As the Old Testament saints remembered God’s past salvation while awaiting deliverance from their times of trouble, those who celebrate Christmas and Easter remember what God accomplished by sending Jesus as they await the second coming when Christ will fully establish his kingdom, judge the world of sin, and allow us to experience the resurrection life for ourselves. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name! Read on for some praise & worship tips, quotes, motivation & Bible verses that will help you understand how to worship God in spirit and in truth, even when it hurts. And even though we may not receive a speedy answer to our questions, the fact that we address God as the one who hears and will answer indicates that the light of faith has already begun to penetrate the clouds of despair. One of the best ways that this can be done is to integrate lament into our celebration of the Christian Year. 15 By no means let any of you suffer as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; 16 but if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but in that name let him glorify God” His final words were likewise drawn from a psalm of lament: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46; cf. Yet when we look at the life of Job, David, Jesus and Paul, just to name a few, we see that they all experienced great suffering and persecution, which should make us want to understand it a lot better, especially when we consider how different the outcome of their lives might have been if they had not dealt with their suffering exactly as they did. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. You may not have the mental clarity to articulate your theology of suffering. All this will enable you, in a special way, to be able to minister to others. You may not have the song to sing, or even the voice to sing. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. And whether trouble comes from without or within, lament, as a God-given resource, empowers us to present our needs to God and ask him to resolve our difficulties and bring us back to praise. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. Many of the writing prophets were caught up in the sin of their people to the extent that they were carried off into exile, or, in the case of Jeremiah, to Egypt. It's common to wonder if our suffering is God's … Enemies (whether military or political) threaten (Pss 13:2; 22:6–8, 12–13, 16–18, 20–21; 44:10–16), rulers abuse their authority (Ps 58:1–2), illness weakens, and death seems imminent (Pss 38; 41; 88). If one of these psalms was read and commented on during confession, the congregation could more intelligently adopt the words of the lament while bringing their needs to God. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28). Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. Evidently using slightly different criteria, Broyles finds roughly thirty-nine individual laments and twenty-three corporate laments in the Psalter. No matter what circumstances prompted their composition, these psalms acknowledge that life can be most troublesome and that the affairs of life often make it difficult if not impossible for God’s people to express joy and sing his praises. Studies remained pretty much the same. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. (I Peter 5:10) Okay, Peter, so what you are telling me is that Suffering Settled? Or maybe you’re filled with fear and doubting God’s goodness. Noah, the righteous and blameless man, was required to build an ark in order to rescue his family and the animals of the world from the great depravity of other people in his time. 1 Peter 1:6-7 – “Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations: The trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” Make the choice to fill your heart with words of praise and thanksgiving for God. Reaching beyond the individual, when a church, a nation, or the world is facing a crisis of some sort, services of lament are in order. Moreover they show that the experience of anguish and puzzlement in the life of faith is not a sign of deficient faith, something to be outgrown or put behind one, but rather is intrinsic to the very nature of faith.[6]. Since more than one-third of all the psalms fall into this category, we are presented with a tremendous challenge. Peter wrote, “The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment” ( 2 Peter 2:9 ). But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 1 Peter 3:13-15 See also Michael Jinkins, In the House of the Lord: Inhabiting the Psalms of Lament (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 1998), 33. If you are brokenhearted today, you have great reason to praise God. Even so, our desire to experience the joy of Christ’s birth and resurrection should not deprive us of time to consider the wonder of the incarnation that brought on our Savior’s suffering. [3] Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms, 53. 1. “He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food. This article is adapted from a chapter in his forthcoming book, An Introduction to Biblical Worship. Defend my cause and redeem me; preserve my life according to your promise. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. When you and I hurt deeply, what we really need is not an explanation from God but a revelation of God. [1] For an argument that distress is a dominant motif in the book of Psalms, see Philip S. Johnston, “The Psalms and Distress,” in Interpreting the Psalms: Issues and Approaches (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2005), 63–84. Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Monday, November 20th, 2006 at 11:39 pm in Seeds Of Faith. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. These questions show how difficult it is for many of us to come to God in worship in the midst of personal suffering. For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help. Suffering results in praise and glory. My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV Throughout our lives, we all… And when you consider the abuse that God receives from human beings every day, creating human beings looks like a bad deal for God. [5] Bernhard Anderson lists forty-eight individual laments, thirteen communal laments (with two more questionable), and several psalms of mixed genre that include lament. He will also punish the wicked—all those who reject Him—and save the humble. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. Like Habakkuk, I’ve said, “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?” (Habakkuk 1:2). Romans 5:1-5 Thank You for His wonderful example of learning obedience by the things that He suffered and for dying on the cross for the sins of the world, and for my sins too. As used in the Bible, a lament can be an action associated with mourning (such as wearing sackcloth or beating one’s breast) or a poetic or musical composition (e.g., a dirge) that would be recited or sung during a period of mourning. Is there one thing you can choose to praise God for during the pain you’re in? Isaiah 54:4-5 2 Thessalonians 1:4-5 This should give us hope to approach him for help during a time of difficulty. If you’ve ever read the Book of Psalms, you know that these ancient prayers of praise (and sometimes even anger or despair) resonate on a deep level even today. Do I have to “fake it” and pretend that things are OK when they’re not? The Bible answers that questions for us: “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? In many services, the prayer of absolution is followed by a hymn of praise to emphasize the joy that one should feel after being forgiven. In this life, we might never really understand why some things have happened. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.” ~ 1 Chronicles 28:9 NIV When I was able to separate others empty insights and God’s truth, I was able to look more deeply into my own faith and how I chose to praise God through the suffering. Rather, they can know that they can trust God to accept their feelings even when they don’t know what to say. 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