are never fun, but they frequently become the “seed-bed” for growth and maturity.
And it is those times, just when we think we can’t take another day of it, that God so often comes to the rescue as we experience yet another wonderful spring time of faith; a season of new orientation where we are stronger, wiser and more faithful for the wear.
I hope that you will prayerfully begin your own study of the Psalms over the course of September as we take a closer look at each of these seasons of orientation, disorientation and new orientation.
And it’s my prayer that this month long study will provide you with new spiritual insights that will help you in whatever season of life that you may be experiencing . . . both now and into the future.
Let’s Pray
