Man of Sorrows

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sermon. God bless. I pray Lord for this Psalm

and for our hearts. No doubt many of us are experiencing

and no doubt nearly all of us at least have experienced

the dynamics of this Psalm. Pray Lord that in

that alone we would find a degree of comfort

that your word gives voice to the deep experiences

of our lives. We got to pray that today you would

speak to us and The love that you have for us

in Christ Would grow that we would see just how

wondrous the cross is Pray this in Jesus name

amen So have this question that we're going to

kind of address and I'm going to address it in

a roundabout way and it's a big question that

we have in life. It's the question of what do

we do with our suffering? What do we do with

it? I want to put this a different way. What

do we do with the crosses, with our crosses,

which is to say the places where brokenness and

sin seem to bring our own suffering, where the

effects of living in a world that is full of

sin and brokenness actually cause us to have

to bear part of their weight, the sin, the effects

of sin, our crosses. Right at the very beginning

of this psalm, in the very first verse, it says,

Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to

my neck. Verse two tells us, I sink in deep Meyer

Where there's no foothold I've come in a deep

waters and the floods sweep over me and My guess

is that for all of us as we're cognizant of the

events in our own country over the last ten days

Have a hard time reading those words I will say

that this was a text that You know, I read a

few weeks ago, and as the floods in Texas happened,

I was kind of, in a way, dreading this sermon

because it feels too raw and too real, kind of,

you know? I read yesterday, wanting to just kind

of know the current statistics, that 170 people

are still missing from those floods in central

Texas. That 129 have been confirmed dead. Melisse,

my wife's own cousin's daughters, were at Camp

Mystic the week before the flood. Her other cousin's

son was going to go to camp right down the road

this week. One of our friends who's in our wedding

attended one of the other camps and had a few

people that she knows dearly pass away through

this flood. Lisa's cousin had nine families that

she knows lose somebody. So that we so we're

faced with this question that all of us actually

have to deal with in something Which is what

do you do with your suffering? Because at times

it's too much And we talked a couple weeks ago

Some of you remember this of the create the reality

that creation itself is groaning for the redemption

of the world we talked about that that it desires

redemption and in doing that we also talked about

how creation itself actually it seems as though

the creation itself is affected by the reality

of our rejection of God and our rebelliousness

from the Lord. The thorns themselves are part

of the effects of our rejection of God and so

our embrace of the Lord and the reality of our

adoptions of the sons and daughters is actually

for creation itself's joy. But what I'm suggesting

to you in part in that is that the created world

is broken through sin. And actually, we experience

some of that. I think we can sort of properly

extrapolate from the thorns that things like

malaria and the Zika virus and the mosquitoes

that bear that is an effect of living in a sinful

and broken world that has rejected God. And also

we can say that they're actually natural disasters

that take lives are not the way the world's supposed

to be The creation actually desires to live in

such a way that brings life and flourishing which

is how God made it to work And I think there's

there's an aspect in which that idea I think

does sort of help us with some of the pain and

suffering that we experience in this world and

The problems that come out of suffering But I

don't want to say that it helps completely because

actually The reality of suffering and the problem

of evil in the world is something that we will

always in some ways live with until The new heavens

and the new earth when all is put to right But

it's interesting to me that the Psalms do not

tell us just shrug it off The Bible never does

that Just bear it it is your cross at the time

Just bear it. Your groaning at night under the

weight of such sadness is accompanied by creation

itself. There's something so right in the deep

sorrow that we experience. Don't shrug off the

sadness. Crosses the ugly reality of the world

not right with God and therefore not right with

itself What I want to suggest to you crosses

in a way are everywhere The effect of sin and

brokenness in this world are everywhere. They're

pervasive injustice is everywhere sorrow fills

the heart and no heart is exempt from it I Guarantee

that each one of you if you have lived not too

long Have had sorrows that fill your heart so

deeply that you actually simply don't know what

to do with it You just want to lay down and cover

your head with your pillow and wheat I've met

no one Or I should say I've not met anyone Certainly

not anyone with any amount of years behind them

that has not had that experience Okay, the question

of suffering being so deep that you're not sure

what to do with it. What I'm saying is that crosses

which are these signposts that speak to just

simply how awful and broken the world is, are

all around us. They are. Some of you bear some

of the crosses that are in this text, crosses

of betrayal. Friends who actually once loved

you and embraced you, and they actually told

you, maybe even to your face, I don't want anything

to do with you anymore. Some of you have experienced

that. Some of you have... Born the cross of insults.

Some insults can be so petty, right? About your

hair, about your clothes, just these like superficial

things. But then actually we all know that those

still hurt, the petty insults still hurt. And

then there's some that actually just wound so

deeply. Being called a fraud and phony and an

imposter, whatever. There's words that just sting.

Cut deep. So if you have born the cross, zeal

for God's name and God's house, which is part

of the theme of this psalm. You've borne this

zeal only to be ridiculed and actually to be

ridiculed by people that claim God. Why do you

take all this stuff so seriously? Fanatic, you

know, laughed at, mocked. Because you believe

that the key to life And a man who was truly

God who died on a Roman cross and rose from the

dead people think how ridiculous You've born

those crosses some of you born the crosses in

your body Some of it's just the reality of the

aches that come along with deaths encroachment

Chronic illnesses and miscarriages and degenerative

diseases abuse from another's hand another's

body All of us bear crosses in our hearts as

signs that the world is not right and In a way

that we are actually not right because we know

when we sit with our own hearts That our own

desires can be so twisted and self -centered

and at times just unbelievably ugly we do the

very things that we don't want to do and we don't

do the very things that we do do and What our

confession of sin said was sometimes we look

at ourselves and we rightly say There's no health

in us Messed up in all kinds of ways ways that

harm us ways that harm those that we love Sometimes

the sadness of the world is utterly overwhelming

like the floods Like the floods in this text

like the floods down in Texas the suffering that

others are experiencing we don't know what to

do with the suffering that we are experiencing

we don't know what to do with the suffering that

we caused upon others we Don't know if that Sometimes

the weight of the world is just too heavy I mean

think of No matter what your stances on our country's

need for immigration reform or border stuff,

if you watch some of the videos of people being

taken away from their families, you can't help

but say there is something deeply wrong with

the world, how it functions, how it works. People

moving across the world to find employment, being

taken away from loved ones. There's no way that

you can't in some ways say things are not right.

Suffering the world is too much the heartache

we bear So verse 3 By the way, there's 35 verses

and I'm not going to go this slow but verse 3

says this I'm weary with my crying out My throat

is parched my eyes grow dim with waiting for

my God That David doesn't have a problem saying

I'm just too exhausted Exhausted waiting for

all this to change I'm weary with crying out

my throat is parched my eyes grow dim If you

look actually at the next little section if you

have the psalm open psalm 69 what you'll notice

in verses 4 through 12 What you'll see is that

David is is weary, you know with his crying out

his throat is parched His eyes are growing dim.

He's waiting for God For these kinds of reasons.

He's been hated without a cause He's been attacked

with lies. Maybe you noticed that What I did

not steal must I now restore Somebody's blaming

him for doing something. He didn't do you took

that I didn't you know, he's being falsely accused

He's born the reproach of his zeal for God. This

is something that's said a couple times. He's

been estranged. He's been rejected by his very

family. A lot of commentators think that what

he's talking about is the family of God. This

is actually a religious dynamic that's at play.

The brothers and sisters within the church are

like, I don't want anything to do with you anymore.

But it's very possible also that it's actually

just his siblings, actually. He's being rejected

by those who were seriously close to him. All

of this, verse 11 tells us, has made him sit

in sackcloth and suffering and sadness. And then

verse 12 tells us that this has meant that he

has been made the talk of the town. And I kind

of love this little detail because it says, verse

12, and the drunkards make songs about me. It's

like, country music at its finest. They're like,

my buddy's truck broke down, his dog died, and

his girlfriend left him all at once. They're

just singing songs about this guy. He's experienced

it all. The suffering and the heartache that

we bear can be utterly overwhelming, but it can

be aggravated By the way that others engage with

us, right? Insisting you move on or actually

doing stuff to us. That's just simply not true

Abandoning us in our sorrow So again this question,

what do we do with it we do at this level of

stuff David sort of gives us two options. Okay

And the first one he does sort of in in verses

22 to 28 so I'm going to read that again for

you and Then we'll kind of talk about that and

then we'll talk about the next option. Okay,

so here's verses 22 to 28 You can look down there

Let their own table before them become a snare

And when they are at peace, let it become a trap.

Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot

see, and make their loins tremble continually.

Pour out your indignation upon them, and let

your burning anger overtake them. May their camp

be a desolation. Let no one dwell in their tents.

They persecute him whom you've struck down, and

they recount the pain of those you have wounded.

And to them, punishment upon punishment. May

they have no acquittal from you. Let them be

blotted out in the book of the living. Let them

not be enrolled among the righteous. So let's

just blow it all up. Curse it all. Melissa and

I, last night, later than we should have, we

were finishing up the latest season of The Bear.

Want to highly recommend to you with all of the

caveats that it's needed, okay? And I fell asleep

right away and she came back into the room and

she said what are they gonna do and I was like

D What It somehow I had fallen asleep within

like 10 seconds and I was dreaming about the

little game battleship and so I was just thinking

of how do you destroy the the tank of the you

know the boat And I was like, it's D4. I don't

even know. But I was just thinking, destroy it.

That was in my mind. It needs to be destroyed.

Don't ask me how that happened. I don't even

know. But in some ways, that's what David's first

doing here, right? He's like, curse it, I'll

destroy it. It all just needs to be obliterated.

Some of you are driven by this deep heart for

justice, which is good and right. for wrongdoing

to be put to right. And there is something just

deeply good about that, okay? There's something

really good about that. You might know, this

is a lament Psalm. Lament is the largest category

of Psalms. Most Psalms are inviting us to say,

the world is not right and I need to voice it

to God. Something good about that. There's something

good in wishing that the eyes Those who are doing

wrong will be darkened as it says so they can't

cease they can't continue on and doing what they're

doing right D4 destroy There's something good

even in wishing that the loins would tremble

did you catch that part? Maybe that they would

just be so full of nervousness when they're about

to do something that they can't follow through

That's that's good There's a holy fear that people

should have that we should have when we are participating

in wrongdoing, right? Trembling loins might be

a good thing at times We could also say that

David's desire for the camp of those who have

done wrong or doing wrong be desolate You would

all people just flee who are part of this crew

that are doing something that is so wrong in

the world God Bring an end to that camp. Lay

it to nothing. We should desire the gangs of

our city to be no more. That's a good prayer.

We should desire corporate fraud to not exist

and to do that which we can for that camp to

be no more. We should decry bullying in middle

schools. We should do all in our power to curb

the devastation that comes from natural disasters.

In some ways, this curse of saying destroy this

is right. There's something absolutely right

in what David is saying here. May evil be diminished.

We can also say that there is a zeal for the

things of God. that may mean that our curses

are warranted, right? That's part of what I'm

saying. There's a level in which cursing here

may be warranted. What seems right is that much

of the wrongdoing in this Psalm is done by other

followers of God upon David and his crew. It

seems like they're part of the family of God

and they're doing this awful stuff to each other.

And one of the things that we know in the Bible

that's said quite a bit, it's said specifically

of teachers and pastors, is that those who are

part of the family of faith and that have the

reality of the scriptures that have been taught

are going to be judged at a higher standard.

What we learn is that if you come to the table

with the bread and the wine and you do so unworthily,

you actually eat judgment upon yourself, right?

There's a way in which there's a right judgment,

there's a right curse that takes place specifically

for the people of God who know the things of

God and yet abuse. that knowledge and disregard

that knowledge. But there's also part of this

passage, and this is kind of interesting, that

just seems so intense and it kind of ratchets

up a few levels. So I'm going to read again verses

27 -28. This is what it says, Add to them punishment

upon punishment. May they have no acquittal from

you. Let them be blotted out of the book of the

living. Let them not be enrolled among the righteous

What what if they would sing Let them go to hell

You kind of pull back from that I do We certainly

we wonder at that at least what in the world

is that doing there? You know in Luke our Lord

says that the greatest joy is to have your name

written in the Lamb's book of light And the worst

thing you can hear is of the people of God that

were supposed to doing things in Jesus name Depart

from me. I never knew you What I want to suggest

to you though is that There actually is I think

for those who are following Jesus There's an

invitation here towards the cursing and there's

actually an unbelievable warning It is right

for us desire the evil of the world to come to

an end and to stop I Think that there is something

also else going on here that David is giving

voice to the emotions that he is feeling. But

I think it's actually right to say, in a way,

he has actually gone too far. And if we follow

him in this, we're actually going too far. Here's

why. Our Lord Jesus tells us, love your enemies.

Pray for those who curse you. Do good and not

harm. What is the cross itself? But the Lord

loving those who hated him Caring for those who

despised him moving towards those who rejected

him Seeking to heal where there was just harm

What I'm saying is that there is an option to

the suffering of the world that just says curse

it all Whether that's not just the hardness of

our hearts, right? Maybe we just don't want to

deal with it, or we just want to say, god damn

those people. Put those to hell. I want to dismiss

them entirely. That is an option. And yet, I

don't think our Lord will allow that. The Old

Testament scholar, some of you may know this

name, David Kidner. He's really one of the great

Old Testament scholars, and his work on the Psalms

is. one of my go -tos. He says David's anger

was fanned by his zeal for justice, which is

good. Good desire for justice. But he says then,

but Christ came to crown justice with atonement.

Christ comes to crown justice with atonement.

James Boyce, in his work on this psalm specifically,

he quotes Alexander McLaren and he says, It is

impossible to bring such utterances into harmony

with teachings of Jesus. And the attempt to vindicate

them ignores plain facts and does violence to

plain words. He says there's a disconnect here

with our Lord's teaching. So what do we do? What

do we do with suffering? Because I'm pretty certain

that our impulse is this first part. curse it

all D for destroy Let me read to you a few other

verses that are in this text that Derek Kidner

points out in another kind of way verse 4 More

in number than the hairs of my head are those

who hate me without cause mighty are those who

would destroy me Those who attack me with lies

verse 9 For zeal for your house has consumed

me and their approaches of those who reproach

you have fallen on me verse 19 You know my reproach

and my shame and my dishonor My foes are all

known to you verse 21 They gave me poison for

food and for my thirst They gave me sour wine

to drink. Cursing is a possible answer to the

suffering of the world. Hang it all up. Hardness

of our hearts calcifying, right? The crosses

of this world, the places where sin and its effects

touch us so deeply, so painfully, that is a response.

But these verses and this is Kidner's point these

these verses that are sort of scattered throughout

this psalm are Directing our attention to the

heart of the Christian faith Which is Christ

on the cross? Christ on the cross he is the one

who is ultimately hated without cause Think of

verse four. He's the one who has perfect zeal

for his father's house, and yet that zeal led

to his pain. He's the one who was reproached

by the religious leaders of his day. He's the

one who was given sour wine to drink, as we heard

in our gospel reading, there on the cross, bearing

the reality of suffering in his own body. Which

is to say that the crosses that we bear the ugly

Crosses that we bear which are real the things

that are done to us They put us into the pit

of despair and sorrow and the things that we

do to contribute to this reality of pain and

suffering in this world These crosses are not

dismissed by God He does not just say ah, whatever

Don't think much of it Your heartache is not

laughed off by our Lord your sorrows never brushed

aside and Neither is the pain you've caused others

None of it is none of it is in Christianity.

I Mean here here. I don't think actually this

is this might seem strange I don't think the

Bible totally gives us the answer to the problem

of evil and suffering. And certainly not in an

existentially satisfying way all the time. It

kind of makes us all just go, oh, I understand.

I feel at peace all the time. But there is no

other system of thought. There's no other religion.

There really is none other, none, no system that

I think has at least a better answer than Christianity

to the idea of suffering, which everybody has

to deal with, because everybody's touched by

it. Which is to say that the God of Christian

faith says I will go to that place I Will know

it intimately the the rebuke that you experience

is the rebuke that I experience The suffering

you experience I will bear myself And I'm going

to bring you through it just like I was raised

from the dead it does not have the final say

It may be a great big question, but Christianity

says God enters it, and He doesn't leave it as

it is. God Himself, Christ Jesus Himself, bears

the cross for you, but also with you. We don't

worship a distant God. We don't worship a God

who's immune from suffering. We don't see a God

who just wants to disregard the pain and not

look upon it Stand far off from it We could say

this the floods of sin took our Lord That he

knew sorrow that intimately That your pain invited

his pain he knows that your pain is an effective

sin in this world He doesn't dismiss it. Your

sin and the sin that was done to you and is done

to you is born upon His cross. What's the answer?

What do we do with the crosses that we bear in

this life, the ways, the places where brokenness

and sin in this present world hurt us the most?

And I would say the only answer is the reality

that God Himself bears the cross. God suffers

And Christianity says that he actually conquers

Satan's sin and death in his resurrection That

the suffering of this world will not have the

final say Let me end with this short quote Thomas

the campus wrote in his masterpiece the imitation

of Christ this the cross therefore is always

ready The cross awaits you everywhere. Let me

pray. Lord, pray your comfort over those in this

room who are suffering in an acute way right

now, maybe just the ridicule and scorn. Maybe

it's their bodies that are aching in an unbelievable

way that they don't know what to do with. God

maybe they're living in the reality of sinful

patterns of their own life that have caused deep

destruction and an unbelievable ache God we pray

for those Who are being taken from families family

members out through floods or through Deportations

whatever Lord there's different ways that people

are suffering with aches that are beyond us God

I pray that even Psalms like this that can be

so difficult for us might bring comfort to them

And even might move in us that we might act in

ways that we are able To bring your peace and

your comfort God we thank you most of all for

the cross Something that is laughed at and scorned

and despised where you were rejected and scorned

Isaiah says you weren't nice to look upon hanging

there But where we find our hope in the midst

of our suffering At least the greatest answer

that God himself who made this world will make

it right God at least that the aches in our hearts

that are there because things are so wrong Can't

just be dismissed as this is just the way the

world is. It's just the this the system that

the world exists within God No, but you say that

this is not right. You're doing something about

it. You've done something about it And God I

pray that we hear today who are in particularly

maybe a place of doubt because we we've been

engaging with how awful things are at times and

we have been thrown off. God, would you meet

us in wherever we are and draw us to yourself

please? Would your suffering there where you

drank the sour wine, where you declared it's

finished, where you went to the place of ultimate

suffering for us, would that bring comfort to

those in doubt right now? God take your word

this word from psalm 69 and plant it and would

it be planted in the receptive soil of our hearts

and Would you somehow in your kind providence?

bear much fruit Through us because of this difficult

psalm we pray in Jesus name amen Thank you for

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