To get started,
I encourage you to take a few nice deep breaths,
Lengthening your inhale and your exhale as you get settled wherever you are sitting or laying down.
If you're comfortable,
You can close your eyes,
Letting your mind be curious,
Noticing any mental imagery that might naturally come to mind throughout this guided meditation and prayer.
Before we spend time with our psalm,
I encourage you to bring to mind a clear image of the part of you that is distressed,
Any part of you that is in distress or pain.
Doing this because picturing a part of us like this can help us from diving headfirst into the perspective of the part of us feeling these weighty things that gives us a different perspective,
A different viewpoint,
Noticing what is happening for the part and seeing that pain from a different vantage point that's not fully consumed in the distress itself.
Just taking a nice deep breath.
See what it's like to view this part of you as though they were in front of you.
Noticing what comes to mind,
How you envision this pain,
What you observe about the experience of this part of you.
And as I read through portions of this psalm,
I invite you to be curious about how these words might resonate with this part of you.
Being curious to see if it feels comforting for this depth of your soul to know they are not alone in their experience.
These are ancient words that have been spoken and sung by countless other people for thousands of years,
Words that have been preserved as part of our faith tradition.
Psalm 102,
Verses 1 through 7 from the NIV.
Hear my prayer,
Lord.
Let my cry for help come to you.
Let my cry for help come to you.
Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress.
Turn your ear to me when I call.
Answer me quickly.
For my days vanish like smoke.
My bones burn like glowing embers.
My heart is blighted and withered like grass.
I forget to eat my food.
In my distress,
I groan aloud and am reduced to skin and bones.
I am like a desert owl,
Like an owl among the ruins.
I lie awake.
I've become like a bird alone on a roof.
The words in this psalm depict so much pain,
So much distress.
I love that the second verse starts with a cry to God,
Don't hide your face from me.
Today,
We have so much research around the importance of face-to-face connection,
How meaningful and impactful this is for our well-being,
Our health,
And our well-being as a whole.
How meaningful and impactful this is for our well-being,
Our sense of safety and connection with others.
And here in this ancient psalm,
There's no need to see the data or read about interpersonal neurobiology.
Instead,
There's a raw cry to God,
Asking for his face,
His presence,
To be near in the midst of pain.
A sense of knowing the comfort,
Protection,
And security we can experience in the midst of pain if we have God's presence with us.
I love that this gives us a picture of what we often experience in our own distress.
We can cry out for God's care,
His presence,
His attunement,
And that doesn't mean we will immediately feel better.
That doesn't mean we will immediately feel restored rather than withered.
Taking a nice deep breath,
I invite you to pause and think about the mental imagery of the part of you that is in distress,
Making sure we're still stepping back to have a perspective of this part in front of us,
Rather than looking through the eyes of this part of us.
Notice how this part of you feels about the idea of asking God not to hide his face,
Asking him to turn his ear,
Which is really asking him to look and listen for this part of you to be seen and heard in their pain.
I'm curious if this resonates for this part of you.
Would they like to ask for God's face,
His presence,
To be with them?
The word for face in Hebrew is also translated as presence at times.
We see this a lot in Exodus when God's presence is with his people and goes before them.
This is the same word.
It's his face.
It's his face.
And this rings true to our experience when another person is present with us.
Their face is such a key part of what makes their presence known to all parts of us,
For us to really know we are really seen by them.
It feels different if someone is looking at their phone.
It feels different if someone is not making eye contact with us.
We know someone is present with us when they offer their face in that presence.
In your mental imagery of the part of you that you're focusing on,
I encourage you to see what it's like to imagine God's face,
God's presence with this part of you in the midst of the pain and distress they're in.
Taking a few deep breaths,
Notice how this part of you feels about this.
Does it bring any comfort or relief?
And if this part of you doesn't feel ready to ask for this or receive this,
I encourage you to be respectful and curious,
Spending some more time with this part to see what they might need in order to build enough safety and trust in their relationship.
With you and God to be open to trying this.
If you sense the distressed part of you is on board,
Continue some nice deep breaths,
Inhaling as you ask for and receive God's presence with you,
His face and attunement and care,
And exhaling as you release any tension and the weight of distress.
You can slow your inhales and exhales here,
Savoring any sweetness you experience as your pain is held in God's presence.
You're welcome to pause if you'd like to spend any more time in this place before we close with a prayer.
Lord God,
For any part of us that is feeling withered like grass,
That groans and signs and distress and the depths of our souls,
Like a lonely bird surrounded by runes.
Would you make your presence known?
Would the grace and mercy of your being radiate on these hurting parts of us?
Would your face,
Your presence bring comfort and care,
A sense of security?
Would we find relief in your nearness in the midst of our pain?
Please help any distressed parts of us to receive and embrace your presence,
Your peace,
And find rest knowing that you see and hear us even when,
And especially when,
We are in the midst of pain.
Amen.
