Biblical Lament - "Turn" - Psalm 77

Listen carefully. He says this,

everything that happens is either endurable or not. If it's endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining. If it's unendurable, then stop complaining. Your destruction will mean its end as well.

And then he says something else.

Let no one ever hear you complaining about court life, not even yourself.

Brothers and sisters, those are not laments. They don't align with the real experience of pain and suffering, do they? They are at best denial. In the face of pain and suffering, we ignore it, or we try to just get over it. And so that sort of mindset, it's not adequate.

And it's common today, whether you realize it or not, it has been common for quite some time to conflate things like Stoicism with Christianity. and to conflate stoicism with Christ likeness as Marcus Aurelius espouses here. And we are exhorted towards contentment, which is really a good thing. I exhort you now, be content, be content in Christ. But we confuse suppression of pain and suffering with contentment.

This sort of worldview, it ignores the messiness of life. I mean, do those quotes sound adequate to you as you are going through it? Whatever it is, they're inadequate. Because the reality is, is that in pain, in suffering, it ravages us. It consumes us. It affects every part of our lives, our happiness, our hope, sometimes our opportunities.

And I dare say that some of you genuinely know what I mean when I say that. And yet others perhaps not. The reality is, brothers and sisters, that there are many people in this room that have suffered greatly. And there are many people in this room, I can tell you, are suffering right now. I know that from the pastoral side, I know that from personal experience, that there are people elbow to elbow with you that are in pain.

And there are indeed others who have once again never experienced that. There are those two people in this room, and I know that because I have been those two people in this very room. where I have gone through seasons where I genuinely felt like I was suffering. And yet I have gone through seasons in this very room where I had no concerns or cares in the world, nothing to bother me, nothing to bug me, nothing to hurt me, to distract me. And I can say that I bless the Lord in saying that I genuinely went through decades of my life without genuinely suffering.

And so that's true for some of you now and probably at some point it will no longer remain true for you. It is a reality of being alive. There are people that aren't here tonight because they're suffering. They couldn't pull themselves out of their house to come to this place tonight. And so I say that to you, especially those of you who are members of JPBC, so you understand that there should be no facade of perfection in the sense that everything is always going okay or right or well. So know that as you sit next to others, at the fellowship meals. Know that as you feel like you have nothing else to do this evening when in reality there are brothers and sisters who need you in their lives to encourage them in the Lord. There are many people who suffer.

The reality is it's because we live in a corrupt world. Oftentimes our suffering is the direct result of sin in our personal lives, but also suffering comes from the result of other people's sin. But we are marinating in this corrupt world that is just soaking in the fall that happened so long ago.

It's not a question of whether or not you will suffer, but will you suffer well? And that's where we get to our thing tonight. Lament. Will you bless God or will you curse him? You can sin in your suffering. That makes things harder. That makes things worse. And also suffering is relative to the person. One man may thrive running a marathon and another man may suffer. And so the thing that you struggle with may be something that another thrives in.

But Lord willing, he will be glorified. C.S. Lewis said of pain, he says,

God whispers in our pleasures. He speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

And I would say this especially of your own sin. that if you are going through a season of suffering, the Lord can use that season to diminish your desire for sin. I can speak for that personally, but that is true from his word. that he will use it for his glory and for his good and for your good. And so then in suffering and pain, there can be, as we started with this stoic resolve, there can be hysteria or there can be lament.

We have to take lamenting seriously

And that's our topic tonight. And I think this topic has gotten a more thorough treatment in the last couple decades. I remember my university doing a worship arts conference with the theme being worship in a minor key. I think because my university did that theme, that is exactly why I did not take it serious for so long. The idea of lament because they didn't trust what they were saying, but I have learned over the years that in fact, if we are a people of the book, then we will recognize that there is a lot of lamenting. Almost a third of the Psalms are laments, lamentations, Jeremiah, Isaiah, much of the minor prophets, Jesus on the cross when he cries out,

my God, my God.

Paul,

what a wretched man that I am.

Laments are everywhere within the scriptures. And if we use the scriptures as our guide for our posture towards God, then we have to take lamenting seriously. Lament can be grieving, lament can be mourning, but lament can also be protesting. Protesting who? Well, there's a lot of places within the scriptures that the psalmists are making their case, almost it seems against God himself, protesting to him specifically. And as Mark Vrugrup says in his book, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy, he says,

lament is how Christians live between the poles of pain and God's sovereignty.

So indeed, if we are to be a people serious about the sovereignty of God, then we must take serious the lamenting of pain, the lamenting of hardship, the lamenting of heartache, the lamenting of suffering, even the lamenting of injustice within the world. And so it is in lament that our pain intermingles with the promises of God. It is in our lament that our pain looks to the hope that Christ gives us.

And so we're thinking about lament. And we're gonna think about it in four parts over the next four weeks. One is turn to God in prayer. And that's what we're thinking about tonight. Turn to God in prayer. Next week, we're going to look at complain. And then the next week, we're gonna look at, we're going to look at ask, ask of the Lord. And then finally, we're gonna look at trust. So turn, complain, ask, trust.

And there is a way to lament that glorifies the Lord. And we will see that. Confessionally, I've been very helped by this book, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy. I meant to bring my extra copy. I forgot I wanted to give it away. Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy. This is by Mark Vrogrop, which I think he might still be the president of the Gospel Coalition.

It's a broad treatment. It's not the best treatment, but it's a good treatment of the subject. But I do think it's actually a little more thorough than some other books that have been helpful to me, like Rejoicing in Lament is another great book, or The Praying Life. Those have all been helpful to me in thinking on this subject. Tonight, though, we think about turning to God in prayer. And this might seem simple, but brothers, it's vital. Turning to God in prayer is vital.

And it's true that in our suffering, in our pain, most of us actually probably don't turn to God in prayer. We just get over it. We just put up with it. But that is the most vital thing in this, in dealing with our pains, is to reach out to God in prayer. But instead we complain, we get bitter, we grumble. We overcompensate, we deflect, we make excuses. We must turn to God in prayer in our distress. So that's our first of two points.

Rather than silence

Turn to God in prayer rather than silence. A few months ago, I talked about the fact that I had this plaque hanging in my grandma's house that used to say,

talk is silver, silence is gold.

But we should turn to God in prayer rather than turning to silence. And this is what a lot of people do in their suffering. They turn to silence. But let's look at our text tonight.

I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me.

So in this psalmist's pain, he's not going silent. He's crying aloud to our Lord.

In the day of my trouble, I seek the Lord. In the night, my hand is stretched out without wearing. My soul refuses to be comforting.

So in his distress, he's turning to God. And look at this text, how bad is it?

Verse three,

when I remember God, when I remember God,

this is the God who in Exodus 34 declared of himself,

the Lord, the Lord gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love and faithfulness.

This is our God. And this psalmist says,

when I remember God, I moan.

How bad is it for this psalmist that when he remembers God, he moans, his spirit faints when he meditates.

When I read this, I feel uncomfortable. This doesn't seem like the due reverence that I owe my Savior to say such a thing that I moan when I remember God. And yet that's exactly what the psalmist is doing here. It feels uncomfortable. It stands on a knife's edge. And if we fall off, it's dangerous. And that's true. This is why oftentimes we don't treat this subject with as much concern as we should because lament feels risky. It feels dangerous. What if in our lament we sin? What if we accuse God of wrongdoing? None of us want to do that. But friends, our silence is so much worse. Because something so dangerous as lament, it requires faith. It requires faith. Faith in our Lord. And so lament is an overflow of our faith. And it's only in turning to God, in prayers of lament, in our trials, that we can be so bold to ponder verses such as verse eight.

Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time?

It takes faith to ask that question of God. And that's what we do in lament. In lament, we can pray our confusion, we can pray our questions, and we can apply this to our own pain and suffering. Look at our scripture, verse seven,

will the Lord spurn forever?

Verse eight,

has a steadfast love forever ceased?

Verse eight again,

are his promises at an end for all time?

Verse nine,

has he forgotten to be gracious?

Verse nine again,

has he in anger shut up his compassion?

We know the answers to those, right? What's the answer?

No, no. But in suffering, those thoughts can flash across our minds. And brothers and sisters, your bold questions are better than silence. Your turning to Christ in prayer is better than silence. Your prayers are your faith-filled communication with your creator. In your prayers, you're making a case to the Lord why you think your circumstances should be different. So don't be silent. In Isaiah 64, the prophet laments that nobody laments. We have to search the scriptures for the promises of God, and we have to pray hopefully and expectantly that those promises will come to pass quickly. Come Lord Jesus. Come quickly.

It is a slog sometimes to get through this life. And we pray prayers of lament asking that his promises that we know are true and will come to pass will come to pass now. And we would do well to take a page from the professional lamenters in our lives right now, our children. If you have children, you know they are professional limiters. They are good at going to the father and the mother and saying, but you said I could have a treat after dinner. Where's my treat? But you said I could stay up after bedtime if I just finished my math. Why are you telling me to go to bed now?

Laments aren't speaking to God things that are not true. They're speaking to God things that are true and that you hope he will fulfill soon. Faithful laments speak to God the things that are true, and if we want to know those things that are true, we must be in his word, right?

So when we turn to God in our pain, we're seeking to turn from unbelief, which oftentimes shows itself in other things like bitterness and anger. Rather than fuming and brooding over our pain and our suffering, we're turning to God to marvel at his power to change our circumstances. Unlike the five stages of grief where they culminate in acceptance of suffering, we never stop bringing our laments to God because we never stop hoping that he will provide. That is what the Christian does. So lamenting is calling you, Christian, to deal in your pain in a different way. So turn to God in prayer rather than silence. And then finally, turn to God in prayer and be reminded of his gospel.

We remind ourselves of the gospel

What did Jesus say? What did he cry? What did he lament on the cross?

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

And on that cross, he extinguished your eternal suffering. He extinguished your eternal hopelessness. And in lament, we remind ourselves of the gospel.

Verse 11 of our text,

I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your wonders of old.

And then a beautiful turn in verse 13. Your way, O God, is holy. So the same God that we were questioning, has his love ceased? Will he spurn me forever? There is a turn in the lament to acknowledge what is true of God.

Your way, O God, is holy. What God is great like our God?

What God is great like your God? This is a different question than the earlier ones.

And it reminds us where lament should take us. We are not meant to be left in despair, but we are meant to be left in the hope that Christ has secured. So we see in verses 16 through 19. The psalmist pondering what was up until that time the greatest redemptive event that would have ever happened in the history. The exodus. He ponders the people of Israel being rescued out of Israel. And as we pray prayers of lament we should shift our gaze to Christ on the cross as he makes all things right because brothers and sisters that is the greatest redemptive thing in history. He rejoices and ponders what God did for his people and we should ponder that too. In your pain in your heartache.

You have a great hope that all will be well in the end. If you're not a Christian. You have no hope. In what I just said. The only hope that you have is the confidence that God punishes wrongdoing. But if you don't believe you may not go to God and lament. because you have not trusted in him to provide the hope. And so you must trust. You must turn to God in prayer too. You must lament your sin. You must lament your estrangement from God. And you must pray that he will rescue you in his glorious gospel, that as he died on the cross, that he secured salvation for his people.

He promised it from the beginning. And remember, he's not a God that will go back on his covenant. He's a covenant keeping God. And he will see his promises through to the end. He is faithful to the end. And while your circumstances may change, you have a God who will never change. Never. He's faithful. He's good. He's the embodiment of truth. He's kind.

And you can't faithfully pray these prayers and not be reminded of your hope. So at the beginning, I quoted Marcus Aurelius, and I will read that once again. He says,

everything that happens is either endurable or not. If it's endurable, then endure it. Stop complaining. If it's unendurable, then stop complaining. Your destruction will mean its end as well.

Your destruction will not mean the end of your suffering because that's not true. Your glorification will mean the end of your suffering. And that is what you have to look forward to.

Verse 19,

your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters, yet your footprints were unseen.

Christ was seen on the cross. He was seen after his resurrection. He was seen ascending to heaven. And in all of these things, he was seen securing your great hope.

So brothers and sisters, let us lament together. Let's turn to God this week. And so I hope that in talking about this and priming this, that we will consider this subject more, that in whatever feeble ways you can, that if you've not done this in the past, that you will try it this week, and that you will rest in the great comfort of your great Savior to save you. Let's pray. God, we acknowledge as Isaiah wrote that no one laments.

Lord, we confess to you that oftentimes we hold on to our pain too close to our chest rather than turning it over to you. Lord, we ask that we would be a people who are not bashful, not ashamed to hope in you, both individually and corporately. As husbands and wives, Lord, that are in this body, may they lament together as parents. May they lament for their children. Lord, may we lament the many things in our lives that.

That we need to turn over to you. We ask that. That in our confessions that we would lament our sin. Lord, may we repent and turn from our ways and seek your face. Lord, may we have great hope in your glorious gospel. Christ sent, died, resurrected and ascended. That we may not wallow in our pain, but look forward to being with you. It's in your son's name that we pray, amen.