A Cry In The Darkness
Download MP3Our father, we ask that you would bless the very reading of your word. And as those words hit our ears, they would also hit our hearts and our minds. Lord, this is a tough text, and, it says some hard things. Lord, make us receptive to hear that. Lord, my words are death and your words are life and we all need life.
Joel Brooks:And so I pray that my words in this moment would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. This past week, my mom took our whole family to Disney World, which was, mostly fun.
Joel Brooks:Our kids at least had a blast. For a kid, Disney is like, you know, entertainment or happiness on steroids. You don't just get, you know, a dessert. You would get some dessert with, like, you know, flaming things or things lit up that spin around, handed to you by some cartoon character. And the cake of course would look like some Disney character and they'd probably sing a song as they gave it to you.
Joel Brooks:It was just, it was always over the top. But our kids loved it. For a week we lived in a fantasy world, and preaching on Psalm 88 is how I'm going to detox from that tonight. Okay? It's how I'm going to come crashing down.
Joel Brooks:Actually it was interesting that I was thinking all through Psalm 88 as we were doing this, and Lauren leaves for a week to go to Haiti and to go from Disney World to Haiti, or for me to go from Disney World to preaching on Psalm 88 is quite an adjustment. When we think of the Psalms, we typically think of really happy songs, really joyful praises. But this, no. This is one of the most depressing chapters in all of the Bible. This is definitely one of the most or is the most depressing Psalmist.
Joel Brooks:What I would call the Johnny Cash of all the Psalms. It is the song of sorrows. Now there are plenty of other sad songs in the book of Psalms, but even though they're dark, usually at some point you get a ray of light coming in. You get some kind of silver lining in the other Psalms, but not here. Scorned by mankind, despise of the people.
Joel Brooks:And so it's a pretty dark Psalm, but it ends on a high note. It ends with the afflicted shall eat and be satisfied, and all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. And so, you do get that kind of ray of light shining in, but there is no ray of light in Psalm 88. It is the only Psalm in which there is nothing, no hope, no light, whatsoever. Let me read you the last few verses from Psalm 88 from the new living translation.
Joel Brooks:Says, I stand helpless and desperate before your terrors. Your fierce anger has overwhelmed me. Your terrors have cut me off. They swirl around me like floodwaters all day long. You have encircled me completely.
Joel Brooks:You have taken away my companions and my loved ones. Only darkness remains. Alright. Can you imagine us singing that here at Redeemer? Letting that be what, you know, one of our hymns, ending a hymn.
Joel Brooks:I just picture everybody singing in unison with, with hands raised and only darkness remains. It it would just feel a little odd, wouldn't it? It's depressing. I I have parents. Aren't you just a little reluctant to teach your children songs like this about God?
Joel Brooks:I mean, when I went to vacation bible school and then all the vacation bible schools I went to growing up, I sang songs like I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart, you know? And if the devil doesn't like it, he could sit on attack, you know, but you're always like the chorus is I'm so happy. I'm so very happy. Really didn't matter how you felt. You had to at least sing.
Joel Brooks:I'm so happy. So very happy. And then you come to Psalm 88, which I've never heard a children's choir do, or an adult choir. At Redeemer, we sing a lot of songs that are the opposite of Psalm 88. For instance, one of my favorite songs is came to my rescue in which the, the words are, I called, you answered, and you came to my rescue.
Joel Brooks:That's pretty much verbatim. Parts of Psalm 17 and Psalm 18 and it's and many of the other Psalms as well but for Psalm 88, it would be, I called, you didn't answer, and you never came to my rescue and I don't want to be where you are. I mean, what what what do you do with that? The the psalmist who wrote this prayer is in the midst of incredible suffering. In verses 3 through 6, he he is describing being at death's door.
Joel Brooks:He is about to die any moment. In verse 8, he says that all of his friends have left him. In verse 14, he says that God has left him. And this is what was going on in my mind as I was at Disney, you know, going on all the rides. And and at first it was not an appropriate song because I was having so much fun, but I got motion sickness.
Joel Brooks:I spent pretty much from Monday until about 2 hours ago, throwing up from motion sickness. And it was actually appropriate that I kept thinking, Lord, when are he going to remove these things away from me? When am I going to feel better? Crying out these things. There's a bitterness in this Psalm.
Joel Brooks:I don't know if you feel uncomfortable when you read it, but I do. It makes me feel like, I yeah. I'm I'm I'm this isn't supposed to be in our Bible, not here. I want us to look at 4 things that this Psalm teaches us. I'm normally not a bullet point person, but I'm going to go ahead and tell you these 4 things, and then we'll walk through them.
Joel Brooks:1st, we can go through times of deep, prolonged darkness. 2, in that darkness, we're to cry out to God for help. 3, where does our identity come from? Where does it rest in the middle of that darkness? And 4, we're gonna look at how Jesus has defeated the darkness.
Joel Brooks:So number 1, we learn from this Psalm that we can go through prolonged periods of darkness. Don't ever think for a moment that becoming a Christian, that when you, accepted Jesus into your heart, that somehow all sadness, all suffering went away. Not at all. You you you will still endure times of depression, times of sorrow. You will still have lots of pain in your life.
Joel Brooks:You can love and you can obey God and still suffer. You could get up early every morning, have your quiet time, pray, read your Bible, and you can still get things like cancer. You can still be depressed. You can still feel like you are talking to a wall instead of to the Lord, a living God. We tend to forget when we look at the saints in the Bible, you know, people like Abraham or or Joseph.
Joel Brooks:We, we tend to forget that they experienced times like this at well as well. Abraham, when, when God promised Abraham, Hey, you're going to have a child. You will have a child. Great. Well, then there was silence for 13 years.
Joel Brooks:13 years of asking God for an answer and hearing nothing. Or you have Joseph who was thrown into a pit and then later thrown into prison and he's crying out for help. God, where are you? God help me. And yet he stayed in prison for many years before God ever rescued him.
Joel Brooks:This Psalm here was their Psalm because they didn't know the outcome. This Psalm puts you in the middle of their story, not at the end of the story. This is a Psalm that we read where we live. We're not looking behind at this point. We're in the middle of our suffering.
Joel Brooks:This is how we feel, not knowing what's ahead. And let me just say as a side note, that being a Christian, not only, doesn't keep you away from suffering or keep you away from pain, It actually gives you the capacity to hurt more and to suffer more deeply. Conversion in the Bible is there's many metaphors that's used to describe conversion. You know, metaphors like born again, new life. The metaphor that I really like comes from Ezekiel and that is God has taken away our heart of stone and he's given us a heart of flesh.
Joel Brooks:And that's what conversion is, is, is having a heart of stone taken away and given a heart of flesh. And this can mean a number of things. It, it can mean that we now have new life. We now have a beating heart, but one of the things this also means is that we have a heart that feels things much more deeply. Uh-uh, heart of stone would have never felt god's absence, but a heart of flesh will.
Joel Brooks:A heart of stone would have been insensitive and would not have even noticed the injustices around the world or the hurts of other people, but a heart of flesh will. And so when God converts us, when he changes us, we actually have the capacity now to hurt more deeply, To at times be more depressed. To take on more sorrow. And so, if, if you were finding yourself, you know, taking a wave of wave of sorrow or suffering, be encouraged. It's probably because the Lord has changed your heart and has given you a heart of flesh.
Joel Brooks:You will feel both greater joy and greater hurt. Second thing that this Psalm teaches us is not only can we go through prolonged periods of darkness, but in the midst of this darkness, we must keep crying out to the Lord. Notice how in this Psalm, despite everything the psalmist feels and how he doesn't see God anywhere, he's not hearing from the Lord, he's not feeling the presence of the Lord. He never stops praying. Verse 9, every day I call upon you, oh lord.
Joel Brooks:Verse 13, in the morning, my prayer comes before you. So, despite never hearing from the Lord, he's crying out in the morning, he's crying out at midday, he's crying out at night, he's he's crying out to the Lord all day long. He never stops and we should never stop crying out to Lord and praying to him, even when we are angry at him, even when we are feeling hostile towards him. And notice that the psalmist doesn't hold back in his bitterness towards God. Look at verse 10.
Joel Brooks:He's accusing god here. 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?
Joel Brooks:Or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? He's accusing God. Hey, what what are you doing? What do you you know, I want to praise you, but it's kinda hard, God, when I'm about to die. Oh, I would love to declare of your faithfulness, God, but it's kinda hard when you won't deliver me.
Joel Brooks:There's a bitterness there as he shouts these things to the Lord. And then the Psalm ends about being left in total darkness. Actually, in Hebrew, the last word of the entire Psalm is darkness. Derek Kidner in his commentary translates the final phrase like this. Darkness is a better friend than you are, God.
Joel Brooks:Now I'll confess it for a long time, I was confused why God would allow a prayer, a song like this in the Bible. I mean a song with this attitude And the commentary that really helped me out is a short commentary, by Derek Kidner, another pastor had given me. And, and then he writes this, he's actually writing about Psalm 39, which, which ends somewhat similarly. Psalm 39 ends with God, will you hide your face from me so I could die in peace? But here, this is what Kidner says.
Joel Brooks:This prayer makes no more sense than Peter's prayer of depart from me. But God knows how to treat that plea. The very presence of such prayers and scripture is a witness to God's understanding. He knows how men speak when they are desperate. I tell you that that opened up really a new world for me in my prayer life.
Joel Brooks:God understands how I pray, understands my feelings. And just as Jesus looked at, listened to, Peter's prayer of depart from me, get away from me. And Jesus listened to it and he never left because that's not what Peter needed. Jesus will listen to my prayers that are times full of bitterness, hostility, and it'll go, okay, I hear you. I understand how you feel.
Joel Brooks:Pour it out, but I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere. Jesus can take our prayers and make sense of them. The important thing is that we keep crying. We keep calling, we keep complaining to God.
Joel Brooks:This is what I would call sowing your tears. That's what sowing your tears is. And, in Psalm 126, it says, those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. Now we can waste our tears and we can waste our sorrows when when those sorrows come, we just complain to one another. We pour out our heart to one another.
Joel Brooks:That is wasting our tears. But if instead, when we have those tears and we have those hardships, we have those sorrows, we sow them through prayer. The end result is going to be shouts of joy. God will eventually turn all of those tears into joy and so we don't want to waste our tears. We want to sow our tears.
Joel Brooks:And let me tell you, you should think of suffering and sorrow this way. You you've been given a gift When you go to heaven, when God's kingdom comes to earth, says that he will wipe away every tear. And so, of course, you're going to praise him. Of course, you're going to talk to him words of blessing. That's that's that's going to happen.
Joel Brooks:But here in this life, you have an opportunity to show his worth by praising him and blessing him in the midst of tears before they are wiped away. We can boldly proclaim the lord's worth in a way that we will not get to do for all of eternity. So don't waste your tears. The, the third thing that the Psalm teaches us is where our identity should rest in the midst of suffering. I mentioned earlier that the Psalm ends with no hope, no promise of rescue.
Joel Brooks:It ends in total darkness. Yet, I guess if you, if you stare at it long enough, you can find at least some hope. And that hope is in the very first line. He starts off the psalm with, oh, lord, god of my salvation. Yahweh, God of my salvation.
Joel Brooks:Then the rest of the Psalm is about how God is not saving him. How God's not listening to him, not delivering him. And now often the Psalms get their title from the very first line. So Psalm 88, the the title of this song is Yahweh, God of my salvation. And does that sound like an appropriate title for this song?
Joel Brooks:Yahweh, god of my salvation, and then the whole thing is about him not saving. Actually, it's very appropriate. That's why the psalmist put it right there is we need to see the whole Psalm in light of that, in light of the title. That God saves. If you would turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 10.
Joel Brooks:Turn to Luke 10, which I think Jesus is trying to illustrate the same point. Let me set the context for you. Jesus has just sent out the 72 disciples, to go into the towns and to preach. He he paired them up. He gave them very explicit instructions as to what they're supposed to do.
Joel Brooks:They gave them extraordinary power. He goes, I give you power to heal the sick, to cast out demons, and you are to go and to preach the gospel. And he sends them off. This is what we read in Luke 10 when they return. The 72 returned with joy saying, lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.
Joel Brooks:And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like a lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you. But rejoice that your names are written in heaven. So Jesus gives them very clear directions what they're to do.
Joel Brooks:And then he empowers them. I would give anything to have that kind of direction in my life. I feel like I'm kind of wandering. Maybe I'm in a dead end job or I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I'd give anything to have.
Joel Brooks:God say, this is exactly what you're supposed to do. And this is who you are supposed to be with. And now I'm gonna give you the power to do these very things. Some of you would be jumping for joy if god gave you those things. And then Jesus would say, that's great, but don't find your joy there.
Joel Brooks:Don't find your joy there. Rejoice in your salvation. Rejoice that your names are written in the book of life. And what Jesus is teaching here is that your joy is not to be wrapped up. Your identity is not to be wrapped up in what you do, where you go, or how you see God working in your life.
Joel Brooks:Don't build your life on those things because those things will come and they will go. I mean, I could see Jesus looking at Peter who is just so full of joy and say and Jesus saying, yes, Peter. That's great. Yes. Yes.
Joel Brooks:We gave you I gave you power for this. Yes. I commissioned you to do this. Yes. You're filled with joy in doing this, but, Peter, it will not always be that way.
Joel Brooks:A day is coming, Peter, where you will be led where you don't want to go. You will cry out to help and I will not answer you. And you will be killed, just like I will be killed. Disciples, I I I I hear your excitement. I understand your excitement, but realize there will be a day when you will call out to me and I will not rescue you.
Joel Brooks:And all of you will be punished. Most of you will be killed. Rejoice that your names are written in the book of life. That's where your joy comes from. Not in how I'm using you or what you feel or how you see me at work.
Joel Brooks:That's what Psalm 88 is about. That's what the psalmist puts that title at the very beginning. He's reminding himself that despite everything happening around him, god is the god of my salvation. And he rests his identity there. Finally, fourth thing, the Psalm leads us to the cross of Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:All of the Psalms do. This psalmist here experiences only in part what Jesus experienced in full. The psalmist here is full of sorrow, he's at death's door, His closest friends have left him. He's asking God why God's hiding his face from him in verse 14. He's Now, does that sound like anybody else in scripture?
Joel Brooks:Now, does that sound like anybody else in scripture? We see that so clearly in Jesus on the cross. Jesus was described as a man of sorrows, a man acquainted with grief. And Jesus not only stood at death's door, Jesus went through it. Jesus had his closest friends abandon him, was betrayed by one of his closest friends, and even had his father turn away when he cried out for help.
Joel Brooks:And on the cross, the wrath of God did come sweeping over Jesus in wave after wave after wave until darkness, utter darkness covered the whole land. Christ embodied this song. He took all of the sins, all of the sorrows that this Psalmist felt and put it on himself. Christ Jesus became truly abandoned so that we would never be abandoned. And let me tell you something.
Joel Brooks:We have an advantage over this psalmist. Our advantage is that we live after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For the psalmist here, death was the enemy. It was the enemy when he's saying like, can I praise you from the grave? Can, can I declare your faithfulness?
Joel Brooks:When I'm in shield, can I do all these things? And the answer is he can't, but you know what? The gates of Hades have been broken through. Jesus has defeated that. He has defeated that.
Joel Brooks:And so we no longer fear death. We no longer fear the grave. John 16, Jesus says this right before he's going to the cross. He says, Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and you will lament. He's saying you will all go through Psalm 88 at some period in your life.
Joel Brooks:And while you're doing that, he says the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come. And when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into this world. And so also you have sorrow now, you're living in Psalm 88 now.
Joel Brooks:But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. As Christians, no one takes our joy from us. Not even the grave. That doesn't mean we don't experience deep prolonged times of sorrow. All I have to do is look at Paul.
Joel Brooks:Paul, before he was converted, he didn't hurt anything like he hurt after God changed his heart of stone into a heart of flesh. It was only after that happened, he told the Corinthians, I despaired even of life itself. He felt such sorrow. Yet he said that Christ or the father who raised Christ from the dead is gonna raise me up also. He thinks of his salvation and it gives him joy.
Joel Brooks:And so he could still command, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. And that joy cannot be taken from us. We want to remember this as we go to this table tonight. We wanna remember how Jesus Christ embodied Psalm 88.
Joel Brooks:How Christ truly was forsaken so that we might never be forsaken. We're not remember how Christ through his resurrection has given us a joy that can never be taken away? This is a time of celebration as we come to remember the great sacrifice of Jesus. Pray with me. Lord, in our deepest and darkest moments, we only experienced the smallest part of what you took on in full.
Joel Brooks:And Lord in our happiest, most joyful moments, we experience only in part, but we will someday feel in full. And all of that through the death and the resurrection of you, Jesus. And we wanna take time to give you thanks and to remember. Lord, now, as we feast on this bread and this wine, may we remember your broken body and blood. We pray this in the name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Amen.
