Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh
and refreshment to your bones. (Proverbs 3:7-9)
When I saw that today's word was "refreshing," I figured I would post a photo of rain, or a waterfall, or a spring flower. But then, as I looked in the Bible for instances of "refresh," I came upon this, one of my favorite verses. It's the second part of a group of verses that begin with Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
So I thought of the idea of bringing refreshment to the bones. What a strange way to word things! Bringing healing to bones, yes, but refreshment? It's just an odd word choice.
I remembered several references to bones in Psalms. In Psalm 6, David says:
O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,
nor discipline me in your wrath.
Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;
heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.
In Psalm 32, when he kept silent about his sin to God, he writes:
For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
In Psalm 31, he cries:
My life is consumed by anguish
and my years by groaning;
my strength fails because of my affliction,
and my bones grow weak.
These troubled bones, wasting and weak and out of joint! Each time, David is in a low place, either in sin or otherwise feeling forsaken and forgotten by God.
I have definitely been there. Maybe not in a place where an enemy country was plotting against me, but I know what it is to be in the depths of depression, where you can't get out of bed and your whole body hurts from days or weeks of tightness and tension.
Each of those psalms end in praise, though. Somehow, he does this; the last thing I want to do with I'm in despair is praise. But this is what he does:
Be strong and take heart,
all you who hope in the Lord. (Psalms 31:24)
God does bring refreshment to our bones, to our spirits, to our souls. It doesn't always happen when or how we want it to, but if we wait and trust, and we don't insist on being wise in our own eyes, he will bring healing and comfort.
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh
and refreshment to your bones. (Proverbs 3:7-9)
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| Scout, getting a cast on her broken wrist, January 2020. |
So I thought of the idea of bringing refreshment to the bones. What a strange way to word things! Bringing healing to bones, yes, but refreshment? It's just an odd word choice.
I remembered several references to bones in Psalms. In Psalm 6, David says:
O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,
nor discipline me in your wrath.
Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;
heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.
In Psalm 32, when he kept silent about his sin to God, he writes:
For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
In Psalm 31, he cries:
My life is consumed by anguish
and my years by groaning;
my strength fails because of my affliction,
and my bones grow weak.
These troubled bones, wasting and weak and out of joint! Each time, David is in a low place, either in sin or otherwise feeling forsaken and forgotten by God.
I have definitely been there. Maybe not in a place where an enemy country was plotting against me, but I know what it is to be in the depths of depression, where you can't get out of bed and your whole body hurts from days or weeks of tightness and tension.
Each of those psalms end in praise, though. Somehow, he does this; the last thing I want to do with I'm in despair is praise. But this is what he does:
Be strong and take heart,
all you who hope in the Lord. (Psalms 31:24)
God does bring refreshment to our bones, to our spirits, to our souls. It doesn't always happen when or how we want it to, but if we wait and trust, and we don't insist on being wise in our own eyes, he will bring healing and comfort.
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