Passages for Inner Peace. Tom McKinley

for inner peace, reassurance of a better life ahead, or happiness, or likely all three, to walk him or her through Psalm verses that contribute to making our lives more peaceful and joyful.

      It is my firm belief that inner peace is our highest station. We can never let that peace depend on our external circumstances. Inner peace is when the instability and suffering of life do not affect your outlook or your spirit; when you greet the positive with joy, and adversity with acceptance; and when you simply retain the willingness to keep going, inspired and reassured by faith.

      For the Psalms are not just poems or songs or speeches, but are testaments of faith; they are prayers to an Almighty Being and also serve as empathic phrasings of what we want to say in our inner selves. When we are not sure what to say to God, and even when we are, the Psalms are there to say it for us. Expressed with candor, the Psalms never cease to find that sweet medium between the formality due to God and the raw thinking language of the mind of Man.

      Hence, I offer the book that is in your hands. I pray that you will find it welcoming and helpful on your journey towards peace and faith. Please feel free to open the book to any page and start reading. With the exception of the last, the chapters are not in a particular order. As with the Psalms, there is a central message that far transcends any need for a sequence.

      And that central message from the Psalms is hope: hope that this suffering will end, hope that one can have the strength to go on, hope that God will hear our prayers and our praise. It is a hope for inner peace, the hope that God will come into our lives more deeply, that we will build a relationship with him that will give us the strength to make it through a life that defies all attempts at understanding. We are blessed to have our God, and blessed that he has given us the words through which to ask for his mercy and his peace.

       CHAPTER 1

      “My soul, wait thou only upon God;

      For my expectation is from him.

      He only is my rock and my salvation.”

      (Psalm 62:5–6, King James Version)

      We must ask ourselves, “What will give me peace?” Inner peace – that state of contentment and calm, of freedom from anxiety, of enjoying the present while trusting in the future – is something which we are all searching for, often unconsciously, in the frenetic pace of 21st century life. Reaching for our cell phones as soon as we wake up, checking messages on the phones while typing at our computers, going from thoughts of work to family to bills in just a few seconds – we have been brought so far from the idea of inner peace that the concept seems unrealistic. We have been conditioned to think that peace is temporary, coming in small units of time, and that once that time or feeling runs out, we have to somehow buy it again.

      But inner peace cannot be bought. In fact, the messages of the Bible destroy the idea that money can buy anything permanent. While the inner peace offered to us by God cannot be acquired through money, it is also the only inner peace that lasts forever. Jesus says, in the Gospel of Matthew, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, KJV). Likewise, the speaker in the psalm says to his own soul, “wait thou only upon God,” adding, “He only is my rock.”

      There is no pill, no drink, no retail therapy that provides this permanent inner peace for the soul, or salvation for our future life. That stable, steadfast feeling of inner peace in this life and the next is only fully achieved through having faith in God and growing closer to him. And we grow closer to God through prayer, through reading the Psalms and other books of the Bible, through thinking deeply about God’s work, and by acting in the way the Lord has instructed us.

      I like the way the psalmist says, “But my expectation is from him.” The word “expectation” has gathered a negative quality over the years; it sounds like a demand. However, in its nature, the word is positive. “Expect” comes from the Latin words ex and spectare, meaning “out” and “to look.” Hence, to expect is to look for, to seek, to hope for. Part of our relationship with God involves looking out for his grace, looking out for the peace that he will bring to us. We do not “demand” these things – it would be pointless to demand anything – but we should look for this peace, ask for it, and have the faith-based certainty that it will come. To feel expectancy is to feel faith, and faith is our defense against fear. It is also the root of our optimism that life will get better, and that a better life awaits us with God. The more we “expect,” or look out, for God, the more inner peace we have. As the psalm says, “In God is my salvation and my glory” (Psalm 62:7, KJV). We are not just saved, but we are saved in glory.

      Further reflections

      As the psalm comes to an end, we have the powerfully concise verse,

      God hath spoken once;

      Twice have I heard this.

      (Psalm 62:11, KJV)

      The meaning is symbolic. When the voice of God speaks, we do not only hear it once; rather, it echoes in our minds. When you pray and read the Bible, make sure to find an atmosphere of stillness and silence, where the peace around you reminds you of the peace you can find within. Listen closely to God’s word echoing in your mind, along with the expectancy of his favor, on your journey to the inner peace that he alone can give you.

       CHAPTER 2

      “I will praise thee; for I am

      fearfully and wonderfully made:

      Marvellous are thy works.”

      (Psalm 139:14, KJV)

      Have you ever thought about what a complex creation you are? In our technology-driven age, there is a temptation to look down on our humanity in comparison to computers and the increasing presence of artificial intelligence.

      But one good look at yourself can begin to tell you that you are “wonderfully made.” Look at the intricacy of your face and body. The human body has 206 bones, and just one foot contains 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments, and 19 muscles! And that’s just the tactile part of the body. When we look inside, deeper and deeper, we find over 35 trillion cells, with each cell containing over 100 trillion atoms. Those atoms are composed of subatomic particles such as protons, and even those are composed of elementary particles called quarks and hadrons. In time, I’m sure we’ll find out what’s inside a quark!

      My purpose here is not to give you a lesson on biology, but to show that you are just as complex as any technological triumph out there – and actually more complex. You have the ability to decide between right and wrong, a faculty for moral judgment; you have imagination, the capacity to think of and understand the abstract; you can appreciate the beauty of this world and envision the beauty of the next. God, with his ultimate knowledge and his expert hands, created beings that are infinitely complex in mind and in body. As the psalmist says, “Marvellous are thy works”!

      I mentioned that our digital age can make us feel inferior, but so can the human tendency to compare ourselves to others. Human culture, especially in the United States, is very competitive and hence addicted to making comparisons. From a very young age, we start judging ourselves by comparing ourselves to those around us. Even before our adolescence, we have forgotten that we are “wonderfully made,” and lose the appreciation for what we are. This has devastating effects on our self-esteem.

      Instead, when we look at ourselves, we should be using an attitude of appreciation. We should be saying, as the psalmist says, that we are wonderfully and fearfully made. That is, in the vocabulary of the King James Bible, “I’m impressively made. I’m astonishingly made. In fact, I am so astonishing that machines should be afraid of how well I am made.” As a human being, you are not just an advanced animal, or inferior to a computer – you are God’s finest creation!

      And make sure to thank him. As the verse states at the beginning, “I will praise thee.” It may have been some time since