I have always struggled with transitions. My mind and body aren’t quick to adjust to a new environment or routine. I often become tired and restless, downcast and irritable. As a child, I was always moody and difficult during the first few days of summer vacation—I struggled to adjust to the lax schedule and lack of responsibilities. To be honest, I am still rather moody and difficult once my exams are over. If even small transitions are challenging for me, major ones can cause me to unravel if I am not careful.
Recently, I have faced a few difficult and unexpected changes in my life, and it has been a painful season. I took on many responsibilities, threw myself into classwork, kept busy, and cried quite a bit. Although wise friends and mentors reminded me to take care of myself, and I’ve come through these transitions more or less unscathed, it was challenging to walk through them in a healthy way. When I woke each morning, it was hard to find motivation to pray and read Scripture. I typically look forward to my daily devotions, reading several chapters of Scripture and praying with joy. But my fatigue and stress pushed me away from prioritizing my walk with God.
Yet God showed His grace to me in this season. When I couldn’t pray much more than “Help me, Lord,” He answered every time and gave me the strength to do what was necessary. When I felt overwhelmed and struggled to rest in His presence, He nudged me to attend Wycliffe chapel, where I was able to worship Him in a loving community. And when I struggled to read as much Scripture as I used to, He pointed me toward the Psalms, which I could simply read and pray as I reflected on my emotions in light of God’s Word.
The Songs of Ascents
The Psalms span the breadth of human emotion and experience and yet offer these back to God in prayer. In this season of transition, these songs and prayers were exactly what I needed to receive from Scripture. Though I read and prayed many Psalms in this season, I returned again and again to the Songs of Ascents.
Psalms 120-134 all have the superscription “A Song of Ascents.” Although the meaning of this superscription is debated among biblical scholars, one hypothesis presented in the New Oxford Annotated Bible is that these were songs sung by the people of Israel as they ascended Mount Zion for pilgrimage feasts such as the Passover. They are reminders of God’s faithfulness to His people, of His protection over Jerusalem, and of the victory of the Lord over His people’s enemies. I believe God drew me to read these Psalms so that I could be reminded that He is my source of strength, comfort, and provision amid the turbulence.
I found a great deal of comfort in Psalm 121. The famous opening lines, “I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1-2 NIV) reminded me that my help can’t be found in any saviour other than God Himself. When I was overwhelmed by the changes and challenges around me, these words reminded me that the One who created all things is by my side, helping me in ways no one else can. In a Hebrew course last year, I learned a song that contained these first two verses. Whenever I felt exhausted or overwhelmed in recent months, I often sang this song, reminding myself that God is my helper.
Later in the same Psalm, the Psalmist reminded me that God “who watches over you will not slumber” (Psalm 121:3b, NIV) and that He “will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore” (Psalm 121:8 NIV). Although I felt alone and isolated from God, the truth is that He had always been watching over me. When I read, pray and sing Psalm 121, God draws me back to Himself, reminding me that I am not alone in my circumstances, but that He cares for me, watches over me, and provides me with the supernatural strength I need to move through the transition I am facing.
The second Song of Ascents I read often was Psalm 131. It is short, so here it is in full:
My heart is not proud, Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
But I have calmed and quieted myself,
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.
Israel, put your hope in the Lord
both now and forevermore. (NIV)
Perhaps I struggle with transitions because I am a bit of a control freak. My heart becomes proud and my eyes become haughty, and I think I can singlehandedly deal with great matters and things too wonderful for me. When I ultimately fail to control the uncontrollable, as life forces me through changes I did not anticipate, my spiritual life falters.
Yet when I read and pray Psalm 131, I am reminded that I can calm and quiet myself, trusting God to provide what I need just as a weaned child can trust his mother. A weaned child has experienced provision and nourishment from his mother, and although he is now more independent, he can be content knowing that his mother is there for him. In the same way, I can put my hope in the Lord, knowing that He has always given me what I need, and He always will, even as He frees me to make my own decisions.
Although my walk with God was far from perfect during this challenging season, God provided me with the grace to face challenges—with Him as my helper, protector, and comforter. When I struggled to turn to Him, He came to me, hearing my prayers, providing me with a worshipping community, and allowing me to receive His strength and love through the words of the Psalms.
If you are struggling with a period of transition and finding it difficult to connect with God, I encourage you read a Psalm. God inspired these songs of praise and lament thousands of years ago, but they are as true today as they were back then. Christ had these very songs on his lips throughout his life. And God invites us to place them on our lips and our 
hearts even amid the darkest seasons.
Through the Psalms, God has graciously provided us with the opportunity to engage with Him in His Word and to pray, even if we don’t have our own words to address Him. And through Christ, we have the freedom to approach God no matter our failures or circumstances. Will you come to Him today, laying your burdens at His feet through the words of the Psalms?
By Kathleen Krynski
