Blessings of Lament: Worship in This Present Darkness

Call to Worship: Exod. 15:11

Prayer

Adoration: None like you, majestic in holiness, glorious in wonderful deeds

Confession: Your Son poured out his life in agony for us + our salvation; we have lived selfishly, pridefully, and without trusting you//in this, we have regarded your Son’s blood as cheap. Forgive us…

Thanksgiving: You are the God who through the glorious deed of the cross has pardoned, cleansed, brought us near…

Supplication: Send out your light + truth, let them lead us—let them bring us to You, that we might worship with our ears + voices now, and our lives throughout the week/be our supreme joy/give us boldness to take this gospel to our neighbors; Laural: Your work in their life + outreach + pastoral search; State Senate + House of Rep. => conversion/protection + health/wisdom/providential intervention for quiet lives, etc.; believers Burma: protect, make gospel light; Word Preached shape us for Your glory!

Family Matters

Mark calendars—congregational meeting/potluck July 9th

Benediction

Revelation 1:5–6 (ESV)

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Sermon

Intro:

Q: What are we supposed to do, caught between the faithfulness of God and the often bleak realities of this life?

Opening lines of the Psalm, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.”

Picture in Your mind: a lush, green, PNW forest; or maybe ‘high desert’ scene w/ a refreshing glacier-melt stream, and the doe bends her head to the water, and drinks deeply

Problem: that’s not the picture in the psalm! Picture the Doe again, parched and feeling near to death by thirst, stumbling through the desert… to her favorite creek, only to find: it has no water… cracked and empty/no where to go

God’s Present Distance (1-3)

[The distance of God]

That is the Psalmist’s experience: to enjoy God’s presence would be like an ice cold drink in the sweltering heat of his trouble… so he says:

Psalm 42:2 ESV

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

He has a strong thirst for God//but he cannot access God’s presence

Psalm doesn’t exactly tell us why… gives us some clues, but overall leaves the circumstance in the life of the original songwriter hidden…

ON PURPOSE, because this is a psalm for the struggles of every believer

But one clue we do have is physical distance: the Psalmist cannot “come before God” with the covenant community at the Temple on Mt. Zion

=> can see in vs. 6, he is at the place where the river Jordan has its source on the slopes of Mt. Hermon, far to the North…

=> hard to say whether originally literal or figurative distance//point is, a vast distance from any experience of rejoicing in God

=> may be applied… to any such experience in the life of a believer

[Feasting on agony]

Result of distance = a prolonged feast of agony:

Psalm 42:3 (ESV)

My tears have been my food day and night

Instead of cool water of God’s presence, salty tears of anguish

unlike some tears = a release => these continue indefinitely with no sign that the gloom will lift

[The mockery of enemies]

Added to this agony: mockery of enemies—

Psalm 42:3 (ESV)

they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

Historically = actual people, personally mocking

Theological principle: voices that mock or question God’s faithfulness—

Sometimes, those who know you will mock your trust in God while you are suffering

Voice of your own doubts/mental struggles

Demonic temptations to give up on God

Well meaning Christians with a twisted theology of suffering… etc.

God’s Past Faithfulness (4)

What does Psalmist do? He turns to remember God’s past goodness

=> If you are suffering deeply, and thinking, “NOPE. That answer to suffering is too easy. I’m not following you there.”

=> You’re right. But stick w/ me. We believers sometimes try to give to easy an answer to suffering… but the Bible does not. Stick w/ me as we follow this Psalm to its end.

So, he turns to remember God’s goodness as he knew it in past worship in the Temple

How applies to us?

One sense: that temple = abolished; another sense: temple form changed = we do still conduct temple worship… how?

Back up: what makes sense of our laments//prevents our sorrow from being meaningless?

That the eternal Son became one of us, to the extent that he fully participated in our sorrows

Vs. 2: “When shall I appear before God?” /// Jesus’ lament in Ps. 22:1— “Why have you forsaken me?”—Same thing: exclusion from God’s presence.

Vs. 3: enemies say, “Where is your God?” /// enemies to Jesus in Ps. 22:8

Psalm 22:8 ESV

“He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”

Made like us in every way!

Yet, w/o sin—unlike us, since even when we suffer innocently, our suffering is usually mixed with sinful reactions to the pain...

Not so for Jesus… therefore, in the supreme darkness of his agony, he was crushed for our sins, and so brought forgiveness/cleansed us by his blood

Cleansed, we are brought boldly into the most holy presence of God… the result? W/ Jesus as our head, we are the New Temple! We are the place where God makes his glory and faithful love known to his people!

And if you have not trusted in Jesus for this, we would urge you to turn to him for this forgiveness + salvation

But/so, vs. 4:

Psalm 42:4 ESV

These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

He remembers the joy of beholding God’s glory and exulting in God’s faithfulness, especially in company w/ God’s people at the Temple on Mt. Zion

Not that different for us today:

Esp. gathered w/ God’s people, but also in private

Remember God’s glory + faithfulness… what exactly???

Not as much: God’s faithfulness to you in the little things of this life…

=> seem strange to you?

=> God is faithful to you in the little things of this life//but your experience of that is subjective + hard to measure… and what are you going to do w/ that when it doesn’t feel like he is being faithful?

=> Not a stable anchor for your faith!

Much wiser to remember God’s glory + faithfulness like the Psalmist in 73:

Psalm 73:25–26 ESV

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

God has unexpectedly made himself our portion through the sacrifice of his only Son… and it is for that that we are to remember and worship

Wrestling: Soul, Hope in God’s Future Faithfulness!

So the Psalmist preaches to his soul:

Psalm 42:5 (ESV)

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God

So: caught between God’s past faithfulness and this present darkness, preach to your soul: “Hope in God, for I shall again praise him!”

Hope in the midst of darkness, then, remembers God’s faithfulness in the cross of Christ as the guarantee of future full redemption

So now it’s all fixed, right?

Crying to God: Distance and Drowning

***Except for the line that begins the second half of the psalm—

“My soul is cast down within me” (vs. 6)—so, the memory of past joy in God’s faithfulness//memory of God’s own glory + goodness//did not clear the darkness away…

Psalmist is now caught between two realities: God’s past faithfulness//this present darkness

So, cries to God from a distance:

Psalm 42:6 (ESV)

My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

As mentioned, this is a description of geographical distance//beginning of the Jordan River on the slopes of Mt. Hermon, far north of God’s presence in his Temple on Mt. Zion

Whether literal or figurative, point is: distance from God

What does he say when he cries to God?

Psalm 42:7 (ESV)

Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.

This is what it looks like to cry to God, caught between God’s faithfulness to redeem us in Christ and this present darkness

The picture is of a deep oceans rising up, crashing and smashing in a catastrophic storm, swallowing up the Psalmist beneath wild waves

But what does he say about it?

=> This is Your storm, God

=> These are YOUR breakers and YOUR waves that swallow me up…

=> “Well he must be wrong there… see, God wouldn’t do that. It must be the devil’s work.”

=> Brothers + Sisters, this Psalm is a guide for how to pray when surrounded by darkness… those words are true

=> Whether or not the devil is involved, God is Sovereign. They are his breakers and his waves.

=> “Well, he makes all things work together for God for those who belong to him”—critical truth!—but not a quick fix to the terror of drowning in a flood of darkness

Prayer to the God of Love and Salvation

***But, as Jeff commented on Wed, this psalm bounces back and forth a lot between bleakness and hope. I guess that’s typical of suffering and wrestling with hope. Next verse says—

[God’s faithful love = I can sing to him.]

Psalm 42:8 ESV

By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

This is who God is: he really is faithful in his love//really is ‘God of my life’

Psalm 73:23–24 ESV

Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.

This is a God to whom I can sing/pray

But what is the content of his song?

Psalm 42:9 ESV

I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

His song: a sharp complaint to God: I am suffering under dark distance from you + enemy attack…

You have forgotten me, God—“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Why are you allowing my enemies to do this to me?

And this is the cry of the saints until the final victory of Christ:

Martyrs in Rev.

Revelation 6:10 ESV

They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

That is specifically about persecution, as in verse 10 of our psalm… but we can also say to him, for any suffering or darkness, “How long, O Lord, holy and true?”

Final Wrestling

And so, having poured out his soul to God, he turns again to wrestle with himself:

Psalm 42:11

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

Church father Ambrose of Milan wrote about this verse:

Old Testament VII: Psalms 1–50 Let Hope Strengthen You

Look to each phrase individually. “Hope, for I will give praise,” he says; not “I give praise,” but “I will give praise.” This means: I will give praise better at that time when I shall behold the glory of God with face unveiled and be transformed into the same image.

So: when the Psalmist wrestles, he does not necessarily try to hope in a better situation in this life. Often, God does bless us with better situations in this life… but that is not his promise. His promise, according to Ps. 73 is to be with us in this life, and afterword to receive us to glory

But notice, the end of the Psalm is a bit Discordant + unresolved

=> he still finds that he needs to preach to his soul

=> implication: he’s still in the darkness

=> Note: + Ps. 43 (part two) = a little more resolution, but even then, he’s still wrestling w/ his soul at the end

=> expanding our view: some Pss. of lament are darker, some brighter…

Conclusion

But, what are we supposed to take away from Ps. 42?

Q Again: What are we supposed to do, caught between the faithfulness of God and the often bleak realities of this life? How should our prayers look? Our worship?

We should NOT try to dress up our hearts before God, and pretend happiness//we should cry out in biblical lament

This will involve wrestling between two thoughts:

I will cry out to God, for he is faithful and true

God, why have you forgotten me?

What if you haven’t experienced this kind of darkness? Brothers, sisters, you need Psalms like this to teach you how to weep w/ those who weep

But though the darkness overshadows you now, yet, your weeping is not in vain: listen to the words of Jesus, who knows your darkness:

Matthew 5:4 ESV

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.