What brings anguish to your soul?
Dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ:
I hold up all my weakness to your strength, my failure to your faithfulness, my sinfulness to your perfection, my loneliness to your compassion, my little pains to your great agony on the Cross.
I pray that you will cleanse me, strengthen me, guide me, so that in all ways my life may be lived as you would have it lived, without cowardice and for you alone. Show me how to live in true humility, true contrition, and true love. Amen.
(Anglican Book of Common Prayer, 2019)
Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 NRSV
My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick.
Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land: “Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?” (“Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?”)
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored?
O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people!
Chrysostom
There are daily wars, submersions of towns, innumerable destructions all around us . . . We all make our hands ready for unjust gains and not for helping others. We are all ready to plunder, but no one is ready to protect. Each one of us has much anxiety over how he may add to his wealth. No one has anxiety over how he may save his own soul. One fear possesses all, that we should not become poor. No one is in anguish and trembling out of fear that we should fall into hell.
These things call for lamentation, these call for accusation, for eternal damnation. I do not wish to speak of these things, but I am constrained by my grief. Forgive me. I am forced by sorrow to utter many things, even those that I do not wish to say. I see that our wound is grievous, that our calamity is beyond comfort, that woes have overtaken us that exceed the consolation. We are undone. “O that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears,” that I might lament. Let us weep, beloved, let us groan.
Matthew Henry
When God appears against us, everything that is against us appears formidable. As salvation only can be found in the Lord, so the present moment should be seized. Is there no medicine proper for a sick and dying kingdom? Is there no skillful, faithful hand to apply the medicine? Yes, God is able to help and to heal them. If sinners die of their wounds, their blood is upon their own heads. The blood of Christ is balm in Gilead, his Spirit is the Physician there, all-sufficient; so that the people may be healed but will not. Thus, men die unpardoned and unchanged, for they will not come to Christ to be saved. [1]
Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O good Jesus, hear me. Within thy wounds, hide me. Permit me not to be separated from thee. From the wicked foe defend me. In the hour of my death call me, and bid me come to thee, that with thy saints I may praise thee forever and ever. Amen
(Anima Christi, Anglican Book of Common Prayer, 2019)
There is a Balm in Gilead
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Corinthians 4.15).
[1] Matthew Henry and Thomas Scott, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997), Je 8:14.
