Using the Psalms in Counseling

[Juan and Yenan]

Walter Brueggemann in the book, The Message of the Psalms, identified the message of the psalms in three basic categories: psalms of orientation, psalms of disorientation and psalms of new orientation. The psalms are organized based on the human experiences. Having in consideration that human life consists of seasons: “seasons of well-being,” “seasons of hurt, alienation, suffering and death”, and seasons where “joy breaks through despair,” and we are surprised with the goodness of God’s blessings (ibid.19). In counseling, we also deal with these experiences that affect through seasons the life of our clients. It is more probable that a client, when approaching counseling, will be experiencing a season of disorientation, logging for the promises of well-being and stability in the psalms of orientation. Counseling with the psalm will help the client to relate his/her experiences, spiritually, emotionally and physically with the world as experienced in the word. But, while in a disorientation stage he/she can relay in the promises of the psalms of orientation for hope, and through counseling discover and experience a new orientation.

Counseling with the psalm will be for many clients a walk coming out of Egypt into the promise land. Not all of them will see the promise land or experience the abundant life in there, but many will walk, and many will stay walking in circles for many years, because of fear, but more an unconscious fear of dying. It is our goal as Christian Counselors to be God’s instruments in the transformational process of walking with our clients from a disorientation stage to a new orientation state.

Psalm of Orientation
The psalms of orientation are based in God’s character as Father, Creator, and King. The psalms of orientation establish order, security and trusts, indicating clear boundaries and rules for the individual and his community. Obeying this rules and respecting the boundaries will bring blessing to ones life thus disobeying will bring disgrace.
The psalms of orientation were created, transmitted, valued, and relied upon by a community of faithful people. To these people, their faith was both important and satisfying. Beginning theological points for the Psalms are those psalms that express a confident, serene settlement of faith issues. Some thing are settled and beyond doubt, so that one does not live and believe in the midst of overwhelming anxiety. Such a happy settlement of life’s issues occurs because God is known to be reliable and trustworthy.
This community has decided to trust in this particular God. Many of the Psalms give expression to that happy settlement, to the reality that God is trustworthy and reliable and to the decision to stake life on this particular God. (Brueggemann 25)
The psalm of orientation will provide a mark of reference of who is this God who is calling us. God who that wants to related with us. It will be a reference about God’s power, holiness and love and about the benefits of living a righteous life and the consequences for the ungodly life.

Psalm145
 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable (v.3).
 The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy (v.8).
 The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works (v.9).
 The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works (v.17).

Psalm 33
 For the word of the Lord is right; and all his work are done in truth (v.4).
 He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord (v.5).
 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance (v.12).
 Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy (v.18).

Psalm 1
 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor siteth in the seat of the scornful (v.1).
 But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night (v.2).
 The ungodly are not so: but are like chaff, which the wind driveth away (v.4).
 For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish (v.6).

Psalm 37
 Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity (v.1).
 Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed (v.3).
 Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart (v.4).
 Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass (v.5).
 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who brigeth wicked devices to pass (v.7).
 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil (v.8).

This is a great, gracious, good and righteous God that wants the best for his people. The best for those who trust, delight, and commit their ways to Him by: following, obeying, loving and praising him, just because He is good. This God is good, strong and powerful. He is holy and righteous. He is loving and caring. He is our creator who provides and protects his creation. He is our Father providing security, boundaries and caring love. This is God’s character and the results for those who obey Him are to be blessed.
God is telling us through the psalm of orientation; you can trust me. I am the Creator and Sovereign of everything. I am your Father who loves you and cares about you. This God, who created us, knows our basic needs for security and He promises that He will provide. We can trust Him, because He will comfort and support his children.
Such a mode of trustfulness seems to have much in common with Erikson’s “basic trust,” whereby a child learns to trust in the reliability of life and of parents in quite concrete ways. (Brueggemann 30)

“Erickson also believed that successfully dealing with the issue of trust…produces the virtue of hope.” That’s why we have faith, because through trusting in God we develop the virtue of hope. “Hope is the enduring belief that one’s wishes can be fulfilled and obstacles overcome,” because we do not depend in our power, but we depend on God. Trust comes from a tradition and a history that gives us testimony, and from having a relationship with God (Hogan 328).

In counseling, the psalms of orientation are the promises that our God is in control, He will provide. He is also holy and righteous, the Creator of the law. He established the boundaries; He will do justice. He is our Father wanting for us to choose obedience; and as the Father, He established the limits and the consequences for our acts. This world does not need to be perfect for us to experience the promises in the psalms of orientation, because we do not depend in our power, strength, righteousness and faithfulness, we depend on Him. We depend in a God that wants to relate with us. He opened the bridge and established a foundational ground of trust. We learn that we can trust God. We can live following and obeying Him, because He will not leave us or forsake us. We can count on Him, because He is our caretaker.
The relationship between child and caretaker gradually evolves out of reciprocal interest along with shared experiences of trust. Actually trust is fostered by the fact that we come to expect and rely on the mutuality of responses. As trust grows, an emotional bond is formed. The emotional bond becomes an interpersonal bridge between child and caretaker. The bridge is strengthened by certain experiences we have come to accept and depend on. The other person, our primary caretaker, becomes significant in the sense that that person’s love, respect and care for us really matter. We allow ourselves to be vulnerable in that we allow ourselves to need the other person. (Bradshaw 5)
Psalms of orientation has the speech that is amazed by the power of his caretaker, as in psalm 104 celebrating the “goodness and awesome character of creation” (Brueggemann 31). God’s power and confidence, that He is the only and true God give us security. God’s character stretches toward us creating an emotional bond a bridge of trust and security. As the child is amazed by his/her father qualities and the father becomes the hero, it is the same with us as God’s children. The psalms of orientation are a dialogue that leads the community to obeying the law as a way to obtain good results. Thus disobeying the law is to expect bad results. If you obey you are righteous, but if you disobey you are a sinner. This type of language as in Psalm 1 establishes our limits and creates dependence in the relationship with God as the one that can only help us to obtain our needs.

Psalm of Disorientation
What I really like about the psalms of disorientation is the honesty and realism of the speaker. The psalms of disorientations are “grievance addressed to an authorized partner.” It is “the insight behind Freud’s theory of talk-therapy, that we do not move beyond the repressed memory unless we speak it out loud to one with authority who hears” and bring us justice (Brueggemann 58). Like most clients, when they come for counseling, they are experiencing life in a disorientation stage. As the psalmist, they feel abandoned, angry, and find themselves barging with God. Only after realizing that it is in God’s way and only by God that their situation can be changes is that they surrender their sin and/or will. When surrendering occurs and God’s grace manifest itself, praises come to reestablish the relation that once was doubted.

Psalm 13
 How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? (v. 1) here the psalmist is expressing his victim position he “accuse Yahweh of being responsible for the trouble.” He is desperate and he is saying I’m not OK Lord, but you either (Brueggemann 59).

Psalm 32
 I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin (v. 5).
Almost all the time our pains and sufferings come from unconfess sins and/or grief from our past and until this is resolve we have a conflict in our present. To be able to confess, we need, first, to acknowledged and accept our sins and/or grief. Then, by confessing our sins to the authority, we release our guilt, and instead of receiving God’s punishment, He frees us with His forgiveness. It is the same in the counseling session when a client identifies and acknowledged to the counselor what is separating him/her from God; and accepts his/her sins/grief, then the counselor becomes the intercessor between the client and God. Being the counselor an authority who represents God in the counseling session, the client can transfer his/her thoughts and emotions toward God to the counselor, thus the counselor can transfer God’s healing power toward the client.

Psalm 88

 O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before Thee: (v.1).
 Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: Lord, I have called daily upon thee; I have stretched out my hands unto Thee (v.9).
Why God become silent? Did He retire his eyes from us when we are falling into the pit? We shout and shout, and apparently God is not moving; He is not hearing? It could be that maybe He is trying to move us to concentrate all of our attention into Him. It could be that in the most painful moments, He is the nearest seeing us fall? When falling into the pit we cry, scream, fight, and even wish to die. It is in there in the bottom of the pit when we lose all worldly hope. When we feel abandoned and alienated in the darkness of our grief, in silence there we drinking our sorrow and anguish.
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified, them he also glorified. (Romans 8:27-30, alterations mine)
God as a Father is interested in our transformation, and there is no way for us his children, to resurrect without walking through Calvary into the cross. Only after the crucifixion of our flesh and the pain of dying to our will, can we experience a new beginning.

Psalm of New Orientation
Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness. (Psalm 30:11)

The psalms of New Orientation are the result of believing in the promises of God’s word. It is the result of falling in the pit and seeing the hand of God restoring you. It is a new song in your heart for God because of the experience of knowing what is real. It is not anymore the law because of a tradition, but because of your own experiences. The law becomes real and the promises are experienced and enjoyed. The blessings are for those who are called, and justified, those how are in relationship with Him.
Psalm 103
 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him (v.11).
 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him (v. 13).
 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children (v. 17).
 To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them (v. 18).
God has his requirements, as God, He is Holy so He desires holiness for us. As the Father He is powerful, righteous and loving and He desires obedience from us. As our Savior we need to surrender to acknowledge our sins, repenting into his arms; forgiving others to receive forgiveness form our father. “God is the Father of Creation, the Father of Israel, the unique Father of Jesus Christ, a protective Father emphasizing His defense of the poor and oppressed and a redemptive Father when we become the children of God.”

Conclusion
We learned in the Psalm that we are not different than the people of the Bible. We are God’s people and as his people we are going to pass through the same struggles that his people had pass through generations: doubt, fear, discourage, breaking the law, suffering, being saved, and sanctified.
We get to know about God through a tradition in most cases the church. We learn about the blessings of knowing God, of being part of his family and all the consequences for being good children or bad children. But we encounter life, the reality of pain and suffering, the struggle of our flesh, the world, the enemy and the law. But, those who are called, elected and predestined are going to pass through the process of becoming Christ like.
That is the moment when we feel the fire getting hot and nearest, fear get intense and we fall into desperation. We cry and cry, we shout and shout, and there is only silence. The word become stronger in our heart, peace embraces us. We are in His presence. We acknowledged his magnificent, sovereignty and grace. We accept his will and become aware of the reality of his word. Our trust becomes stronger than ever, and we learn to walk by faith.

My Father who is in heaven, Holy is your name. I surrender to your will, let your kingdom manifest in my life. I ask you to be lead by your Spirit come into my heart and transform me into the image of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Please give me what I need this day, and forgive me for being discourage when I don’t get what I want. Thank you for forgiving me in the cross and please forgive me when I offend you or others. I will forgive does who offended me, even when I think they do not deserve it. I will leave vengeance onto you. Please help me to resist the desires of my flesh, and give me the strengths to resist the temptations of the enemy. Protect me and sustain me with your grace. Thank you! I love you and I praise you Father, because is you are Wonderful and good to me. You are my God, my Creator, my Father, and my Savior forever. Amen

By Apostle Dr. Yenan Silen all copyright reserved according to the law (c) 2008