Turn to the LORD Who Turns Back to You
Psalm 6:4
Turn back, YHWH, deliver/draw out my soul,
save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
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Turnaround, every now and then I get a little bit lonely
And you’re never coming round
Turnaround, every now and then I get a little bit tired
Of listening to the sound of my tears
Bonnie Tyler’s 1983 hit, Total Eclipse of the Heart, echoes Psalm 6 with an entreaty for the singer’s lover to ‘turn around’ because the singer is lonely, tired, and terrified, and needs to be assured of love.
In a similar manner, in v. 4, the Psalmist cries out, “Turn, O LORD, deliver my life; save me for the sake of your steadfast love.” He beseeches the Lord to turn around and spare him from the rebuke of his anger and the wrath of his discipline. Augustine, in his commentary on the Psalms, posits that this call for the Lord to turn around could also be a cry for the Lord to turn the psalmist’s own soul around. Our souls are so enmeshed in the perplexities of the world that the thorns of fleshly longings will tear the soul apart if it strives to turn itself.
Have we so concerned ourselves with the worries of the world that we have forgotten to turn around to the only God who can save? Worse still, do we complain that we are starved of God’s affection and yet refuse to turn around and move towards Him? I myself am highly guilty of this. As a cell leader, I am quick to remind others of the need to spend time with God, but I conflate researching for my papers with my Quiet Time. And then I wonder why I am unable to hear a word in season for myself.
We must put weight behind our words. How seriously do we take God such that we allow God to be the centre of our energies? Of course, it is impossible for us to do this in our own strength, and so we must implore God to turn us around. We don’t know whether the lover in the song Total Eclipse of the Heart turned around to the singer, but we know that the LORD will turn back to us because of his steadfast love. We simply need to ask: “Turn back, O LORD, draw out my soul from mindless pursuits, and turn me back to you.”
Kjelti Koh (MDiv 3)
