Rocks, Martin & Psalm 62

Rocks & Martin

In February 1968, the prospect of death looming large in his life, Martin Luther King, Jr took a sabbath with Ralph Abernathy in Acapulco, Mexico. Around 3 am, Abernathy awoke to find that King was not in his bed. Frightened, he went into the living area of their hotel suite and discovered that King was on the balcony in his pajamas, staring into the darkness at the ocean.

Abernathy approached King, "Martin, what are you doing out here this time of the night? What is bothering you?" With his eyes still fixed on the ocean and his ears tuned to the roar of the waves, King whispered, "You see that rock out there?" "Oh, sure I see it," Abernathy replied.  "How long to you think its been there?" King asked. "I don't know. I guess centuries and centuries. I guess God put it there."

"Well, what I am thinking about?" King said softly while Abernathy remained silent. And King began to sing, "Rock of Ages, cleft for me; let me hide myself in thee." In his hour of trial and darkness and waves crashing in on him, King could only think about trusting in God. Only God could provide him with the peace he so desperately needed. So when he saw that rock it reminded him of the powerful words of the Psalms put to music by Augustus Toplady in 1776.  Singing the song brought a little shalom in the storm. 

A basic element in the Psalms is their expression of continual, total and exclusive trust in God alone. God is the problem. But God is the solution. The element of trust dominates our text for meditation, Psalm 62. This theme is present in many others too such as Pss 4, 16, 27 and 131.  Yet for me Ps 62 stands out.  It is expresses the firm hope in God's ability to enable his faithful ones to become "more than conquerors."

God ALONE is Trustworthy (62.1-7)

Psalm 62 is easily divided into two major parts: 1) the first eight verses are the psalmists expession of trust in God and 2) verses 9-12 are the psalmist's "homily" to the gathered people of God to trust in Yahweh as well.

"My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation 
comes from him.
He alone is my Rock and my Salvation; he is my Fortress, I will never be
shaken" (vv. 1-2)

In the midst of the turbulence of 1968, Dr. King found that the only way for him to find shalom was to imagine himself secure in the "Rock of Ages" so our psalmist does the same. God is the sources of all peace and security. These are not words that are spoken naively or rashly.  The psalmist has meditated on his well-being and realizes that all is evanescent except God. God alone is the ground of stability in his life - the Prophet of Justice learned this through real tribulation, just as the psalmist did.

Notice the metaphors the psalmist uses to talk of his God, "my Rock, my Salvation, my Fortress." All of these are images of confidence, strength and security. The ancient Hebrews, unlike the Greeks, did not talk about God in mere abstraction. They talked about God in concrete, observable and vivid ways. They also talked about God in highly personal terms. He is not someone way "out there" who may or may not know that we (and me) are around.  He is not just concerned with the corporate people of God. He is concerned with me.  He is MY rock! He is MY salvation! he is MY fortress! Therefore I shall not be moved. What Yahweh has done in the past for the whole of Israel by redeeming them from slavery he does in our own lives as members of the covenantal family.  

"How long will you assault a man? Would all of you throw him down -- this leaning wall, this tottering fence?
They fully intend to topple him from his lofty place; they take delight in lies.
With their mouths they bless, but in their hearts they curse." (vv. 3-4)

Here we finally get a window into the crises of the psalmist. It is a struggle we all face sooner or later.  People - family, friends, brothers and sisters - people are friendly to our face.  They pretend to be concerned with our well being.  They act the friend.  But they honestly would like nothing more than to see us fail! To see us stumble! And they would actively take part in our ruin! That kind of "persecution" is many times as painful as public ridicule precisely because these folks were imagined to be family or friends. Sometimes they are just simply our enemy.  The psalmist bemoans the fact that they assail him with their double tongued behavior.  They bless him verbally but curse him in their heart.  Sound familiar?? Sadly this takes place in God's Family even yet!

It is interesting to note that even though the Lord is his mighty fortress, physical and verbal attacks are nonetheless undeniable real and quite painful.  Being the Lord's servant does not makes us immune to suffering and injustice in this fallen age (cf. 2 Tim. 3.12).  We might even argue that it heightens it.  Look at Jesus, the purest of Servants of the Lord.  Did he not suffer the very things the people of God confess and lament in Psalm 62? God was His rock. God was His salvation. God was His fortress.  And he still died on that ignominious Tree for the likes of you and me.

"Find rest, O my soul, in GOD ALONE; my hope comes from him.
HE ALONE is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor depend upon God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge"
(vv. 5-7)

In these verses, our psalmist engages in what we call today "self-talk." There is no denying, and the Bible does not deny, that the fallen world is tough to live in. But God is with us. Our minstrel recalls fundamental concepts for our own peace and security.  Do not put trust in ourselves or others.  Real "manliness" does not come from bulging biceps, fearlessness in the face of enemy bullets, or perseverance, nor in our intellectual capacity or imagined doctrinal precision.  This is in stark contrast of the "world" which claims that a "real man" depends on no one and nothing except himself!  Yet this psalmist (David??) declares that his hope is in God ALONE. It is  not in himself.  It is not in his mighty men. It is not even in his ability to pray or worship correctly. It is in Yahweh. Here is the key to being hidden in the Rock of Ages.

The Singer's faith in God is moving and very challenging.  Because the Lord is our salvation, we can remain steadfast in our obedience.  We will not be shaken. Yet it some how all depends upon God. He alone can provide the way out of the dreadful situations we find ourselves entrapped in. 

The word "salvation" is a multifaceted word in the Scriptures. Sometimes it means deliverance from Sin, from enemies, or even death.  All of these are dimensions of the biblical doctrine and we need to not think one is more "Spiritual" than the other.  These dimensions are all embraced by Jesus and they should be by us.  But in Ps 62 "salvation" means deliverance from the situation that has ensnared the psalmist.  It is a real crises.  This understanding of "salvation" is important to us in our contemporary situation too.  Many folks have lost a conception of what "Sin" is (including Christians), but we all know what it means to have an aimless or miserable life! We know of lives that seem to be devoid of purpose and meaning.  When Christ died on the Cross it was not merely to save us from Sin, though he did do that. According to the apostle Peter, Christ redeemed us from "the EMPTY WAY OF LIFE handed down to you from your forefathers" (1 Pt 1.18).  This is incredibly Good News. Our God is a God of salvation.  Salvation that impacts and transforms the here and now of life and not just when we die.  Our God desires the fullest of lives possible.  Our psalmist embraces these truths with gusto.  So should we.

But the psalmist stresses that a good life is from God. It is his grace.  Without God life has no meaning or purpose. We are nothing without Him.  He testifies "my honor depends on God." My stature is nothing outside of the Lord.  I might as well have never existed, for human honor and worth derive form the Creator God.

Don't Trust in Humans (62.8-12)

"Trust in him at all times, O people, pour out your hearts to him, for God is 
our refuge.
Lowborn men are but a breath [lit. 'vapor'], the highborn are but a lie; if 
weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a
breath [lit. 'vapor'].
Do not trust in extortion or take pride in stolen goods; though your riches 
increase, do not set your heart on them" (vv. 8-10)

Our psalmist now becomes the teacher of the Gathered People of God.  He addresses them rather than himself.  He exhorts us to trust in, to have faith in, God at all times for he alone is our refuge. We should "pour out our hearts to him." This is a call to prayer! A call to dependence rather than independence! When we feel assailed we seek instinctively our "refuge."

What the psalmist wants, perhaps, more than all else is not to fall into the trap of trusting in fallen humans And that includes ourselves. The description of humanity in vv 9-10 is in stark contrast to the description of God in vv 5-7.  God is permanent and unshakable, he is a Rock.  He is reliable so he is my Salvation.  He is strong as a Fortress that cannot be breached.  Yet humanity whether a poor pauper or a rich bureaucrat is a wisp, a vapor, and "a lie."  Vivid imagery captures the human dilemma here. Our teacher says if you take both the rich and the poor and put them in one pan of a balance scale and nothing in the other pan they would fly up because "nothing" would weigh more than them combined.  We cannot trust in humanity for our security and stability or our peace.  We will find no rest there.  Those who have done so have learned, as the psalmist has, that humanity will always let us down.  God will never desert us.  He is faithful.  That is the Good News of Psalm 62.

The Bible is full of exhortations not to trust in humanity.  Paul in Romans 3.10-18 creates a collage of citations from the Hebrew Bible saying it is the gospel truth ...

"There is no one righteous, not even one there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of shalom they do not know there is no fear of God before their eyes."

Not a pretty picture of humanity painted by Paul. Humans are liars and untrustworthy.  Only God is faithful so put it all in him.  Our singing teacher reminds us that money and power are common sources of human trust for safety and security too.  But he warns that trusting in apparent might rather than in the right.

Two Things to Take to the Bank (62.11-12)

"One thing God has spoken, two things I have heard: that you, O God, are
strong and that you, O LORD are loving. 
Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done."

The psalm employs a Hebrew idiom, "One thing ... two things" which simply means "repeatedly," or "over and over and over and over." The psalmist closes his song to the church by sharing the testimony of all who have walked with God, he is Strong and he is Loving! These are two things that are certain as reality itself.  God is Strong!  God is Loving!! You can hang your life on these two truths.  You can live your life even in the darkness holding onto these fundamental truths.  They are more than "truths" they are simply reality.  "This I have heard, this I know ... "This is the basis of his faith in God delivering him from the straits he is in.  God has the power and God has the motivation to do it.

Because God has the power and the motivation to right the wrongs of this fallen world - he will do just that.  One day God will judge each man and woman.  He will measure our deeds. The very deeds of evil by you, me, everyone ... the whispers, the lies, the double-mindedness God will bring out.  This is in fact ground for praise in the psalm.  It is not the psalmist's place to exact vengence on his enemies.  God will take care of that on that Day. And he will do it perfectly.  This is why Christians look forward to the Day of Christ's appearing. All will be set right. The ones who have put their faith in his faithfulness will be rescued by the angels of God and will greet the King.  Trust in God. If we have shalom and peace in our lives we must give God control.

So I concluded these musings on this amazing text with a call to simply rest in God.  In Good times.  In Bad times.  We like Martin Luther King, Jesus, and the psalmist before them can lift our voices and sing, "Rock of Ages, cleft for me; let me hide myself in Thee!"

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God in Weakness: A Thought on Jn 19.16-17 & Lk 23.26

Introductory Thoughts

Have you ever wondered to yourself if Jesus knew what it was like to hurt so bad he wanted to quit? Have you ever wondered to yourself, perhaps after that secret fall, if Jesus knew what it was like to fall? Have you ever wondered if Jesus became weary, exhausted or just plain tired? I have! I have wondered to myself often if Jesus knew what it was like to really fall flat on his face. Could Jesus understand when my body not only wanted to give out -- but did give out? I have wondered, have you? In fact one of my favorite poems is by Donna Swanson called "Did You Ever Cry, Jesus?"

Did you ever cry, Jesus?
did the world ever pile up on you 'til you wanted to
quit?

Did you ever cry, Jesus?
Did you ever get so tired of humanity you wished
you'd never come?

Did life ever throw you too much hate?
Were there more lies and apathy than could be born
silently?

Did you ever ache, Jesus?
Did you sometimes fret at family obligations
and long to be about your Father's business?

Did the blind eyes, the twisted bodies,
The warped minds and maimed souls get to you? Were
you ever just plain mad?

Were you ever lonely, Jesus?
When your friends misunderstood and walked out on
you, did you ever cry, Jesus?

I think you must have, for you know me so well. So
well!

I think you must have cried a little.
(in Calvin Miller, The Book of Jesus, p. 242-243).

He Identifies With Us!

The Gospel texts for ruminating reads ...

"So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the skull . . . Here they crucified him . . . (Jn. 19:16b-17)."

"As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene . . . and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus (Luke 23: 26)."

According to our text in John JESUS was forced to carry his cross. But according to Luke (and Mt & Mk) Simon was forced to carry the cross. How are we to understand this? There is no reason to assume a contradiction between the two. The explanation is much simpler than that -- it is hinted at in the NT and explicitly declared in early church tradition. Jesus of Nazareth fell beneath the load of the Roman cross and Simon was forced to carry it the rest of the way to Golgotha!

It makes perfect sense actually. Think about what he has been through. He hasn't slept in over 48 hours. Think of Gethsemane? Did he have visions of the countless sins pressing down on him -- tortures, murders, rapes, slander, lies? Did he visualize shattered families, molested children, millions of murdered babies? Did he see my disobedience. Did he see the warfare his brothers and sisters would eventually make upon one another!? What unspeakable emotional agony the Messiah went through in Gethsemane! Emotionally he was spent!

His body has been tortured, battered and abused. Now it is failing him. Just as yours and mine fail us at times. For Jesus isn't God dressed up as a man. He is a REAL MAN! He bleeds real blood. He shares the weaknesses and limitations of the flesh with you and me. The reason the African, Simon of Cyrene, has to carry the cross is because Jesus falls ... He falls to the ground ... Do you see what the Cross teaches us here? Jesus is one of US! He was a Man!

He understands when our bodies are subject to fatigue as well as pain. He knew his own body would fail even as the disciples did in the Garden of Sorrows.

We rush past the cross sometimes. We must see how the Cross teaches one of the hardest of all lessons to learn-- Jesus is one of us! The Cross teaches the humanity of Jesus. What do you see when you see the Lord of the Universe fall to the ground under the burden of the cross, under the burden of our sin? Do you see raw and bloody knees as the hit the stone pavement? - I see his weakness, I see his humanity. I see just how far the love of God really goes. I see how completely the Son of God identified with human beings calling himself the `Son of Man.' I see a man who knows what it is like to fall. His is not due to personal sin but because his human body is just like mine. We get bruised just as he was bruised. We are spent emotionally just as he was spent emotionally. To fall is a very visible sign of our vulnerability. It is even embarrassing at times. But we fall because we are human.

Listen to it. The One who falls under the horrible burden of sin does not look away as we fall under the burden of life or sin. When we are down he is there at our side. He understands, he has been there. He is one of us! That is comforting to know. In fact there are days that that is the ONLY thing that gets me through! There are times I want to quit. There are times I fail terribly as a husband, as a father, as a minister, and as a Christian -- praise be to God Jesus knows what I am going through! Each step I take he is by my side, he has never deserted me, and he leads me closer home. In fact, Jesus who fell under the cross said,

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light . . . (Mt. 11.28ff)

How can his yoke be easy and his burden light? The picture we have of him is some falling to the dirt under a burden. The answer is the yoke and the burden he's carrying to the cross is not his own. They're ours. He's carrying our burdens, our sins; he falls under our yoke of condemnation -- Not his! But he offers us an easy yoke and light burden. Jesus understands. Now isn't that Good News! You have to come to the cross for this Good News from the Lord. Maybe Hebrews will mean more to us when we understand this message. Listen:

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too SHARED IN THEIR HUMANITY so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death . . . FOR THIS REASON lie had to be made like his BROTHERS in EVERY WAY . . . Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted (2: 14-18).

God In Weakness

The lessons of the cross are never discovered by those in a hurry. They are never discovered by those who spend little time watching the One carrying the cross. Yet it is at the heart of the Gospel. The Epistle to the Hebrews is built upon it. The amazing message proclaimed by the Cross is that the omnipotent Creator of the universe is at this moment in his life on earth to weak to carry a wooden cross! Yes, to weak to even stand. Perhaps we can just begin to grasp the distance our great God would go to save you and me.

Because Jesus bore the cross, because he fell beneath the load he says to you and me, "I understand your weakness. There was a time when I couldn't even stand upright like a man." Our Savior descended from the realm of perfection to imperfection. From the strength of heaven to the weakness of earth. That is a long, long journey to make. Christians fall! And Jesus falls do to weakness as well.

Radical? Indeed! True? Absolutely! Comforting? It gives us strength because he is there with us.

Wrapping Up

Max Lucado in his classic, God Came Near, tried to communicate this truth of the gospel (that Jesus is one of us) in these memorable words:

He was touchable, approachable, reachable. And, what's more, he was ordinary. If he were here today you probably wouldn't notice him as he walked through a shopping mall... (p. 54).

Don't rush past the cross, We in the church do that to often. The cross is telling us the wonderful news of grace -- Jesus understands when we fall. He is one of us. He didn't come to condemn us but to save us by being condemned on the Cross for us. Did Jesus cry? You bet he did! He still cries for us ... and with us!

May these thoughts bless you ...

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Struggling for Faith: Thoughts on Habakkuk

An Intro to the Intro

Every Tuesday morning I meet a group of guys for "Coffee with Bobby." Usually the Sun has not graced the valley with beams of light yet. We have been reading our way through Habakkuk for some time now. What a rich journey! Many of the faith struggles and questions of Habakkuk resonate deeply with me. So what I propose to do here is share some of my interaction with the Prophet Habakkuk. I have written things in my journal and some of that has found its way into this post ... May it bless ...

“How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save?
Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife and conflict abounds.
Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so justice is perverted.”

Introduction

John Bright once remarked that Habakkuk lived in a time of gross and violent injustice. He lives in a time when society has not only grown accustomed to abuse of our fellow humans but has come to expect it and even sanction it. That is “just the way life is.” It was a the society obsessed with a “premonition of doom and gnawing insecurity . . .” (History of Israel, 3rd Edition, p. 320).

The world power structure of his day was radically changing. The Assyrian Empire, which had been the master of the east for centuries, was in its death throes. A new power, called Babylon, was rising as fast as a meteor shooting across the sky. Government officials were killing each other, kings were being assassinated left and right, judges and lawyers could care less about the right as long as they made a buck or two.

Habakkuk looked around and saw his world, his nation, God’s People bent on self- destruction. He saw a society where neighbors took advantage of each other any chance they could. He saw a country where the poor and outcast were severely discriminated against.

And Habakkuk is confused! He is confused because he does not understand why Yahweh, the God of Israel, tolerates this situation. He confessed the holiness and justice of God and yet was dismayed that God had not stepped in to rectify the horrendous scene before him. He is confused because he finds God’s People to be at odds with his faith. He is confused because he wonders if faith can even survive in this kind of world.

I love the prophet Habakkuk! I think he is my favorite of the prophets. He seems so relevant to my life in this postmodern, post-Christian, and post-divorce world. He speaks, seemingly, directly to my life and my world. My world that has also been filled with a “premonition of doom.” Think about our world for a moment, do we not live in a world amazingly similar to Habakkuk’s? I read through Drudge and various news outlets imagining that I was Habakkuk. Our world definitely seems to have a gnawing insecurity. Huge corporations and executives sap millions (billions!) of dollars from the little man, leaving hundreds of thousands wondering about their future. Innocent people spend 35 years in prison only to learn that the police and the court hid information that proved innocence. The world sleeps with one eye open for fear of terrorists and the possibility of war. In Sudan and Ethiopia thousands are starved to death by their own governments while the rest of the world just washes its hands as if we have no responsibility. Marriages fall to pieces ...

Yes...our world is like Habakkuk’s! He read the local paper and shook his head in dismay and said in a loud and painful cry, “How LONG! O, Lord, how Long!” It is as much an exclamation as a question. We read the paper and say, with Habakkuk, “Is God really in control?” “How can God let us go on treating each other as we do?” We must admit that we believe he is – but at times it looks as if he isn’t!!

A Complaint as Prayer

Habakkuk is among God’s faithful. He wanted to do what is right in Yahweh’s eyes, he wanted Israel to keep his covenant of love. But how is that to be done in a world that has forgotten God? How can Habakkuk have “faith” when he is simply struggling to have faith? How can you and I, not just maintain, but grow in our faith and devotion in times like these?

The prophet does something that most of us, on the face of it, despise. He complains! In our society complaining is associated with the sore loser or the ‘cry baby.’ That, however, is not the kind of complaining that Habakkuk is doing. Habakkuk’s complaint is called a “lament” and it is vital to genuine biblical faith. Habakkuk’s complaint (or lament) is a cry of weariness. The prophet is tired of the world as it is. He is exhausted from the fight of merely existing in a world in which the one standard is “look out for yourself!”

Because he is weary of Sin he complains to God. Because he is tired of injustice he laments. Because he is weary of evil he calls to God, “How Long, O Lord” (v. 2). This is the language of worship – it is the language of prayer! It is holy language ...

How does one exercise and struggle for faith in a world like ours? If Habakkuk is any indication the first step is wrestling with God in prayer. Habakkuk in a sense becomes Israel itself. Israel means the "one who wrestles with God." And Habakkuk is in a mighty wrestling match.

What can the Christian do about Iraq, banks, corruption in government and injustice against those of another race? Habakkuk says we must turn to the only source for making the world a place of shalom (peace) and that is Yahweh in anguished prayer! The prayer of the follower of Christ is intensely interested in God’s mishpat, God’s justice in this world. That is the dominating idea in these four gut wrenching verses of Habakkuk. The prophet prays for God to intervene and make justice count. He prays that right will prevail in the lives of those around him. He asks the honest question, “how can you stand to look at wrong doing?” (v.3, TEV). I cannot begin to count the number of times I have voiced that same question.

The struggle of faith in a troubled world is anchored and shown in prayer – honest wrestling prayer. No not a prayer every once in a while but constant prayer. The text lets us know that Habakkuk has been uttering this lament in prayer for a long time. Over lengthy periods of time faith is demonstrated through calling on his Name. Habakkuk challenges us – because he was challenged – hunger and thirst after righteousness and seek God’s kingdom first in this world. It made the prophet sad, even angry, that his world was dominated by a view that could tolerate the mistreatment of fellow humans. That sadness fed his prayer life. That sadness caused him to plead, cry and wrestle in prayer with Yahweh to send forth his righteousness.

Complacency and Struggling for Faith in Troubled World(s)

Christians must avoid the spiritual disease of complacency at all costs. You see complacency kills our search for intimacy with God. It kills the God-born hunger in our hearts for righteousness. Complacency convinces us that the world isn’t so bad – especially if we are not personally impacted by its injustice. Complacency whispers that I need not be concerned about corruption in officials or the courts.

Habakkuk calls such mentalities on the carpet. He demonstrates just how foreign such an outlook is to those who belong to the covenant community of Yahweh. He challenges us to hate evil and seek God about it in prayer. Prayer not only demonstrates our faith while living in a troubled world, but it also FEEDS and STRENGTHENS our faith. In prayer we learn, as did Habakkuk, “that no matter how loud the roar of the storm, no matter the strength of the wind or the force of the rain – God is with us.” (Jerry Jones, Beyond the Storm, p. 165).

In prayer we enjoy the refreshment. How so? In prayer we may not discover the answer to injustice or why God tarries. However, in prayer – in worship – we find the gracious Presence of the Father. The same Father who once lost a Son to a mob bent on lawlessness and injustice. We find companionship for the dark night and strength – yes even divine strength to live by faith in a troubled world.
That is why Habakkuk laments and wrestles with God in prayer.

I recently read a fascinating book by Eugene Genovese, The World the Slaves Made. It amazes me how the “world” the slaves made was fashioned out of their troubled world – it was the creation of faith. Imagine, if you will, that you were born in 1838 (or you think you were) and you just happen to be black. You are now 20 years old in 1858. You don’t know who your father is, nor your mother, because you were sold shortly after birth. You have seen children taken from their mothers and it grieves you. You have witnessed white men take slave girls and father children by them only to see them sold into slavery themselves. The other day you wandered off the plantation without supervision and received thirty-nine lashes for trying to escape. On a day called Sunday you see a bunch of white folks go to a building called a “church” and worship some “God.” You even think in your mind that you might have faith in this God too. I ask you, how would you, if you were one of those slaves, maintain faith in your troubled world?

I tell you, honestly, I don’t know if I could have – but they did! In fact faith thrived. How did they do it? They did what Habakkuk did – they prayed their laments. They sang their prayers and they triumphed over the world that had them in chains. They have left all Christians a priceless treasure of faith filled prayers songs we call “spirituals.” They sang prayers like, “There is a Balm in Gilead” and “Roll Jordon, Roll” and “Where You There When they Crucified My Lord.” They sang,

Go down, Moses
Way down in Egyptland
Tell old Pharaoh
To let my people go.

(Crossing the Danger Water: Three Hundred years of African-American Writing,
ed. Deirdre Mullane, p. 277)

and

Steal away to Jesus
Steal away, steal away home,
I ain’t got long to stay here.

and

We’ll soon be free,
We’ll soon be free,
We’ll soon be free,
When de Lord will call us home.

My brudder, how long,
My brudder, how long,
My brudder, how long,
‘Fore we done sufferin’ here?
(Crossing the Danger Water, p. 291)


Did you hear the same question that Habakkuk asked? “How Long, O Lord?” It is the cry of God’s People down through the ages. But in that troubled world faith not only was born but thrived. We sing their prayers of deliverance. We sing their prayers songs for God’s kingdom to burst forth. We sing their songs of unshakable faith. The slaves had faith by going and wrestling with God in prayer – they did not find the answers they longed for but they found something profoundly mysterious – the companionship of God. The slaves are just one example of faith thriving in this fallen and sinful world. But its one that I am grateful for.

As Christians we believe that God has in fact answered Habakkuk’s complaint. He has heard the slaves of long ago. God wants us to seek him, and him alone, not the “comfort” of the world. God assures Habakkuk that he is working to overcome the evil he laments (1.5-11). No, God will not tolerate evil and injustice. He does not just want to punish evil but eradicate it, he wants to cure it!

God points the prophet forward to a time he cannot see – to the time of the Cross of Jesus Christ. There in the face of the Ultimate Outrage against justice we see God’s one and only answer to the problems Habakkuk has shed tears over. God challenges us to see in that event his answer to the evil of this world. He condemns and punishes all the evil the Prophet complained about and the slaves sang about – he tells us to look at the figure of the Man on the Tree and see the wrath of God displayed against injustice. We see the resurrection and are assured that God does in fact make it right. Our prayers are being heard, they have not fallen on deaf ears. In spite of it all ... THIS I DO BELIEVE!

Wrapping Up

So we Christians, in the year 2009, will commune with God in his holy temple and keep silent prayer before him (2.20). We will continue to wrestle in prayer for God’s way to be our way. We will pray for God’s kingdom to have dominion over all hearts. We will pray for justice to be empowered in our world. We will maintain faith – through God's gift of prayer – in this mighty unfriendly and troubled world. We will call to our God and he will give us the strength and see us through. I close with, possibly, the most stirring words in all of Scripture:

“Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
YET I WILL REJOICE IN THE LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.”
(Habakkuk 3.17-18)

Oh, God may it be so ... as we Seek Shalom.

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Jesus Messiah - Chris Tomlin

What a wonderful song ... may it encourage you.

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Shattered Dreams ... Picking Up the Pieces?

Shattered Dreams

For many years I lived a sheltered life. No not everything was always hunky dory. I mean there was that time my girlfriend's dad did not like me. There was that time when a certain college said "don't come around here no more" and my friend Wade wrote (and sang) a song called The Ballad of Bobby V. There was that time when I walked into a meeting expecting to get an extra week of vacation and a pay raise and the elders inexplicably said you need to pack your bags and exit quickly. But through it all I thought I discerned the hand of God. To this day I don't know what I was supposed to have "learned" from that ordeal in Mississippi. But I would never have found my friends in Milwaukee had it not been for that ... and my friends at Southside were and are friends in deed. God saw us, the Valentine family, through. The wife of my dreams and daughters that would melt the heart of the coldest snake. But you know what, I had no idea what some folks went through that I preached to every week.

But those dreams shattered! I have learned that lots of peoples dreams shatter. Now my dreams were not extravagant. I dreamed of being a good husband. I dreamed of being a cool dad. I did not dream of being rich, powerful or even the keynote speaker at Pepperdine. Like Tobias when he met his bride Sarah ... I dreamed of "growing old with the wife of my youth" (Tobit 8.7). I believed these were good dreams. But those dreams shattered! All the praying, all the shouting at the night sky, all the pounding the floor, all the making deals with God, all the pleading and quoting Scripture ... did not unshatter those dreams! Sometimes it makes you wonder where the Father of Mercies is ... Indeed sometimes the thoughts I feel ... well Tennyson said it better than me ...

I sometimes hold it half a sin
To put in words the grief I feel;
For words, like Nature, half reveal
And half conceal the Soul within.

But, for the unquiet heart and brain,
A use in measured language lies;
The sad mechanic exercise,
Like dull narcotics, numbing pain.

In words, like weeds, I'll wrap me o'er,
Like coarsest cloths against the cold;
But that large grief which these unfold
Is given in outline and no more.

It is clear that Tennyson had a Shattered Dream too. Shattered Dreams hurt like hell. In fact they are hell. The pious wrestle with guilt because they almost feel like they have "sinned" by even thinking the thoughts they think in the middle of that dark night. How do you move forward? How do we handle it when it seems that we never move forward? In fact when we think hell could be no worse we discover that there is at least one more level down!

Shattered Dreams are enough to make us actually embrace the real Job, the angry Job. Job says he had a major problem with God. He desperately wanted to find God to set the record straight. "If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments ..." (Job 23.3-4). The desperation of his shattered dreams Job says he will go "east" and then "west" and "north" and finally "south" but through it all "I catch no glimpse of him" (Job 23.8-10).

You know what I have learned? I have learned the best of us are capable of incredible self-serving and self-centered hurtful actions. I have learned that for years I had no idea what it meant to walk by faith. I have learned that though God is faithful he does not answer to me. I have learned that the vandalism of God's shalom is real and not make believe ... and that vandalism, that falleness can rip us to shreds. I have learned that Christian ministry is no about debating irrelevancies like instrumental music but rather seeing that a Crucified (yet Risen) Carpenter is truly King ... even in the midst of Shattered Dreams. I have learned that perhaps God is serious when he says we win by dying! That we gain victory through surrender! That "to this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps" (1 Pt 2.21).

One last thing I have learned. I have learned that I hate Shattered Dreams. I hate them. I hate them. And I hate them. I should count it as all joy. But I haven't made it yet. How do we not? We continue to Cry into the Night. We search for him believing that he has truly revealed his intention and his power in Jesus Christ ... and resurrection has occurred. The New Heavens and New Earth are coming. Hope ...

This particular blog is simply a thinking and sharing "out loud." Take it for what it is.

Seeking Shalom,
Bobby V

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Tears: God's or Mine (Reflections on Jeremiah from the Pit of Divorce)

Here are some late night thoughts ... so take them for what they are. My friend John Mark Hicks was providentially moved to post a series on What Divorced People Feel and How to Minister to Divorced People. I know God had a hand in that. I don’t think John Mark set out to write for me … but perhaps James A. Harding would say that he was lead to do so. Danny Dodd also has a very good reflection on this scourge.

You see I am divorced. Not by choice but I am divorced. I never dreamed nor imagined I would be ... but I am. I have no desire to humiliate my (ex)wife, my girls, my family, my congregation, my God … or myself. I have no desire to make those I have loved (and still do) for so many years look bad. I do not want to say it was “her” fault because the truth is more complicated than that. What I do know is that I participated in destroying that which was so fundamentally holy, sacred, and important to even me (much less God!). I did not want to and did not intend to and did not mean to. I have no explanation as to why. I can say with Paul “I have the desire to do what is good … but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing” (Rom 7.18-19). I have come close to loathing myself for my failures … that is why I have said earlier that the song/video (One Last Breath) by Creed comes close to evoking the feelings of pain but even it falls short.

I have some new insight (to me) into Scripture … not what it actually says but through a melding of its words with my own circumstance things now stand out in bold relief. I have known about the texts of Jeremiah 8-9 for a long time. I even did a presentation on them a few years ago at the Lake Geneva Family Encampment but now I read them with a vested interest.

It is not without providential irony that I was asked to teach Jeremiah last year for class called “Coffee with Bobby” with a group every Tuesday morning. Jeremiah is full of pain. He was a reluctant prophet! He reports that Yahweh himself went through the bitter pain of divorce (3.6-8). Those influenced by neo-Platonic views of God rarely think of the suffering of God in the Hebrew Bible but divine pathos is there in bold relief. The story of Jeremiah seems to be written with tears rather than ink!

The scroll of Jeremiah from 8.18-9.22 zeroes in on an image of God that has meant a great deal to me lately. God is King indeed … but he is a crying King! Yahweh is declared to be the speaker of these incredibly moving words (9.3, 6, 17, 22). The “death” of a relationship was intensely painful for Yahweh. The words of Yahweh border on radical,

“O my comforter in sorrow, my heart is faint within me” (8.18)

God’s heart is shattered ...

“Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn and horror grips me” (8.21).

The heart of Yahweh is so heavy that he bursts out in tears

“Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears!” (9.1)

Later Yahweh “confesses” that he does not have enough tears for the occasion so he calls for the professional mourners to come in to help supply the tears for the occasion … he invites them to shed tears not only for Israel but for him …

“Consider now! Call the wailing women to come; send for the most skillful of them. Let them come quickly and wail over US till OUR eyes overflow with tears and water streams from OUR eyelids …” (9.17-18)

J. J. M. Roberts has shown that pagan deities were also known to shed tears for their people (see “The Motif of the Weeping God in Jeremiah and Its Background in the Lament Tradition of the Ancient Near East” from 1992). What the idols could never do, Yahweh does in reality. His marriage has ended in a heartbreaking divorce … so heartbreaking that God had hired the mourners to come in to make up the deficit in tears. This is pain. So much pain, in fact, one could almost describe Jer 8-9 as clinical depression!! God has an endless river of tears … God wishes (it seems to me) to escape the pain but “cannot.” His heart will not let him. For anyone who has gone through divorce this is all too true.

Though God has not chosen to reveal to me why hell has invaded my life he has shown me his own broken heart. The God of the cross is first the God of the broken heart. The God of judgment is first the God who weeps violently for his bride. This is an image of God I assuredly did not grow up with.

No answers to my questions. But I have fellowship in my tears. It is in the Bible,

“My tears have been my food day and night …” (Ps 42.3)

“Record my lament; list my tears on your scroll – are they not in your record?” (Ps 56.8)

“You have fed them with the bread of tears; you have made them drink tears by the bowl full” (Ps 80.5)

“For I eat ashes as my food and mingle my drink with tears” (Ps 102.9)

God cries because we have left him for other gods. We cry because we have willingly or unwillingly participated in the destruction of his creative intent. We cry a lamentation for what is wrong in this world. As we cry we find, ironically, intimate fellowship with the Creator himself. My tears are but a poor imitation of his own. It is here that we will one day find shalom and healing. It is here that we hope to find the new creation … which is simply that place where God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. A place where there will be no tears. Our Abba will wipe away our tears (Rev 21.4) because he has already shed a few of his own. God knows what a broken heart feels like ... to someone like me this is ... good news!



Seeking Shalom,

Bobby Valentine

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On the other hand my friend John Mark Hicks has been blogging on What Divorced People feel. Those feelings cannot be put in words. But Creed does a good job of evoking something like them in their great video and song, note the tears of blood ...

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PG-13 Rant: Corporate Murder or Could it be they just Didn't Give a Damn ... In Memory of Edith Isabel

Ok, folks I apologize for the expletive in my PG-13 title but at the moment it is the only word I can think of. Eugene Peterson once noted that cursing was once holy language before it degenerated into mere profanity. I am not using mere profanity however. But I am upset!

I was crusin' through MSNBC reading the latest headlines and came across "Woman dies in ER lobby as 911 refuses help." The story is dated 7:43 am, June 13, 2007. Here is a link: HERE

Edith Rodriguez was in the emergency room in the inner-city of Los Angeles, she was in obvious pain and was bleeding from the mouth. The doctors, nurses and staff of Martin Luther King, Jr-Harbor Hospital let this woman, one of God's creatures, die. Her boyfriend/husband even called 911 from within the ER! They refused to help. Later a second call to 911 came from the same ER from a total stranger seeking aid for this poor woman. They still refused to help her. When they finally got the nearby Police officers to "assist," they decided to arrest her for a parole violation! Edith Rodriguez died as the Police were taking her out of the hospital.

Folks there is something screwed up in this land. We worry our little hearts that Paris Hilton might be exposed to a staff infection because she has to go to a jail session and yet we simply could care less about a woman who is bleeding to death in the ER. How is it possible that trained doctors and nurses could be so devoid of humanity?

The head of the county Department of Health Services said this was "fundamentally a failure of caring" ... but it is "getting better." What a bunch of baloney. What happened in that ER was more than a failure to care ... it was a failure to even give a damn!!!!! The Doctors, the nurses, the staff in that ER are responsible for the death of an innocent woman who simply had the misfortune of being at an inner-city hospital. I am going out on a limb here but is this not simply corporate murder? If it was Paris Hilton in that ER she would have been rushed through so they could x-ray her broken fingernail.

This is America, the United States, the richest, by far the most powerful nation on the planet, how could this happen? It happens because our national values are simply and utterly screwed up. We will spend almost 600 billion dollars on weapons this year ... but a poor woman gets arrested in the ER rather than the care of a fellow human being.

Though speaking explicitly of pay, James 5 speaks prophetically to our situation. I have altered the wording only slightly:

"Look! The care you failed to give the poor who mowed your lawns is crying out against you. The cries of the maid have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent people, who were not your enemies" (Stoned Campbell paraphrase of James 5.4-6).

Dear God of the Oppressed ... have mercy upon us. Father help us to care.

Shalom,
Bobby Valentine

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While We Weep ... For VT

While We Weep ... For VT

How deserted lies the city, once so full of people!
How like a widow she is, who was once great among the nations!
...

Bitterly she weeps at night, tears are upon her cheeks.
Among all her lovers there is none to comfort her;
they have become her enemies.
...

Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us;
look and see our disgrace.
Our inheritance has been turned ...
We have become orphans and fatherless,
our mothers like widows.
We must buy the water we drink;
our wood can be had only at a price.
Those who pursue us are at our heels;
we are weary and find no rest.
...

Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning ...
Because of this our hearts are faint,
because of these things our eyes grow dim ...
You, O LORD reign forever; your throne endures from
generation to generation.
Why do you always forget us?
Why do you forsake us so long?
Restore us to yourself, O LORD,
that we may return; renew our days of old
unless you have utterly rejected us
and are angry with us beyond measure.

Lamentations 1.1-2; 5.1-5, 15, 17, 19-22

Clapton and McCartney Weeping

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Faith in a Troubled World, Meditations on Hab. 1.1-4

Faith In a Troubled World, Meditations on Hab 1.1-4

“How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen?

Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save?

Why do you make me look at injustice?

Why do you tolerate wrong?

Destruction and violence are before me;

there is strife and conflict abounds.

Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails.

The wicked hem in the righteous,

so justice is perverted.”

Getting Started ...

Habakkuk lives in a time of gross and violent injustice. He lives in a time when society has not only grown accustomed to abuse of our fellow humans but has come to expect it and even sanction it. That is “just the way life is.” The historian John Bright describes the society of Habakkuk’s day as obsessed with a “premonition of doom and gnawing insecurity . . .” (History of Israel, 3^rd Edition, p. 320).

The world power structure of his day was radically changing. The Assyrian Empire, which had been the master of the east for centuries, was in its death roes. Now a new power called Babylon was rising as fast as a meteor shooting across the sky. Government officials were killing each other, kings were being assassinated left and right, judges and lawyers could care less about the right as long as they made a buck or two.

Habakkuk looked around and saw his world, his nation, God’s People bent on self-destruction. He saw a society where neighbors took advantage of each other any chance they could. He saw a country where the poor and outcast were severely discriminated against.

And Habakkuk is confused! He is confused because he does not understand why Yahweh, the God of Israel, tolerates this situation. He confesses the holiness and justice of God but confesses dismay that God has not stepped in to rectify the horrendous scene before him. He is confused because he finds God’s People to be at odds with his faith. He is confused because he wonders if faith can even survive in this kind of world.

I love the prophet Habakkuk! I think he is my favorite of the prophets. I often visit him for imaginary chats, just as I did this week. He seems so relevant to my life in this postmodern and post-Christian world. He speaks, seemingly, directly to my life and my world. My world that also has a “premonition of doom.” Think about our world for a moment, do we not live in a world amazingly similar to Habakkuk’s? I read through the New York Times and U.S. News and World Report at Starbucks recently imagining that I was Habakkuk. Our world definitely seems to have a gnawing insecurity. Huge corporations like Enron (or some insurance co.) sap millions of dollars from the little man, leaving hundreds of thousands wondering about their future. Innocent people spend 35 years in prison only to learn that the police and the court hid information that proved innocence. The world sleeps with one eye open for fear of terrorists and the war in Iraq. We see folks beheaded simply because they are there. In Sudan and Ethiopia thousands are starved to death by their own governments while the rest of the world just washes its hands as if we have no responsibility. At night out in my own city the police helicopter circles above searching for some accused criminal. Not quite as dramatic but equally sad we see the sharks fighting over Anna Nichole Smith's little girl ... or is it the fortune she represents (?). The world is not only frightening at times but even sickening.

Yes our world is like Habakkuk’s! He read the local paper and shook his head in dismay and said in a loud and painful cry, “How LONG! O, Lord, how Long!” It is as much an exclamation as a question. We read the paper and say, with Habakkuk, “Is God really in control?” “How can God let us go on treating each other as we do?” We must admit that we believe he is – but at times it looks as if he isn’t!!

A Complaint as Prayer

Habakkuk is among God’s faithful. He wants to do what is right in Yahweh’s eyes, he wants Israel to keep his covenant of love. But how is that to be done in a world that has forgotten God? How can Habakkuk have “faith in a troubled world?” How can you and I, not just maintain, but grow in our faith and devotion in times like these?

The prophet does something that most of us, on the face of it, despise. He complains! In our society complaining is associated with the sore loser ... the ‘cry baby.’ That, however, is not the kind of complaining that Habakkuk is doing. Habakkuk’s complaint is called a “lament” and it is vital to genuine biblical faith. Habakkuk’s complaint (or lament) is a cry of weariness. The prophet is tired of the world as it is. He is exhausted from the fight of merely existing in a world in which the one standard is “look out for yourself!”

Because he is weary of Sin he complains to God. Because he is tired of injustice he laments. Because he is weary of evil he calls to God, “How Long, O Lord” (v. 2). This my brothers and sisters is the language of worship – it is the language of prayer!

How does one exercise faith in a world like ours? If Habakkuk is any indication the first step is wrestling with God in prayer. What can the Christian do about Iraq, corruption in government and injustice against those of another race? Habakkuk says we must turn to the only source for making the world a place of shalom (peace) and that is Yahweh in anguished prayer! The prayer of the follower of Christ is intensely interested in God’s mishpat, God’s justice in this world. That is the dominating idea in these four gut wrenching verses of Habakkuk. The prophet prays for God to intervene and make justice count. He prays that right will prevail in the lives of those around him. He asks the honest question, “how can you stand to look at wrong doing?” (v.3, TEV).

Faith in a troubled world is anchored and shown in prayer – honest wrestling prayer. No not a prayer every once in a while habit -- but constant prayer. The text lets us know that Habakkuk has been uttering this lament in prayer for a long time. Over lengthy periods of time faith is demonstrated through calling on his Name. Habakkuk challenges – because he was challenged – hunger and thirst after righteousness and seek God’s kingdom first in our lives and in this world. It made the prophet sad, even angry, that his world was dominated by a view that could tolerate the mistreatment of fellow humans. That sadness fed his prayer life. That sadness caused him to plead, cry and wrestle in prayer with Yahweh to send forth his righteousness.

Complacency and Faith in Troubled World(s)

Christians must avoid the spiritual disease of complacency at all costs. You see complacency kills our search for intimacy with God. It kills the God-born hunger in our hearts for righteousness. Complacency convinces us that this age isn’t so bad – especially if I am not personally impacted by its injustice. Complacency whispers that I need not be concerned about corruption in officials or the courts.

Habakkuk calls such mentalities on the carpet. He demonstrates just how foreign such an outlook is to those who belong to the covenant community of Yahweh. He challenges us to hate evil and seek God about it in prayer. Prayer not only demonstrates our faith while living in a troubled world, but it also FEEDS and STRENGTHENS our faith. In prayer we learn, as did Habakkuk, “that no matter how loud the roar of the storm, no matter the strength of the wind or the force of the rain – God is with us.” (Jerry Jones, Beyond the Storm, p. 165). In prayer we enjoy the refreshment. How so? In prayer we may not discover the answer to injustice or why God tarries. However, in prayer – in worship – we find the gracious Presence of the Father. The same Father who once lost a Son to a mob bent on lawlessness and injustice. We find companionship for the dark night and strength – yes even divine strength to live by faith in a troubled world.

That is why Habakkuk laments and wrestles with God in prayer.

I recently read a book by Eugene Genovese, The World the Slaves Made. It amazes me how the “world” the slaves made was formed out of a troubled world – it was the creation of faith. Imagine, if you will, that you were born in 1838 (you think) and you just happen to be black. You are now 20 years old in 1858. You don’t know who your father is, nor your mother, because you were sold shortly after birth. You have seen children taken from their mothers and it grieves you. You have witnessed white men take slave girls and father children by them only to see them sold into slavery themselves. The other day you wandered off the plantation without supervision and received thirty-nine lashes for trying to escape. On a day called Sunday you see a bunch of white folks go to a building called a “church” and worship some “God.” You even think in your mind that you might have faith in this God too. I ask you, how would you, if you were one of those slaves, maintain faith in your troubled world?

I tell you, honestly, I don’t know if I could have – but they did! In fact faith thrived. How did they do it? They did what Habakkuk did – they prayed their laments. They sang their prayers and they triumphed over the world that had them in chains. They have left all Christians a priceless treasure of faith filled prayers songs we call “spirituals.” They sang prayers like, “There is a Balm in Gilead” and “Roll Jordon, Roll” and “Where You There When they Crucified My Lord.” They sang,

Go down, Moses

Way down in Egyptland

Tell old Pharaoh

To let my people go.

(Crossing the Danger Water: Three Hundred years of African-American Writing,

ed. Deirdre Mullane, p. 277)

and

Steal away to Jesus

Steal away, steal away home,

I ain’t got long to stay here.

and

We’ll soon be free,

We’ll soon be free,

We’ll soon be free,

When de Lord will call us home.

My brudder, how long,

My brudder, how long,

My brudder, how long,

‘Fore we done sufferin’ here?

(Crossing the Danger Water, p. 291)

Did you hear the same question that Habakkuk asked? “How Long, O Lord?” It is the cry of God’s People down through the ages. But in that troubled world faith not only was born but thrived. We sing their prayers of deliverance. We sing their songs of prayer for God’s justice to intervene. We sing their songs of unshakable faith. The slaves had faith by going and wrestling with God in prayer – they did not find the answers they longed for but they found something even better – the companionship of God. The slaves are just one example of faith thriving in this fallen and sinful world. But its one that I am grateful for.

As Christians we believe that God has in fact answered Habakkuk’s complaint. He has heard the slaves of long ago. God wants us to seek him, and him alone, not the “comfort” of the world. God assures Habakkuk that he is working to overcome the evil he laments (1.5-11). No, God will not tolerate evil and injustice. He does not just want to punish evil but eradicate it, he wants to cure it!

God points the prophet forward to a time he cannot see – to the time of the Cross of Jesus Christ. There in the face of the Ultimate outrage against justice we see God’s one and only answer to the problems Habakkuk has cried out over. God challenges us to see in that event his answer to the evil of this world. He condemns and punishes all the evil the Prophet complained about and the slaves sang about – he tells us to look at the figure of the Man on the Tree and see the wrath of God displayed against injustice. We see the resurrection and are assured that God does in fact make it right. Our prayers are being heard, they have not fallen on deaf ears.

Wrapping Up

So we Christians, in the year 2007, will commune with God in his holy temple and keep silent prayer before him (2.20). We will continue to wrestle in prayer for God’s way to be our way. We will pray for God’s kingdom to have dominion over all hearts. We will pray for justice to be empowered in our world. We will maintain faith – through gift of prayer – in this mighty unfriendly and troubled world. We will call to our God and he will give us the strength and see us through. I end this meditation some of the most stirring words in all of Scripture:

“Though the fig tree does not bud

and there are not grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails

and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen

and no cattle in the stalls,

YET I WILL REJOICE IN THE LORD,

I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

(Habakkuk 3.17-18)

Oh, God may it be so.

Shalom,
Bobby Valentine

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Dark Night of the Soul - Psalm 88 and the Cry of Faith

The following is an old sermon I preached in Grenada, Mississippi in 2001. It is offered for a number of reasons but mostly for a friend. It deals with some "stout" material for this time of year but it is my prayer it will be a blessing. May it be so.

Dark Night of the Soul
Psalm 88
September 23, 2001 P.M.

INTRODUCTION

The fact of suffering has always been one of the greatest challenges to the Christian faith. Its distribution and degree seems random and unfair. People have always asked how this is to be reconciled with God’s justice and his love. Those are fair questions.On November 1, 1755 an earthquake devastated Lisbon, Portugal. Being All Saints Day, the churches were packed and thirty of them were destroyed. Within six minutes over 15,000 people died and 15,000 were dying. The world was shocked!

One of the stunned was the brilliant French writer and philosopher Voltaire. How could anyone believe in the benevolence and omnipotence of God now? He wrote a protest called “Poem on the Disaster of Lisbon.” Later he wrote a novel called Candide which is a brilliant satire on the notion that the world we live in is the best of all possible worlds. The book recounts the adventures of an ingenious young man, Candide, whose teacher, Dr. Pangloss, is a Professor of Optimism and keeps blandly assuring him that “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.” He maintains this in the face of successive misfortunes.
When they are shipwrecked near Lisbon, Candide is nearly killed in an earthquake and Pangloss is hung by the Inquisition. Voltaire writes: “Candide, terrified, speechless, bleeding, palpitating, said to himself, ‘If this is the best of all possible worlds, what can the rest be?’” (Candide, p. 128, in The Best Known Works of Voltaire.).

The Bible is not glib about evil and suffering. Just the opposite is true. The Bible in fact is brutally honest about pain, misfortune and the challenge it presents to faith. Numerous psalms deal with this theme, the drama of Job, Ecclesiastes, the Prophet Habakkuk, Jesus addresses it, Paul does in a number of contexts and the entire First Epistle of Peter as well as Revelation in many ways wrestle with this theme.

The answer the Bible gives is not always as clear cut as we would like it to be. For example the Bible never explains the "origin" of evil as we would hope it would. Instead it seeks to provide ways for us to express and vent within the confines of faith and it seeks to show that Yahweh is worthy of our trust ... even in the darkness.

THE DARKNESS OF SUFFERING

Psalm 88 is one of those psalms that deal with the terrifying idea of the “absence of God” in our lives -- moments when he simply does not seem to be around or care. It is a lament -- a wailing (others include Pss. 3, 13, etc).

Psalm 88, however, is unique not only in the Psalms but in the Bible. All the other lament psalms move from complaint through supplication to expressions of trust and praise (cf. Ps. 130). Psalm 88 does not do this, in fact there is not a single expression of hope -- not a glimmer! The only indication of hope is the fact the psalmist is praying!

Psalm 88 is sometimes called “the granddaddy of all laments!” The reputation fits. The psalm is divided up into three sections: 88.1-7; 88.8-12 and 88.13-18. Each section ends with an image of darkness (mahsak, vv.6,18; hosek, v.12).

The psalmist LIVES in darkness. The Darkness is brought on by the apparent absence of God. Let’s read it together:

“O LORD, God of my salvation, when at night, I cry in your presence,let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol. I am counted among those who go down to the Pit; I am like those who have no help, like those forsaken among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your land.

You have put me in the depths of the Pit, in the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. [Selah] You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a thing of horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape; my eye grows dim through sorrow.

Every day I call on you, O LORD; I spread out my hands to you. Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the Shades rise up to praise you?[Selah] Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness?

But I, O LORD, cry out to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you. O LORD, why do you cast me off? Why do you hide your face from me? Wretched and close to death from my youth up, I suffer terrors; I am desperate.

Your wrath has swept over me; your dread assaults destroy me. They surround me like a flood all day long; from all sides they close in on me. You have caused friend and neighbor to shun me; my companions are in darkness.” (Psalm 88, NRSV)

We get some insight into the mood of this psalm from its heading where we read “mahalath le annoth” which literally means “sickness to afflict.” Heman the Ezrahite, who is said to be the author, knew about the suffering of affliction.
We get a further sense of the despair contained in this lament when we notice carefully the vocabulary used. There are three words in Hebrew for “cry” or “call” and Psalm 88 use all three (vv. 1, 2, 13), as if to indicate Heman has exhausted every possible approach to get the Lord’s attention.

The urgency of his plight is seen in the range of words he uses associated with death. Look at them: “Sheol” (‘grave” NIV, v.3), “Pit” (vv. 4, 6), “dead/death” (vv. 5, 10, 15), “grave” (vv. 5, 11), “darkness/dark” (vv. 5, 12, 18), “deep” (v. 6), “Shades” (‘the dead” NIV, v.10), “Abaddon” (‘Destruction, NIV, v.11), “land of forgetfulness” (‘land of oblivion” NIV, v.12). All of these words help us see the depth of misery and agony Heman is experiencing.

This agony is not some fleeting brush with depression. Notice the text gives us three chronological references. The psalmist cries out “at night” (v.1), he calls out “every day” (v.9) and his cries arise “in the morning” (v.13, Each reference with with a different word for “cry.”). Every possible approach, at every possible moment, has been tried and the result is only “darkness!” It is all darkness, which is literally the final word of the psalm.

Why is God absent? Why does not God hear? Why does God not rescue? These are questions we have all asked at one time or another. We ask them after attacks on the WTC? We ask them when our child is suddenly given a terrible disease? We ask that when the drunk driver walks away without a scratch and his victim is left paralyzed? We ask them when we ourselves feel abandoned by God.

Heman knows how we feel! I for one am glad the Lord has given us the psalm to help us ask and wrestle with these questions in faith.

Instead of rescue Heman says, “your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me, with all your waves” (v.7). Again he laments “Your wrath has swept over me; your dread assaults destroy me” (v.16). What vivid imagery and it doesn’t end here either. God seems to be the problem for Heman. He says “YOU have caused my companions to shun me” (v.8a) and again in v.18 “YOU have taken my companions and loved ones from me; the darkness is my closest friend” (NIV).

Even life’s worst has to do with God, therefore Heman calls to God “out of the depths” of darkness and loneliness. It is a very realistic and haunting picture of one of God’s children suffering in this world of woe.

PSALM 88 AND THE CROSS

Many people have been troubled down through the years by Psalm 88. It is not the rosy picture they hope for. Many are not accustomed to hearing such honest and agonizing prayers “in church.” We usually eskew such grittyness. It is this lack of honestly with ourselves and with God that usually creates the problems in our faith to begin with.

One observer noted, “Psalm 88 is an embarrassment to conventional faith.” This is so because conventional faith is usually cold and lifeless and not connected to the realities of the world. Platitudes are the rule. This same observer then makes this comment, “Psalm 88 makes sense only in the light of Golgotha . . . Psalm 88 shows us what the cross is about: faithfulness in scenes of complete abandonment.” He is correct. Such suffering, such darkness of the soul, such abandonment can makes sense in the shadow of the Crucified One.

I want to make this as concrete as I possibly can. How does Psalm 88 relate to such scenes of abandonment as Auschwitz, a horror my mind has difficulty grasping! Or 9-11?

Elie Wiesel, one of my favorite authors, describes the depravity that confronted him that night he arrived at the Death Camp at the tender age of 15:

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in the camp, which has turned my lifeinto one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forgetthat smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of children, whose bodies I saw turnedinto wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. NEVER SHALL I FORGET THOSE FLAMES WHICH CONSUMED MY FAITH. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silencewhich deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget thosemoments WHICH MURDERED MY GOD AND MY SOUL and turned my dreams intodust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God himself. Never.” (Night, p. 32).

Wiesel’s pit was, like Heman’s, full of Darkness. He uses the image of night powerfully all through his book to capture the absence of God and the absence of civility. It is gripping and moving. Where was God? In the face of such outrage? Why must there be a “Dark Night of the Soul? Why?

Later in his book, Wiesel describes the hanging of a young boy who had the “face of a sad little angel.” Even the hardened SS was hesitant to hang the boy in front of several thousand folks. The officer in charge refused to give the order, so three other SS troops replaced him for the execution. Two others were to be hanged and they were screaming -- but the little boy remained silent.

“Where is God? Where is He?” Eli heard someone whisper. The prisoners were forced to walk by and look at the boy in the face. Wiesel says, “But the third rope was still moving; being so light, the boy was still alive . . .” For over half an hour they had to watch the little boy struggle for life. Then Eli heard the same voice ask, “Where is God now? And I heard a voice within me answer him, ‘Where is He? Here he is -- He is hanging on this gallows . . .” (Night, pp. 75ff).

Wiesel lost his faith in God in the Darkness of his Pit. For him God literally hung to death in that boy -- never to be resurrected!

It is ironic that Wiesel cites Psalm 88 in the course of his book, Night. Corrie ten Boom, Deitrich Bonhoeffer, Maximilian Kolbe and thousands of others did not loose faith in God in the Night of the camps. Instead that is where they found him! Psalm 88 was instrumental in being found by God. God had already provided them a language in which to lament. The very image Wiesel evokes so powerfully contains the answer to his question and the psalmist’s: Where was God?

In a way God did hang beside that little boy. God did not exempt himself from human suffering. He too hung on the gallows. At Golgotha, in the Night, at the Place of the Skull -- and honestly that ALONE keeps me believing in the God of love! Brueggemann is right. Psalm 88 only makes sense in the light -- or perhaps better -- the Darkness of the Cross. Such Darkness can only make sense by looking at the Passion of Jesus.

Here, at the cross, we learn the true depth of God’s own suffering with us. IT SHOWS FAITHFULNESS IN THE FACE OF ABANDONMENT. The psalmist has not, unlike Wiesel, lost his faith and that is why he continues to call on God.

And Ps. 88 is a scandal to conventional faith only because conventional faith fails to deal with Golgotha. No, Psalm 88 is not a prediction of Christ’s sufferings but it serves to articulate for us the experience Jesus would live out to an even greater degree than the psalmist could imagine. Facing the Cross, Jesus soul was “full of troubles” (cf. Mk. 14.33-34). He was shunned and even betrayed by his closest companions (Mk. 14.50). His only companion was Darkness (Mk 15.33). And like the psalmist, Jesus was faithful too. In the midst of the apparent abandonment of God, Heman cries, “My God, my God” and Jesus in the face of real abandonment cries “My God, My God” (Mk 15.34).

Psalm 88 shows that God does not, in the comfortable surroundings of heaven, turn a deaf ear to the sounds of suffering on this fallen planet. Instead God has JOINED us, choosing to live among an oppressed people -- Wiesel’s own race -- in circumstances of poverty and great affliction. He too was an innocent victim of cruel and senseless torture. At that black moment when the Night was the Darkest the Son of God cried out, much like the psalmist and the believers in those camps, “My God, My God why have you FORSAKEN me?”

The Christian message encompasses the full range of anger and despair and darkness so eloquently expressed in a book like NIGHT. It offers complete identification with the suffering in the world. But it goes a step forward, it offers hope. That step is called Resurrection. That is the moment of victory when the last enemy, death -- the Night-- itself has been defeated.

A seeming tragedy, Jesus’ crucifixion, made possible the ultimate healing of the world. The Dark Night of the Soul shall be vanquished.

CONCLUSION

As Heman suffered in Ps. 88, so God’s son suffered life’s worst. That is what the Cross is about. It says God loves us THAT much, to suffer like THAT! And there is nothing conventional about that kind of love. Sheer grace is always scandalous.

Benjamin Weir, a Presbyterian missionary, was taken hostage in Lebanon in the mid-1980’s. When he was released some one asked him how he survived and what advice he had for others in similar circumstances. He said, “I would suggest memorizing Psalm Eighty-Eight. That grand old Hebrew woe seemed more cathartic than anything.” It is cathartic!

To cry out in the Darkness is to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Christ of the Cross and with thousands of saints long since gone. It is indeed an affirmation of the hope that lies in resurrection. Sometimes we have to go through the Dark Night before we get to the Dawn! But we never travel alone.

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For a Friend.

Bobby Valentine

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