"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." Ps 42:11 and Ps 43:5
As if for emphasis God repeats this verse verbatim- not once but twice. I have never heard teaching on this but I believe that the concept of the "health of my countenance" is important to God- especially in the face of adversity such as David was struggling with in these Psalms. His "countenance" was pretty sick.
Literally health of my countenance in Hebrew means "salvation of my face". The word for "health" is "Yeshua"!
I believe God cares about our mental health and holds us accountable for what we "exalt" in our minds and offers "health" to order and prioritize the myriad of inputs that life throws at us. This goes along with a mental health article that I read recently which I quote in part:
"Then there's what scientists call "salience."
Someone without schizophrenia can hear a car alarm go off in the distance and barely register it. The brain instantly knows that the car alarm isn't salient. You can ignore it.
But for some people with schizophrenia, says Vinogradov, it's as if the filter is broken.
"They are walking down the street trying to have a conversation and their brain is being flooded with the sound of the door slamming, the airplane going overhead."
The brain of someone with schizophrenia tries to process all that information as though it has meaning, says Vinogradov. And maybe, though this is just a theory, this onslaught of extra stuff, extra data — that is what gives rise to hallucinations.
"It tries to make sense of it so that the person can go about with their life," says Vinogradov. "And there's some evidence to suggest that that's what gives rise to delusional ideas, to paranoia, to hallucinatory activity."
I suggest that in league with the God of the health of my countenance we can walk in faith and confidence and Godly, eternal perspective. Only with this health Helper, or salience filter if you like, are we capable of forgiving, putting things behind us and moving on in true faith rest and contentment.
