Wailing Walls

Teach me Your way, O LORD; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name Psalm 86:11

Unite – Our lives are often psychological memorials to the Titanic. We construct one isolated compartment after another, keeping the icy cold waters from overflowing and taking us to the depths. But all those hermetically sealed compartments have a fatal flaw. They are defensive in nature. They exist to keep the ship afloat, not to steer it away from destruction. When the compartments are finally breeched, no hope remains. Since the compartments are only designed to keep out the flood, they are useless once the flood gets in.

David knew that a compartmentalized life would never be an adequate defense against the icebergs of this world. Break enough baffles and the rest is history. David saw that building a life around insulated compartments would lead only to final destruction. So he prays, “Lord, unite my heart.” The Hebrew is the verb yachad. It is used to describe community. Bring all the different pieces together as one. Don’t let me rest contentedly thinking that the sectors of my life can operate by themselves. They can’t.

We intuitively know the truth behind David’s plea. No matter how well I am doing at work, a home full of strife will take its toll in the office. If I have contention with a friend, I experience emotional discomfort everywhere else. The illness of a parent takes the joy out of all my accomplishments. A wayward child robs me of marital harmony. Sin somewhere affects me everywhere.

Our world preaches compartmentalization. “What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas.” How foolish is that? A secret affair destroys a relationship even if no one ever knows. Why? Because secrets are staph infections of the soul. Left unresolved, the poison seeps into all the rest of my life. David knew from personal experience. Secret sin makes you sick.

Do you have a life of tight, little compartments? One kind of language at church, another in the shop? One kind of behavior at home, another in public? One kind of life in your thoughts, another in your actions? Maybe the compartments aren’t filled with skeletons, but they are still wailing walls. Ask the Lord of lights to tear down all those inner closets. There is only one life that matters – the life of unified purity. Yachad.