“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 your terrors; I am desperate” (Psalm 88:14-15)
Good news! You don’t have to always be okay. You don’t have to pretend that everything is fine when they’re not fine.
The verses for today don’t read like good news at first. But if you’ve ever been down, hurt, disappointed, depressed these are words of reality.
The Book of Psalms are the prayer book for the people of faith. In this book you will find prayers of praise and thanksgiving. But did you know that a third of the psalms are psalms of lament and complaint? A whopping third!!! That’s 50 out of the 150 psalms.
That’s one of the reasons why the Psalms are so beloved by the saints. When life hits us hard and we are down, when life hurts so much there aren’t even words to pray, it’s the psalms that gives us the language of prayer when we’ve run out of words.
This season we’re currently in hasn’t been easy. And for some, it’s been really tough.
Did you know God already knows how you feel? You don’t have to pretend that you’re doing okay. God’s big enough to handle our complaints and laments.
Here’s the reasons why:
- First, the mere act of complaining and lamenting is healthy. It’s bottling up our feelings that leads to disease of the soul and bodies.
- Secondly, and most importantly, after complaining and lamenting, after the venting and screaming, we have to find a way to move on. We can’t stay at complaining and lamenting. We have to eventually move on.
How does the psalmist move on? Every single psalm of lament ends with confession of faith and trust in God’s deliverance with the exception of Psalm 88 (the reason why Psalm 88 doesn’t end with a confession of faith and trust is a topic for another blog).
Good news! God can handle our complaints and whining. So, go ahead. Really. It’s good to get things off your chest to God. And after complaining, God will help you to find a way to move on to praise and thanksgiving.
Praxis: Faith in Action 