Consolation

“When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.” – Psalm 94:18-19

When I went back to work after Eric was born, he refused to take the bottle. He would go on hunger strikes for days. At one point, my dad drove him into work so I could rush out between patients to nurse him. Eventually we got him to take the bottle (by filling it with orange juice), but I still remember him wailing inconsolably in the back seat of the car each time I ran out. 

There are two Hebrew words in this verse that are rarely used in the Old Testament, but that both occur again in succession in a passage in Isaiah 66. Tanchuwm, or “consolation,” is used as well in Isaiah 66:11: “Rejoice with Jerusalem… that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious abundance.” Sha’a’, or “cheer,” literally means “to stroke” or caress in comfort, and is used again in Isaiah 66:12, where it is translated “bounce”: “and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees.”

When you are that crying infant, what you long for is something specific that only one person can provide. That’s how I feel when I’m sad sometimes: what I want is not just distraction or sympathy or even mere comfort. I want consolation. I want something that holds both grief and comfort in full view, together. I want a comfort that speaks to my grief, that tells me my grief is not meaningless and shows me my grief is understood. And that’s the beautiful picture these words create: there is an answer, that goes beyond comfort, in fact, to deep delight. That nourishes, gives life and satisfaction. That speaks without words, in exactly the way we cry for. The nature of my sadness is meant to point me to the Consolation of Israel (Luke 2:25), upon whom I can cast the cares of my heart (1 Peter 5:7), who will one day wipe away every tear from my eyes (Revelation 21:4).

Consolation that glorious seems too good to be true, and some days, too hard to reach for. It’s easier to be drowned in or drained by feeling down. But that’s why it’s good to hear the testimony of this Psalmist. He wrote these words in the midst of terribly crushing events (verses 5-7). His truth can be the same for us.