It Is Not Supposed To Be Like That (Psalm 10)
Sermon Summary
Pastor Wei EnYi
21 November 2021
After enduring more than 20 months of the pandemic, some of us are saying, “It’s not supposed to be like that!” The wife of Naboth (cf. 1 KINGS 21) would be saying the same after her husband and sons were killed, and their vineyard taken. What would you be saying, feeling and thinking, if you were Mrs. Naboth? What would you say to her and do for her, if Mrs. Naboth was a member of Emmanuel Church? And how will you handle deep losses and great sufferings in your own life?
Learn to lament and actually lament. Lament is the honest cry of a hurting heart wrestling with the paradox of pain and the promise of God’s goodness. Lament typically asks these two basic questions: (i) Where are you, God? (ii) If you love me, why is this happening? PSALM 10 is lament and in almost every lament, we can detect these four movements:
[1] IN MY PAIN, I TURN TO GOD!
In his deep pain, instead of giving to God the silent treatment, the psalmist turned to God (verse 12). Note that he did not turn away from God, but to God and talked with Him. To be silent could be the ultimate manifestation of unbelief, telling ourselves that God doesn’t care, God doesn’t hear, and nothing is ever going to change, and hence it is pointless to turn to God and useless to talk with Him. This silence is a soul killer. Don’t do that!
[2] IN MY PAIN, I COMPLAIN TO GOD!
When pain enters our life, some of us get angry with God while others pretend that all is well (faked fineness). There is a better way the Bible provides: Complain!
Complain isn’t always wrong, as PSALM 10:1 is a complaint. The psalmist isn’t only complaining that the king is oppressive, but that God is silent! God has revealed Himself in EXODUS 34 to be “abounding in goodness” (hesed) and here, the psalmist is complaining that the loyal covenant love of God is missing. Complaint is found through PSALMS, and God actually invites us to do so honestly. There is a place for Biblical complaint in the Christian Life.
[3] IN MY PAIN, I BOLDLY ASK GOD!
The complaint is still there and the pain has not gone away, but in BOLDLY ASK, we are coming back to who God is and what God has promised (verse 12, 15).
Despite the fact that God did not act earlier (although we expected Him to), still we will ask Him to arise and act now. Like Jacob the wrestler, we will not let God go! Instead, we will ask boldly and shamelessly.
[4] IN MY PAIN, I CHOOSE TO TRUST GOD!
We do not turn to God just to complain, though God does give us time and space to complain. A time must come when complaint must be eclipsed by ask, and ask must terminate in trust!
Read PSALM 10:16-18 to see the trust of the psalmist, or PSALM 13:5-6 for a more explicit statement of deliberate, intentional choice to trust. From PSALM 13, we ask: what is the surest proof that you trust God in your hour of deepest pain? The answer is this: After you complained to God, you sing to Him! That is the one sure proof that we trust God!
We may need to repeat this process: turn, complaint, ask, trust. And we do so, because we are following in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ.
My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Why are You so far from helping Me,
And from the words of My groaning?
O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear;
And in the night season, and am not silent.
But You are holy,
Enthroned in the praises of Israel.
PSALM 22:1-3
My Lord turned to God in His pain, complained to God, ask God boldly and chose to trust God. A disciple is not above His Master. In our pain, let us plant our footsteps in His: Turn, Complain, Ask, Trust. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.