(My sermon notes from 07.11.10 at Southside Fellowship.)

When your companion is darkness rather than light and your circumstances are overwhelming you in a season of acute need, there is no more of an important time in life for God to reveal Himself to you.

But sometimes your answer to that kind of praying is more darkness. This is the story of the Psalmist in Psalm 88. This Psalm, unlike others, does not end with the God of victory breaking through to save the day. According to the Hebrew rendering of the text, the last word of the Psalm is the word “darkness.”

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

This Psalm helps us understand something about darkness and pain like no other Psalm. This is a messy, chaotic, and confusing Psalm that was intentionally left in the sacred writ. This is an anti-American Psalm, in that the American culture has a generally weak understanding of suffering in a fallen world. The overriding implication of this Psalm is that God may choose to leave you in darkness for a season. But that does not mean that the darkness you are experiencing is void of God’s presence or awareness. You just can’t see Him in the dark. Isn’t this what our old friend Job said:

Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him; on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold. – Job 23:8-10 (ESV)

God is There

This text does not teach that God is away, distant or disinterested in the sufferer. We cannot say that He was not aware of what was going on because He did inspire the chapter to be written. The fact that God included this Psalm in His Word tells us that He knows and understands what is going on in our hearts and lives, even when we are unsure if God is real and relevant in our lives.

God is there and through this Psalm He is teaching us something about life. Yes, it is possible for a Christian to go through dark times is what our friend is describing in Psalm 88. There are times when our lives take twists and turns that are much different than what we read in Psalm 40:

I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. – Psalm 40:1-2 (ESV)

But in this Psalm, the person cries to God and He “does not” hear; He has prayed and prayed and prayed and God is not listening, so it seems. God is not only silent, but He has hidden his face from the crier. It is one thing to be rejected by man, but to feel rejected by God is the most desperate of all life’s circumstances. When my only friend is the darkness I experience, the question becomes,

Can this really be true that a believer can get to the place where there is no practical help or functional hope? It seems that if God can do all things, then most assuredly He would be able to fix this. Right?

Safety Expectations

Being in a relationship with God does not mean I will escape the problems of life. At one level I know this: becoming old is an obvious example of the potential for suffering. I also get sick. I experience abuse and injustice just like everyone else. I have lost jobs and at other times I have lost friends. Being a Christian does not mean problem-free or smooth sailing.

The tension that I can create in my soul is when I think that God works in my salvation and my sanctification identically. The God of my salvation is the conquering Victor who secured me for eternity. In order for Him to do this, He had to crush His Son. This is the Gospel.

The God of my sanctification is a different kind of conquering Friend. It is not just what God is doing for me, but it is also what He is doing in me and through me. The person He is crushing through my sanctification is me. Once He secured my salvation, through the death of His Son on the cross, He began a process of sanctification: He is progressively mortifying (making dead) me for a greater usefulness in His world.

Christ’s death led to victory. My “death” leads to victory. The more I can understand and apply this Gospel truth to my life, the more I can not only experience and love the One who died for me, but I can find a victory that is more significant than these temporary terrestrial comforts. Sadly at times I will try to smuggle into my progressive sanctification this idea of “safety expectations” as though I will go through life unscathed.

When you are in your darkness, what do you hear God whispering over the noise of your darkness?

1. Do you really believe that God is there?
2. Do you really believe that God is listening?
3. Do you really believe that God cares for you?
4. Do you really believe God?

Your expectations have a lot to do with what happens to you. – Tim Keller

I’ll finish this post tomorrow…

Other Articles in This Series

• Connecting the Gospel to Gluttony – 1.0
• Connecting the Gospel to Physical Suffering – 2.0
• Paul Connected His Suffering to the Gospel – 3.0
• Connecting the Gospel to Music – 4.0
• Connecting the Gospel to Perfectionism – 5.0
• Connecting the Gospel to Unfairness – 6.0
• Connecting the Gospel to a God Who is Silent – 7.0
• Connecting the Gospel When All Alone – 7.1

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When life is not going the way I think it should, it is easy for me to disengage from life by going into self-conservation mode. In those moments I must realize that even when my life is not working out the way I had hoped, that God is still interested in involving me in what he is doing in the lives of others. I must not conclude that my frustrated hopes and dreams mean God is done with my life. The truth is that God is choosing to write a story that is different than what I had expected.

If the story that God is writing for you is similar to what I have described, then I exhort you to be attentive to what God is opening up for you, even in the worst circumstances. If God is with you, then he is up to something good for you. Not only will he be glorified by what he is choosing to write for you, but you will be incredibly blessed by what God is up to.

Lean into what God is writing. It is not about knowing all the facts, but about trusting the Writer of the story. There are times in our lives that are excruciatingly painful and the pain will not go away. There is nothing you can do to alleviate the pain. You can’t pray it away, manipulate it away, or wish it away. A positive mental attitude will only last for a day or two, but you will soon be down in the pit of sorrow and anguish again.

It is in these moments that the reality of “life gone bad” settles deep into your soul and the current circumstances of your life begin to define who you are. It is in these moments when you need a significant heart evaluation.

Though the fog is not lifting and there is no hope that the fog will ever lift, we must be assured that God has not abandoned us, even in life’s hardest moments. God is working his plans for your life and the journey can go no other way than the way he has determined for you. He orders our steps.

God was there, in your suffering, before you ever showed up. He was working, planning, strategizing, and developing things in such a way that you will be changed forever. He does not do this because he is harsh, distant or uncaring. He is doing this precisely because he is kind, with you, and caring. When Job reflected upon these things, it caused great pause in his soul:

13 But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back?
What he desires, that he does.
14 For he will complete what he appoints for me,
and many such things are in his mind.
15 Therefore I am terrified at his presence;
when I consider, I am in dread of him.
16 God has made my heart faint;
the Almighty has terrified me;
17 yet I am not silenced because of the darkness,
nor because thick darkness covers my face. -Job 23 (ESV)

God is in your darkness. Talk to him today, even if it is only a faint heart cry. He is finishing what he began.

These are my sermon notes from the church meeting this past Sunday.

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Sometimes God ways are not easy to discern, Our thoughts and desires are not always in line with his thoughts and desires. He is sovereign and we are not. Our perspective is limited, but his is not. What we think we want is not always what we need. And often there is a way that seems right to us, but in the end the path we choose can be a path of disappointment. See Proverbs 14:12.

Faith in God becomes a big deal for finite people. Trusting someone other than ourselves is not only un-American, it is counter to what is native in all of us.

Our sense of justice, protection and fairness can drive us further into ourselves, rather than drive us to God. We do this because we have this gut feeling that God is very different from us. This difference is really our way of questioning his goodness.

• Is God really good?
• Does God really mean good for me?

These are watershed questions that can alter our lives. The day the Savior was killed on the Cross, these questions were not theoretical concepts disassociated from the disciple’s penetrating anxiety, but riveting realities that sent them scurrying for their own protection.

They later repented of their sin by beginning a process of embracing God’s counter-intuitive methods, which were intended to save them from themselves. The disciples began a life of faith. In the table below I have juxtaposed the tension between some of the things I want and have versus God’s way of bringing these things to pass.

Application Question

1. How have you experienced the Savior?
2. Are you getting what you want?
3. When you don’t get what you want, can you see God working in your life?
4. Can you find rest in those moments? Imagine staring at the Savior on the Cross and finding rest in knowing that God is working his plan.

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Have you ever thought about how others think about you?

At one time or another I think all of us have thought about how we are perceived by others. Most assuredly some people think too much about what other think about them.

More importanting have you ever thought about what God thinks about you?

One of the more important questions you’ll ever ponder is your understanding and application of God’s view of you. How you answer this question will set the trajectory for your entire life.

How you think God thinks about you will not only reveal who you are but it will define your life. You experience life based on how you think about God.

Whether you are an atheist or a seasoned believer, your life is defined by how you think about God.

• The atheist says he could not care less how God views him because he does not believe in God and he lives accordingly.
• The legalist believes what he does or does not do alters God’s view of him, so he sets up standards he must live by in order to maintain God’s good view of him.
• The hard conscience person may believe in God, but has hardened himself in order to continue in his sin while deceiving himself into believing that God is not aware of what he is doing.
• The weak conscience person has super-sensitive shame and lives in fear, while thinking God is rarely pleased with him.
• The mature believer knows he is a sinner past, present and future, but is also aware that his goodness or badness does not alter God’s perspective of him because he is in Christ.

Recently I asked a friend how God sees her and without hesitation she said, “Not good.” Her understanding of God is that God has to be pleased with her behavior in order for her to have a proper relationship with him. She does not understand the purpose and point of the Cross of Christ.

She does not rightly understand the Gospel.

She is a Christian. She has been regenerated by the power of God’s Spirit. But her relationship with Christ, post regeneration, is more about how she performs before God than resting in the finished work of God.

Application Questions

1. Who is God from my perspective? (Be specific whether you are theologically accurate or not.)
2. Who is God from his perspective? (Be theologically precise in your answer here. If you do not know how God sees you from a biblical perspective, then ask someone who can walk you through who you are positionally in Christ.)
3. What is the difference? (If there is a difference in understanding and practice of God’s perspective and yours, then please ask someone to help you how to close the gap between your perspective and God’s perspective.)

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“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

Chapter 8, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Chronicles of Narnia

Aslan is a picture of Christ in the Lewis classic. As Susan and Lucy are first learning of the famed Lion they are curious as to whether he is a safe lion. The Beavers set them straight: of course he is not safe. They should know that. The “safe question” is not the right question to ask.

The right question is whether or not he is good. We know he is not safe. But is he good? That’s the question.

When God is calling us to live for him in any particular moment, it would not be necessary to ask the “safe question” because we know he is not safe. In Matthew 14 when Jesus asked Peter to step out of the boat and walk on the water, it was quite obvious that God was not safe in that moment. (See Matthew 14:28-32)

When God was providentially leading Joseph through years of disappointment and frustration we know that God meant it for good. Though Joseph was not in a safe place, from our human point of view, he was in a good place because God is good. (See Genesis 50:20)

The real question that we need to ask is whether he is good or not. The Beavers got it right. He is good. If I know God is good then I can walk in faith. I know my path will be hard. I’m okay with that. But are you a good God?

How do I know God is good?

The Gospel!

There is nothing he could ever do that would communicate his goodness to me more than the execution of his Son. God chose not to punish me for my many offenses. He punished his Son in my place.

The more I reflect on God’s goodness to me through the Gospel the more I am motivated to trust him when he is calling me to get out of my “boat.”

Of course he isn’t safe. But he is good!

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I was reading some good thoughts from Paul today. As I was reading Paul’s thought on difficulty, two friends sent emails to me about their current difficulty; so I sent Paul’s encouragement to them. Here it is…

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died–more than that, who was raised–who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39 ESV)

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