The Psalm Beneath The Scar

By Douglas Yates

Synopsis: After surviving a bear mauling in the wilderness, Caleb James Mercer returns to his family not healed, but hollow. What begins as a story of physical survival quickly spirals into a deeper wilderness-one of addiction, guilt, and spiritual exile. The scars on his body pale next to the ones inside.
But Caleb's journey doesn't end with the bear. There is the shark, too-an attack beneath the surface, in saltwater and silence, a trauma that leaves him drowning in prescriptions and shame. In hospitals and halfway houses. On a couch three cushions wide, where even prayer can't find purchase.
Haunted by the memory of Psalm 23-once memorized, now necessary-Caleb stumbles his way back toward the lives he once shattered. Not with grand confessions. With acts of presence. Fixing a drawer. Teaching his son to drive. Sitting beside Grace, not asking for forgiveness, just staying long enough to deserve it.
The Psalm Beneath the Scar is a raw and lyrical reckoning. A man of faith wrestles his demons not in revival tents or pulpits, but in kitchens, shelters, and pond trails whispered with scripture. This is a story about survival. About scars. About how even the circling things-the bear, the shark, the silence-can't keep a man from grace, if he refuses to disappear.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FF58RHXL
• ISBN13: 9798289283368
• Release Date: June 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"