Lord, the Lord Almighty,
    may those who hope in you
    not be disgraced because of me;

God of Israel,
    may those who seek you
    not be put to shame because of me. (Ps 69:6)

This verse always sounded to me as if David was praying, ”You aren’t gaslighting me, are you God?” Also, I pray this verse a lot. 

If we’re honest, most of us who walk with God occasionally experience the feeling of being gaslit; that we are being led on a long walk in the dark down a short plank, uncertain if we’re being lied to or pranked. Because the circumstances of David’s Here and Now are a dangerous place for him and for anyone else he invited along for the ride, its not an unwarranted feeling. He’s talked God up so much that going down while shouting “My God saves!” wouldn’t be good for business. And yet, seeing how his life had jumped the shark, David’s response was to immediately hot potato the whole mess over to God.

The reflex, at first glance, looks like avoiding responsibility, or worse, reality. But as psychotherapist Dorothy Martyn argues in her book, Beyond Deserving, it is actually a clue to something else. 

We are more responsible, not less so, when we are aware of forces that are working on us beyond our ability to control them. These hidden forces are in all of us, and denial of that truth, along with actions that do not take that truth into account, is the height of irresponsibility. 

To address forces not visible to the naked eye, both in ourselves and in others, is indeed the essence of responsibility, as it takes into account our limited autonomy. To believe that we can be “accountable” on the strength of what we consciously can know and do by the action of the will, without a high respect for what maybe operating in us outside our awareness, is sheer folly.

David knew all about folly and hidden forces acting upon him; whole swaths of scripture are devoted to just retelling those stories! He knew what it cost him and those he cared about.

Despite reminding God of His responsibilities, he knew that between the two of them, only One could cause existence itself to change. Which is why we see Jesus quite plainly throughout this psalm. We know David’s pleas and my prayers have been answered. Help has arrived, forever! We now exist in a state of helped — existence was fundamentally changed on the cross. Even when all seems otherwise and it looks like God might actually be gaslighting us, we now cannot be unhelped, ever. 

 

Historical Documents: Whenever I think of gaslightling, this Kids in the Hall bit pirouettes into mind. 

 

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