At funfairs and amusements parks, there is often a hall or mirrors which distort images because of the different curves in the glass, making one’s appearance look radically different to reality. Distortion in sound is also possible, when audio signal processing is used to alter the sound of amplified electric musical instruments (most commonly the guitar.) It can be quite fun to play around visually and with audio in such a manner, but distorted perspectives spiritually are much more damaging.
Distress is well known to cause both medical and emotional problems. In Ps 102, the psalmist (described as ‘an afflicted person’) describes his distress in various poetical ways: ‘my days vanish like smoke; my bones burn like glowing embers’ (Ps 102:3), having a ‘blighted heart’ that is ‘withered like grass’ (Ps 102:4), complaining of physical pain (groaning aloud, being reduced to skin and bones, Ps 102:5) and emotional pain which leaves him feeling like a desert owl (a Levitically unclean bird.) Nonetheless, this psalm has clear Messianic references (Ps 102:25-27 is quoted in Heb 1:10-12 and the pain, isolation, suffering through divine wrath and a life cut short all foreshadow Christ’s suffering.)
Perhaps fixing our eyes on Jesus (Heb 12:2) is the only really effective cure for distorted perspectives. Heb 12:3 urges us to ‘consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.’ When we do this, we find that the ‘things of earth will grow strangely dim/ in the light of His glory and grace.’ (‘Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus’) That way, we can see things from God’s perspective and can be clear-eyed, even in the face of trouble.