THE REST OF THE STORY –

Heman is thought to be the son of Joel and grandson of the prophet Samuel. He was known as a man of wisdom, and chief cantor of the temple choir ensemble. No wonder he felt rejected when Solomon’s son Rehoboam shunned his advice after taking over the throne. Most of his life Heman suffered from ill health, yet it did not keep him from advancing in the temple music ministry. But when Israel revolted due to Rehoboam’s heavy-handedness, many like Heman had to relocate from the north back into Judah; abandoning their pasture lands and property; leaving old friends and neighbors; going from the open spaces of Israel to the crowded confines of Jerusalem. He expresses his frustration in this psalm.

“O LORD Eternal, the One True God my deliverer; each day I beg You to send help. I don’t know if my prayers have reached You yet, or if You’re just not listening. I’m fed up with my misery and want to die; to some people I’m as good as dead anyway; they treat me like a terminally ill patient; suggesting that someone comfort me until I die. I feel like a corpse just waiting to be buried, and You don’t seem to be concerned or even care what happens to me. I know You are upset with me and are constantly reminding me of my shortcomings, but it is driving me crazy and I feel completely demoralized. All of this has caused even my best friends to stay away from me; they don’t want to see me or even talk to me; I’ve become a shut-in with nowhere to go and nobody to see. Yet, in spite of my eyes being swollen with tears of grief and misery, each day I still call out to You and lift my hands to You in prayer, O LORD Eternal, because You don’t perform miracles after someone is dead and gone; people can’t worship You after their spirit has left their body. What good is Your steadfast love after I’m lying in the grave? What meaning does Your faithfulness have after I’ve started to decay in the ground? There is no record of Your miracles being performed in the dark underworld, nor has anyone benefited from Your gracious deeds once they are gone and long forgotten. That’s why I cry out to You now, O LORD Eternal; yes, every morning as day breaks, I want my prayer to greet You.” Psalm 88:1-13

Reflection: Susie Brown loved to compete when making holiday meals. She decided one 4^th of July to outdo everyone. So she decided to put thick mushroom-smothered steaks on her menu. However, she found out that the mushrooms at the store were too expensive. When she told her husband, he suggested she go down by the creek behind the house and pick some wild mushrooms. But Susie balked staying they might be poisonous. So he recommended that she watch and see which ones the animals ate, and pick those. So Susie decided to take a chance. She picked some mushrooms, sliced them up with bacon grease and feed them to the neighbor’s dog. He wagged his tail and ran off licking his chops, happy to get such a treat. She kept her eye on him the rest of the day and he was just fine.  So Susie opted to go ahead with her plans and served a fantastic meal to her family and guests, they said it was first class. After the meal they all relaxed and sat around chatting. Suddenly her daughter came running through the door to report that the neighbor’s dog had just died. Susie immediately went into hysterics. She called the doctor and he had everyone meet him at the emergency room; there he ordered everyone’s stomach pumped out after she told him what happened. Once the uproar died down and everyone straggled back to the house, Susie’s daughter came up to her to tell her the rest of the story: the dog was hit by a car and the driver who ran over him didn’t even stop or slow down! You talk about overreaction!  Susie’s mother didn’t wait for all the facts before she went into panic mode and brought on even more misery and grief, besides having her fantastic cuisine flushed down the hospital disposal. We should all learn from Heman and Susie not to rush to judgment. First we need to ask the LORD how He sees the problem before we judge it to be an emergency or a hopeless situation. At least Heman had the good sense of approaching the LORD after giving his bleak assessment, to see what God would do. He knew that if he let it drive him to the grave, he’d never find out what God intended or had in store, since he’d already be gone before the answer came.