PSALM 77:1-3 – I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me. In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah.
THEME OF THE DAY: THERE ARE THOSE SEASONS. The Psalms were labelled by Martin Luther as “the window into the human soul” and rightly so. In reading them, we encounter every possible emotion in the human experience. We will know the rapturous heights of worship. There will be seasons of trial causing emotional turmoil in the believer’s heart. Each of us will know the pain of feeling alone and abandoned by the Lord often coming from the pen of David, even though the feelings are not true. Then we find overwhelming comfort in places like the Shepherd’s Psalm in the 23rd. But there will also be those valleys of discouragement, even despair, found in the Psalms by the Sons of Korah, or by Heman (Psalm 88), and today’s, the Psalm of Asaph. For all the Psalms that seem to lift us to the heights of glory, there are those like today’s bringing us down to life in this world where not every day is “happy in Jesus”. And God has determined the Christian life is not lived on the mountain of spiritual experience but in the valleys of difficulties associated with a world turned upside down, and temporarily under the devil’s control (though on a leash from our sovereign God).
In the opening of Asaph’s Psalm, today’s scripture, is a hurting believer. Each of us will have those “Asaph experiences” in some measure because in those seasons, we will grow the most spiritually. Let’s look at his hurting heart.
Notice he is a “night owl” but not by choice. He is sleepless. The troubles in his life are keeping him awake. There is anxiety, stress, racing thoughts, and all the things we each know well that keep us awake at night fretting and worrying. He is graphic in describing his nights – in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints. He has no comfort; feels abandoned by God, and exhausted. How do we know? Well, how do we feel when emotional and spiritual turmoil prevent sleep? Yes, exhausted, but there are two encouraging things in the experience of Asaph that show a spiritually mature believer, though a spiritually hurting believer.
But now comes Asaph, the great example for us. Go back and read again his words. Yes, he is hurting, but his attitude toward God is steady as is his action. He starts his Psalm, not complaining and lamenting his spiritual condition. That comes later. He professes his confidence in God despite his feelings and condition – I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me. He believes in prayer. He believes God will hear him. Friends, here is mature faith. Here is a Godly believer who perseveres despite pain and difficult circumstances. His confidence in God does not waver despite his feelings. What about us? Do we let circumstances and feelings quench our confidence in God through prayer? Spiritually mature believers say, “No. He will hear and I will pray regardless of my feelings.”
Asaph does something else. He seeks God – In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord. How easy in times of trouble and emotional turmoil to not read our Bibles, not seek the Lord, and not maintain faithfulness to the things of God. In times of trouble, mature believers, like Asaph, intensify their seeking of God and will not stop regardless of the lack of comfort from Him. These believers know God is faithful in His timing, so they press on. Do we? There are those seasons in the Christian life that are “Asaph-like” and are hard, but don’t let them be wasted. Those seasons are to be seasons of spiritual growth as we follow Asaph’s example of spiritual discipline in prayer and seeking the Lord.
PRAYER: “Father, I thank You that someday, I will be forever free from those seasons of spiritual darkness.”
QUOTE: “Life is not always ‘happy in Jesus’ and we should not be surprised over the difficulties living the Christian life.”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim