Hymnal Page Scan: The Gospel Call p.95 Hymnary.org

Keyboard Recording:

1 When your heart is faint and weary,
And the clouds obscure the sky,
And dark shades begin to gather o’er your soul;
Let the Savior lift you upward,
With His help He’s always nigh,
For upon Him all your burdens you may roll.

Chorus:
Fly up to the sunshine!
Fly up to the sunshine!
Though trials with their mantle would your soul enshroud;
Fly up to the sunshine!
Fly up to the sunshine!
We’re sure the sun is shining just behind the clouds.

2 We may conquer in the conflict
If in Jesus we believe:
Ev’ry trial worketh for the good of man;
On faith’s pinions we mount upward,
And the promise thus receive;
That was written in His great redemption plan. [Chorus]

3 Then, pour soul, cast down with trouble
Lift to heav’n thy tear-dimmed eye,
With the swiftness of the eagle speed away;
Matters not though storms may gather,
You may safely through them fly,
And will reach the sunny land of endless day. [Chorus]

I have been writing on here about how I have trouble getting stuck in a SNS/DV (Fight/flight-Freeze) loop. I see now that Fight/flight and Freeze are helpful, defensive states that enable us to respond to threats in our environment. The problem is if you go into them when you don’t need to or if the cycle doesn’t complete. 

When you first sense a threat, on this Polyvagal Chart you go from green (VV) to yellow (SNS)…you go into fight/flight. If fighting or fleeing will not resolve the threat, you suddenly go into a freeze state – which is the red (DV). What we can use this hymn “Fly Up Into the Sunshine” for is in learning how to keep any triggering or activation from leading all the way up the chart into a freeze state. I think what you want to have happen in order to live on the Squiggle of Life is to be able to have only some activation take place from green to yellow most of the time that quickly resolves back into green. So maybe something happens where you need to go into the defensive yellow state (fight/flight) with it’s surge of adrenaline for a short amount of time, but then you are quickly able to return to the green state of safety. And then what is making more sense to me now is that we are going to learn how to address stressors/threats without going all the way into a defensive state by using less intense amounts of mobilizing and immobilizing energy. It seems like that as long as your mind/body feels that you have something else you can do…some other action you can take to resolve the threat…it will not sense as much danger or life-threat and keep activating and go into a freeze state. I think it will see the stressor as one that can be addressed while still in VV because, again, the defensive states are not bad…but the problem is if you are triggered into them for a stressor that could have been addressed without going into them. I hope I am thinking of that correctly.

We have been using hymns to learn about what actions we can take to address threats either in a calm state or with less intense energies. The hymn “Bend Low”  helped us learn about how stopping and bending low in prayer in the midst of a storm can help us through it more calmly. This hymn we are looking at today talks about flying up into the sunshine. While I was studying about the Polyvagal Theory, I remembered that there are many hymns that use the words fight, flee, fly, run, wait, etc. All of these options are ways to find safety in God. God is a refuge we can flee to. We can in a spiritual sense “flee to God” or “run the race” or “fight the fight of faith” and this will help us remain calm physically. The key is that if we practice these things on a daily basis when we are not experiencing stressors, we will train our minds and develop new thought pathways that will be there for us to use the next time we do experience a stressor. We will have built an inner refuge we can flee to and your mind will remember it is there. So when it senses any danger, your mind will remember, “I can run to my refuge! I can stop and pray! I can look for God’s presence with an eye of faith!” 

Let’s look now at the words to this hymn and see how it can help us. The 1st verse starts by saying, “When your heart is faint and weary, and the clouds obscure the sky, and dark shades begin to gather o’er your soul.” So this is how you are feeling. You are tired and your heart is faint. Dark clouds have rolled in and are blocking the sunlight. You now feel surrounded by darkness. This imagery of storm clouds represents how we feel when we are facing stressful circumstances. We start to feel triggered. We start to feel our heart rate increasing. I think the imagery of the clouds and the darkness captures that moment when you are starting to feel hopeless…like there’s nothing you can do. But then the next words offer a solution: “Let the Savior lift you upward, with His help He’s always nigh (near), for upon Him all your burdens you may roll.” Take time to envision that…envision Jesus lifting you up out of your moment of darkness into the bright sunshine with Him. Then see Him lowering His shoulder and reaching out His hands to you and helping you roll your burden off of your shoulders and onto His. Jesus will carry it for you. 

The chorus tells us to, “Fly up to the sunshine! Fly up to the sunshine! Though trials with their mantle would your soul enshroud.” A mantle is “a loose, sleeveless cloak” or “something that covers, envelops, or conceals something else.” (dictionary.com). This is a WordPress AI generated image of a mantle:

You can see how the mantle envelops her. So the words to the chorus are saying. “Fly up to the sunshine! Although trials are trying to surround and envelop you with darkness, fly up to the sunshine! We’re sure the sun is shining just behind the clouds. You will see Jesus there lovingly waiting to help you.” Envision yourself basking in the healing warmth of that beautiful sunshine.

I learned at my Somatic Experience appointment this week that if you have been in a SNS/DV loop for a long time, safety might feel unfamiliar to you and you might not be able to stay in it for a long time. So if we spend time basking in the light of God’s love for a few moments…or as long as you feel comfortable…and then keep increasing the amount of time as you are able…we will be building a sense of what it feels like to be safe and become familiar with that. So be sure to take it slowly knowing that your mind will get comfortable with feeling safe over time. 

The 2nd verse of this hymn references Romans 8:28 which says, “And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.” (Berean Standard Bible) The 2nd verse of this hymn begins with the words, “We may conquer in the conflict if in Jesus we believe: Ev’ry trial worketh for the good of man.” It is important to think about what the word “good” means here. When Paul says that God works all things together for our good, we often think of “good” in terms of physical comfort or earthly material resources. I used to think of this verse this way. But it has a deeper meaning. God has tender regard for our physical well-being. And sometimes the “good” God works out for us includes our temporal good.  But here in this verse, the word “good” means our spiritual good. I’ll write more about this verse in just a minute. But I think that looking at Proverbs 3:5-8 first will help us understand Romans 8:28 because it helps us see that we can entrust our lives to God.

We have been learning about our need to acknowledge our total dependence on God for everything. Proverbs 3:5-8 (BSB) says,

“5Trust in the LORD with all your heart,

and lean not on your own understanding;

6in all your ways acknowledge Him,

and He will make your paths straight.

7Be not wise in your own eyes;

fear the LORD and turn away from evil.

8This will bring healing to your bodyb

and refreshmentc to your bones.”

The Pulpit Commentary on these verses says “with all thine heart” implies “entire reliance upon Jehovah.” It says this entire reliance upon God along with the “corresponding idea of the renunciation of reliance on self, is, as Zockler truly remarks, a ‘fundamental principle of all religion’……Without this reliance on or confidence in God, it is impossible to carry out any of the precepts of religion.” It says, “The teacher (the author of Proverbs) points out not only where we are to rely, but also where we are not to rely.” So we are supposed to trust in the Lord, we are not supposed to trust in our own understanding. I think it was when I was reading through John Gill’s book Doctrinal Divinity and the writings of John Calvin that I started to see that the reason we are not supposed to rely on our own understanding is because our understandings are finite/limited and because they are corrupted by sin. God wants us to use our understandings…to use our minds. But He doesn’t want us to “lean,” or rely, on them. The Berean Standard Bible’s notes on these verses say, “‘Lean’ pictures resting your weight on something for support. The verse warns against even partial dependence on anything other than God.” We are supposed to rely entirely on Him. Take time to envision that. See Jesus standing next to you. Practice envisioning yourself leaning entirely on Jesus for support. Notice that if you started leaning on anything else…like a chair or a wall…you wouldn’t be entirely leaning on Jesus. The same thing happens if we put our trust in…or lean on anything else in the world for support.

The BSB also says, “Trusting Him means admitting we never see the whole picture.” And that is the point that is being made here. We only see part of the picture. So even if we spend a large amount of time trying to think things through, we will only ever be able to see part of the picture. God alone sees the entire picture. And, therefore, we must place our trust in Him. We must seek Him for wisdom in everything. We must trust in Him entirely, for He alone knows everything about what is going on…so He alone can guide us to what is the correct step forward.

The BSB says, “Complete reliance on the covenant God belongs at the center of faithful living. The heart encompasses the mind, will, desires, and affections; God calls His people to place their whole selves under His care and authority.” Learning how to do this will be really important for learning how to cast our cares on Jesus, which I hope to write more about soon. First, we must acknowledge our dependence on Him and place our whole selves under His care and authority. We do this remembering that God’s purpose in telling us to place our trust in Him is that He wants to help us. He sees that we are hurting, and He wants us to stop trusting in ourselves and to trust only in Him so that He can help us through whatever is going on. He’s not wanting to restrict us in a bad way. He’s wanting us to follow Him so that He can lead us in the right direction because we cannot see the way forward on our own. Verses 4-8 tell us what will happen when we do trust in God, “He will make your paths straight.”  The BSB notes say about this verse, “God’s guidance does not promise an easy life, but it assures His faithful care and purposeful direction (Psalm 23:3).” I thought that phrase “purposeful direction” was really interesting. It helps you think of the difference between wandering in the dark not knowing which direction to go and having God’s purposeful direction guiding you one step at a time. It’s the difference between being lost and almost overwhelmed in a storm and being guided safely through the darkness…up into the sunshine where we can seek God’s face (if we think in terms of this hymn). 

Another really important note from the BSB says, “Trust rests not on visible circumstances but on God’s character, His faithfulness, and His revealed word.” So when we are looking for comfort and assurance, we are not going to look around at our outward circumstances. Instead we look to God’s character and place our trust in Him, knowing that He is with us even when our outward circumstances are stressful. That’s what it means to say that although storms are approaching, we will look beyond our outward circumstances and trust that the sun is shining just behind the clouds. God is still here with us. He still loves us.

Now that we have a better understanding of what it means to acknowledge our total dependence on God, we will look again at Romans 8:28. What does it mean that “God works all things together for the good of those who love Him”? The study notes for the Berean Study Bible for this verse explains that the words “all things” mean that “every event falls within God’s providential rule: suffering, weakness, loss, persecution, answered prayer, and seasons of joy.” It says that the verse shows that God is not passive and distant from His children, but rather that “He reigns over His creation and actively sustains, directs, and redeems the lives of His children.” So “all things” includes every type of event we will encounter in life. And the phrase “God works all things together” means that “the sovereign God actively orchestrates every circumstance for the ultimate good of those who love Him, because He has called them into a plan that cannot fail. Whatever enters our lives is lovingly bent toward His perfect purpose and our eternal blessing.” In another note it says, “Ultimately that good is Christ-likeness, eternal glory, and deeper fellowship with Him—benefits that outlast every earthly loss.” 

So that’s one of the main points here that is made in the commentaries on this verse – ultimately the good that God is working out for us is Christ-likeness. If we look to God for help, afflictions and trials we encounter can be used to work sinful things out of us and bring us closer to God. This is part of the sanctification process we are going through where we are made less and less sinful over time and more and more like Christ. Barnes’ Notes on this verse say that “for good” means “for our real welfare; for the promotion of true piety, peace, and happiness in our hearts.” He says that it is a source of consolation and support to Christians that all their afflictions and trials are under the direction of the infinitely wise God “who has purposed the salvation of the Christian, and who has so appointed all things that they shall contribute to it.” He says that “work together for good” means that our afflictions and trials “shall cooperate; they shall mutually contribute to our good. They take off our affections from this world; they teach us the truth about our frail, transitory, and lying condition; they lead us to look to God for support, and to heaven for a final home; and they produce a subdued spirit, a humble temper, a patient, tender, and kind disposition.” 

Another note from the BSB can help us see why this knowledge – the fact that “we know” with certainty that God will do this for us – is a source of comfort. It says this verse shows us that “God’s purpose cannot be frustrated by human sin, suffering, or hostile powers. Believers may not understand every path He appoints, but they can rest in the certainty that their lives are held within His redemptive plan.” Even if it feels like something is going wrong…even when we see a storm approaching like in the imagery of this hymn…we know that God is going to work all things together for our ultimate good. 

So if we look again at the words to the 2nd verse of this hymn, we will see that we may conquer in the spiritual conflict, in the fight of faith, if we remain steadfast in our belief that God is working every trial together for our ultimate good…if we mount upward on faith’s pinions (wings)…fly through the storm on the wings of faith and receive God’s promise that was written in His great redemption plan…trusting in the assurance of our salvation.

There were several quotes from sermons in the Biblical Illustrator Commentary on Romans 8:28 that were very helpful.

John Angell James says that one of the inferences we can make from this subject (of this verse) is “the necessity of faith, to rise to the standard of our privileges, and receive that abundance of consolation which God has provided for us.” We must believe God is there…that He exists…and that He is good. I thought that was really interesting and it reminds us that trials are a test of our faith. We are learning how faith leads to action…if we really believe that Jesus is there and that He loves us and can help us…we will call out to Him and fly to Him. God wants to see us respond to an approaching storm with true and heartfelt faith in His goodness.

Then John Angell James uses some really helpful imagery. He compares the scheme (or grand design) of providence to a complicated piece of machinery. The Christian is standing there looking at it with all its complex parts and cannot understand how it works. God (the manufacturer of the machinery) is standing there holding in His hand the articles the machinery has produced and says to the Christian: “See these apparently contradictory movements; hear this noise and confusion: you cannot tell the design, perhaps, of one of the wheels, much less enter into the combination of the whole; but I can, and here are the results of these various movements.” And He explains to him how He is working everything together for His good – even seemingly contradictory movements. John Angell James: All Things Work Together Biblehub.com 

Then Thomas Manton in his sermon says something that goes right along with this when he says that we cannot understand God’s providence until He has done His work and it is completed. So while we are watching the machine work and produce the events of providence, we must remember that we will not see the entire picture until we are in heaven. I’ve mentioned before on here that there is a hymn that I can’t remember the name of that talks about that when we get to heaven, Jesus will sit down with us and go over with us each step of the pathway we traveled to get to heaven and explain to us why things happened the way they did and how God worked it all together for our good. Manton says, “God knoweth what He is a-doing with you, when you know not (Jeremiah 29:11). When we apprehend nothing but ruin, God may be designing to us the choicest mercies (Psalms 31:22).” Thomas Manton: All Things Working Together  Biblehub.com 

So take time to work with that imagery. Envision a very complex machine to represent God’s providence. To help get an idea of an image for providence, we can look at the Topical Encyclopedia’s definition of providence and spend some time meditating on it. Here it is: “Providence refers to the divine guidance and care that God exercises over His creation. It encompasses God’s sovereign will and His active involvement in the world, ensuring that His purposes are fulfilled. Providence is a central theme in Christian theology, emphasizing God’s omniscience, omnipotence, and benevolence.” Topical Encyclopedia Biblehub.com Spend time thinking about that definition and see what kind of imagery your mind develops of a machine to represent it. Think about how many wheels it would have…how complex it would be…it would have many intricate parts that we would not know what they are or how they work. Envision the wheels and gears of it turning in ways that seem contradictory to our finite minds. We think things are going wrong. But we look to God and He is telling us, “Wait…Wait on Me…trust in My goodness…trust in My timing…keep walking with Me…and one day when you are here with Me in your eternal home I will show you what I was working out for you. Trust Me…Keep walking with Me. Remember that ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love’ (Jer. 31:3) and I will always be here with you…watching over you and caring for you. Take another step on the pathway with Me. Draw closer to Me.” 

As I was working with this imagery, I learned to start letting the machine work…don’t try to stop it…but look up and ask for God’s guidance. Say, “What’s the next step? What’s the way forward?” And keep following Him knowing that He will lead you through the storm.

The words to the last verse of this hymn can help us with envisioning this. They say, “Then, pour soul, cast down with trouble lift to heav’n thy tear-dimmed eye, with the swiftness of the eagle speed away”…even though storms are gathering…you may fly safely through them and you will reach the sunny land of endless day. 

Practice spending time each day basking in the light of God’s love for you. Then when storm clouds roll in, trust in God’s love…look up to heaven and fly on the wings of faith…trusting that God is still there…the sun is still shining behind the clouds.

Links:

Romans 8:28 Commentaries Biblehub.com 

Proverbs 3:5 Commentaries Biblehub.com