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This week's delay is due to a short trip with Rob (my bf) and his God Parents yesterday afternoon. In spite of the cloudy, rain-ish weather, they took us to Kittery, York, and Ogunquit Maine. If you've never been, I highly recommend it!! Nubble Light is a small lighthouse on Cape Neddick, and just a few minutes up the coast is Perkin's Cove in Ogunquit which has a beautiful seaside walk called Marginal Way. And while you're at Nubble, you NEED to eat at Fox's Lobster House!! Your life isn't complete without it, trust me!! Maybe in a day or 2 I'll post a few pics. I just need to get them from my phone to my laptop first. (recent site issues here prevent my posting pics from my phone, even off the internet) So on to our message -- as I sit here munching butterfly gummies from Yummies in Kittery... :)
As we've seen earlier in this series, the Psalms dig deep into our hearts. They challenge us to bring all our issues to God, the good, the bad, and the ugly, if you will... (and even if you won't)
But seriously, that's what God is there for. To fix everything because we can't. Our text today is one of those darker chapters in David's life, and we don't even know what it was about.
Let's consider some points with guest Preacher Nate Parks before diving into our text --
While extemporaneous (randomly worded) prayers are good, sometimes form can be helpful. Today's psalm is one of lament. David was just feeling lost, and as we all know, that feeling can carry with it a loss for words as well. That's where a bit of structured Scripture can help*. It gives us a place to start our own words. The most basic form for prayer is found just in creating an acronym out of the word "pray" itself --
Praise -- How is God great in your life today??
Repent -- Confess any sins on your mind.
Ask -- Make your requests.
Yield -- Do whatever is necessary to surrender your will to His.
Often, when we hear the word lament, we can think of it as a negative thing, or think the person engaging in it is strange. We view them with skepticism like Eli the Priest did to Hannah at first. (1 Sam.1) If you read the story, Eli literally thought she was drunk!!
The fact is, we as humans, are really bad at gauging spirituality in others. We may look at a really Extroverted person, and think, "wow, they are really spiritual, God must be doing amazing things in their life!!". Then we might see someone who's quiet and Introverted*, and think that there's nothing amazing going on there, or they would be more excited or demonstrative, etc... Or think about Morning people vs Night People. The Morning people are going to look better at Church because it's in the Morning, Night people would do better if the services were 10 p.m. rather than 10 a.m. It's not a measure of spirituality to see how people appear in Church. Remember a little farther on in Samuel's story when he is visiting Jesse and figuring out which son to choose?? He has the revelation that, "man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart." We all like to look as though we have our act together, but we're just fooling ourselves. God is the only one Who has it all together, which is why He helps us to do our best in having things together. But He can't do that unless we give every piece of ourselves over to Him. Otherwise, something is always going to be amiss. Prayer is a place we can meet God about life. It's a human and divine connection, and He wants to meet us. I know we prefer to think about the place in Philippians 4:4 where Paul tells them to, "rejoice, and again I say rejoice..." We like approaching God when things are good, but many forget about the verse that tells us to "rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn" (Rom. 12:15)
We have all felt the pressures of the past year or two. Likewise, we have different reactions, but you know what?? All the anger, pride, attitudes, etc. are not unique to 2020/21 or unique to the individual, they are unique to humanity.
So now, with all of this in mind, we are finally ready to explore our text --
Psalm 13[a]
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, 4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. 6 I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.
The "gift of lament" is one that generally contains 5 items and they may come in various order
Invocation -- calling upon the One we worship
Complaint -- presenting the problem
Petition -- request for help
Expression of trust -- reminding ourselves that we can't do it alone
Vow of Praise -- a "thank-you in advance" statement that we know He is able and willing to help
Nate connected the elements of Psalm 13's 6 verses to the stages of a shuttle launch at Cape Canaveral. Verses 1-2 are the launch where the vessel is breaking free from the bounds of Earth and the atmosphere. Verses 3-4 are the mission, and 5-6 are the landing, where the vessel glides to rest. Pretty great analogy, right!!??
Applying these elements and analogy to our text are the next part --
First comes the invocation and complaint (launch)--
Verse 1 - "forgot", "abandoned" -- these indicate previous knowledge and familiarity
Verse 2 - "I don't have the answers, but you're not talking" The pressure is on, and I don't know what to do. The "enemy" can be anything distracting us from God's love. People, events, emotions, etc...
Secondly, the mission/petition --
Verse 3 - "Consider" - think about it - bring life back to my eyes. (How do we know the robot in the movie is alive?? Lit eyes) The eyes equal life.
Verse 4 - "My God" - whatever happens to me reflects on You.
And finally, the peaceful landing in trust and praise --
Verse 5 - "trusted, steadfast love" this is a two-way relationship. Salvation is only in God. The heart rejoices.
Verse 6 - "I will sing" David is not only promising praises to God, but telling himself to sing even in the midst of trouble. It is like a catharsis to him to heal the pain. He is jettisoning negative emotions, releasing control to the only One truly in control.
When we pray like this, we seek to bring the greatness of God into the weakness of our lives. It isn't a "disconnect", as some may view it, but actually a deeper connection. Not dissatisfaction, but discovery. -- God Bless!!
Footnotes --
Random prayer vs. form -- Most people think of the Lord's Prayer as the exact words Jesus told the Disciples to pray; but if you read it properly, it says, "How shall we pray..." Not "what shall we pray..." The Lord's Prayer is meant as a template for prayer, just like Nate's acronym is a template. There is invocation/recognition, there is request, confession, and praise. There is also the problem of repeated prayers becoming "rote" and we lose the impact because of it. My personal view is that random prayers are better for exactly this reason, but I can admit that passages like Psalm 13 can give us a place to start when needed. And we can't neglect the aid of the Holy Spirit as shown in 1 Cor. 12 and 14 as well as Romans 8:26-27. I actually have a prayer language myself, but don't use it as much as I really should.
Introverted vs Extroverted/Morning vs Night -- I fall in between both of these!! I'm generally introverted, but don't mind socializing (on my terms), so I'm really an Ambivert. And I was born at 4:56 p.m., so my best time of day is actually evening. LOL
I just found this great quote on praying with the Lord's Prayer --
If you take Luther’s advice and spend even a few minutes praying each topic of the Lord’s Prayer in your own words, you will find yourself bringing topics to God that you would otherwise neglect. It makes sure you have a well-rounded conversation rather than following your own inclinations, whether to praise or lament.
Praise and Worship --
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