Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Psalms When We're In Pain

The Psalms are great at expressing what people are going through, and that includes living with pain and being ill. I can really relate to many of them, and like to use them to pray them back to the Lord, although it's really more like just talking to Him. When I do that, I will sometimes change just a few words to make it more applicable to what I'm going through. (No, this isn't adding to or taking away from God's Word, unless I were to change it and say it was what God was saying; this is perfectly acceptable to the Lord, and the what we do when we pray the scriptures) So I thought I'd share some with you all as I figure you guys can probably relate to it too. I've also included a few other scriptures at the end that I like to pray about this too. (I'll underline any words I've changed so you'll know and can check the original to see if it applies to you better)

You can use all of them, or some of them, and mix and match them however you need to for your current situation, and you don't have to use an entire psalm, but can use just a verse or the verses that apply to you at the time.

I think it helps too to know that others have been in this situation before us and also took their pain to the Lord. Although I haven't posted entire psalms here, but just portions of them, they almost always end in praise, even the the psalmist is crying out to God because of pain and illness. Therefore, since that's the pattern the Lord has given us, that's what I try to do as well. I believe the reason He wants us to do that, is that way, we give our pain to the Lord and then switch our focus to Him and all things good, which helps lift us out of the pain and despair. I hope this will be a blessing to all.



Psalm 102
A prayer of the afflicted. When they are faint and pour out their lament before the LORD.

1 Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry for help come to you.
2 Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress. Turn your ear to me; when I call, answer me quickly.
3 For my days vanish like smoke; my bones burn like glowing embers.
4 My heart is blighted and withered like grass; I forget to eat my food.
5 Because of my loud groaning I am reduced to skin and bones.
6 I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins.
7 I lie awake; I have become like a bird alone on a roof.
8 All day long my body taunts me; others don't understand me.
9 For I eat ashes as my food and mingle my drink with tears
10 because of your great wrath, for you have taken me up and thrown me aside.
11 My days are like the evening shadow; I wither away like grass.
12 But you, O LORD, sit enthroned forever; your renown endures through all generations.


Psalm 119:66–68
66 Teach me knowledge and good judgment, for I believe in your commands.
67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.
68 You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees.

Psalm 119:71–74
71 It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.
72 The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.
73 Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands.
74 May those who fear you rejoice when they see me, for I have put my hope in your word.

Psalm 119:107–108
107 I have suffered much; preserve my life, O LORD, according to your word.
108 Accept, O LORD, the willing praise of my mouth, and teach me your laws.

Psalm 119:153–156
153 Look upon my suffering and deliver me, for I have not forgotten your law.
154 Defend my cause and redeem me; preserve my life according to your promise.
155 Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek out your decrees.
156 Your compassion is great, O LORD; preserve my life according to your laws.

Psalm 22:23–24
23 You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from me but has listened to my cry for help.

Psalm 31:7
7 I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul.

Psalm 31:9–15
9 Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief.
10 My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.
11 Because of all my pain, I am the utter contempt of my neighbors; I am a dread to my friends— those who see me on the street flee from me.
12 I am forgotten by them as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery.
13 For I hear the slander of many; there is terror on every side; they conspire against me and plot to take my life.
14 But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in your hands; deliver me from my pain and from those who slander me.

Psalm 38:1–11
1 O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.
2 For your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down upon me.
3 Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; my bones have no soundness because of my sin.
4 My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.
5 My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly.
6 I am bowed down and brought very low; all day long I go about mourning.

7 My back is filled with searing pain; there is no health in my body.
8 I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart.
9 All my longings lie open before you, O 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.

Psalm 42:8–11
8 By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?”
10 My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
11 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Psalm 6:2–4
2 Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am faint; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony.
3 My soul is in anguish. How long, O LORD, how long?
4 Turn, O LORD, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love.

Psalm 6:6–9
6 I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.
7 My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my pain.
8 Away from me, all you who do evil, for the LORD has heard my weeping.
9 The LORD has heard my cry for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer.

Psalm 69:20
20 Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none.

Psalm 69:26
26 For they persecute those you wound and talk about the pain of those you hurt.

Psalm 69:29–30
29 I am in pain and distress; may your salvation, O God, protect me.
30 I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.

Psalm 10:14
14 But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are their helper.

Psalm 10:17–18
17 You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
18 defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.

Isaiah 38:17
17 Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back.

Job 36:15
15 But those who suffer he delivers in their suffering; he speaks to them in their affliction.

Job 6:10
10 Then I would still have this consolation— my joy in unrelenting pain— that I had not denied the words of the Holy One.

As you can see, I changed very little in them.
From those we should begin to encourage ourselves, reminding ourselves of what God's Word says:

1 Peter 4:19
19 So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

1 Peter 4:1–2
1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.
2 As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God.

Philippians 4:11
11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

Romans 5:3–5
3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.
5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Romans 8:18
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

2 Corinthians 4:17–18
17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Revelation 21:4
4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

We end as the Psalms do, by Praising the Lord!!!! I like to use this scripture first as it combines both praise, encouragement and reminders.

1 Peter 1:3–9
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you,
5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Psalm 16:11
11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

1 Corinthians 2:9
9 However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”—

Psalm 146
1 Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul.
2 I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
3 Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.
4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.
5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God,
6 the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— the LORD, who remains faithful forever.
7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free,
8 the LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous.
9 The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
10 The LORD reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the LORD.

A vision of the kingdom of Christ among men.
(Rev. 21:1–4.)

Lo! what a glorious sight appears
To our believing eyes!
The earth and sea are passed away,
And the old rolling skies.

From the third heav’n, where God resides,
That holy, happy place,
The new Jerusalem comes down,
Adorned with shining grace.

Attending angels shout for joy,
And the bright armies sing-
“Mortals, behold the sacred seat
Of your descending King.

“The God of glory down to men
Removes his blest abode;
Men, the dear objects of his grace,
And he the loving God.

“His own soft hand shall wipe the tears
From every weeping eye,
And pains, and groans, and griefs, and fears,
And death itself, shall die.”

How long, dear Savior! O how long
Shall this bright hour delay?
Fly swifter round, ye wheels of time,
And bring the welcome day.

The Psalms and hymns of Isaac Watts.


Psalm 34 Part 1
Meter: L. M.
God’s care of the saints; or, Deliverance by prayer.

Lord, I will bless thee all my days,
Thy praise shall dwell upon my tongue
My soul shall glory in thy grace,
While saints rejoice to hear the song.

Come, magnify the Lord with me,
Come, let us all exalt his name;
I sought th’ eternal God, and he
Has not exposed my hope to shame.

I told him all my secret grief,
My secret groaning reached his ears;
He gave my inward pains relief;
And calmed the tumult of my fears.

To him the poor lift up their eyes,
Their faces feel the heav’nly shine;
A beam of mercy from the skies
Fills them with light and joy divine.

His holy angels pitch their tents
Around the men that serve the Lord;
O fear and love him, all his saints,
Taste of his grace, and trust his word.

The wild young lions, pinched with pain
And hunger, roar through all the wood;
But none shall seek the Lord in vain,
Nor want supplies of real good.

The Psalms and hymns of Isaac Watts.

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