Wounded Spirits
PSALM 42:1-3
1 ¶ As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
(This is describing an animal, the hart (which is a deer) that is in a situation of having been wounded by the bite of an animal of prey that was seeking to devour it, and it is searching for water to stop the bleeding in order to save its life – it knows instinctively that water is the answer that will bring life)
1 ¶ As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. (If we also don’t get to the fountain of life, then we will also die from the bite and the wound of sin)
2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? (The writer of this psalm (which is proposedly king David) is asking this question – “when shall I come and appear before God”, when will it be my turn to meet God and observe him in a personal encounter - Appear = to look at each other, a face to face encounter, to meet with, to cause to look intently at)
3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
David is writing this as a man that is in discouragement - he has a Wounded Spirit, and others are observing him that it seems like God is not around to bring relief for him in the way that they think God should give him relief.
PROVERBS 18:14
14 ¶ The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity (His physical sickness or disease); but a wounded spirit who can bear?
People can get bruised and hurt and wounded in their spirit – and that is often harder to bear and harder to heal from than physical injury and pain.
Wounded Spirits
This subject is for the purposed for us to be encouraged – especially for those of us who are struggling with a wounded spirit in some way – and we will all go through these things from time to time because that is just the journey of life that we are all on. But there is a balm, a medicine that God has provided for us.
PSALM 147:3
3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
Opening scripture
PROVERBS 18:14
14 ¶ The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear? (a spirit that has been struck and received a hard blow)
PROVERBS 17:22
22 ¶ A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. In other words, it can drain ones strength.
We know that the human spirit of a man or woman can and often does become discouraged and even wounded (by the varying degrees) by the negative events and circumstances of life.
Our spirits can also be affected by the negative actions and attitudes and words of others, especially from people that are the closest to us.
**We all say stupid things from time to time by not being thoughtful enough before we say things, and so sometimes we can say things that hurt others because maybe we are just a little naturally insensitive ourselves and so that tends to make us not very perceptive with how we choose our words in relation to others that are more sensitive – and we have all failed in these things.
PROVERBS 18:6-8
6 ¶ A fool's lips enter into contention, and his mouth calleth for strokes.
7 A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul.
8 ¶ The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly. (belly = the seat of mental faculties)
PROVERBS 18:21
21 ¶ Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
Many things can affect our spirits negatively and even wound our spirit.
- David experienced rejection by King Saul, - rejection from leaders can wound our spirits terribly. Rejections by friends, and family – these things can wound us.
- Unforgiveness can wound our spirits – it will bring harm to us.
- Betrayal of friends
- Being falsely accused or suspected of something you didn’t do can also be a cause for your spirit to be wounded.
- The loss of a close loved one can wound a human spirit very deeply.
And then hurt people will tend to hurt other people, so also people with wounded spirits can inflict wounds on other people spirits. So all these things can accumulate, but God promised that he would not allow for us to receive more than we would be able to bear. We are also commanded to cast all our cares upon Him.
I CORINTHIANS 10:13
13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
**And then there will also be times in our lives that (even if we have a close relationship with the Lord) times of trouble will come along in our lives, and it seems like the Lord fails to bring relief to our trials in the way that we think he should, and then we may feel that he has failed us as a friend and savior, and then if we are not mature enough, our relationship can become stained with the Lord, and that can also wound our spirit by us thinking that the Lord has let us down, but that is actually a completely wrong and unscriptural thought.
PSALM 46:1-5
1 ¶ …God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.
4 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.
HEBREWS 13:5b
5 … I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
ISAIAH 42:3
3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.
English Standard Version of ISAIAH 42:3
A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.
In other words, He will faithfully bring it all out right in the end – it is just our perception at the time of our trail in that we cannot see him at work while we are in the trial, but He is very much at work and will bring it all out for good in the end if we can only but trust him.
JOB 23:8-12 (Job knew all about trials)
8 ¶ Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:
9 On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:
10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
11 My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.
12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips (don’t forsake the Lord and his words because you don’t understand his ways); I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
PSALM 42:1-2a Opening scripture
1 ¶ As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God:
There is a water that will bring healing to our wounds.
PROVERBS 18:4
4 ¶ The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook. Words are as deep waters and as a flowing brook.
*Foolish words can wound a human spirit, but the words of wisdom that are from the fountain of life are as a flowing brook. Words bring life, that is what truly heals the wounded spirit, it is the Word of the water of life himself which is Christ, He is the balm that can heal all our wounds – He is the word, he is the brook, he is the river and fountain of the water of life that we are to get too, and too drink from, and too satisfy our soul.
PSALM 40:1-5
1 ¶ To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
4 Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
LIFE_ JEFF.IN SUNDAY_ 57-0602
E-45 Now, being a hunter, I'm acquainted with deers; I'm acquainted with the action of them. And if you notice, as long as the deer can get to water, brother, he can revive in a second. But if he can't get to water, he's finished. But if he can get to water, you could follow him all day long, and he will just keep going. He will take a stream; he will cross it this way; he will go back this way. He will go back this way. He will get down in the stream and walk. He's trying to fool the dogs.
Now, David said, "As the hart panteth for the water brook, so my soul thirsts after Thee, O God." He's wounded. The hounds of hell is after every one of you. He only wants to get you away from the Shepherd once. And they grab them, and they jerk a handful out of here, and a mouthful out of here to spoil you.
E-46 And David said, "As the hart is panting for the water brook..." Oh, he has got to find the water brook or perish. God, let that be our soul today, wounded. If I can't find the water brook, the hounds will get me pretty soon. But if I can only find Thy water brook, O God...
The little deer knows it's either; it's death or the water brook. And David said, "Just as that deer knows it's death, or the water brook, that's the way my soul's thirsting after Thee. I've got to find You or perish." Oh, if we can only get to that kind of life.
THIRST_ TUCSON.AZ V-16 N-6 SUNDAY_ 65-0919
85 Now it's a perverted age. And Satan is perverting these thirsts that God put in you, to thirst. Satan is perverting them. Now if you want to know the right, perversion...
86 If you, the women, wants to be pretty, take I Timothy 2:9, that's that "adorning themselves in modest apparel--apparel, with a Christlike spirit, meek, subject to their husbands," and so forth. That's the way that you should be adorned, your life you live.
87 He perverts the true nature of God, and the true thirst of God, of the body and soul, by lust for sin. Sin, a perversion! Now we find out, a person today, the way they've took that perversion; thirst for God, the thirst for to be pretty, and all these thirsts. For, for water, they've turned that into satisfying that with drinking. The thirst for joy, everybody wants to have joy; thirst for fellowship; all these great thirsts that God put into us, that we might thirst after Him. God made you to thirst after Him, and we try to satisfy it with some other kind of a thirst, with some other kind of a perversion of the correct thirst. See how it's in the natural? See how it's in the spiritual? We think, as long as we join church, that--that settles, that's all we have to do. Well, that is absolutely wrong. No.
88 God wants you to thirst for Him! "As the hart panteth for the water brook, my soul thirsts after Thee, O God." See? See?
89 Now, if that deer was panting for the water brook, what if somebody come along, and another buddy deer could come along, and say, "Say, I'll tell you what I--I could do. I know where there is a mud hole down here." Well, the deer wouldn't want that. He, that wouldn't do him any good.
90 And there is nothing can satisfy that thirst that's in the human being, until God comes in. He must have It, or die. And no persons has a right to try to hush or satisfy that holy thirst, that's in him, by the things of the world. No, sir. It's ungodly to do so. And if you thirst for God, don't shake hands with the preacher and put your name on the book. If you're thirsting for God, there is only one thing to satisfy it, that's, meet God. If you're thirsting for God, that's the only way you can meet Him, is to do that.
91 And then there is a great danger, also, if you don't watch what you're doing in that time. If you're thirsting for God, be sure it's God you find. See, be sure that it's your thirst is satisfied. But if Satan has been able to pervert you, from these natural appetites, and that he'll do if he can, he'll--he'll simply make you try to be satisfied.
92 A man get out, what makes a man gets drunk? Is because he is worried and tore up. There is something lacking in him.
93 I was at Mayo's, here not long ago, and I was up there on an interview. And then it was told in this, that, talking about drinking, and I told them that my father drank.
Said, "What made him drink?
I said, "I don't know."
94 He said, "Is because that there was something that (he) wasn't satisfying him, and he thought he could drink to throw it off his mind."
95 I caught it right then, see. It was really God, was the only thing can satisfy that thirst. God Himself is the only thing can satisfy that human thirst, is to accept God.
He is the fountain of the water of life that will heal us from our wounds – there is no healer beside Him.
PSALM 147:3
3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
Take courage – there is a balm in Gilead in this hour that we live in.
If the wounded deer can just get to the water, the water of life, he’ll live.