The title of our series comes from a quote from John Calvin which reads: “I have been accustomed to call this book, I think not inappropriately, “An Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul;” for there is not an emotion of which anyone can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror. Or rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn to the life all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated.”

This series has been helping us to see that real human emotions that we struggle with is dealt with in the psalms. Today, we are dealing with a psalm that deals with panic. Panic can be defined as “a sudden overpowering fright” or again “a sudden unreasoning terror often accompanied by mass flight”.

This psalm doesn’t seem to go anywhere. He begins by crying out to God but seems to just stay here, in his cries. He seems to stay in his sorrow and emotion. What do we do with this? When we read something like this, we want it to go somewhere. We want a resolution.

But here, the Bible gives us a picture of a psalmist who is mourning and in pain, and just stays there. It is ok. It could be hard for us because we may want to know what to do. But this study is teaching us how we can mourn and seek God out in a way that honours Him and is good, even in our sorrow.

What is shame? The Webster dictionary defines shame as the painful emotion caused by a consciousness of guilt or shortcoming or impropriety. It can also be defined as a feeling of embarrassment or humiliation that arises in relation to the perception of having done something dishonorable, immoral, or improper.

But what can we do about it? Today’s psalm will show us how the psalmist address it.

Have you been in situations where you were hit by debilitating anxiety? Maybe it's the thought of starting your career off in an economic recession where businesses are less willing to take risks. Or perhaps you’ve been working for awhile and you’re seeing your investments nosedive in value. For others, you could be worried about what to with your money after working for a while. Today’s psalm gives us a real picture of what it’s like for a Christian to work through anxiety.

Spiritual dryness and indifference is a state we find ourselves in many times. Where we feel “sian” about most things in life and especially life as a Christian. We find little joy and enthusiasm in our Mondays to Fridays, weekends are too short to be any form of respite, and maybe even our life in church is troublesome and messy. Our ministry wears us down rather than lift up our souls as we serve God.

Psalm 103 is bursting with praise and worship of the LORD. The psalmist urges his whole being to bless the LORD by remembering all his benefits, and in doing so, his heart wells up in praise to God. Today, we too have all his benefits through Christ.

Do you struggle with the sort of low feeling that sticks like a heavy mood. As we look to Psalm 77 for the answer, we also want to consider, what might prayer look like, if the very idea of God deepens our sadness? What sorts of questions does God invite us to ask? What sort of people are God’s people?

John Calvin has described the book of the Psalms as one that is the “anatomy of the soul”, “for there is not an emotion of which anyone can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror. Or rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn to the life all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated.”

In this passage, through Psalm 69, we learn how in pain, we are not to remain emotionally detached, but to cry out to God. The psalmist also shows us how not to sink in despair, but to hope in God; not to be self-reliant, but to make desperate lament to God; and, not to be self-absorbed but to delight in God’s salvation.

There are certain types of tragedy so overwhelming that your mind shuts off. You are disconnected from your thoughts, feelings, memories or even your sense of identity. In severe cases, that’s what psychiatrists diagnose as “dissociation.” And numbness is the terrible norm simply because reality is too traumatising. While some of us might grapple with this condition, or struggle with moments of deep fatigue and disconnect from caring for a broken world, or experiencing brokenness in this world, it is thankfully not the normative experience for most of us.

Our psalm today speaks to such intense experiences, and it helpfully begins by addressing more commonplace experiences of numbness. It speaks to both categories - the intense and the inane - because it identifies that there is a common problem: We have idols. Our idols hold great power over our hearts. And there is a common solution: Sing!

This series has been titled “Psalms: Anatomy of the Soul” and this particular description of the psalms was coined by John Calvin, who said that “there is not an emotion of which anyone can be conscious that is not here [that is, in the psalms] represented as a mirror”.

Why do we need a mirror for our own emotions? Emotions are a tricky business. Have you ever just felt off? Or even if you know you feel a certain emotion, have you ever struggled to know how to pray about it? Strangely, even though what we feel is inside us, we may not understand it. And even when do know what we feel, we often don’t know how to pray about it.

So the psalms reveal to us our own emotions and give us the framework and vocabulary to understand, makes sense of, and express them. Psalm 88 will teach us about about despair.

How are you feeling today? In this psalm, we see a worried king David, a man gripped by uncertainty. The phrase “my heart is faint”, is a passing line, but it describes how he is feeling.

Have you ever made decisions because you were afraid of what might happen to you? As Christians we often hear the encouragement to live boldly, or to trust God instead of fearing man. Prov 29:25 tells us that “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.” The right fear of God inspires confidence and worship and combats the fear of man. This study will help us in looking at the fear of man, and how to combat it.

This psalm helps us to see how we can confess our sins to God and the freedom that comes from doing that. With sin comes feelings of guilt, and that can only be addressed when we take our sins to God, confess and seek His forgiveness.

Confusion is the inability to think as clearly or quickly as you normally do. You may feel disoriented and have difficulty paying attention, remembering, and making decisions. Through Psalm 16, we see that when God’s people experience confusion amidst distress, they remember who he is to them and partake of Him who is their inheritance for present struggles and eternal satisfaction.

We begin our new study in the Psalms. The title of our series, “An Anatomy of the Soul” is derived from a quote by Calvin.

From these passages, we will see that foolishness apart from God is widespread and can only lead to great terror, fear and death. On the other hand, God makes glad the those who seek him, and promises to restore them. In Christ, God makes good on his promises to save his people that He might be their refuge and joy.