feeding . . . gathering . . . carrying. . . leading. (Isaiah 40:11)
Dearest family, On Sunday, the Psalm genre that we were engaging was ‘the lament’, which at first encounter, might not seem a good idea for an uplifting message! (I would argue on the contrary, but you have to work through the trough to recover the triumph.) I had mentioned in an earlier message that it is important to understand the different nuances of meaning between a lament and a complaint. Ann Voskamp, in her recent book, “One Thousand Nights”, is describing a bad situation in which, on the one hand, she wants to “mourn the mother’s lament of dependent faith that God will hear my voice”, but on the other hand, the emotions displaced by the situation are such that she realizes that it is going to take an effort to hold her tongue from “the Israelite complaint with its ungrateful discontent and bitter accusations.” She prays for grace to “get the David lament right.” What actually saves her is exactly what I was talking about on Sunday, which was the fact that the psalmist, in the middle of the rinse cycle of distress, “remembered”. Voskamp writes: “I remember. Lament is a cry of belief in a good God, a God who has His ear to our hearts, a God who transfigures the ugly into beauty. Complaint is the bitter howl of unbelief in any benevolent God in this moment, a distrust in the love-beat of the Father’s heart.” Godly remembrance rescued her from sliding from an understandable lament into an inexcusable complaint.
As we looked briefly at Psalms 42 and 43, we noted the progression through the three stanzas (42:1-5; 42: 6-11; 43: 1-5) and that each stanza contained each of the following three responses:
GETTING IT ALL OUT
GETTING IT SORTED OUT
GETTING IT TOGETHER
As we journeyed through his lament, we saw that he used different pictures to express his pain and turmoil. First, he’s FAMISHED: he is spiritually dry and dehydrated. Second, he’s FLOODED: he is drowning and desperate. Third, he’s FRAMED: he is demeaned and derided and feels like he is being falsely accused and on trial. But fortunately, despite all of these “waves and breakers” that are sweeping over him, he is not FORGETFUL. He is rescued by what he remembered. Firstly, a past event; secondly, a present experience; thirdly, a prospective hope. Having begun his lament bemoaning his sense of separation and distance from the Temple, and saying he “used to go…to the house of God”, he concludes by saying “I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight.” It was Augustine who noted that a redeemed memory makes a Christian a “Hallelujah from head to foot!” Another lamenter has testified, and the psalmists would concur with this, that the result of holy remembrance is that “my hosanna has passed through the purgatory of my doubt.” The experience of grief becomes an experience of the grace of God. Someone has said, “Grace makes a good heart-memory, even where there is no good head-memory.” (These Psalms could equally be part of the Remembrance genre of Psalms.)
For our psalmist, there is a deep fear of God forgetting him, of a divine memory lapse, and of God abandoning him. For Israel memory is not passive. When they asked God himself to remember, it was always with a view to God actually doing something, beyond a mental recall. When they remembered rightly, it was expected that righteous actions would follow. Some of the important outcomes of this are:
Perpetuation: To recall something is to be called to recover action of some kind: praise, holiness, trust, faith etc. This is why forgetfulness is so condemned in Scripture. It is not simply a loss of memory but a failure to live righteously and act holily. It is crucial to make a distinction between remembrance and reminiscence. The latter can lead to sentimentality, in fact to a false view of the past. Remembrance invokes reality and brings the real past into the real present. “Memory keeps the lines of communication open to the battlefields of the past” recovering what was won and what was learned.
Proclamation: To remember was for the purpose of reclaiming truth in order to proclaim it again. Where memory fails, testimony fails. There is great loss to both worship and witness.
Preservation: Remembrance is about the preservation of history, not just of historical facts. The study of history is about the meaning of those events. One generation was to remember God’s works and ways and wonders in order to inform the next of the redemptive meanings of God’s desires and deeds. It is also about the preservation of the remember-er, keeping the individual in a place of truth, especially when pain and pressure is dominating our view of reality. The great antidote to fear that destroys personhood is godly memory.
Not surprisingly, “Remember” is one of the key words in the psalms and we have noted that in our psalms, it is the hinge of the door that helps him to move from the depressed past to a hopeful future. We could do a series on just this theme but I’ll leave the extended study to you. Let me mention quickly a few examples of what remembrance does for the psalmists beginning with ours:
It provokes renewal: “These things I remember as I pour out my soul… My soul is downcast within me therefore I will remember you…” (Ps. 42:4,6)
It establishes a sure basis for intercession, for asking, as remembrance appeals to the precedents of God’s past actions. “Remember O Lord your great mercy and love for they are from old… Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good O Lord.” (Ps. 25: 6-7)
It fuels obedience: “The Lord’s love is…with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.” (Ps. 103:18) “I remember your ancient laws O Lord and I find comfort in them.” (Ps. 119: 52)
It convicts and chastens: “In the night I will remember your name O Lord and I will keep your law.” (Ps. 119:55) “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord…and bow to him.” (Ps. 22:27)
It ignites and sustains worship and witness: “Remember the wonders He has done, his miracles and the judgments he pronounced…Give thanks unto the Lord, call on his name…sing praise to him…tell of his wonderful acts…” (Ps. 105: 1-5)
There are so many more examples but what do they actually remember? The exodus, the commandments, the ways of the Lord, the works and wonders of old, the name of the Lord, the covenant. Their experience of God as well as the record of salvation history became the subject of remembrance. Do you need to confess and repent your forgetfulness? Do you understand how it cuts the supply line to your worship and witness, your devotion and intimacy with the Lord?
The repetitive refrain at the end of each stanza, presents how he got it together, relating his present pain to past examples of God’s faithful love, and future expectations of divine hope and help. I suggested that few psalms could be more applicable to the experience of Jesus than this one? Don’t forget that the Psalms (especially 22) were Jesus’ language on the cross. Jesus becomes the bearer of every lament. “Now my soul is in turmoil, and what am I to say?” (Jn. 12:27) In Gethsemane: he cries “my heart is ready to break with grief.” (Mt. 26:37) “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” (Mk. 14:34) Talk of abandonment? By sleeping friends… by Judas an intimate… then the ultimate abandonment by Father God “Why have you forsaken me?” (Mt. 27:46) Then add the scorn of the taunts of his enemies: “Let God rescue him now if he wants him” (Mt. 27:43) And remember the vinegar. (Ps. 69:21)
The truth of our gospel is that Jesus was indeed the fulfillment of the psalmist’s longings and ours especially in the context of lament. Water for a parched tongue? He is the fountain of living water. A temple for communion? His body is the temple and the church, his body, the community of believers in which we now find succor and sustenance in time of need. Light to direct and guide? He is the light of the world. Truth? I am the truth. The exodus and the covenant recalled by the psalmist are fulfilled in Jesus: a deliverance from our bondage and an experience of communion and intimacy, in the new covenant in his blood. So in Christ, the lament has indeed been answered. There is resurrection and ascension the other side of abandonment and despair. Suffering will continue in a fallen world but it will not have the last word. Death, thou too must die! (Donne) But we still have a prospective hope, when two “waters” that threatened the psalmist, tears and crashing waters, will cease (Rev. 21:1-4) The psalms prefigure this transformation of despair through Jesus.
My three main points on Sunday were all about GETTING it: whether it’s getting it out, or getting it sorted out or getting it together. I concluded by suggesting another point. It is also about YET-ING IT. What do I mean? All the way through these psalms, despite the tenuous circumstances, despite the appearance of disaster and the experience of pain, despite the testing of faith, he continues to say, “I shall YET praise him!” Yes there are “tears…heights… deep…noise…waterfalls… waves and billows…mourning…oppression…enemies…an ungodly nation…deceitful and unjust men…” but YET there is hope in God and YET there is help of my countenance and YET there is a Hallelujah in the midst of trouble that transforms it.
In the middle of distress, Psalms 42 and 43 become our Travelers Aid and provide a wonderful source of meditation, not to mention instruction, encouragement and solace. Why are you downcast O my soul? Hope in God, for you shall YET praise him, the help of your countenance and your God. We are invited to get it all out, to get it sorted out, to get it together…and through it all to YET it. Only because of the example of the psalmist? No. In his turmoil Jesus said, “YET not my will but yours be done.”
Praying with you that I “get it” and “yet it”,
Pastorally yours,
Stuart