May
Invest in Your Family
Invest in Your Church
Week 2
Last week we looked briefly at the history of the great hymn ‘Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus’, exploring the themes of light and darkness in a physical and spiritual sense. The author of the hymn, Helen Lemmel, suffered sudden blindness that impacted her life forever. The change to her physical condition and circumstances certainly could have led her to question God’s love and care for her. The opening line of the hymn actually is a question. And it’s interesting that the question is directed inwardly. This week we will consider the practice of ‘self talk’ in response to the questions we naturally ask when facing hard times.
Before you tune me out, I’m not a touchy-feely kind of person, and I haven’t changed religions. But I do believe that Scripture, especially the Psalms, provides us many examples of self-talk. Much like the opening line of the hymn asks, “O soul, are you wearied and troubled?” Psalm 42:5 and 43:5 both ask, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” Can you relate to the internal struggle? What is important is how we answer these questions. Let’s examine a few ways the Psalms deal with ‘self’ in this context: (the below points were taken from a lecture on Psalms that I modified for this application) I encourage you to have your Bible with you so you can read through these as presented.
1. The Psalms are self-reflective. As we’ve seen in the hymn and the two Psalms, we can and should ask ourselves questions in times of difficulty. The crucial point though, is how we answer. Are you grounded in the truths of Scripture: God’s sovereignty, the gospel, sanctification, that you can relate these to your circumstances?
2. The Psalms are self-directive. Notice that we are talking to ourselves and not listening to ourselves. Psalm 103 for example commands, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” Our hymn example directs us where to look when things get bad. “Turn your eyes upon Jesus / Look full on His wonderful face”. Later in the hymn we are directed to ‘Believe Him’. Focusing on Christ is a necessary step for the Christian and from what we see in Scripture, it’s something we need to remind ourselves to do.
3. The Psalms are self-instructive. Psalm 103 also demonstrates that when we remember what God has done, the natural response is praise. Can you look back at instances and seen how God has worked through tough times to make you more like Him? That’s a reason to praise. Our hymn recognizes abundant life in the Savior.
4. The Psalms are self-commitive. To engage in self-talk like the Psalmist does, to pray the Psalms, means to make a commitment. Psalm 77 is a bold statement of commitment that is worthy of imitating. It opens with trouble, but see how many times he speaks to himself and says, “I will...”
If you’re still not convinced about self-talk, then let the Lord talk. In second half of the book of Isaiah the nation of Israel often questions God regarding their circumstances. The people were in exile, displaced and destitute. Their attitude could be summarized by, “God, have you forgotten us? Do you still love us?” Multiple times the Lord responds in the affirmative but I especially like the words of Isaiah 40:28 and following. “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.” Wow. There are two things to note in the Lord’s response spoken through Isaiah: 1) The questions are not meant to draw new discoveries. God’s
people should already know the facts Isaiah is about to present. The questions are intended to be reflective, not revelatory. 2) God is eternal and untiring. While ‘the struggle is real’ so is our God. As Creator of the ‘ends of the earth’, there is no place He is not in control. And in the scheme of eternity, our difficulties are short lived. I understand this will not lessen the pain, but as the hymn and Scripture instructs, we remind ourselves that God is sovereign. And we can worship because He loved us enough to provide for our greatest need - the forgiveness of our sins through His perfect righteousness so that we can be with Him in a place where tears and
suffering will be no more.
Next week we will build off these thoughts as we consider our perspective. Until then, spend some time this week meditating on these Psalms after you sing.
Week 1
We will begin this week with a short history of the hymn, also considering one of the topics of the hymn: the theme of light and darkness. Next week we will examine the practice of ‘self talk’. We will follow that by thinking about what it means to have
an eternal perspective. And we will conclude the month discussing the concept of sending. All of these topics are touched on in this amazing song.
‘Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus’ was written by Helen Lemmel in 1918. She was born in England in 1863 but at the age of 12, immigrated to the United States. She had a wonderful singing voice and was recognized in various circles for her talent. In 1907 she traveled to Germany to study music and work on her singing. It was there she met and married her husband. After four years in Europe she returned to the states. A short time later tragedy struck. She contracted an illness which caused her to lose her vision. Her husband left her, refusing to care for a blind wife. Naturally this was a very difficult emotional, financial, and spiritual time in her life.
As her story goes, she was standing on the corner of a street one afternoon when she was given a Christian tract entitled Focused, written by a missionary named Lilias Trotter. There was a line in the tract that captured her heart when read to her. “Turn full your soul’s vision to Jesus, and look and look at Him, and a strange dimness will come over all that is apart from Him.” Helen would later write about that moment, “I stood still and singing in my soul and spirit was the chorus”.
It is amazing how a line from a song or poem can root itself in our heart and mind. This is why we are careful about what we sing when we come together for corporate worship. We want Biblical truths to be what grows roots in your life. ‘Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus’ is a song that does just that. Verse one specifically mentions light and darkness. These themes certainly had an impact on Helen Lemmel’s physical life. She understood the blessing of having sight and the hardship brought by permanent darkness.
Light and darkness play a major role in the storyline of Scripture. From the beginning verses of Genesis (1:3) to the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21:23; 22:5) the contrast between light and darkness is used to reflect physical and spiritual conditions. This dynamic plays a major role in John’s gospel where we discover that there is a battle between the two. John 1:5 says, ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’ In John, the ‘darkness’ is not just the absence of light, but positive evil. Conversely, the ‘light’ is not only tied to creation but to salvation. Just a few verses later we read, ‘The true light, which gives light to everyone,
was coming into the world’ (John 1:9). Jesus is the true source of spiritual light. This verse does not mean everyone will be saved. In fact, as John shares the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in chapter 3, he writes that Jesus said, ‘and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil’ (3:19). Our hearts are rebellious. We love our sin more than our Savior. If it were not for His great love, conviction, and Him drawing us to repentance, we would be condemned to an eternity without Him. This is true, tragic, spiritual darkness.
As you invest with song this week, consider the physical and spiritual realities of light and darkness. In the physical world, darkness makes it difficult to be productive; there are tasks that simply cannot be accomplished. In a spiritual sense, to be in darkness means you do not know Christ as your Savior. Sadly, many do not even know they are in this condition. Pray for friends or family members that you know who are in spiritual darkness. Ask that the Holy Spirit would open their eyes to see the ‘true light’ that has come into the world to offer forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation.
April
Invest in Your Family
Invest in Your Church
Pray through the church directory. You can add this to your family prayer time. Each day move from one name/family in the directory to the next. (If you need a directory there are some on the information desk.)
March
Invest in Your Family
Invest in Your Church
25 Reasons to Regularly Participate in Public and Corporate Worship
February
Invest in Your Family
Some Methods of Family Worship
Invest in Your Church
Have a church member or family over to your house for a meal/fellowship.
January
Invest in Your Family
Read Scripture as a Family - This month read through the book of Philippians together as a family. (If you read one chapter a day, five times per week, you will read through it five times during the month)
Invest in Your Church