Pain Pathway

Nicora Gangi

Meditations on Psalm 13- Pain – The Pathway to God’s Glory

When I suffered with intense loneliness, my former pastor encouraged me to use my artistic gifts to visually express my feelings of rejection, anger, sorrow, regret, unattractiveness, physical needs, isolation, grief, and fear of what may be ahead. These feelings are most of the ingredients that I recognize as part of loneliness’ assault against the soul. Throughout the creation of these collages I called on the Lord to restore my soul. With groanings that I could not articulate, I appealed to the Holy Spirit to intercede for me before the Throne of Grace. I found that these artistic meditations helped me in the midst of my struggles. The collages in this series were all created from paper magazine images. Some were scratched into and some drawn upon. The main objective of these collages was to see God as He was actually revealing Himself to me: through this psalm. Timothy Keller has stated that the Book of Psalms is one of the books that Jesus quotes more than any other in the Bible. “The psalms were not simply sung by Jesus, they are also about Jesus.” This is a truth that has continued to keep me in the rich study of His WORD.

Timothy Keller, Songs of Jesus (New York: Viking Press, 2015) 42.

Jonathon Roberts

Ever since Nicora Gangi told me about me her process of actively meditating on the Psalms through collages and color, it has lingered as an ideal and natural way grow in one’s faith and creative life. I’ve always longed for simple ways to infuse the Bible and creative activities into daily life, and I can’t think of a better example than Nicora’s.

Creating a musical response to her series of meditations on Psalm 13 gave me an opportunity to “sit” in Psalm 13 and contemplate the psalmist’s words and Nicora’s response. At the same time, perhaps not coincidentally, I was playing music with my toddler Walter and started to sing “Just Am I”, open on the hymnal on our piano, playing around with a more introspective style. Next to the hymnal on the stand were Nicora’s images. Over the next few week, the stories of Psalm 13, Nicora’s meditation, and “Just as I Am” wove together and felt like a natural extension of one another.

I imagine the singer working through all of this at once, singing, speaking, meditating, and listening through the span of this song. This beautiful performance by Emily Clare Zempel captures the emotion of Psalm 13.