From the head to the heart

When the head and heart don’t align

Recently when I returned from my trip away, I spent a few weeks at home as a means to catch up on various things around the house.

One of the task I worked on was cleaning out the shed.

Now I suspect most people probably have one of those places around the house which is where you dump the stuff you’re not quite sure what do with it. I’m thinking things like the electrical cords that you don’t really need, but you might one day. Spare bits of wood that seem to good to just throw away. Baby toys that you don’t really need, but you also don’t really want to get rid of. Well my shed is the place that I often dump things like this.

And so I started the process of going through much of this.

Now, this is not always an easy task. It’s not easy because you have to decide what to keep and what to throw.

Actually, sometimes it should be easy - you know something is a piece of junk and you’ll never use it again, but yet you can’t bring yourself to throw it. Like I’ve got these random rods of metal, which to be honest, I’m not even sure where they came from. My head says throw them. My heart says, but I want to keep them. It’s the rationalisation of my heart - it says: imagine how you’ll feel when you need a rod of metal and you’ve thrown it out.

But then you also come across valuable things - things that are of value, but they need repairing. Your head says - this will be worth your time fixing this. Your heart says - I couldn’t be bothered.

It’s strange how so often we can know something to be good, or know something to be bad, but our heart operates in a different realm. It operates on feelings.

Now feelings aren’t bad things. They’re actually quite important in the way in which we perceive the world.

The problem occurs when there is a misalignment with our head and our heart.

Ideally, the head and heart should be working together to keep each other in check.

Responding to God with head and heart

This misalignment is also very much present when it comes to out response to God.

Now, I suspect for most people here this morning, we’ll be able to intellectually agree that God is worthy of all of our worship. I suspect if I went around the room, you’d be able to list off a number of reasons why you agree with that statement.

It is possible that some have come here this morning a little more skeptical, perhaps you’re still trying to figure it all out. If that’s you this morning, then bear with me, because this is still going to be relevant for you too.

You see, the point is, we can come at this one way intellectually, but we tend to find the heart is a lot more fickle.

Some days we’re really feeling it. It’s like we’re super aware of the presence of God. At these times, you don’t have to be told to worship God - it’s just going to happen.

But sometimes, well.. sometimes you just don’t feel it.

We still intellectually know the good things about God. But God feels distant. He feels far away.

It might be because you feel God has let you down. Perhaps he didn’t answer your prayer in the way you wanted him to. But it might even be more benign then that. It’s more that life has got busy. Spending time with God doesn’t seem a priority.

Now, having these cycles are normal. Life is never going to be one big spiritual high. However, if we’re not careful, the spiritual malaise can start to become to norm.

And so this morning, as we take a look at Psalm 103, I want to consider how we can start to get the head and the heart more in sync.

You see, the Psalm starts with “Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name”.

This is more than just an intellectual recognition about the goodness of God. This is a praise that comes from the deep depth of the heart.

And so the question I want to explore this morning is how do we get to that point of deep praise, particularly when our heart is just not feeling it?

A Psalm of David

But first, let’s just pause a moment to consider what we know about this Psalm.

Firstly, it’s a Psalm that has been attributed to David.

But there is something a bit different about this one compared to the others attributed to David. Most of his other Psalms are actually quite personal and talk about many of his struggles, whether it be struggles against his enemies or struggles against his own sinfulness. This one however, it’s almost like David is speaking for all of us - perhaps like him saying this is how you align your head and your heart in praise.

Another thing to note is that it appears to be like a twin Psalm with the next one, Psalm 104. Although this one isn’t attributed directly to David - it doesn’t have any superscription - it starts and finishes with the same refrain - “Praise the Lord, my soul”.

Psalm 104 is mostly focussed on praising God as creator, so read together, we see we praise God as saviour and as creator.

Forget not all his benefits

So, what does David tell us in this Psalm?

Well, I want to suggest that David actually tries to tie together our head knowledge with our heart.

He does this with the reminder - forget not all his benefits (verse 2).

It is so easy when things have become a little spiritual stale to think of what is only directly in front of us. And if your life is busy, there’s a good chance that the benefits of God are probably not front and center of your mind. Your just trying to think how you get the kids to all the places that the kids are meant to get to, and how you’re going to do all those chores around the house, all while trying to hold down a job.

But forget not all his benefits.

There’s a deliberate decision being made here. It’s the mind saying, I need to stop just for the moment.

Let’s connect those heart moments to our head.

You see, for those of you who have committed your life to Christ, I can guarantee that you can look back and recall times when there was something special.

David then lists some times which I think most believers would be able to relate with on one level or another.

Forgiveness of sins

The first being perhaps the most important for the believer. That moment we accept the forgiveness of our sins.

Guilt can hang over us like a dead weight. We can try our hardest to ignore it, but it never goes away. We can minimize it. We can rationalise it - after all the callous way you treat others is because they deserve it. But yet it sits there, eating away at you.

Except… for the believer, something amazing has happened. It’s not that we become perfect - far from it! Rather, we receive forgiveness. For some, it can feel like a weight is literally taken off them.

Recall those times when you’ve been aware of your sinfulness, only to feel the relief knowing you are forgiven.

If we’re going to forget not all of his benefits, well, let’s start with this one, because this truly is one of the most remarkable things. And as we recall that feeling we felt in the past in knowing we were forgiven, we can start to realise that even now… that guilt you’ve been feeling… you don’t need to carry it. You are forgiven. Yes, it’s possible there are consequences for what you’ve done, but when God looks at you, he sees a saint. You are a saint!

Just dwell on that.

Heals diseases

Verse 3 continues by reminding us that he heals all your diseases.

But hang on, not all diseases are healed, so what’s going on here?

You do have to be careful reading Psalms, because it’s easy to take a verse like this one and absolutize it. Diseases are a part of our experience in this fallen age that we live. But God is breaking through this fallen world and he has power over all diseases.

God has his purposes when he allows sickness and injuries to persist, but yet for many of us, perhaps even most or all, we can testify to a God who has brought physical healing in our lives.

It’s God reminding us that there is more to come.

Recall these times. Let them be a reminder that God has power to change.

Redeemed from the pit

Verse 4 has David reminding us of when we have been redeemed from the pit.

What was that pit for you? Was it a pit of despair? Was it a pit of your own sinfulness? Was it a pit of toxic people constantly pushing you down?

As David describes it, we arise from this pit where God “crowns you with love and compassion”.

You know, in a worldly sense, we may still be in that pit, yet with God by our side, we can know the feeling of being crowned with love and compassion. Have you experienced that? If so, allow it to be recalled to your mind.

Renewed like the eagle

Verse 5 might sound good for many here - having our youth renewed like the eagle.

In a physical sense, your body will age, and you will feel it. But yet, we can feel a renewal, a renewal in our life that only comes from God.

We could keep going, but it is in recalling all of these benefits… in bringing them to mind, that even in the tough times, we can still praise God with our inmost being.

Meditate on God’s love

But as we get to verse 6, we get a little shift in David’s thinking. We move from thinking about the benefits that we receive as believers, to thinking meditating on God himself.

Verse 6 starts: “The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed”.

Statements like this one can be easy to gloss over, but this is where we need to allow things to move from our head to our heart.

Let’s just think about this statement.

This statement overturns all of the power structures. You see, the oppressed are the oppressed because the powerful have their way. To work for the oppressed is to hold the powerful to account.

But this is what God is doing.

Sometimes we might wish he would hurry up about it, but actually, if you look throughout history, you’ll see powerful moments where justice prevails.

One great example is William Wilberforce, a committed Christian who was appalled by the slave trade. It took him practically his whole life, but he won a powerful victory which saw the abolish of the slave trade.

This is what God is about. He looks at injustice with disgust. And he works against it.

This side of the return of Christ, injustice will still remain, but if you take the time, you will see God working against it, even today.

But as we continue to mediate on who God is, verse 8 reminds us of his compassion and mercy.

You see, while we may wonder why he allows sinners to prevail, we’re also reminded that we are the sinner, and that he doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve (thankfully).

Now we might think, doesn’t his work for justice and his mercy to sinner become counter productive.

But this is the beauty of the God we worship. He has perfectly brought them together in the cross of Christ. The place where justice and mercy meet.

So how great is this love of God?

Well, verses 11 and 12 provide such a vivid way for us to answer that question.

The height of love

It reminds me of the kids book: “Guess how much I love you?” And spoiler alert, the Dad tells his son he loves him to the moon and back.

That is of course a lot of love.

But verse 11: “For as high as the heavens are about the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him”.

But let’s extend this picture even more… verse 12: “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us”.

Can you feel it?

David’s using this kind of language to provoke a feeling in you. This is not just theory. This is something as immense as this whole world.

A Father’s Love

Now, I just mentioned the kids book “Guess how much I love you”… a book which describes a father’s love for his child.

Well, David wants you to think about a father love as well.

Now, whenever we talk about earthly father’s we always need to be careful.

Some of you have had fantastic father’s growing up. Other, however, have not.

For those with earthly fathers that have part of a strong, healthy family, you have something special. Because you have experienced a taste of what God’s love is like.

For those of you who haven’t, let me just offer this… one of the amazing blessings of being part of a good church community, is that we can witness what healthy families are like. If you haven’t been part of a healthy family, take the time to observe these families.

You see, in verse 13, David uses the analogy of a father’s relationship to his child, to describe God’s relationship to us. He says: “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him”.

In a healthy family, a father has the instinct to know how to love his child with compassion. He knows how to balance justice and mercy.

In observing a healthy family, you can actually start to understand God better.

I’ve been talking this morning about how to get ourselves in that place of genuine worship.

Well, can I suggest that observing healthy families is a great way to understand God’s love in a way that you can fully embrace with your inmost being.

A cosmic worship

But let me jump to verse 19 of the Psalm.

Here we see a new level to the praise of God.

When we praise God, we’re not just praising him as an individual. We’re not even just praising him as a group of believers. We are rather joining in on a praise session that involves the angels and all of the heavenly hosts.

There is a whole spiritual realm out there that we only ever get a glimpse of. But it’s real and it’s all around us.

At times we don’t feel like praising God because we’re too caught up in our busy lives. But take the time to remember that there is something much bigger that is surrounding you at all times. Something that is cosmic in all its dimensions.

It is truly amazing to know that we’re joining with the angels when we praise God!

Conclusion

Praise the Lord, my soul.

What does that look like? It can look like any number of things, but as long as it’s bringing honour and glory to God, then it’s a legitimate form of praise.

We can praise him with song, and this of course is something that just comes naturally as believers.

But we can also praise him with our words. Speaking words of love and compassion… of righteousness and justice. We can praise him by working for the oppressed.

The specifics are not important.

What is important, is when we get lax in our praise because we’re just not feeling it.

But David here is giving us some great advice in getting to that point where our praise will just naturally come from that inmost part of our being.

Firstly, forget not his benefits. Take the time to dwell on those good things God has done for us. Remember those times when you really felt that blessing.

Secondly, meditate on God and his great love for us. This means more than just an intellectual acknowledgement, but allowing the truths of God to sink deep within us.

Thirdly, allow the example of healthy families show us what God’s love is like.

And fourthly, remember that when we praise God, we are part of something heavenly.

It’s natural that our journey will have ups and downs, but with Psalms like this one, we can really help to generate heart-felt praise from deep within, even when sometimes things are hard.

Let me pray...