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Nov 05, 2017

Between Lament and Praise

Between Lament and Praise

Passage: Psalms 42:1-11

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: Psalms

No one with faith in God is immune to sorrows or despair. Jesus promised we’d have tribulation (John 16:33), but He also said “take heart, for I have overcome the world.” Is that exhortation a call to find your own resilience, or is it an invitation to take hold of that for which you have been taken hold of (Philippians 3:12)? As there is no life apart from lament, there is no pilgrimage apart from the same. But how do we move from lament to something like praise again? We’ll listen to one Psalmist’s struggle to make that journey and ask how the gospel is meant to accompany and sustain us in it.

Order of Worship

Call To Worship: Isaiah 61:1-3
Reading(s): Old Testament: Psalm 63:1-3, New Testament: John 14:25-27
Corporate Confession of Sin: Book of Common Worship
Assurance of Pardon: Psalm 103:8,10-12
Central Text: Psalms 42
Sermon Title: Between Lament and Praise
Benediction: Jude 24, 25

11.05.17 Lyrics

11.05.17 Slides

Illustrations:

Rectify - Why

Beautiful Mind - Not Gone

Readings:

Call To Worship: Isaiah 61:1-3
LEADER: The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

PEOPLE: to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;

LEADER: to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning,

ALL: the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.

Old Testament: Psalm 63:1-3
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.

New Testament: John 14:25-27
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Corporate Confession of Sin: Book of Common Worship

Eternal God, in whom we live and move and have our being, whose face is hidden from us by our sins, and whose mercy we forget in the blindness of our hearts: cleanse us from all our offenses, and deliver us from proud thoughts and vain desires, that with reverent and humble hearts we may draw near to you, confessing our faults, confiding in your grace, and finding in you our refuge and strength; through Jesus Christ your Son

Assurance of Pardon: Psalm 103.8,10-12
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He has not dealt wit us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Central Text: Psalms 42
Psa. 42:1 As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.

Psa. 42:5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation
6 and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
8 By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”

Psa. 42:11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

Benediction: Jude 24, 25
Leader: Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.

People: Amen

Related Scriptures:

  • Psalm 31
  • Jonah 2:1-9
  • John 16:33

Discussion Questions & Applications:

  1. What does it mean to lament? Is it only a mood? What all does lament consider?
  2. Is it ever your habit to ask yourself, as the Psalmist here does, why you might be downcast? Why or why not? What good is there in it? What challenges might accompany it?
  3. While there may be more to working through our sorrows than only meditating on certain things, is it ever less than that?
  4. Why does the gospel not merely paper over our sorrows but help us to frame them so as not to be consumed by them?
  5. What does it mean to “preach to yourself”? Ever tried? Why or why not? If you did, what was it like?

Quotes:

  • The Psalter may be a font of gospel music, but for me it’s in his despair that the psalmist really reveals the nature of his special relationship with God. Bono
  • Churches should be the most honest place in town, not the happiest place in town. Walter Brueggemann
  • Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?  D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
  • . . .to govern and subdue the desires of their hearts, and especially to contend against the feelings of distrust which are natural to all, is a conflict to which the godly are not [in]frequently called.  John Calvin
  • Come, madam, let us leave our troubles to themselves for a while, and let us walk to Golgotha, and there take a view of his. . . . John Newton
  • I should consider what I would say to myself if I came to myself for counsel. . . . There are a thousand thousand reasons to live this life, every one of them sufficient. Rev. Ames in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead

But what do I love when I love my God? . . .
Not the sweet melody of harmony and song;
not the fragrance of flowers, perfumes, and spices;
not manna or honey;
not limbs such as the body delights to embrace.
It is not these that I love when I love my God.
And yet, when I love him, it is true that I love a light of a certain kind, a voice, a perfume, a food, an embrace;
but they are of the kind that I love in my inner self,
when my soul is bathed in light that is not bound by space;
when it listens to sound that never dies away;
when it breathes fragrance that is not borne away on the wind;
when it tastes food that is never consumed by the eating;
when it clings to an embrace from which it is not severed by fulfillment of desire.
This is what I love when I love my God.

        Augustine

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