For When You Feel Fragile

I was at New Horizon in Coleraine last Saturday night, primarily to hear Rosaria Butterfield speaking, but what I actually walked away with, was a single line from a very old and familiar hymn.

The band led us in singing Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven and the tent was filled with voices lifted in worship. It's always a powerful and uplifting sound that makes your heart swell. 

We got to the third verse and these words,   

'well our feeble frame he knows.'

I had to pause to take a breath as my throat tightened.

That one line caught me by surprise. I was struck by the truth that God does indeed know how feeble we really are.

Our physical frames break down despite their phenomenal capacity for resilience. Our bodies let us down. The framework of our mind becomes overwhelmed by worry and anxiety. Our hearts ache with sadness. We are battered by the circumstances of life and strength of emotions. 

We are known and loved personally by one who also endured the physical and mental battles of life. It is reassuring to remember that the vulnerability of being made of flesh and bone is known by God. 

We are all struggling. We are fragile creatures. It is wonderful to know that our fragility is not treated with disdain or antipathy by the one who made us. As the hymn says, he treats us with Fatherly compassion and love. He gently bears us in his hands.

'Father-like he tends and spares us... in his hand he gently bears us, rescues us from all our foes.' 

The words were still with me when I woke the next morning. I picked up one of the books that I had bought the night before at the bookshop in the New Horizon tent and read the introduction.

'Before going any further in this book,' the author said, 'take a moment to read through Psalm 103, and ask the Lord to help you hold tight to the perspective presented there.'

The text of the Psalm was printed in the pages that followed, so on I read. To my surprise, I realised that it is from this very Psalm that the lyrics of Praise my Soul are derived.

        As a father has compassion on his children,

        so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;

 for he knows how we are formed,

        he remembers that we are dust.

It's a reminder that whatever we are facing, in whatever ways we are finding life difficult, we belong to God who cares for us with gentleness and kindness. He knows and understands how we are formed, that we are frail. 

Let the words of the hymn and Psalm be in your mind today, especially if you are feeling down, upset, worried, ill, tired, afraid...

We are rescued and protected from our foes. Being held in God's hands is our safe place. Rest there today in peace.