All Your Concerns and Psalm 138

Psalm 138 reads as follows from the New King James version of the Bible:

1 I will praise You with my whole heart;
Before the gods I will sing praises to You.
2 I will worship toward Your holy temple,
And praise Your name
For Your lovingkindness and Your truth;
For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.
3 In the day when I cried out, You answered me,
And made me bold with strength in my soul.

4 All the kings of the earth shall praise You, O LORD,
When they hear the words of Your mouth.
5 Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the LORD,
For great is the glory of the LORD.
6 Though the LORD is on high,
Yet He regards the lowly;
But the proud He knows from afar.

7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;
You will stretch out Your hand
Against the wrath of my enemies,
And Your right hand will save me.
8 The LORD will perfect that which concerns me;
Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever; :
Do not forsake the works of Your hands.

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A key verse in this psalm is verse 8 which says, “the Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; Do not forsake the work of your hands.” Even while walking in the midst of trouble which of course could have been a deepening trouble, as it can get worse, the psalmist can meditate on how the Lord goes into all of his concerns out of his mercy for him, a mercy that he does know even from the trouble he is in. "Though I walk through the midst of trouble," means, despite or even though I do have these troubles of which are of an encompassing nature, as the psalmist walks right in these troubles, there is a way of perfecting or a perfection of the Lord for him arising out of the gift of mercy, a mercy which is directly upon his troubles.

The thought might be, all I need to do is to get to a higher status, a higher position and I’m set as to everything and all other things will be also running smoothly But trouble if it comes has the feel of a lower estate, of being down and out, and feeling lowly as mentioned in this psalm. With that, there might be the feeling or thoughts that the Lord is not regarding you because of your difficulties, and that the Lord’s grace does not come into this circle of troubles.

This can be a point of questioning in prayer, that is asking the Lord how he regards the particular trouble you are in and this is asking the perpective of the Lord on your troubles. Your perpective on your troubles and the Lord's perspective and your troubles may not match and it is useful to ask the Lord for his perspective.

But whether you are standing in a good position or not, your concerns may also direct widely as well as to what is right in front of you in the moment. Even in the middle of trouble, your concerns can have a rather wide or widening scope and the troubles may keep you in a sense from addressing concerns that go out there, but you can reach into because of the overlay of troubles right upon you.

The very state of the land or ways of the society you are living in can be of concern to you. How your friends and the people you meet are doing is of concern to you. Potential situations that have not come up yet is a concern to you.

Verse 7 says,” Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me, You will stretch out Your hand, Against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand will save me,” In the case of the psalmist, the Lord stretches his hand against his enemies, whose pursuit is a concern of the psalmist. The point of this is that the concerns of the psalmist mentioned in verse 8 stretches out to concerns about pursuing enemies. And this indeed was the case of the psalmist David. David might not have only had troubles right upon him, but also mounting troubles in the distance of approaching enemies. The Lord’s hand would stretch not only to his local concerns, but his more distant and faraway concerns, that soon could be coming close enough.

Indeed what concerns you does stretch beyond. There might be more immediate concerns, but your concerns also stretch widely and go to any number of situations and places. There are direct concerns and indirect concerns. Concerns might be for friends, relatives, distant relatives. You might work for a company that has concerns all over the globe. The state of the environment concerns you and this can go to global as an ecological disaster can come right to your area through the water or atmosphere. Giant natural fires have send smoke to other countries through the atmosphere.

Just what could concern a given individual if looked at more broadly can almost be endless.

There can be the guise of independence.

For example, I might be a strong hiker and an expert hiker going into some exotic terrain or going into a climb of foreboding mountains. There is kind of an independent reliance on this strength, endurance and expertise. However the conditions and the situation is still something that has uncontrollable and potentially dangerous elements and wild animals such as bears, mountain lions and so forth could be lurking. Things like avalanches, extreme weather fronts, suddenly falling trees could all come into play. A wrong step near a ledge could be a factor. All this might call for the watchful care of the Lord and or one of these angels. There is the feeling of independence and strength, but it has its limits and beyond that there are contending forces and elements that could come into play in the situation and do list as outside concerns.

Someone could have extensive intelligence, where they can chart previously unknown courses in science and things like that, but that independent intelligence can only do so much and can’t keep every possible trouble at bay or in the distance. Trouble can lurk no matter what your independent abilities are.

Someone might have a mansion on the hill and feel secure with that, and then not see the Lord as his or her fortress as per psalm 71 verse 3 which says,” Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go; give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Your fortress isn’t a mansion of the hill, a great job, some given talent, but the extended hand of the Lord towards your concerns, the hand of which you can resort to continuously, as you can always go into the mercy of the Lord’s extended hand which stretches into all of your concerns according to this psalm.

There are those who are relying too much on things like mansions which are of course nice to have but have limited range. But once they go about they can’t defer away from variables out there that are concerning that are not within their ability to control despite their independent means of wealth. In modern days, things like transportation conditions, the availability of food for sale, the state of the nation, the state of the air and whether it is clean to breath, how the big cities are doing, are all concerns of any given individual. If things are caving in around you, it might eventually also reach you.

Concerns might be held jointly as well as individually. You have concerns with other individuals that you share. Even taking a trip with friends, you are all concerned about travel conditions as they will be.

Concerns of the psalmist David might have stretched to and been shared with the men of his army, his congregation, to his lineage in the far future.

One can look at superficial concerns and deeper concerns and deeper concerns of the heart might need to be drawn out of the wells of the depths with the grace of the Lord. The grace of the Lord is powerful and touches on all of your concerns. There is a tendency sometimes for the faithful to gloss over concerns. They might say to themselves, all I need to do is seek the Kingdom and all these things will be added to me.

While the focus is to be what is first, someone should at least be aware of the additions and the need for them. The Lord’s hand does extend into the additions which might be obscure from you current view but nevertheless they are real concerns of yours. You might need added finances, added health, added sunshine, added good food, added favor, added fellowships, all addressed as concerns whether primary or secondary, as they are still concerns for the light of the Lord’s presence. Someone for example may have the need for added finances in the near future, but they aren’t aware of this need in the present moment. So the extension or extended hand of concerns goes also into the future. And from this psalm, anything that rings of troubles or difficulties is also a matter of concern even if it makes you feel bad about yourself and you think it is or it is your own fault.

The other aspect of this is that, you might be going to church a lot, serving the Lord reverently and with fervor in some way and then maybe somehow not prioritizing that which really does concern you. And real concerns might be brushed aside, and this might be partly a lack of trust not only in the Lord but also in your self and your own ability to deal with them. But the Lord might bring these concerns out, that indeed what you are semi ignoring is a concern of yours and that you should be shifting some attention and resources of time, talent, thought, effort and whatever towards these concerns which are real and are part of what concerns you in the Lord’s sighting for you and his extended hand for you and what the Lord will perfect in that it does indeed concern you. Therefore it is not wrong to go into these concerns giving that the Lord is working on them.

An example of this might be I could be going to the office and spending a lot of time there and doing great with my job but I am not getting enough exercise. Because I am doing so well in this one area, I brush aside another area as really being a matter of concern. And then even spiritually if we are doing great, we might brush aside another area as having little importance when indeed it really is a concern. Even the need for a trip, a vacation or a change of scenery might be an important concern that people brush aside for years. What can be meditated on with this psalm is just how the Lord has extended his hand widely, and has put his shepherding care into your concerns that are much more that you may have contemplated previously. If the hand of the Lord is stretched into these areas, then you also could also stretch your own hand into these areas and this psalm also has the aspect of permission, in that if something really does concern you in the eyes of the Lord and his hand is stretched upon these concerns, then you do have permission to proceed into these area with His guidance.

This is important because sometimes people feel that they are identified with the trouble they are in and think their only concern is what is of the nature of the troubles and the contenting forces about these troubles. It is also as if they feel they do not have permission to go into another area, and that in a way it doesn’t concern them as all they have are these set of troubles anda circumstances and that is all they should be thinking about. But the Lord’s hand stretches to real concerns which could be more of a trouble free nature as well but areas that may and potentially can concern you in the positive sense of things. So there can be an astuteness of spirit, where the Lord is leading me into what are real concerns, in the truth of his light, rather than things that may not be seen by me from the surrounding darkness of some troubles.

The psalmist was capable of thinking about this, as he speaks of the Lord’s wide hand of perfection, and realizes that it is there even though he is immersed in troubles,  and it isn’t all troubles and the Lord’s presence goes to these troubles but also way beyond these troubles to concerns that are indeed outside of these troubles but stll under the light of his widening presence for you.