Psalm 88

Lord, we've not come to church just to check something off our schedule.

We've come together to meet with you.

And we pray that you would meet with us.

Lord, we pray that you would speak through your word today.

Speak powerfully by the power of your Holy Spirit.

Would you speak through your word?

Would you speak through me?

And would you convict our hearts?

Would you encourage us?

Would you help us to get to know you more?

That we might more perfectly love you and be more completely devoted to you.

In Jesus' name, amen.

So please be seated and please turn, if you have your bowels with you, to Psalm 88.

A couple months ago, I had the privilege of meeting up with a neighbor to talk about how he's doing.

He's going through some really hard stuff.

And he shared with me that it's been a whole bunch of months, maybe even a few years since he's prayed.

Because when he was trying to pray, the words would come out angry, dark, despairing.

And so, as he would try to start out with happy prayers and they would turn dark, his voice grew quiet, his words became few, and he stopped praying altogether.

And I sat there at the coffee shop in my neighborhood with him, thinking about how to reply, how to encourage him.

I could have shared with him Jeremiah 29, 11.

You know, for I know the plans I have for you to declare to the Lord.

Plans of, you know, plans of, et cetera.

Out of context, but we can do that.

Or I could try to share Proverbs 3, verse 5 and 6.

Proverbs 3:5

Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Lean not on your own understanding.

Et cetera.

We all have these verses, some of them out of context, some of them in context that can be encouraging.

But in God's goodness, that morning I read Psalm 88.

And so, that is what I shared with him.

And we proceeded to wrestle through what we can learn from this dark psalm.

And what emerged from our conversation is the basis of the sermon today.

And just as I read it with him that morning, so also we'll read it again right now.

Psalm 88, a song, a psalm of the sons of Korah to the choir master, according to Mahalak Lenoth,

a mascal of Haman the Ezraite.

O Lord God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you.

Let my prayer come before you.

Incline your ear to my cry.

For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.

I am counted among those who go down to the pit.

I am a man who has no strength.

Like one set loose among the dead.

Like the slain that lie in the grave.

Like those whom you remember no more.

For they are cut off from your hand.

You have put me in the depth of the pit.

In the regions dark and deep.

Your wrath lies heavy upon me.

And you overwhelm me with all your waves.

Selah.

You have caused my companions to shun me.

You have made me a whore to them.

I am shut in so that I cannot escape.

My eyes grow dim through sorrow.

Every day I call upon you, O Lord.

I spread with my hands to you.

Do you work wonders for the dead?

Do the departed rise up to praise you?

Selah.

Is your steadfast love declared in the grave?

Or your faithfulness in Abaddon?

Are your wonders known in the darkness?

Or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?

But I, O Lord, cry to you.

In the morning my prayer comes before you.

O Lord, why do you cast my soul away?

Why do you hide your face from me?

Afflicted and close to death from my youth up.

I suffer your terrors.

I am helpless.

Your wrath has swept over me.

Your dreadful assaults destroy me.

They surround me like a flood all day long.

They close in on me together.

You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me.

My companions have become darkness.

This is the word of the Lord.

There are 150 psalms.

One third of them are laments.

And in all of those lament psalms,

as dark as they may be,

as frustrated and even angry as they may be,

there's always this positive twist.

You'll have David in Psalm 22 crying out,

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

But then by the end he is praising God

and declaring how the nations will remember

and know the Lord.

In psalm after psalm,

in all the lament psalms,

indeed in all 150 psalms,

there's always this praise.

In all of them, but this one.

In all of them, but this one.

And as a result,

for a lot of us,

we don't really know how to handle this psalm,

Psalm 88.

I remember when I was 12 or 13,

I was reading through the psalms,

one psalm a day,

and I'd read it as a prayer.

I'd read it aloud to the Lord.

And that works for like Psalm 27.

The Lord is my light and my salvation.

Whom shall I fear?

It's a beautiful, uplifting psalm.

As a young man, and still today,

Psalm 144,

you train my hands for war

and my feet for battle.

As a young man,

I love praying those prayers.

It's strong.

It's uplifting.

It's courageous.

But then I'd get to a lament psalm,

especially Psalm 88,

and my words would all of a sudden drop.

My voice would drop

and my voice would grow silent.

I felt so uncomfortable,

so even embarrassed

to say these words aloud to God.

They're so dark,

brooding,

and angry.

And I believe that for a lot of us,

we have this pressure as Christians,

as Canadian Christians,

that we're polite people.

As Canadians, we're polite.

As Christians,

we're supposed to be happy.

So we're these polite,

happy, clappy people.

And we don't have a grid

through which we can say a prayer

like this out loud.

And so, so often,

you and me and our friends

will be like my neighbor,

where we have these prayers

from our heart to God

that come out angry,

and so we just don't pray them.

There's parts of our lives

where we just won't go with God

because we don't want to be rude to Him.

But as we look at Psalm 88,

we see that this psalmist,

Haman the Ezraite,

is very real and very honest with God.

Verse 3,

For my soul is full of troubles,

and my life draws near to Sheol.

Sheol is a Hebrew word for hell.

He's saying,

God, I'm going through hell.

He's being very real and very honest.

As we read these words,

there can be this feeling of embarrassment,

like, how did this get in the Bible?

Who let this in?

But as we're honest with this passage,

we remember that what is true

of the rest of the scriptures

is true about this.

The 2 Timothy 3.16 says

that all scripture is breathed by God,

and it's profitable for teaching,

for rebuke, for correcting.

It's profitable,

and it's God-breathed.

And so I want to invite you today

to open up your hearts with me

as we study and plunder

the depth of Psalm 88,

these words that are God-breathed

and included in the scriptures

by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,

by God himself,

for you and for me,

that we might know God more completely.

So Haman the Ezra is crying out to God,

saying,

I feel like I'm going through hell.

I have no strength.

I'm like one who's among the dead.

He's being very real and very honest.

And so the first truth

that we can learn from this today

is that our God is a God

who's not easily offended.

Our God is a God

who's not easily offended.

And as a result,

we can be real,

we can be honest,

we can be raw with him.

Our God is a God

with a big heart

and thick skin.

He is a God

not easily offended.

We can bring

a real and raw,

honest prayers to him.

Haman the Ezra height continues.

Verse 6,

He's speaking these real

and honest words to God,

saying,

God, this,

my broken condition,

this is on you.

And I believe this is worship.

And here's why.

Who you complain to

tells you a lot about

who you think is in charge

and in control.

A lot of us have worked jobs

where people will come to you

and they'll complain

about the prices,

they'll complain about the product,

they complain to you

as if you actually have

any say in the matter.

My first job

when I was a teen

was McDonald's.

People would complain

about the prices.

I'm just like,

well, you know,

thank you for your complaints.

But the reality is

if you have a complaint,

talk to the manager.

They're actually in charge.

They actually have

some type of voice

in what we serve.

I, as a cashier,

I don't.

Okay?

Who you complain to

says a lot about

who you think is in charge.

Haman the Ezraite

is complaining to God

because he knows

that God is in charge.

If you were one of his friends

or a neighbor of his,

you would see that his friends

were abandoning him.

You would see that

he had no strength,

that he was physically weak.

You would see these things.

But Haman sees

that this is on God

because he's the one

that's in control.

There is no direct line

to show that God

was removing his friends

from him.

But he knows,

God, you're sovereign.

God, you're the king

of the universe.

God, you're in control

and I'm going

through darkness.

Ultimately,

this is on you.

There's various reasons

that we'll go

through darkness.

A friend of mine

gave birth to a baby

and went into

postpartum depression.

Her hormones were off

and there was a chemical

imbalance in her

and as a result,

she was going through

a time of depression,

of darkness.

Sometimes we're going

through darkness

because someone

is making very evil decisions

and they're exploiting us.

Sometimes we're going

through darkness

because we've done

some very foolish things.

There's various reasons

why we go through darkness

and there'll be various ways

through which to deal

with the darkness,

whether we need medication

or we need forgiveness

or to ask for forgiveness.

Different reasons

why we go through darkness

but in Haman's case,

he understands that

regardless of the reason

that he's going

through darkness,

ultimately,

God's in control.

And so when he,

in his lament,

is bringing his complaint

to God,

he is actually

worshiping God by that,

by saying,

God, this is on you.

You're the king.

You're sovereign.

You know,

the people of Israel,

as they're going

through the wilderness

after they exited

from Egypt,

they're grumbling

and they're complaining.

They're lamenting.

And Moses also laments.

And yet,

the people of Israel,

a whole bunch of them

are swallowed up

in the ground,

whereas Moses is blessed

by God,

a man after God's own heart.

What's the difference?

Well, the people of Israel

in this case,

many of them

were complaining

and lamenting

to each other,

whereas Moses complained

and laments to God.

And if you read

the scriptures,

you'll see that

the men and women of God

throughout the Old

and New Testament

through history

and even today

are men and women

who understand

that our God

is a God

not easily offended

and our God

is a God

who's in control

and so they bring

their complaints,

not grumbling

one to another,

but they bring

their complaints

to God.

The second truth

we can learn

from Psalm 88

is that it is worship

to say these words,

even sometimes

these angry words,

because we're saying,

God,

you're the one

that's in control.

Now,

as he continues,

first talking about

how he feels

like he's going

through hell,

second with these words,

complaining to God,

then in verse 10

he begins questioning God,

cross-examining God.

Do you work wonders

for the dead?

Do the departed

rise up to praise you?

Is your steadfast love

declared in the grave

or your faithfulness

in Abaddon?

Are your wonders

known in the darkness

or your righteousness

in the land

of forgetfulness?

And it's one thing

to be like,

God,

this is on you,

I'm going through

brokenness

and you're sovereign,

you're in control,

you're doing this,

I feel upset,

but then he has

the audacity

to question God,

to confront God.

And as I sat there

with my neighbor

wrestling through this,

through this section,

I was brought back

to last year,

just about exactly

a year ago.

I was on a big

epic road trip

with my brother Josh.

Josh is one

of my closest friends.

I was going to be

a best man

at his wedding

the very next week

and we had driven down

all the way

to St. Louis non-stop

and about at

the third kilometer

from Ottawa,

he did something

that offended me

and I decided

that I'm the younger

brother,

I'll be the bigger

brother,

I'll be the bigger

guy,

the bigger man

and so I decided

to just keep it

inside,

just let it go.

We kept driving,

something else

he did really

frustrated me,

I kept it inside.

By the time

we drove all the way

to St. Louis,

I was so frustrated

and by the time

we eventually

got back to Ottawa,

I didn't want

to be in a conversation

with him,

I didn't want

to be in a car

with him,

I just wanted out

and so I got out

frustratingly,

so I was fuming,

I was just angry

and I met up

that day

with a friend

of mine named Sid

and I said,

Sid,

I don't know

what to do,

he's one of my

best friends

and I'm supposed

to give a best man

speech at his wedding

next week but I just

am so frustrated

and I'm trying

to be a godly man

here,

I'm not getting

mad at him

and my friend

Sid said,

Daniel,

when you're dealing

with conflict,

when there is a

problem between you

and someone else,

you have two choices,

either you can do

exactly what you're

doing and keep it

inside,

don't deal with it,

move on,

or you can go

through the mess

and the headache

and even sometimes

the heartache

of confronting him

and being honest

with him and dealing

with it and both

have their places,

the reality you need

to know,

Daniel,

he said to me,

is that if you

choose to keep it

inside like you're

doing and not deal

with it,

you're going to

inevitably go apart

from each other,

you'll go your

separate ways,

you just won't want

to be in the same

room as him,

you'll be apart,

but if you go

through the headache

and the mess

of confronting him,

know that there's

actually hope

for reconciliation,

the question is,

he said,

do you value

this relationship

enough to go

through the mess?

If this isn't a

very important

friendship to you,

just keep it in,

don't go through

the mess,

you'll go

your separate ways,

but if this

friendship matters

to you,

deal with the mess,

go through that,

for there's hope

of reconciliation.

Lament is worship,

even these questions,

these rhetorical questions,

these angry questions

to God are worship,

because it's actually

saying,

God,

you matter so much

to me,

my friendship

matters so much

to me,

that I will confront

you,

I feel like you're

crushing me,

I feel like you are

indifferent to me,

I feel so far from you,

and I will not take

the status quo

happily,

I will come to you,

and I will complain

to you,

and I'll go through

the mess,

I'll go through

all that,

because,

because he loves God.

Look at these

questions again,

he's saying,

is your steadfast love

declared in the grave?

Are your wonders

known in the darkness?

Even though it's

coming out very angrily,

what he's ultimately

saying is,

God,

I want to know

your steadfast love,

I want to declare

your goodness again.

These words that

seem so angry

are the best

Haman has right now,

he doesn't have the

strength to try to

put on a happy face,

he's being real knowing

that our God is a God

not easily offended,

he's confronting God

knowing that God

is the one in control,

your sovereign God,

and he's confronting

him and questioning

him,

expressing hope

for reconciliation

with God,

a desire to be

close with God again.

Notice that he's

praying day and night,

he's not,

he will not be silenced,

he will not take

the separation,

he will fight for

being reconciled

with God.

Now as he continues

from these questions,

verse 16,

the psalm wraps up,

your wrath has swept

over me,

your dreadful assaults

destroy me,

they surround me

like a flood all day

long,

they close in on me

together,

you have caused my

beloved and my

friend to shun me,

my companions have

become darkness.

The final word is

darkness,

and unlike these

other psalms we have

in the Bible,

from beginning to end,

the psalm is dark,

with the very last word

being darkness.

That's no mistake,

it's intentional,

darkness.

And this feature of

the psalm which makes

it an anomaly and

makes it so

disconcerting at first,

I think is one of the

most precious features

of the psalm.

Because one of the

darkest things about

going through darkness

is that feeling that

the darkness is going

on too long.

say you're going through

a time that you feel

so dark inside,

and you go for a jog

through your head,

and you come back home,

it's still dark,

you're still feeling

turmoil inside,

and so you go and you

hang out with positive

people, encouraging

people, people of God,

and even in the midst

of being with these

people, and they're such

wonderful people,

inside you still feel

so isolated, so alone.

You go to church,

or maybe you go to

your own bedroom for

devotions, and you go

through the right things,

you worship God, you sing

songs of worship, you say

prayers of gratitude, you

read the Bible, you're

doing all the right stuff,

yet the darkness remains.

So often, as you already

know, so often you have

the darkness and the trauma

that you're going through,

and then you have this

added darkness that you're

going through darkness,

like this guilt, I

shouldn't be going through

darkness, I'm a Christian,

I should be a happy

person, and so it's this

added darkness upon

darkness.

Psalm 88 is a gift to us

because it shows us that

the children of God do go

through dark times.

Haman was one of the

worship leaders in the

temple.

He's one of the priests

whose job it was to lead

the nation of God in

worship.

This is a man who knows

God, and he wrote a lot

of other psalms too, he

knows God, and yet his

darkness extends so long

that his prayer begins and

ends in a place of

darkness.

Again, this isn't the only

psalm he wrote, but in this

prayer, in this song, from

beginning to end, there's

darkness.

And so I want to encourage

you, my brothers and

sisters in the Lord, that

when you're going through

darkness, whether that's now

or in the future, or if

you're walking with a friend

through a dark time, that

God understands that he's

included this prayer, this

song in the Bible, Psalm 88,

on purpose, to let us know in

part, that sometimes our

prayers will end where we're

still in a place of

frustration, and God gets

that.

God understands that.

God is okay with that, that

he's for us.

Now, as we're wrestling through

these words, one of the things

we must ask ourselves is, are

these words expressing an

objective truth or a

subjective truth?

When Haman is saying to

God, my companions have

become darkness.

Darkness is a better friend

than you, God.

When he's saying these

things, is it true?

Is he really, really alone?

Or is this just an expression

of how he's feeling?

To answer that question, we

must look at the whole

Bible, the whole cancel of

scripture, and what we see

is that we know that God has

said in various passages that

he's with us in our

brokenness, that he is near

the brokenhearted, that he'll

never leave us nor forsake

us.

We know that God is a

better friend than darkness,

that darkness will never

actually be our closest

friend.

And the primary way we know

that is something that Haman

would have only ever seen in

part, and that is that these

words he says about darkness

being his closest friend are

actually true, objectively true

for someone else.

That was Jesus.

We see in Matthew 27, as the

crucifixion is taking place,

darkness descending on the

whole earth.

And Jesus experiences this

darkness and isolation that

no one else will ever fully

experience.

That Jesus on the cross, as the

world became actually dark,

there was more than just a lack

of light, though that was also

present, and that was dark.

But that he experienced the full

and complete wrath of God.

Full and complete isolation and

darkness.

darkness as he took and conquered

death with his own body.

And as Jesus in Matthew 26 is in

the Garden of Gethsemane, and the

darkness is descending on him, and

he knows what's about to happen, and

he's praying earnestly and

struggling and even sweating

blood, he says, not my will but

yours be done.

And if Jesus would not abandon us in

his time of objective darkness, of

utter and complete darkness, then you

and I can have confidence that even in

those seasons where life seems so

dark, and it will feel so dark, you

and I can know objectively that he

will not abandon us in our darkness.

If Jesus did not abandon us in his

complete and utter darkness, he will

not abandon us in our partial darkness.

He will be faithful.

Haman the Ezraite, even as his words

are so dark and so brooding and so

angry, is crying out day and night to

God, saying, God of my salvation.

In doing so, in lamenting to him, he's

saying, God, you're my hope.

I want out.

I want this to be dealt with.

He's crying out.

And he counters a reality of God, which

I think is best expressed by C.S.

Lewis and the Magician's Nephews.

Two weeks ago, I read, I've been

preparing the sermon, and I was reading

through the Magician's Nephew with my

little sister, Abby.

The Magician's Nephew, one of the

Chronicles of Narnia, begins with the

little boy, Diggory, crying, in C.S.

Lewis' words, blubbering, because his

mother is sick and dying.

And isn't it true that for a lot of

us, at times, the greatest darkness

will be not only our own pain, but the

pain of someone we love, out of our

control.

So he's crying.

By the time you get to the 12th

chapter, a lot has already happened, and

his mother is still sick.

The darkness seems even darker, if that's

possible.

And Diggory is standing before the lion,

Aslan, who in these books represents

Jesus, and he's been looking down, and

he's silent.

And then finally, he opens his mouth, and

he speaks to the lion, to Aslan.

And this is what he says.

He, Diggory, thought of his mother, and

he thought of the great hopes he had

had and how they were all dying away.

And a lump came in his throat, and

tears in his eyes, and he blurted out,

But please, please, won't you?

Can't you?

Give me something that will cure

mother.

Up till then, he had been looking at the

lion's great feet and the huge claws on

them.

Now, in his despair, he looked up at its

face.

What he saw surprised him as much as

anything in his whole life, for the

tawny face was bent down near his own.

And wonder of wonders, the great,

shining tears stood in the lion's eyes.

Diggory's darkness did not evaporate

when he saw the tears of the lion.

But something did change.

He knew that he was no longer alone.

And there's something about when you're

silent and you're looking down.

When you cry out to someone for help,

you instinctively look at their face.

Haman the Ezraite, unlike my neighbor,

refused to grow silent in his despair.

But he, knowing our God is not a God who

is easily offended, knowing that God is

the one who is in control and that his

darkness is ultimately on God who's

sovereign, expressing to him as a

worship that he wanted reconciliation,

even though it was angry prayer,

knowing that the darkness may last

longer than a psalm or a prayer.

He's crying out to God.

And he knows, as it says in verse one,

that God, you're the God of my

salvation.

He's looking to him knowing that God is

the one who saves.

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine

was horrifically abused.

She was sexually abused.

And I remember being in my bedroom

praying.

I was praying a Psalm 88 type prayer,

angry, brooding, dark prayer.

I was saying, God, like, I wish I could

have been there to fight away, to fight

away the rapist.

I wish I could have been there.

And even if I couldn't have fought him

away, like, I wish that I at least could

have taken the rape in my flesh, that it

would have been me and not my friend.

I was so frustrated.

As I prayed, I remembered one of the

names of God, Emmanuel, God with us.

And you'd think that'd be comforting,

but actually in this context, it was

not comforting.

My prayers turned even more

confrontational.

God, you're with us.

You're with me.

You were with her.

You were there.

What on earth were you doing?

Like, what on earth were you doing

that you would be there and this would

still happen?

Psalm 88, confrontational prayer.

And then in God's mercy, he brought me

to Isaiah 53, which says, by his wounds,

we are healed.

And that day in my bedroom, my view of

the cross expanded.

My view of what Jesus did on the cross

became more complete.

You and I both know that on the cross,

Jesus took the punishment for our sins.

But Jesus did more than that on the cross.

He took our woundedness in his flesh.

What I came to see that day is that

that Jesus did for my friend what I had

wished I could have done.

That he took her woundedness.

He took the rape in his flesh.

And that doesn't mean that my friend

wasn't hurt.

My friend was hurt.

But Jesus took that hurt in himself,

which means that darkness no longer has

the final word.

That woundedness no longer has

the final word.

That our brokenness no longer has

the final word.

Because Jesus has taken it,

and he's overcome it on the cross,

in his death, and in his resurrection.

And so you and I can have the confidence,

as a result, that when we're going

through broken times, and we're going

through darkness, that Jesus has

actually taken it, that he's with us,

and he's overcome it.

When it says that his name is Emmanuel,

God with us, it doesn't mean like

when someone's talking to you,

and you're talking to someone,

and they say, I'm with you.

It means that they understand

what you're saying.

Maybe they have sympathy for what

you're saying.

When the scriptures tell us that

God is with us, it doesn't just mean

that he understands, or that he gets it,

or that he has sympathy.

It means he's with us.

That he's in the chaos, and the darkness,

and the madness with us.

And so we can have the freedom to pray

these very raw prayers.

And our prayers don't always need

to end happy-clappy, like a lot

of prayers do.

They can actually end even with

the word darkness, as Psalm 88 does.

But we can have the confidence

that Haman had, that God is the God

of our salvation, and that he's with us

in the chaos.

Because of the death and resurrection

of Jesus, nothing, nothing can

separate us from God.

We can have that confidence.

And you'll find that as you cry out

to God, that like diggory, it doesn't

mean that darkness will disappear

right away, but that you will

encounter the tears of God.

You may not be able to feel it right

away, but that God's with you in it.

And that's an objective truth.

I was sitting there with my friend

at the coffee shop, and we wrestled

through these truths from Psalm 88.

And as we wrapped up, I got to have

the privilege of hearing my friend,

my neighbor, pray for the first time

in a whole bunch of months, maybe

even a few years.

It was a real, it was a raw, it was

an uncomfortable prayer.

But it was grounded on the reality

that God is not easily offended.

It was grounded on the reality that

God is the one who's ultimately in

control, and so he brought his pain to

God, saying, God, you're the one who's

sovereign, and I'm going through this,

and I don't understand how if you're

king and you're good, I can go through

this, but God, I'm looking to you.

And in doing so, he was expressing hope

for reconciliation with God.

I got to sit there and witness it.

And he understood that just because he

is praying that the darkness might

continue longer than he wants it to,

but just because he's praying that

might not change that right away,

but that's okay.

But I also got to see in my friend's

own face and hear in his own words

that he understood once again that God

is the God of his salvation, that God

is with him in it, that he's with us in it,

that darkness is no longer the final word,

that the final word is Jesus.

Jesus, would you stand with me in prayer?

Heavenly Father, I stand before you right

now feeling like diggory before the lion,

saying, can't you, won't you give me

something to help my friends?

Lord, would you be with us and our loved

ones in our darkness?

Would your presence be with us in a

tangible way?

Would you show us that you are God

who's with us, Emmanuel?

Lord, would you do more than that?

Do more than just be with us in our

darkness.

Lord, lead us out of the darkness into

your glorious light, that we might

again be able to declare your praise

and your steadfast love.

We want to know you evermore completely.

Lord, would you help those of us who

have conversations we need to have with you

and share prayers and parts of our lives

with you that we are, that we're

shying away from because it's

uncomfortable, because we're afraid

those prayers might come out angry.

Help us to go there with you, being

real, being honest with you, because you

are in control.

You are sovereign.

You are the God of our salvation.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.