Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20250907 - Hello Darkness My Old Friend - Psalm 88

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#20250907 - Hello Darkness My Old Friend - Psalm 88 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word recorded live at Calvary
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Church in Aurora, Co. To learn more about the many
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resources available through Abounding Grace Media or to tune
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into our live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co
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dot Church or download our free Calvary Church app.
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Now let's open our Bibles and study God's Word.
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Amen. Psalm 88 is where we're going to
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be at this morning. I have a question for you guys.
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Do you guys remember the 1900s, the 1900s, so long ago, so far
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away and yet so close. The 1900s were a great time.
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I love the 1900s Anybody, anybody not alive yet in the
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1900s, anybody. 2002 thousand babies.
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OK, All the old people are looking at you now because you
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don't know what the 1900s were like, did you guys?
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I love the 1900s. I especially, I'm a 90s baby, so
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I love especially 90s music. 90s music was the best era of music,
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right? No knock of 80s.
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OK, 80s, 70s. OK, we're gauging how old the
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room is. 60s, 50s. It got quite you see how it got
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quieter and quieter? I do, I, I, I love the 1900s.
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It's silly to talk about it in that way, but it was.
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And in 1964, a song was released, written by a man named
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Paul Simon. It's very first line is Hello
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Darkness, my old friend. And it continues, Hello
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Darkness, my old friend, I've come to talk to you again.
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Because a vision softly creeping left its seeds while I was
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sleeping. And the vision that was planted
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in my brain still remains within the sound of silence.
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Paul Simon, as he penned this, wasn't the first to express this
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idea. Psalm 88 expresses the same
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idea. The author of it being this man
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named he man, not he man. He's not the master of the
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universe, He man. And this seems to be he man's
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sense in this Psalm written by him.
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And so if you're taking notes, I've titled this message, Hello
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Darkness, My Old Friend. We're going to see here in Psalm
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88 that just as most Psalms are, it's a song.
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This Psalm 88 is also a song, but not just any song.
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It's a really sad song. It's a really heavy song, just
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like The Sound of Silence. If you're ever in a good mood, I
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don't suggest you listen to The Sound of Silence because it's
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just going to bum you out. Like, man, I'm going to read
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those lyrics again. Just think about this here.
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This man is writing darkness. My old friend, I've come to talk
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to you again because of vision softly creeping left its seeds
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while I was sleeping. And the vision that was planted
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in my brain still remains within the sound of silence.
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It's kind of a bummer of a song. And so a quick disclaimer as we
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read Psalm 88, it is a song. It's a sad song and it's often
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regarded as the saddest Psalm in the entire collection.
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So it's not a Psalm that we were like, I, I just really need to
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be edified in God's Word. I need something that's going to
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put joy in my heart. I'm going to read Psalm 88.
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That's probably not what anyone would ever say.
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So quick disclaimer this morning, this Psalm and possibly
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this teaching is a real downer. But know that as we go into the
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valley, as we read this text, there's something really
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wonderful on the other side, even if the Psalm itself doesn't
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end on a happier note. You'll notice that the word
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darkness shows up three times in this Psalm, including at the
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end. It's clearly the theme.
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And actually, even though in the English translation the last
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line is darkness is my closest friend in the if you translated
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it directly from Hebrew, the last word of the Psalm would be
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darkness. In other words, the very end is
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a more little translation would be and my only friend or my
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closest friend now is darkness. And that's the way the Psalm
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ends. The Psalm is written out like a
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prayer. So the question needs to be
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asked, what kind of prayer ends like this?
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Doesn't end with a hopeful prayer, but in darkness.
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And if the question is asked, what kind of prayer ends like
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this, the question also needs to be asked, what kind of prayer
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like this is? What is it doing in the Bible?
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Well, I think it's here to teach us a number of things.
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I think this Psalm is going to teach us that darkness can be
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something that lasts a very long time, even for a believing
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Christian. Secondly, it will teach us that
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there's no better place to learn about the grace of God than in
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dark times. And thirdly, the pressing isn't
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meant to kill you, but to refine you and to renew you.
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The pressing that you may feel isn't meant to kill you, isn't
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meant to harm you, but it is meant to refine you and renew
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you. Now As for Heman, the author and
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the singer of this Psalm, he's an Ezraite.
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There are many mentions of Heman in the days of David and
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Solomon. He was noted for his great
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wisdom. We see this in First Kings 431.
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He's noted as being a Kohitite among the sons of Korah.
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We see this in First Chronicles 633.
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In First Chronicles and Second Chronicles we see him noted
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about his musical ability and service.
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And then in First Chronicles 25, six, he's mentioned by his
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service to the king. So why is it important to
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understand the identity of the singer of this very troubling,
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dark, heavy song? Well, it helps us to understand
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the song the dark. This dark and challenging song
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came from a wise, talented, accomplished, blessed and
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servant of the king. All these things human possessed
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and yet here he writes out. This is the only Psalm where he
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is individually noted as writing.
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So we can see that this Psalm, as heavy and as difficult as
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it's going to be as we read through the text, came from a
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man and a heart that was in service of the King.
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Charles Spurgeon says this about the Psalm.
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In this Psalm, Heman makes a map of his life's history.
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He puts down all the dark places through which he has travelled.
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He mentions his sins, his sorrows, his hopes, if he had
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any, his fears, his woes, and so on.
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Now that is real prayer, laying your case before the Lord.
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And so I'm going to give you 3 points for our study today.
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And this is the first point. Even as Spurgeon says, this is
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real prayer, the Psalms, this is the first point.
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The Psalms give us language and permission.
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The Psalms don't just give us great words for dark times.
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They gave us permission to wrestle with the hard things of
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life with God. In other words, the God of the
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universe is more than capable of hearing the hard things you have
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to say. Not only capable of hearing it,
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He's willing to hear them. And so Psalm 88, verses one and
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two, let's read together as we dive into the text.
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It says this in verse 10. Lord God of my salvation, I have
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cried out day and night before you.
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Let my prayer come before you. Incline your ear to my cry.
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This opening line leads us to expect a much more optimistic
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Psalm. When the psalmist begins by
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exalting God as the God of my salvation, there's almost this
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expectation as we read that he's writing about a great experience
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or an experienced rescue, that he's already had a deliverance
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in the moment. But in this Psalm, that's not
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the case. He's writing from a place of
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both remembering the past and clinging to a future hope.
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Although it starts very hopeful, he begins to walk down a very
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rough path. So as we start, it's good to
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make note here that the psalmist is writing of what he does know.
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God is the God of my salvation. And often in our lives, what
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helps us, what saves us in dark times and difficult thoughts and
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difficult circumstances where we don't know what the outcome is
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going to be, is reminding ourselves of what we do know.
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Human starts off here by saying, oh Lord, the God of my
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salvation. And so we let what we do know
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and believe about God, we let those things be a lamp to our
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feet and a light to our path. Psalm 119105 says that your word
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is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
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We can't give up what we do know for what we don't know.
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And so he man starts off this Psalm in a great way, even even
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though it gets kind of rougher throughout, he starts it.
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He acknowledges that God is the God of my salvation.
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He man knows God. He knows that God is ultimately
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his savior, his salvation. He says, here, let my prayer
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come before you. The prayer was passionate.
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He says I cried out to you and his prayer was constant.
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He says day and night I cried out to you.
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He was desperate for God to bend toward him to hear and answer
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his prayer. And I believe ultimately because
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he believed and knew who the God of his salvation is.
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And no matter how deep and dark humans affliction was, he could
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still talk to God about what was going on.
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He could still express his heart, He could express his
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frustrations, he could express and acknowledge the things that
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are difficult about his life. So here's what I'm not saying.
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Just because we have difficulties doesn't mean it's
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spiritual to complain about them.
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Doesn't mean it's spiritual to complain out loud for everyone
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to hear us. Just because we feel it, just
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because it's real, doesn't mean we have to share it.
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Proverbs 2911 says this. It warns us.
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A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back.
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There is still a lot of wisdom in how we hold our tongues.
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And so we have permission, We have words as we face
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difficulties, pain, suffering, sorrows, but we also have to
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remember that we need wisdom in how to approach the difficulties
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in our lives. Remember this, this Psalm, as
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challenging as it is to read because at times it can be
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borderline blasphemous, if not merely disrespectful.
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But it's in the Bible, which means it's meant for us to learn
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from, to grow from, to be informed by, and to find life
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in. It's been included, which means
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God has not only allowed it and inspired it, but he has a plan
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for it. The Psalms, and this Psalm in
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particular, gives us wisdom and an understanding that God is
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bigger than our complaints. God is bigger than our
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frustrations. And we can cast all of our cares
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before him and know that he cares for us.
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Not just the little cares that we have or not just the the
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shameful cares that we hold on to because if we would express
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them to God, how could we? How could we ever do that?
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God desires for us to cast all our cares to him.
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And So what cares can you bring church to God?
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Church. It's 1134, I know we're ready
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for the Broncos to to beat Tennessee, but we can cast what
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cares all all our cares. First, Peter 57 says give all
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your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you, He cares
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for you. So as we continue reading in
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Psalm 88, we'll read 3 through 5 and we'll see what human is
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offering to the Lord as his cares.
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He says in verse 3. For my soul is full of troubles,
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and my life draws near to the grave.
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I am counted with those who go down to the pit.
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I am like a man who has no strength, adrift among the dead,
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like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more
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and who are cut off from your hand.
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Human understands. He can bring this.
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He can bring this care, this heavy care.
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He says, my fault. My soul is full of troubles.
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The pain that human was feeling here was not superficial.
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It wasn't just something in his mind that felt really big, but
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it really wasn't in reality. This trouble went down deep to
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the soul. It was inward.
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It wasn't just inward, but it also outward, threatening his
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physical life. He says my life draws near to
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the grave, so much so that even others that saw him expected the
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psalmist to die. He writes I'm counted with those
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who go down to the pit. So not only was he feeling this
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hardship, but not only was he feeling this difficulty, but
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others could see, others also saw that he was experiencing
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grief and sorrow and difficulty. Now this darkness in the Psalm
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is expressed in two ways, darkness on the outside
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surrounding him, but also darkness on the inside with the
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thought of a darkness that was consuming him.
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Now I would say darkness on the outside.
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Some of us could easily say like I can, I can get through this.
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I can straight, I can, I can push my way through this
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hardship on the outside, this difficulty, but the darkness on
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the inside, the difficulty on the inside, that's a, that's a
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much harder task. That's something that I, I don't
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know how I can go through this darkness on the inside.
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It's almost like saying, how can I pick myself up from my
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bootstraps if I have no boots? And so he even here is feeling
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both this outward darkness, but also this inward darkness.
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And so as we read in the Psalms, the book of Psalms is meant to
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be relatable. So when I'm reading this prayer
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by a person suffering, even if I don't quite know what the
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person's what the person's going through, it's easier to make it
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my own. Just like a song that is
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familiar to me, song that's familiar to me.
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It strikes a chord with nostalgia or it strikes a chord.
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It brings me, it transports me back to another time.
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It gets me in my feels, as the kids like to say today.
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Now, as many of you know, my dad recently passed away.
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And so there's a lot of grief that I'm walking through and
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that my kids are walking through that my wife and my mom and my
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my siblings, we're, we're all walking through this grief right
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now of just missing my dad, missing his laugh, missing our
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talks. And what I love about music is
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that music helps to bring me to a place where in my grief, I can
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also find some joy. And so in this season of my
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life, as I'm processing grief, I've been spending a lot of time
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listening to the kind of music that my dad listened to, the
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music that I grew up listening to.
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My dad loved music. I think it's where I learned and
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appreciated all kinds of music. And my dad was a big fan of
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ABBA, so I'm in this season of listening to his music,
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listening to the music that he loved and that I grew up with.
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And I know far too much about ABBA as a 42 year old, but
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there's something about the music that he listens to that he
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listened to that transports me back to spending time with him
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just sitting listening to records.
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You guys remember records? Talk about 1900s.
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Do you guys remember records? They were like these vinyl
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circles. You put a needle on them and
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they rotated. I'll show you guys, the younger
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people, I'll show you guys. Music has a way.
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It's powerful. Music is powerful.
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Melody connects to our hearts in a powerful way.
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And just like the Psalms here, these are songs and they
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transport us. They help us to relate to the
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things that the authors are writing about.
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So as I'm reading these difficulties that human wrote,
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I'm, I'm, I'm looking at my own life and I'm saying, yes, I, I
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understand this. This relates to me.
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I understand the difficulty that you're going through, even if
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I'm not going through the same exact thing.
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Melody connected with expression helps to connect our hearts in a
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powerful way. Not only does it transport us,
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not only does it put us in our fields, but there's just
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something about an expression mixed with notes and a catchy
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melody. That's why we have a music
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industry. That's why when you're sad, you
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listen to sad music. The industry is built upon it.
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The industry is built on sad music, even if it sounds very
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poppy. It's still very sad.
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So when you're sad, you listen to sad music.
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When you're you want to get hyped up, you want to go to the
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gym, you listen to ABBA. You see him in in this Psalm, he
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feels abandoned. He feels as though God is angry
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with him and has rejected him. He's expressing a feeling that
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God is gone. And so he's experiencing both
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outward darkness and inward darkness.
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This Psalm is written like a prayer.
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So he's praying and he's trusting God as his Savior.
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But again, by the end of the Psalm, we're going to see that
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it this song, this prayer is still ends in darkness.
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You see, sometimes even as a believer, even as a follower of
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Jesus, we go through deep pain and sorrow and sometimes it
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lasts for a really long time. And you might be in this room
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and you, you've been in a really long season of pain and
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darkness. We have this word anguish.
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It's a state of intense physical, mental or spiritual
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suffering and distress. And so this word can speak to
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the physical, the pain, this mental pain, emotional and
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spiritual pain. We know that Jesus himself felt
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the the heavyweight of anguish. He cries out this prayer in the
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Garden of Gethsemane in Luke 22, 42 through 44.
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He says, Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from
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me. Nevertheless not my will, but
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yours be done. That an Angel appeared to him
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from heaven, strengthening him and being in agony, he prayed
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more earnestly. That his sweat became like great
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drops of blood falling down to the ground.
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We see pain and a darkness that both comes from the inside but
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also from the outside for Jesus. He prayed for a cup to pass.
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He bore the full weight of sin, shame and pain on himself as he
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prayed. He understood that this cup that
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he was about to drink from meant that he was going to go through
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immense pain and difficulty. There was a real sense of the
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full weight of darkness being presented in front of him, and
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his expression to his Father was not my will, but your will be
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done in the garden, the garden of Gethsemane.
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Gethsemane is translated as the olive press, meaning that in the
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garden Jesus was being pressed, and not just pressed but
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crushed. He was taking on the full weight
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in that moment, taking the cup, expressing himself to the
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Father. Not my will, but your will be
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done. Human rights adrift among the
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dead. The psalmist was so weak and
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afflicted that he felt and others regarded him as
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practically dead. It's almost as saying, what's
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the point of living? These things are too hard to
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bear. The challenging thought here is
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that you can be a believing Christian.
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You can be someone like Heman who is in the service of the
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king. He is a wise man.
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He is a blessed man. He's a writer of songs.
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You could be trusting God for your salvation.
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You could be praying and doing what you believe you should be
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doing. And yet it doesn't get any
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better for a long time. And that's a hard thing to hear.
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That's a hard thing to experience.
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It's a hard thing to relate to. And yet here we are reading this
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song written by Heman. I know I warned you that this
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would be a downer. But on the other hand, this
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Psalm can also be revealing of God's mercy.
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And so why is it a mercy? Well, it teaches us something.
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It teaches us about the realism of the Bible.
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It reveals to us that if you think, if you think, or if
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you're thinking what it really means to be a Christian, or
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you're wondering whether or not you should have anything to do
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with Christianity, you need to know that being a Christian is
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realistic. It is a real life lived in this
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real world, lived out. We see that in every account in
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the Bible. These are real lives of real
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people that were offering their lives to the Lord or not
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offering their lives to the Lord.
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Following Jesus is not selling you a dream version of a life
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that could be where you don't have any more problems.
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I don't have any more problems because I prayed this magical
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prayer and now everything is shiny and wonderful and
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beautiful. If anything, the Bible reveals
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to us that you can do everything right and you can still have
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pretty long times in which the darkness doesn't lift.
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And if you're in that season, I, I, my heart is with you because
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it's painful, it's real, it hurts.
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This is the life that you live and you want to express your
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life to the Lord. And yet here you are finding
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yourself in difficult times. If your expectation is well, now
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that I'm a Christian, bad things can't happen to me, Well, I'm a
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good person now. I've cleaned up my life.
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So why would bad things happen to me?
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Well, I know someone that was way better than any of us.
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We just talked about him. Jesus, he didn't have the most
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extravagant life. He didn't have a painless life.
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He was rejected and he was tortured and then he was
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murdered by the people that he loved.
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Jesus says in John chapter 6, in this world you will have
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trouble. And then in John 13, he says a
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servant is not above his master. The world hated me.
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It's going to hate you. And so if we find ourselves in
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the pressing or the crushing, in a season of pain, we can know
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that we're in good company because Jesus himself went
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through these very same pressings and difficulties,
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these crushings. Here's where we can find another
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mercy of God in this. Is that what our expectations
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are are a big part of how we handle suffering.
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The suffering you're enduring may not be your fault, but our
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expectations of whether or not we should suffer can.
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Our can make our suffering worse because we acknowledge today the
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suffering is painful and it's terrible.
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But if we have a false expectation that now that I am a
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Christian, I shouldn't have to go through hard things, we need
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to realign our expectations about suffering.
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We need to realign our expectations about suffering
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with what Jesus and the Bible have to say.
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It can help us greatly face the troubles that we have in this
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world. Often half the pain of what
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you're experiencing is not from the suffering itself, it's from
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the false expectations that you have about suffering.
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How could this be happening to of all people, me?
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Don't you know I'm I'm going to sign up for refresh and serve
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those kids? Don't you know God, how could
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you let this happen to me? Why I I serve on the worship
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team I'm on I'm on stage every, every weekend.
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How could how could you let this happen?
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I serve downstairs in the rez. I give grumpy people their
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coffee and make their life just a little bit better.
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How come my life is this way? We see this in the Psalm that
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ASAP wrote in Psalm 73. Here's the chief musician
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serving in the temple, and he sees everybody, everybody else
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being blessed, Everyone that's not serving God, everyone on
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everyone that's not doing the work of God.
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And he sits here and he says, have I cleansed my hands in
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vain? Me, me God of all people, you
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would let suffer, you would let hardship come.
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But we need to remember the words of Jesus.
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Servant is not above his master. So here's a hard truth.
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Dark times in our lives can be the best place for us in the
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moment. And here's the second point.
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Is my faith trusting or transactional?
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Hard times, difficulties, the pressings and the crushings of
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this world. They are revealers of what our
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faith looks like. They are a revealer of what our
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relationship with our Savior looks like.
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We'll read in Psalm 88, starting in verse 6th.
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We'll read up to 12. It says you have laid me in the
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lowest pit, in darkness, in the depths.
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Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you have afflicted me with
30:49
all your waves. You have put away my
30:51
acquaintances far from me. You have abandoned you have made
30:54
an abomination to them. I am shut up and I cannot get
30:57
out. My eye wastes away because of
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affliction. Lord, I have called daily upon
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you. I've stretched out my hands to
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you. Will you work wonders for the
31:09
dead? Shall the dead arise and praise
31:11
you? Shall your loving kindness be
31:12
declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in the place of
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destruction? Shall your wonders be known in
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the dark, and your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
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We see here human expressing some frustrations, the
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difficulties he's expressing. I've done all these things and
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here I am struggling. Here I am finding myself in a
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dark time. We see a great account of a
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revealing of what trusting or transactional faith looks like
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being played out in the book of Mark chapter 4.
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Let's go there actually, church, we're going to turn there this
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morning. Mark chapter 4, if you would
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with me turn there starting at verse 35, says this.
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On the same day. When evening had come, he said
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to them, Let us cross over to the other side.
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Now when they had left the multitude, they took him in the
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boat as he was, and other little boats were also with him.
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And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat so
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that it was already filling. But he was in the stern asleep
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on a pillow. And they awoke him and said to
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him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
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Then he arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea,
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Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there
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was a great calm. But he said to them, Why are you
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so fearful? How is it that you have no
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faith? And they feared exceedingly, and
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said to one another, Who can this be that even the wind and
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the sea obey him? I love.
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Don't you guys love the disciples like I just it just
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really relate to them. They're crying out.
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I'm we're dying out here. God, we're dying.
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Don't you care? Don't you care that I'm dying?
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Don't you care that we're perishing?
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Don't you, you don't care you're asleep.
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How could you be asleep? And we're out here dying.
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I don't know if you've ever been in that place like the
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disciples, maybe not a boat, but the experience of I am dying out
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here and you're asleep. God, I am in this dark and heavy
34:17
season and I don't know where you are and I love Jesus
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response to them. His response, I'll read it from
34:29
the NLT. He says why are you afraid?
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Do you still have no faith? It's almost as Jesus is saying
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this. If you knew how I really was,
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you would know that proximity is all you need.
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If you knew who I was, you wouldn't be worried about dying
34:53
because I'm here. You don't believe that I'm going
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to take care of you in this storm?
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Do you not believe that I love you, that I care for you?
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Do you think I'm going to lose my reputation on this storm, in
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this boat, in this difficulty? And I think it's true for us.
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The difficulties in our lives reveal whether we are trusting
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in the Lord or if our expectation is transactional.
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God, I've been doing all these things for you.
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I've been racking up points. Surely, surely you're not going
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to let these things happen to me.
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Just to share a little bit for my own life.
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I got permission from my wife to share these things.
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But I, I've this account, this story of the disciples on this
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boat, this was this was a big passage for me for a really long
35:58
time because I have felt this, I had thought this, My wife and I
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have gone through season after season of pain and difficulty
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and grief, multiple miscarriages every year.
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Why, God, why would you build us up to let us down?
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Making the choice to to understand that we're going to
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walk in grief and we adopt two sons knowing that we were going
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to have to walk in grief with them.
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Knowing that every celebration means there's someone not there.
36:54
It's difficult and it's painful having a son who was 17 at the
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time run away from home, not having any contact for over a
37:07
year. It's painful.
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Like I'm just sharing my real life with you guys.
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If you've been here long enough, you may not have known what was
37:19
going on, but those things were trying me.
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Those things were testing whether I was going to be
37:29
trusting or transactional. Same sun, overdosing multiple
37:39
times, having to be resuscitated.
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It's difficult. It's painful.
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I remember having this thought wrestling with God.
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God, I believe God. I believe you can.
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I believe you can change his life like you changed my life.
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I just don't believe you would. I believe you can.
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I don't believe you want to and wrestling with the Lord and the
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Lord speaking to me and changing my heart and my life and even as
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a believer, even as a worship leader, wrestling with these
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really hard things. And I'm very thankful for God's
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mercy. My son has been sober for over 4
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years now. Amen.
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Something to be praiseworthy about.
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And our relationship has been reconciled.
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And I say that not. I say that only to say God is in
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the midst of these difficulties. He is working in them.
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But these difficulties are revealing to us whether we are
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trusting or whether our relationship with Him is just
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transactional. I do this.
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So my expectation is that you're going to do this.
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Difficulties have a way of revealing what our faith looks
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like, he says. He even says this.
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You've laid me in the lowest pit.
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There's a boldness in the psalmist telling God what he
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feels and experiences, that God himself has caused his downfall,
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setting him in darkness in the depths.
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You see, this is revealing about what he believes about his plot
39:43
in life. Did God do this or did he allow
39:46
this? Is this personal?
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God did this to punish me, or is this practical?
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God is allowing this for me. The season of pain you're in
40:01
now, or have been, or we're in or will be in isn't meant as a
40:07
personal attack on you. Your disappointments that you
40:11
feel about the life that you should have, these aren't meant
40:15
to be a personal attack that God has on you.
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These things are meant to refine you and renew you and to
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strengthen you in your trust in the Lord.
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And then we also see in the Psalm that there are two, say,
40:31
laws. These are musical instructions.
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They are to pause, to let it settle, let the music settle.
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And so for us, we just need to take a quick pause.
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Would you just take a deep breath with me as we're reading
40:47
through this? So let's just take a deep breath
40:48
together. Ready, 123.
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You need pauses in your life, Church, if you're going through
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a really difficult season, you need you definitely need pauses.
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I remember for most of my time working here, like right now,
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my, my drive, my commute to the building here is like 7 minutes,
41:20
8 minutes. And what I used to do is I would
41:23
get in my car and I would listen to like sports radio, sports
41:27
commentary. And I'd listen to that for 7
41:30
minutes and I'd get in here and I'd be like, angry.
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I'd be like stinking, stinking Broncos.
41:37
What are they doing? And I just learned, like, the
41:42
Lord had to tell me. He had to show me.
41:44
Like, you need pauses, you need to pause.
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You need time to just allow me where you're quiet and I can
41:54
speak. So at least in my day I have at
41:59
least 7 minutes I want to give the Lord more, and often I do.
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But at least my drive from home to the office, 7 minutes there,
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a pause for me there a pause for me where I'm not listening to
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anything. I'm just, it's just open space
42:17
for the Lord to say whatever he he needs to say to me.
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It's just a time for me to set my day.
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So when I come here, I'm a lot more pleasant.
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My mind is is on spiritual things and I'm not caught up on
42:33
the latest game of why I'm disappointed or or why why
42:39
commentators actually are disappointed.
42:43
To continue on, he says this Will you work wonders for the
42:48
dead? Shall the dead arise and praise
42:50
you? Shall your loving kindness be
42:51
declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in the place of
42:54
destruction? Shall your wonders be known in
42:56
the dark and your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
43:00
See these responses are revealing of he man's
43:03
frustrations. He's speaking with a sense of
43:07
sarcasm. He's saying I want to live for
43:09
you, I want to believe you, I want to tell people about you.
43:13
But how can I do that if I'm dead?
43:20
It's almost like saying this, you've never really been there
43:24
for me. Or what have you done for me
43:29
lately? In his frustration, he releases
43:33
where his heart really is. And that's true for any of us.
43:39
Our heart will reveal where we're at when we're in difficult
43:44
times. And church, I want to tell you
43:48
just, I encourage you with my first point.
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The Lord gives us permission to wrestle with these things.
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The Lord desires A genuineness from us.
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He already knows these things, so we can express these hard
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things to Him, to be honest with him.
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Now, here's what I believe God is saying in this Psalm.
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So we're reading through this. God is telling us I'm your God.
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Not because you put on a happy face in the morning.
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I'm your God. Not because you say and do
44:18
everything right even when you don't feel like it.
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I believe he's saying I'm your God because I am a God of grace.
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I am a God of compassion. Our relationship with Him isn't
44:33
because He makes it easy for us, but because He has made a way
44:40
for us. That's what a trusting, abiding
44:45
relationship with God looks like.
44:49
Not because He makes it easy for us, but because He has made a
44:52
way for us. In Ephesians chapter 2, one
44:57
through 10, it says this. And you he made alive, who were
45:00
dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according
45:04
to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the
45:08
power of the air, the Spirit who now works in the sons of
45:11
disobedience, Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in
45:16
the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
45:19
flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature children of
45:23
wrath, just as the others. God, who was rich in mercy
45:29
because of his great love with which He loved us even when we
45:32
were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
45:38
By grace you have been saved and raised us up together and made
45:42
us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in
45:46
the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His
45:52
grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
45:57
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of
46:00
yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
46:04
works, as anyone should boast, for we have, we are His
46:08
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God
46:12
has prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
46:19
Our faith cannot cannot be based on transactions because that is
46:24
a faulty faith. You see, God didn't.
46:29
God doesn't make it easier for us.
46:31
He has made a way. It's not that we have to do
46:36
something to gain something. It's like God has already done
46:39
everything through his Son Jesus revealing himself and His love
46:48
to us. Our relationship with Him isn't
46:50
based on transactions. If you do this for me, then I'll
46:54
do this for you. His relationship with with us is
46:59
based only on the fact that He is good and He loves His
47:04
creation. He has done everything so that
47:08
we could have everything that we need.
47:13
Human may not be doing things the correct way in the way that
47:18
he's processing and interacting with God.
47:20
In this Psalm, He's saying a lot of things that maybe me, me and
47:23
you would not say. He's insulting in his verbiage.
47:29
He's sarcastic, but remember this, he's saying them to God
47:34
because he understands that God not only hears him but cares for
47:39
him. And that's going to lead us to
47:45
this last point that you church you today you have a Savior that
47:56
is with you. Heman is expressing his
48:02
frustrations to a God that he believes, hears him, that is
48:06
with him. And today we can express these
48:08
difficulties because we have a Savior that is with us.
48:16
Matthew chapter one verse 23 tells us of the name of God
48:20
being Emmanuel. And oftentimes for me, I when I
48:24
think of Emmanuel, I think of Christmas.
48:27
I don't know, I don't know why. Maybe it's common for everyone
48:29
here, like Emmanuel is like his Christmas name, but it's a year
48:35
round name. He is with us, which means God
48:40
is with us. The name isn't just the title of
48:43
a savior. It's a reminder that Jesus has a
48:46
personal union of the human nature and the divine in Christ.
48:51
So not only is he God in the flesh, but also a God who has
48:57
felt what we feel. He is with us in every sense of
49:02
the word, with not just back in the Bible times when He came as
49:08
a baby, and also not just in the sense of His divinity being
49:13
omnipresent, but in a real sense of feeling what we feel.
49:20
And it is with this lens that we read these last verses in Psalm
49:24
88. Would you read with me?
49:26
13 through 18 it says, But to you I have cried out, Oh Lord,
49:30
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
49:33
Lord, why you? Why do you cast off my soul?
49:35
Why do you hide your face from me?
49:38
I have been afflicted and ready to die from my youth.
49:41
I suffer your terrors. I am distraught.
49:44
Your fierce wrath has gone over me.
49:45
Your terrors have cut me off. They come around me all day long
49:50
like water. They engulfed me all together.
49:52
Loved one and friend, You have put afar from me and my
49:56
acquaintances Into Darkness. I've cried out to you this
50:03
expression. After spending some time
50:06
focusing on the difficulties he's reminded.
50:12
He gets his focus back on the Lord.
50:14
Like David wrote in five Psalm, Psalm 5, verse 3.
50:18
My voice you shall hear in the morning, O Lord.
50:20
In the morning I will direct it to you, and I will look up.
50:23
It's a good reminder for us even as Heman is writing here.
50:27
I've cried out to you, and in the morning my prayer comes
50:30
before you. It's just a great reminder for
50:32
us to set our day right, giving ourselves unto the Lord when we
50:37
wake up every day reminding ourselves of that again.
50:41
Though just as he focuses his prayer back on the Lord, just as
50:44
quickly he goes back to how he feels.
50:48
He says, why do you hide your face from me?
50:51
You can see the battle within Hemans thoughts and feelings.
50:55
There's some focus on the Lord and then right back to doubts
50:59
and the worst of humans afflictions.
51:00
Was that the sense that God had in some way forsaken him, that
51:07
his soul was cast off from God. He simply writes, he simply
51:12
sings, I suffer your terrors. I am distraught.
51:17
And we see in Matthew 27 verse 45, Jesus cries out the
51:21
prophetic Psalm 22 where it says about the 9th hour Jesus cried
51:26
out with a loud voice saying Eli, Eli, Lama Sobhakhtani, that
51:31
is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
51:34
We see here the same idea where Jesus feels the full weight of
51:38
the world's pain and shame and sin, the idea of God's face
51:42
being hidden from him. And again, in the NIV
51:47
translation, the Psalm ends with My closest friend is darkness.
51:57
Now we know this season of pain for human is just that.
52:03
It's a season. Though human is writing as
52:07
though this pain is permanent, we know that it was temporary
52:11
because we know in the Bible that there are other Psalms that
52:15
he man was a part of writing. We see that in in the in the
52:19
Psalms in the 40s and also in the 80s as he was a part of the
52:22
sons of Korra. So why is this important?
52:26
Why is this Psalm important and why do we need to understand it?
52:34
Well, because we need to remember that he, man was a real
52:37
person going through really difficult things, even though he
52:42
was in the service of the king. And today, if you're in the
52:49
service of the king, capital K, you can know that there are
52:57
going to be difficult times in our lives.
53:00
And yet we have this assurance that we have a God who is with
53:05
us in every sense of the word. We today have the benefit to
53:10
know that Jesus felt these same pains He had the difficulties of
53:14
life poured out upon him. Although human, feels like he is
53:19
abandoned by God. There is only one person who
53:22
fully felt the weight of abandonment and that's Jesus as
53:27
he hung on the cross, the full weight of sin and shame upon
53:30
him. The face of God turned away for
53:32
a moment so that God in Christ could tell you today that He
53:37
knows fully what it feels like and that He is with you.
53:41
He went before you in this pain, He went before you in this
53:45
heartache, and He went before you in this darkness.
53:48
Although He even felt the the weight pressing upon him as we
53:52
have someone in Jesus who was pressed in the Garden of
53:55
Gethsemane so that he could say to you today you are not alone
54:00
in the crushing. He went before us.
54:06
He even thought He was getting the absolute total darkness, but
54:09
He didn't. Jesus got the absolute total
54:12
darkness. The full weight of the wrath of
54:14
God was upon Jesus as He cries out, Why have you forsaken me?
54:22
It wasn't just a feeling of abandonment.
54:25
It was the fullness of abandonment.
54:30
What we know for Jesus. It was so.
54:36
It was so the glory of God could be revealed through Jesus's
54:40
death, burial, and resurrection. And perhaps this temporal pain,
54:48
darkness, grief that we also go through might be to be revealing
54:56
of God's glory through your death to self, to the burial in
55:04
humility and the resurrection life that now lives within you.
55:12
Jesus the Christ, the hope of glory Church would you stand if
55:18
you're able to this morning we're going to close the worship
55:22
team can come up just as I remind you that you have a
55:26
savior that is with you. I want to acknowledge a couple
55:30
things. The first one is this that you
55:33
may be in this room and you don't have a right relationship
55:37
with God. So you actually, the hope for
55:39
eternity is not present with you, let alone the hope for
55:45
today. And so if that's you today, you
55:47
need to get right with God. There's going to be pastors in
55:49
the prayer team available up front to speak with you.
55:52
We'd love to minister to you and just talk with you about what it
55:56
means to live a life in Jesus. And then the second one is this.
56:02
If you are in a season of pain, a season of grief, a season of
56:09
pressing or crushing, would you just lift your hands?
56:14
I want to pray for you. We just and it's not lifting
56:18
hands isn't for me. It's you're actually you want to
56:19
lift your hands because you want to reach out and ask God God,
56:23
would you just remind me that you're here with me in every
56:27
sense of the word with and I'm going to pray for you and I My
56:31
heart is our our prayers turn into praise as we respond also
56:35
in a last Psalm. But God, I pray for those that
56:37
are lifting their hands this morning.
56:41
I pray for those, God, that need to be reminded that you are with
56:44
them in every sense, not just your presence, Lord, but your
56:48
care, Your heart, that our pressing isn't permanent and
56:57
that our pain can have purpose. And so, Lord, we pray for the
57:02
ministry of your Holy Spirit this morning.
57:06
We thank you for your kindness, God, Your goodness in our lives.
57:09
Lord, be with those who are lifting up their hands.
57:12
Lord, pour out your strength, your power, and your kindness
57:16
upon them. God, this morning pray these
57:19
things. Jesus, in your name, Amen.
57:22
We pray that you've been encouraged by this Bible study,
57:24
delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church.
57:27
For prayer, call us at 87730 Grace that's 877-304-7223.
57:37
To listen to this message in its integrity or to join us for our
57:40
live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church
57:46
or download our free Calvary Church app.
57:49
Be blessed as you worship Jesus this week.