Do you know your Psychiatrist? You may say, "I don't need a psychiatrist! I'm OK! Only sick, crazy people need a psychiatrist! You are insulting me--suggesting that I need one!"
David the psalmist needed a psychiatrist; his psalms are full of appeals for healing, such as Psalm 6, "Lord, don't be angry and rebuke me! ... I am worn out, O Lord; have pity on me! ... I am completely exhausted and my whole being is deeply troubled" (vss. 1-3, GNB). And also Psalm 22:14, 15: "My heart is like melted wax. ... [I am] left ... for dead in the dust."
In modern English, he said he was about to come unglued. He felt himself abandoned in a black hole for all eternity. Anyone who feels that way needs a psychiatrist, but not an ordinary one. And if you are a normal human being, you have very likely known what that feeling is, or at least, tasted it. Only a mindless person without intelligence or feeling has escaped it.
The best definition of the term "high priest" that appears throughout the Book of Hebrews is "Divine Psychiatrist," a physician of the soul. Several important truths about Him: (1) He is chosen "from among men" because He knows their troubles and temptations so He "can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that He Himself also is compassed with infirmity" (5:1, 2). (2) He has suffered and endured every temptation that has ever come to you (4:15). (3) He has conquered the fear that has plagued you all your life from the time you were born until today--conquered it because He suffered the second death that is always the focal point of your fear (2:14, 15). (4) Thus because "He Himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted" (vs. 18).
Have a visit with Him; pour out your heart to Him.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
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