"A Lasting Hope"

The humor in that calls back to the stereotype of Baptists that we don’t drink or dance or listen to the devil’s music - rock and roll. And while desiring to live a life before others in the hopes of never giving someone else cause to stumble, the culture of many churches has shifted from a body of individuals who are pursuing holiness to a collection of individuals who feel the pressure to appear perfect. That pressure is what Matthew West, the writer of the song we just heard, has his finger on. As someone who has been raised in the church and now ministers within the church, he’s seen first hand how many brothers and sisters are just fake at church.

Just think back to your interaction with others this morning and even last week while making your way to your seats here in the sanctuary or in passing another in the hallways on your way to Sunday school. How many times have you asked or have you been asked, “How are you doing?” only to see the question answered with one word - “Fine.”

Fine? Yeah right.

Gas prices are at $4.29 at the QT last I checked. A gallon of milk is $5. There’s more month at the end of the money than ever before.

What’s fine for the dozen or so families this morning who are caught in the tension between the sense of accomplishment in coming to a time of graduation that’s met with the uncertainty of what comes after. Parents ask, “will my kids be OK? Will they find jobs? What am I going to do when seeing them everyday turns into hoping they would just text today?”

What’s fine for the person here this morning that faces an emotional or mental health challenge that leads them to do things that would just revile good Christian folk? You know, things like getting drunk or watching porn or using drugs. The kind of things that some would encourage the pastor by saying, “You know, you’ve really got to run that person off, pastor.”

Tension

We’ve been trained to be fake because for at least a few generations, there have been far too many who have said, “We can’t have that in our church.” “Can’t have what?,” asks someone. “We can’t have this messy stuff. We can’t just have people who don’t have their stuff together dragging their issues around here. We can’t have any sins that I personally find disgusting here.”

So we are trained to be fine. We learn that we have to be otherwise we can’t really belong and we want to belong because we believe that in belonging, we’ll have people around us and we’ll never feel alone, but then there’s this weird thing that in pretending to be fine in a sea of people, we expect to feel complete, maybe even popular, but that expectation falls flat because truthfully, we’re incredibly lonely as a consequence of pretending to be fine.

I have to ask, if the church is to be filled with people who are just doing fine, what makes the Church for whom Jesus died any different than the Kardashian family who covers up their physical imperfections with plastic surgery? What makes the Church distinct from the millions of social media personas whose posts only paint a picture of lives that are perfectly happy and complete? And clearly here I’m suggesting to you that a church filled with people who are doing fine is a church as fake as the African prince who just need a small amount of money from you to get him out of a bind that will be repaid 100-fold.

So what then are we to do?

Text

We turn once more to the Word of God in pursuit of God’s truth for our lives. And if we were to offer a summary of Psalm 88, we would be right in concluding that this is one of the most depressing passages in all of Scripture. It’s probably one that we don’t hear lessons or sermons from very often, if at all. **And it may seem odd to spend our time considering such a dark passage on a morning that we recognize graduates, but there’s great truths for us to extract and apply from this psalm.

And while we’ve been reading so much together about the movement of God during the time of kings in Israel together as a church, I’ve felt drawn to preach and teach from Psalms these last five weeks because it’s in this prayer book given to us by God that we discover that we do not need to deny our emotions as human beings. The individual psalms are prayers spoken to God and are Holy Spirit-inspired words about God that show us that God welcomes our prayers seasoned by love and joy just as much as he welcomes our prayers of anger and frustration and doubt.

The psalmist here is dealing with voicing to God his sense of loneliness and isolation. Someone asks, “Why’s he feeling this way?” He tells us! Psalm 88:15 tells us that he has been suffering with an illness that has made him to live in away and in isolation from others while living constantly on the edge of death since his youth. Another person asks, “What sort of illness would have required that he have to live away from other people?” Well, with what we know of the Law that God had given to Israel through Moses, this illness may have been leprosy because lepers were required to be put outside the community of faith.

Cry to God in Faith

Imagine with me for a moment the sense that you’ve been stuck with something for what feels like or is literally a lifetime. Something that you didn’t bring upon yourself. Something that everyone can see about you that makes you stand out among others in a way that makes you to feel alone and unable to identify with others nor others with you. Or something that lies beneath the surface that isn’t visible but nonetheless is isolating. No one’s like you. No one understands your pain. No one knows how alone you feel.

That’s the case for the psalmist who may have an outward illness like leprosy and will never recover from the affliction but can only really hope to manage the symptoms. He’s left to deal the societal consequences as best he can. When there’s something that makes you to feel alone, honestly, how have you seen yourself deal with these things? With ignorance by convincing yourself you don’t have a problem? Maybe by crying in the shower? Keeping yourself busy all day long because you’ve learned that there’s bliss in being distracted rather than being present to your issues and feelings. And distractions are wonderful at distracting up until it’s bedtime when it takes all your strength to get a couple of hours of sleep. And in all of this, what’s the last thing we ever do? Talk about it. “But I can’t talk about it, no one understands me!” No one? Really? Even the psalmist knew there was one he could speak with - God. And so he goes to God in faith here in this prayer. Psalm 88:1 “1 O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you.”

Think about it, the psalmist comes before God in a prayer of faith. He knows that the God of Heaven and earth is the Creator and ruler of all. And it is before the Lord that the psalmist comes to cry out to, where the word here for “cry” carries a sense of raising a plea for help to the God who saves.

Have you ever been driving along the highway in the car only to realize that your passenger has gone silent? You glance over and you see the arms crossed and a stare that is fixed well off in the distance. And you realize that you’ve done something wrong and you’re getting the window treatment? Every husband in the room has or will know what I’m talking about. And you ask, “What’s wrong?” “Nothing.” “Can we talk?” “No.” And then there’s just a deafening silence that falls over the car and you can cut the tension with a knife. And don’t worry, I only know about this because I’ve seen it in movies.

If you’re wondering where I’m going with this, it’s to say this: When we are bottled up with this stuff within us and we’re heading to a place that we lack hope, our natural desire is to stay quiet, to give in to the sense of loneliness, to give God the window treatment. This among all the psalms give us the permission to come to God in faith to air out every last bit of how we feel. We aren’t talking to a window, we’re talking to the God of the universe. We aren’t talking to someone who’s doesn’t know, we’re talking to a perfect Father who gave us life and sympathizes with our sufferings. We’re talking with God who loves us so completely that even though we were yet sinners, he sent his Son Jesus to die for us so that by grace through faith we can have a relationship with him.

Cry with Honesty

And it’s every last bit of ugliness that the psalmist shares with God. Picking up from Psalm 88:3, so troubled is the psalmist that he senses that he is getting close to a place where he will be forever separated from God, a place where he will be unable to voice prayers any longer, a place where he will be unable to praise God. His illness has ravaged his body, leaving him weak and resembling a corpse. As we read, we can sense how near death is to him. Illness has so affected him that he’s unrecognizable, in fact, he’s been unrecognizable for such a long time that he’s as good as dead and not much of a memory any more.

It’s like when you’re in a conversation and whoever you’re talking to is trying to tell a story and he cannot remember the name of the person the story involves. “You remember her, don’t you? The lady that used to work at the cafe that was usually at the register. You know, what’s her name?” It’s terrible to admit, but it isn’t long after someone has departed that their names are lost upon us. Though he’s still alive, the psalmist knows that he’s nothing more than being the what’s his name in a conversation.

It’s a terrible situation to be at a place in life where you are completely unrecognizable and absolutely forgotten. But in some sense, that’s how some feel in this room. Unrecognizable and forgotten connects with how we can feel so isolated in church at times. We come in, we sit down, we do the thing all the while others don’t see that are eyes just aren’t as bright since they’ve been dimmed by the troubles that we carry. It brings about an anger within us and our desire is to blame someone for what’s going on. The church! My spouse! My parents! My kids!

For the psalmist, he skips right passed all those and he tells God, “You know what? I think this is all your fault.”

Psalm 88:6 “6 You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep.”

Psalm 88:7 “7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves.”

Psalm 88:8 “8 You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape;”

Psalm 88:9 “9 my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon you, O Lord; I spread out my hands to you.”

The prayer is an honest one. He’s telling God exactly why he thinks he is where he is. It’s also one that’s incredibly desperate and filled with tears. Illness has made death more present to the psalmist than anyone would like. Psalm 88:10 sees the psalmist asking what God can realistically do for the dead because for him, this God-given illness and God-given loneliness can only mean that God has rejected him in life and will reject him in death.

“I don’t pray anything like this, pastor. This doesn’t fit the ACTS model I was taught as a child. He’s not praying right because I don’t see any thanksgiving here.” Jesus prayed honestly but not uniformly. Jesus prayed with such honesty as the writer to the Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 5:7 that “Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death.”

Prayer demands two things of us, first, that we are honest with God about how we feel and what we’re thinking. Secondly, prayer demands that we are honest with ourselves. Thinking about what the psalmist airs here concerning death, he’s convinced himself of hopelessness. What do you think about the eventuality of your own death? There’s only three ways to respond to it. Like the Apostle Paul who declared Philippians 1:21 “21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain,” you can desire death because you really believe the claims of Jesus Christ. Or, like the psalmist here in this psalm, you can fear it. Or, what seems to be the popular response to death today, you can ignore it, pretending that you’re going to simply go on living until, well, you die. Be honest with God in prayer and be honest with yourself with the things you don’t have the strength to carry.

Cry Out to God

This Psalm ends with a continued cry out to God. Unlike other psalms that finish with on a positive note, the psalmist concludes his prayer by simply crying out to the Lord. Psalm 88:13 serves as a reminder from the psalmist to the Lord that he is praying to him. “13 But I, O Lord, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.” The psalmist begins his day by seeking God’s face but those prayers are met by silence. So he asks the Lord, Psalm 88:14 “14 O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?” The psalmist’s deepest pain isn’t the loneliness born from illness or isolation from others, it’s the belief that God takes no pleasure in him. The psalmist cannot sing the Lord’s song. The only song he knows is “The Sound of Silence,” that song that chillingly starts with “Hello, darkness, my old friend.” As dark and as bleak as this psalm ends, it does testify to the fact that when we’re in places of darkness, all we want is God.

In fact, if you place the Christian in trouble, you will find that he doesn’t want money and that he doesn’t want popularity. The Christian in trouble is like a sailor. When the sailor is going along smoothly, he loves the good weather and he loves to fish off the side of the boat while taking in all the scenery. But when the winds blow, all that the sailor wants is calm waters to be restored. He doesn’t want anything else. He may look to the mess hall and see that the can of beans are expired, but he doesn’t care. He only wants order to be restored.

It’s also true of the Christian. When all is going along smoothly, he wants his comforts and his freedom. He wants to go chase after a promotion or an influential political seat. But when distress and trouble comes his way, bringing with them darkness, the Christian will long after the Lord until he or she is weary like the psalmist here. We tuck children in at night and leave them with a night light and they feel secure, but if the power goes out and the kid is still awake, it’s not long before the pitter-patter of feet come running into the parents’ room.

Friend, I need to bring to your attention that you should always take your concerns to him in prayer. And in saying that, God is not afraid of our questions. And I also need to bring to your attention that this prayer does not record a response from God. In fact, the psalmist questions God’s silence, but that does not mean that God is not concerned for him. It does mean that God doesn’t always answer.

God desires for us to come to him even if we cannot hear him, simply coming to him in trust. That’s what he’s after in our lives, that we would arrive at the place of confident trust that no matter how hard the wind blows, that we know that he is Ruler of the winds. Coming to the place that no matter how rough the waters are, that he is Master of the seas.

Application

“Pastor Dan, I know this is in the Bible, but couldn’t you do something that would prepare these graduates for life?”

And I ask in response, what better preparation for life is there than to enable us to persevere through the tribulations we will face and to prepare for the eventuality of our deaths?

We will face times where we feel like we’re the only one who knows the weight of what we’re carrying. And we cry out to God, “save me!” only to be met with silence. How do I know this? Because it’s what Jesus experienced.

He was pouring himself out to the Father in the garden and was quickly abandoned by his disciples on the way to the cross. He knew the pain of isolation.

Someone said that since this prayer is in the Bible, it’s a prayer for us. It’s a prayer still waiting on God’s answer. It’s a prayer for the sick, not for the healed. When we have arrived at the places of darkness, we can prayer this psalm. This promise is that God will hear and that God will answer. What God does lies with him. And more than that, this “incomplete” psalm demands the gospel to complete it. Jesus is the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world (John 1:29). It is by His stripes that we are healed (Is. 53:5)

Friends, this psalm is often used Easter weekend. How’s that? It’s linked directly with Psalm 22, which starts with Psalm 22:1 “1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?”

When in those moments of despair in your life, the place where you feel abandoned by all those around you and even feel that God is not there, or He is silent, turn to these words.

Christ at the moment of great pain and suffering on our behalf, cried out to his heavenly Father feeling the same things you do or have felt.

Christ can and does understand all that you have and will experience as he Himself has gone through the same things. And as Christ hung on the cross to pay the punishment for our sin, we can stand before a holy God with the confidence that our sin has been paid because we have been bought with a price, the shed blood of Christ. It’s with the gospel that when death draws near, God’s silence is an answer in itself, a call to look to the empty cross and empty tomb with the confidence that we too will rise with him.

This psalm is made complete by the gospel. We will know that all of our cries will one day be answered and one day all that we struggle with and all that we face will be gone. One day we will be with him and our cries will be turned to praises. Our hearts will rejoice. His wrath will have been turned away. Our prayers turned to worship.

You want to prepare to live life? You need a lasting hope to carry you through.

For all the love I have for my family and each of you here, I long for that day when I’m with him. Can you say the same for yourself?

Has the gospel been applied to your life? Would you believe upon Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and surrender your life to him? What other hope do you have? Be honest with yourself.

Inspiration

And what if, looking forward to that glorious day when Jesus comes and wipes away our tears, that we aspire to live that out today? That’s what church can and should be, friends. It’s the place where we see glimpses of Heaven. What if this was a place where we are honest with each other? A Jesus-believing, grace-centered, gathering of cross-carrying disciples of Jesus Christ who were willing to invest in each other and live the resurrected life together? What would it mean for us to slow down long enough to know that fine isn’t fine? What if we surrendered the expectation for perfection from others in recognizing that everyone here needs the cross of Jesus Christ? What if we were each sensitive to the fact that despite all the contacts in our phones and friends on social media, we’re more alone now than ever?

What would it be like if we were actually the church that Jesus died for?

Action

It would mean that each of us are genuinely committed to this church starting with showing up for your brothers and sisters.

It would mean that each of us gets to know one other.

It would mean that each of us serve one another because we love each other.

It would mean that we lived authentically before each other.

It would mean that we were authentic with ourselves, resisting the urge to believe in any way that you don’t need the cleansing blood of the One who was nailed to the cross.

It would mean that we are sensitive to each other, because the prayer of someone here today may be Psalm 88.

It would mean we would never reject each other because Jesus will never reject us.

It would mean that each of us have genuinely surrendered to the Lord.

It would mean that we are preparing for and living life by pointing each other to Jesus Christ, who is the only lasting hope and answer in the darkness.

Related Media

Related Sermons