SERIES: Psalms: Cries of the Heart
The Cry of Faith
SPEAKER: Paul T. Stolwyk
Introduction: One of the people who went with our Cornerstone Church plant a few years ago was an elder named Paul Koenig. For those of you who don’t know him, Paul is wonderfully honest about himself and very frank about life. He does not mince words about anything. He has a way of saying things that are true, very pointed, and very memorable.
One time, I called him to get some advice about my marriage. Paul mercifully listened to me explain my situation. Then off the tip of his tongue, he says, “Paul, when it comes to relationships, what goes on between your ears amounts to a flat line. First, you’ve got to face the fact that you are brain dead.” Brain dead. This little truism has helped me tremendously in my marriage. Not only has it helped my marriage, but it has explained a lot of mysteries in my life.
On another occasion he said, “Paul, I’ve come to realize that we experienced no pain before we were born. Since we are followers of Jesus, we will not experience any pain after we die. But now is the time for pain.” Koenig is right. Now is the time for pain!
As we experience the tension of living between two worlds, we will endure pain, adversity, and suffering. How does a person live by faith in the midst of adversity? How do you pray when adversity has put you on an emotional roller coaster that makes Space Mountain look like a kiddie ride? How do you pray when circumstances in your life have you doubting whether God even cares?
One Friday, seven years ago, Bill was leaving the office on Friday afternoon so that he would make it to his wedding rehearsal on time. The next day he would say “I do” to the woman of his dreams. As he was making his way to the door, his supervisor called him into his office. He handed Bill a letter telling him that he was being fired. He could return after his honeymoon to clean out his desk. When he bows his head to pray at the rehearsal dinner, what does he say to God?
A little girl named Grace lies in a bed in the ICU at Children’s Hospital. There is a million dollars’ worth of medical equipment keeping her alive. After three heart operations, the doctors decide she cannot handle any more surgeries and do not hold out much hope. When you and God talk, what do you say?
Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 22. In times of adversity and pain, the early people of God had a prayer tradition known as lament. Nearly one-third of the Psalter is made up of laments. A book of the Bible is even named after the literary genre, the book of Lamentations. When was the last time any of us read that book in our quiet time?
Laments are a form of prayer that the people of God used to take their complaint before God. As they lamented, they honestly griped to God about the reality of their experience and their questions of doubt. But we also see great faith as they worked out their circumstances, choosing to trust that there was a reality that existed beyond their momentary feelings.
The ancient people of God have something to teach us about prayer. The lament needs to be rediscovered by the Church, dusted off, and incorporated into our lives. It needs to be rediscovered because, like the early people of God, we experience times of distress and adversity that are often very great. There is a lot of griping going on, but oftentimes it is not biblical griping. If we are going to gripe, let us do it biblically. Let’s read Psalm 22:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.
4 In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
8 “He trusts in the Lord,” they say,
“let the Lord rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”
9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
10 From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
12 Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13 Roaring lions that tear their prey
open their mouths wide against me.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted within me.
15 My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce my hands and my feet.
17 All my bones are on display;
people stare and gloat over me.
18 They divide my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.
19 But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
20 Deliver me from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.
21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
22 I will declare your name to my people;
in the assembly I will praise you.
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.
25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.
26 The poor will eat and be satisfied;
those who seek the Lord will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
28 for dominion belongs to the Lord
and he rules over the nations.
29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.
30 Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
31 They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!
Psalm 22 is broken into two main sections. If you have a pen, draw a line between verse 21 and 22 in your Bible. The first twenty-one verses are the lament, a gripe to God, in three main movements. Each movement is filled with emotion, anguish and doubt, followed by a declaration of faith. The final ten verses are a call to God’s people to worship and a commitment to call others to worship.
God’s people who live in the tension between two worlds—the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan—experience great pain and trouble. God’s Word for us from Psalm 22 is that we, the people of God, are called to live by faith when we experience adversity and pain in life. Living by faith means being honest with ourselves and with God concerning the reality of that pain, but then choosing to trust God over self-pity. Self-pity leads only to bitterness and despair, while faith will lead eventually to worship and zeal for God’s glory.
Psalm 22 is often taught in a way that shows how Jesus’ death on the cross was a fulfillment of this psalm. I want us to study it from a different perspective, the viewpoint of the author. Let us peek in on a conversation David has with God one morning. His prayer will show us that …
Faith in adversity is a choice to believe God despite the reality of our feelings and doubts.
We have no idea of the exact circumstances behind this psalm. The fact that we do not know is actually good, because the focus in the psalm is on how David handles the circumstance—emotionally, prayerfully and spiritually—not on the circumstance itself.
Let us look at the first movement, beginning in verse 1. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent.” David is receiving no answer from God as he prays through his situation. He calls out to God day and night, night and day. From David’s perspective, he feels as if God has not only forgotten him but has intentionally abandoned and deserted him. He feels as if God has put the phone down and walked away. As he talks on the phone, all he hears is his own voice echoing back through the phone line, “God, hello God. Are you there? Where did you go? Hello, God.”
Some circumstance is producing some very scary emotional responses in David’s soul. His heart begins to anguish and question whether God cares. Look at what he does. Rather than guilt himself for feeling this way, he allows his emotions to drive him to his God. His emotions are real. His fear can either lead him to his knees or it can lead him to flee from God. Even though his emotions are screaming that God is not there, he goes to his knees anyway. I know some of you relate completely with verse 1. You can deny that you feel that way. I don’t recommend this. You can flee from God. I don’t recommend this either. Let your emotional anguish drive you back to God.
Once he gets down on his knees, David feels complete freedom to be himself before his God. He doesn’t hide behind a curtain of spiritually correct prayer lingo. He just gets on his knees and says, “God, I’ve got a problem and I think the problem may be You.”
John Calvin, the great pastor and theologian of the reformation, wrote, “The true rule of praying, is therefore, this, that he who seems to have beaten the air to no purpose, or to have lost his labour in praying for a long time, should not, on that account, leave off, or desist from that duty. Meanwhile there is this advantage which God, in his fatherly kindness grants to his people, that if they have been disappointed at any time of their desires and expectations, they may make known to God their perplexities and distresses and unburden them, as it were, into his bosom.”[i]
In a world filled with prayers like “Lord, bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies,” or “Now I lay me down to sleep,” David’s bold honesty with God is quite refreshing. This honesty is done with respect, because three times he refers to God as “my God,” yet is totally authentic at that moment before God. His lament could easily begin to spiral out of control into the swamp of self-pity, but before he gets to the swamp, he makes a faith choice to believe that there is another reality besides his present emotional experience.
The choice of faith begins in verse 3. The conjunction “yet” marks the transition from despair to faith. Underline it if you would like. “Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel. In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.” Three times David recalls how Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Joshua trusted God. Each one who trusted was not left hanging. David knows from biblical history that God has established a pattern of deliverance for His people. His remembrance of biblical truth leads him to entrust himself, like Abraham and Moses once again, in the hope of not being disappointed. He places his faith in the character of God and not on the trustworthiness of his present emotional experience.
Faith is a choice to trust God …
When there is no answer from God and you feel forsaken. (6-11). You can almost feel hope coming back. But just as the emotions seem like they have been contained, the next wave of despair comes over David. His prayer continues in verse 6, “But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: ‘He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.’”
When I was new in my faith in Christ, I learned a helpful pattern that gave structure to my prayer life from a tape series by Bill Hybels. Using the word “ACTS” as an acrostic, I began my prayers with adoration (A), moved to confession (C), told God thanks (T) for his forgiveness and blessings, and then made requests on my behalf or others before His throne. These are known as supplications (S). ACTS. This pattern is very good. I recommend it.
But have you noticed something? David didn’t listen to the tape series. He is not following the formula. He is not starting with praise. In fact, he starts with pain. He starts by pouring out his anguish and confusion. Formulas are great. They offer us good structure to help us organize disorganized minds. But there are times when we need to throw out the formula and be honest about our pain. Why try to fake God out with some half-hearted praise when the reality is we don’t feel like meeting with Him? How much better it would be to start honestly, “Father, I don’t feel like having a quiet time today. I don’t know why. All I can think about is this big meeting today. Would you help me stand my ground? I praise you that you will be with me because your Word tells me so.”
But back to David. Not only is he experiencing silence from God; he is also experiencing the scorn and contempt of people. Apparently, a chorus of voices mock him as the town fool. Whatever his adversity, other people are aware of it. They are also aware that he is trusting his God to come through for him. They also know somehow that God has been silent, so they ridicule him for entrusting himself to a silent God.
The chorus of the crowd is deafening in the silence of his thoughts. Job’s wife is probably the head cheerleader, and the people are following her lead: “Curse God, you fool! Curse God!” And the chanting is deafening while the voice of God remains quiet. This ridicule only heightens his feelings of isolation. Mr. Man After God’s Own Heart forgets Samuel’s prophetic press release and begins to have a crisis of identity. He feels such shame that he thinks of himself as a worm, and he just wants to crawl under a rock.
You can almost hear the thoughts that run across the screen of his mind. “I wonder if they are right. Maybe this thing is just a big psychosomatic scam. I am a fool. Maybe I will turn in my Four Spiritual Laws and NIV Study Bible and just quit serving God.” The cesspool of self-pity is down below. With his toes over the edge of the high dive, David makes a choice, a faith choice, believing that there is another reality besides his present emotional experience.
The choice of faith is seen in verse 9. Again, the word “yet” marks the transition to faith that keeps David from becoming ensnared in self-pity. “Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God. Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.”
David begins to think biblically about his life. He remembers that every day has been a gift from God. He would not even be alive if God had not caused him to trust his mother in the moments after his birth. He remembers that throughout his life, as miserable as it seems, it has been God who has allowed him to enjoy even a minute of it.
After I became a Christian, I looked back over my life and saw some events with a different perspective. They were events where I can honestly say I should have died. There was the time when I was 10 and ran out in front of a car whose driver couldn’t see me because of the bushes I was hiding behind. Or the time when, in my sin, I drove 15 miles down Clayton Road so stoned I couldn’t even see, but somehow I made it home without killing myself or anyone else. Even though I was not God’s servant in those moments, God had decided to be my God. I would suspect each of us has moments like those. Evidence says God has a purpose for me being here today. That is a biblical way to think, and David chooses to trust God to have a purpose even in his pain. So, in faith David prays, “Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.”
Faith is a choice to trust God …
When following Jesus seems foolish and you feel alone. (12-18). Just when he is about to get off his knees and get some coffee, one last emotional rush sweeps over David. Look with me at verse 12: “Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me. Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths wide against me. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.”
David is experiencing torment from a group of people who only want to do evil to him. It seems as if he is surrounded; options are limited. He uses three metaphors to describe the people who are out to get him. He calls them bulls, lions and dogs. The dogs he has in mind are not like Lassie but pack dogs, who terrorize and scavenge among the weak. They don’t play by the rules. They are after him and they are liquidating his estate.
He feels completely empty. He feels like he has been wrung out and left to dry. He is broken and bruised. His heart has given up, it lies in a pool like melted wax. He feels he has no more strength to fight. His lament is desperate. He feels so empty that he claims he is in the dust of death. His lament at this moment could take a death spiral into self-pity where he might contemplate contacting Kevorkian to see if he will take a trip to Jerusalem. He tells this all to God. But before his lament begins to spiral out of control, he makes a faith choice–believing that there is another reality besides his present emotional experience.
Faith is a choice to trust God …
When everyone is against you, and you feel you have nothing left. (19-21) His choice is seen beginning in verse 19. The word “but” marks the place where David decides to turn from self-pity and move toward faith. “But you, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me. Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs. Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen.”
David is honest with God about the weather in his life. He tells God that there is a hurricane in the forecast and his desire is that his life might be kept from damage. He calls out to God as his strength: “Be the strength of my life today. The weather out today, Lord, is very bad. I will not be able to stand. Sustain me until you deliver me. Be my strength, O my God, until you bring deliverance. Be the strength of my life today.” In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus taught the disciples to ask for daily bread. Not weekly bread, not monthly bread, but bread that will get them through the day. “Be the strength of my life today.”
In his adversity and pain, David makes choices to trust God despite the reality of his feelings. If our roots are sunk deep into this Book, we will have another reality to draw upon to evaluate our circumstance. So, we will be able to trust God when it seems like He is silent and we feel forsaken, when it seems like following Jesus is foolish and we are all alone, when everything is chaos and we are out of strength.
Now before verse 21 changes to verse 22, something happens. The psalm makes an incredible shift. David’s personal laments change to calling the people of God to worship. This shift occurs because of what happens between verses 21 and 22. What occurs? I don’t know. When does it occur? I don’t know this either. It seems immediate but it could have been months. However, the adversity and pain got resolved, we will never know. But we can see the effects on a person who works through adversity with faith.
Faith in adversity leads to authentic worship and zeal for God’s glory.
When adversity struck, David chose honest doubt and faith over paralyzing self-pity. It sustained him even though his faith went against his feelings. “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you. You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!” (Ps 22:22-23)
David brings a testimony to the congregation of God’s people. His testimony is not very sexy. It is not some lavish tale about how God lengthened his short leg, no stories about how God took away all the bad circumstances and gave him a free Club Med vacation, and no testimonies about how the weather changed. Look at verse 24: “For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.”
He felt like God was forsaking him in verse 1 and 2. All he wants is for God not to be far off. He wants his God to be close. When he was mocked for his faith in verses 6-8, his prayer in verse 11 shows us that all he wants is for God not to be far off. When he has nothing left and there is no hope in sight, his prayer in verse 19 shows that all he wants is for God not to be far off. Now his testimony to the congregation is that God is not far off. He felt that God didn’t give a rip, but he was wrong. He does not hide His face. He does not forsake. He listens. He is not far off. Come, O people of God, let me lead you to worship.
Living by faith in adversity will eventually lead to authentic worship because …
Our experiences demonstrate to us that God is faithful through our adversities. (22-24)You get the sense that David can hardly contain himself, for he is so excited about his discovery. He can’t wait to get to church because he has experienced that the road of faith, though difficult, has proven that God is faithful. I would hope that if Dick ever gets sick, we would have a stable of worship leaders made up of people who could authentically call us to worship, because they know that God is not far off. Could it be that one of the reasons God allows adversity is so that we might know in our experience that He is faithful? Because if we know this biblical truth about His character in the reality of our life, it will make our worship more than just songs.
But this is not all. David’s discovery of God’s faithfulness in adversity leads David to have great zeal for God’s glory. His experience motivates him to want to see God get all the glory that is due His great name. And by the same token…,
Our experiences motivate is to want others to know our faithful God. (25-31) Let’s read together the last paragraph of this great lament.
“From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows. The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the LORD will praise him—may your hearts live forever! All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations. All the rich of the earth will feast and worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—those who cannot keep themselves alive. Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn—for he has done it.”
In verses 25 to 31, David takes a vow to help bring others to know his faithful God and worship with him. In verse 26 he sees the poor knowing of God’s faithfulness. In verse 27 he sees all the nations of the world having first-hand knowledge of the faithfulness of God and worshiping. In verse 29 he sees the rich worshiping, as well as those who are broken like him. Then in verse 31 the future generations will worship his God.
Could it be that one of the reasons God allows adversity in our lives is so that we might know in our experience that He is faithful? Because, if we know this biblical truth about His character in the reality of our lives, it will motivate us to fulfill the great commission. We cannot contain our enthusiasm for the King.
Let’s tie Psalm 22 together with Psalm 1 from last week. Now is the time for pain. It is also the time for lamenting. As we lament, let us do so with our roots sunk deep into the word of God. The word of God is the source of life. It provides perspective when our emotions are running out of control. It reminds us that there is another reality. We make choices based on that reality. It will not be easy, because now is the time for pain. But it will lead to worship. Authentic worship. Heartfelt worship. And it will lead to great energy for God’s kingdom.
DATE: July 13, 1997
Tags:
Lament
Prayer
Worship
[i] Quoted by Willem A. VanGemeren, Psalms, 200.