I'm Grieving (Part 3)

English Standard Version Psalm 13

1  How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

2  How long must I take counsel in my soul

and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

3  Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;

light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,

4  lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”

lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

5  But I have trusted in your steadfast love;

my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

6  I will sing to the LORD,

because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Ecclesiastes 3:1–4 ESV

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

Ecclesiastes 1:1–4 ESV

The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

Ecclesiatstes 3:1-4

Grief’s Hopelessness

While sitting in the midst of grief, most people feel as if God has failed them.

It is in the midst of grief that the believer should definitely lean into the sovereignty of God.

Ironically, the Psalmist’s cry to God is “How Long” instead of “Why?” This shows that at some point we move beyond the fact that it shouldn’t be happening. We then are just ready to be over it.

“Over, under, and around are not good prepositions to use when speaking about grief.”

Plans don’t work! (v. 2)

Is there any hope to be found in grief?

Notice, the writer turns… not their reality, but their mind.

God’s faithfulness is present in the fact that we are alive.

In the last two verses, he literally says that he will exchange his cry for a song. I love this picture, as he mentally portrays the deliverance that is to come, both in the temporal and eternal.

We will exchange a cross for a crown.

gives us the reality that death, pain, and suffering are realities of the fallen world.. But one day, Christ will create a new reality. Therefore, it is on me to endure and have faith in my reality that God has me in, and trusting Him to change it in the temporal and the eternal.

As long as I am in this world, there will be tears.

In the meantime, we must exchange mercies and worship in the midst of the brokenness.