Hymnal Page Scan: Spiritual Songs No. 2: for Gospel Meetings and the Sunday school page 2 | Hymnary.org

Keyboard Recording:

Here are the words to this hymn. I’m going to put them at the beginning of the post so that it will be easier for you to read them when you are listening to the keyboard recording. My post will start after the words to the hymn., so please keep scrolling after you read through the hymn.

1 Oh, quiet vale of pray’r, sweet pray’r,
The fragrance of God’s peace is there;
Its holy paths o’er shining sod,
Are watered by the hand of God.

Chorus:
O quiet vale,
Sweet vale of pray’r!
The fragrance of God’s peace is there.

2 Lone weary hearts oppressed with grief,
Can wander there and find relief,
Or, for the toil of life prepare,
Within that sacred vale of prayer. [Chorus]

3 Oh, quiet vale of prayer,
I’ve found a treasure on thy hallowed ground;
The precious seal of trusting love
In God, who rules the spheres above. [Chorus]

4 And though my falt’ring feet may stray
From truth, to error’s troubled way,
Forgiving love will meet me there,
Within that quiet vale of prayer. [Chorus]

Today’s post: Notes on Proverbs 18:14

I am still struggling to get out of this flare up of Eosinophilic Esophagitis. Recently, God reminded me of Proverbs 18:14, which says, “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?” (KJV) As humans, we are spirits that inhabit a body. A cheerful spirit can uphold a person when their body is sick. But if the sustaining spirit is wounded, the burden can become intolerable. I think that is some of what I am struggling with and why I haven’t been able to get out of this flare up yet. I was reading through the study notes and they said that sometimes your spirit can become wounded or broken after a long illness. I started having chronic health problems when I was 16 years old. I did very well with them for many years and then started having this flare up when I was 41 years old. And I think turning 40 has a lot to do with it. You start feeling more tired and have a harder time recovering from things. I don’t have the same reserves of energy that I used to. So it is harder for me to live with the chronic illnesses and harder to get out of the flareup.

I wanted to share some quotes from the study notes on Proverbs 18:14 with you. They were very helpful in understanding what a broken spirit is. And then we will look at the hymn “The Quiet Vale of Prayer” that we can use in our meditation time.

The Berean Study Bible says, “A broken spirit refers to a state of deep emotional or spiritual distress, which can be more debilitating than physical illness……The rhetorical question ‘who can survive’ underscores the severity of spiritual brokenness, suggesting that without divine intervention, recovery is impossible…… The ultimate healing for a broken spirit is found in Christ, who offers rest for the weary and burdened (Matthew 11:28-30), fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1, where the Messiah is sent to bind up the brokenhearted.”  Another quote from the Berean Study Bible says, “‘but who can survive a broken spirit?’ When the inner person is crushed, even a healthy body feels lifeless; the verse poses the question to show the seriousness of despair (Proverbs 15:13).” I thought it was interesting that they pointed that out. So, a cheerful, healthy spirit can sustain the body even through physical illness. But a wounded spirit (a state of deep emotional or spiritual distress) can make a healthy body feel lifeless or sick.

The Pulpit Commentary says that this verse is about the influence of the mind over the body. It says, “The body can, as it were, fall back upon the support of the spirit, when it is distressed and weakened; but when the spirit itself is broken, grieved, wearied, debilitated, it has no resource, no higher faculty to which it can appeal, and it must succumb beneath the pressure.”

The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary says, “The spirit, which sustains, being wounded, no support is left, except, as implied, in God.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges says, “If the sustaining spirit be itself wounded or broken, the burden becomes intolerable. It is the pathetic (sorrowful, melancholy, emotional) thought of ‘the spirit which so long bore a man’s infirmity, and then at last broke because it could bear no more, and became itself intolerable,’ Horton.”

And I think that is what has happened for me. A burden that I used to be able to bear has now become intolerable. I was always so thankful to be making it through the day and that my conditions were well-managed that I didn’t really take time to grieve what was happening to me. A lot of years of life went by without me being able to get all the way better…which is what I had hoped would happen when I first started getting sick. I hoped that I was going to find out I had something that I could recover from quickly. But it took many years to get a diagnosis…and the diagnosis was that I had chronic conditions that would have to be managed. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reading some older books about the expression of emotions. And it made me realize that we don’t really express emotions the way that we are wired to. Instead, it is admired if you are able to look like you are not affected by what is happening to you…if you are able to not show emotion…or only show a little bit of emotion. But if you read about how the body is designed to express sadness or grief, you realize that we are not really doing that. We are supposed to make loud crying sounds and shed tears….that gets the energy out. And what is really missing is that we are supposed to pour our hearts out before God. And that is what this hymn “The Quiet Vale of Prayer” talks about. We are supposed to go to God for healing…and we go to Him by praying. Before we look at the words to it, let me share a couple more quotes from the study notes on Proverbs 18:14. The Pulpit Commentary says that if we take the word “spirit” in this verse “in the highest sense, in the trichotomy of human nature, we see an intimation that the grace of God, the supernatural infusion of his presence, is that which strengthens the man and makes him able to endure with patience.” And the Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament says, “The question מי ישּׂאנּה is like Mark 9:50 : if the salt becomes tasteless, wherewith shall one season it? There is no seasoning for the spice that has become insipid. And for the spirit which is destined to bear the life and fortune of the person, if it is cast down by sufferings, there is no one to lift it up and sustain it. But is not God the Most High the lifter up and the bearer of the human spirit that has been crushed and broken? The answer is, that the manly spirit, 14a, is represented as strong in God; the discouraged, 14b, as not drawing from God the strength and support he ought to do.”

So, God is the lifter up and bearer of the broken spirit. We must go to Him for help. Let’s look now at the words to “The Quiet Vale” of prayer. It has some really helpful imagery in it we can use. The 1^st verse describes the beautiful quiet vale, or valley, of prayer. Take time to envision that place in your mind…envision the valley with gentle, heavenly sunlight shining on it. Feel the atmosphere…take a breath…the fragrance of God’s peace is there. Get a sense of God’s presence there with you. He is waiting to hear your prayer. He already knows what you need. Envision the holy walking paths that go through the valley over shining sod…God cares for everything in the valley. The holy paths are watered by the hand of God…by rain from heaven.

The 2^nd verse talks about how our weary heart oppressed with grief can wander there and find relief. As you envision yourself walking on those pathways and talking with God, see if you can feel your heart getting lighter…being relieved of care…maybe even starting to feel joyful. Next, it says we can also prepare for the toil of life in this valley of prayer. I thought that was interesting. It is important to take time to prepare for the tasks of the day. Growing up, I usually would try not to think about things that I found stressful and just push through the day…and all the stress of it would hit me later. I am learning how to take time to quietly and calmly prepare for things by thinking about it a little at a time, so that I am not flooded with stress. It helps to think that God wants us to go to the valley of prayer with Him and let Him help us prepare for our days.

The 4^th verse talks about what we have been talking about…walking on the pathway with God. Sometimes our feet will stray. But Jesus, our loving Shepherd, will gently guide us back to this valley of prayer…back onto the right path…and God’s forgiving love will meet us there.

As you go through your day, try to stay aware of those holy pathways…and try to be aware of how closely you are walking with God…are your feet on the pathway. At times when they stray…gently return to the pathway with God. This is how we will learn to walk closer and closer to Him every day.

I will stop here for today and write more soon about this topic of a broken spirit. I will use the tag “broken spirit.”

Links:

Proverbs 18:14 Commentaries Biblehub.com