Complaint - Psalm 88:14-15

O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?

Now, I think here, again, we see the proper posture of the heart, or a heart rightly ordered, for the desire of the psalmist in his troubles is more of God, or greater communion with God. This fellowship with the Lord is the solace which the psalmist seeks in the midst of his troubles. I think even in this prayer complaint, in Psalm 88, these verses act as a mirror to show us our own sin, for how many of us can honestly say that in our complaints and prayer, our prayer stems from a heart such as this? How many of us, in times of suffering, become insufferable because of self-pity to ourselves and to our friends and to our family? How many of us begin to grumble when we feel that God has not answered us when we've been neglect? We must confess that, for many of us, we begin to grumble at God in our hard times, and our prayers do not stem from this part of worship, but rather from unbelief and self-pity. I, as the foremost, must confess that sin is ever present within me, even when I feel weak and am tempted to pity myself and coddle myself in my grumbling. We must be on guard against unbelief and discontent, even when we feel like we are justified to dwell in self-pity. So now that we have seen the kind of challenge of how we can approach God in our complaint, I think, again, before we look at it as a model, we should see, in the words, a type of Christ, I think, or a foreshadowing of Christ, because I think he's embodied in the words. I think we see here a picture of the atonement in this brief song. I think it is important that we do this, Okay, where is he? Verse 18,

you have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me.

I think I see Christ there hung on the cross, abandoned by all the disciples. Verses 16 and 17,

your wrath has swept over me, your dreadful assaults destroy me. They surround me like a flood all day long, they close in on me together.

Now, is this not what Christ did for us? We deserve this. We deserve this wrath to be poured out upon us for the punishment of our own sin. Jesus was the one who did not leave us to bear these dreadful assaults and cares, but before it, like he said this Sunday, that we would never bear. Now, Actually, kind of what I thought of when considering about this was the words of the hymn, What a Friend We Have in Jesus. And that was kind of formulated from this expression of loneliness that the song culminates in. After this expression of grief, there is this expression of just darkness and abandonment. And when considering that Christ is the one that suffered those things, A, for us, but also that he might sympathize with us, I thought of the words that we might be thankful for that are,

what a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer.

So when we feel this way, when we feel alone and helpless, how should we approach God? That is our final point to examine this text as a model. How do we take our griefs to the Lord? I think simply it tells us that we must be honest with God in our prayers, or to put it another way, that we should pray exactly how we are feeling. That's the first point of application, and I see that in verse 15, which reads,

afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your cares. I am helpless.

Now we saw earlier that the psalm comes from a heart properly ordered, from a heart that loves God, and from a heart of worship. But from this same heart comes a very real and honest expression of grief to God about present circumstances and pain. I am helpless. I feel like I'm dying, he says. We should find great comfort here because there's a real humanness in the expression of grief. There is a realism in humanity, and although these words are divinely inspired, they are penned by a man who has lived life under the sun. These words come from a man who has lived in a world tainted with sin, sadness, death, and tears. These are words that if we cannot relate to now, we can surely relate to before we pass on from this realm. From this verse, we see that even from a heart properly ordered, griefs can be expressed honestly and without any sugarcoating to our Father in Heaven. And I think for many of us, this should be freeing. It is freeing to be reminded that we can tell God exactly how we're feeling. We have talked tonight about self-pity, but from personal experience and just witnessing from others around me, I think self-righteousness in both piety and prayer is also a danger we fall into during prayers with grief. It is true that whatever a lot we have been taught to say, it is well with our souls, but often, I think, we rush to say that without confessing that we also experience sorrows, which, like Cecil, will I think a lot of times people pray this way or talk this way to others when truly suffering or to be seen as content and pious. While on the inside we are full of sadness, anger, and discontent. See, I think here, and for the prayer of the Christian, in the midst of suffering, is not one that paints upon a smile in times of despair, but one that honestly says, yes, I am truly in sorrow, and I am weak, and I feel like I am about to die, but I know God is in charge, and I know I have eternal hope in Christ. That, I think, we see even here in this place. Therefore, it is well with my soul. We cannot lie to God and there is no piety in lying to ourselves or others or God about self-sufferings. We are in fact told that we will suffer as followers and confessors of Christ and suffering is a real part of life under the sun and it is okay to own it, especially to God. Secondly, and this also may sound obvious, but I think the second point of application, how it models a prayer of complaint is that we must not give up and be hopeful. I think this sentiment is expressed in verse 14 also. Why do you hide your face from me? Your face. I want you. My mind turned again to the words of a hymn on Jordan's stony banks.

When shall I reach that happy place and be forever blessed? When shall I see my Father's face in the hills closing in on us?

I think we should pray to God in our complaints with our eyes towards eternal life, for one day we shall see His face, and we'll be fully known as we have been fully known, because of Christ's redemption on the cross. And with this in mind, we must remain persistent in prayer, in darkness, not with an attitude of pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, but this hope and persistence to be based in the promises and character of God. And I think it is important that we consider Christ in these words and Christ in our circumstances when we pray this way, because it is through Him that we go to God in prayer. And we can go persistently for He we share in His adoption. God is our Father. We have access to Him as His sons. Verse one of Psalm 98 says that the psalmist cries out

day and night before you, Let my prayer come before you incline your ear to my cry hear me

The persistence here I think is to be noted because I've seen in my own life the temptation to give up on prayer when it seems like God is distant I've heard asked within my own mind What is the point in praying for this again? He might not see he does not hear and he has not answered and I told him this before every day. He's already heard I think we cannot let ourselves think this way. And I think Psalm 88 challenges us in that way. Even when we feel like this, when we feel like God is hiding His face from us, we do not understand why. We cannot let our emotions get the best of our hearts and souls. We must take these feelings captive under our minds and new them through what we know about God. His goodness, His tenderness, His closeness and care towards us as children. We must not cease to pray, especially when we are in the depths of woe, and we should go urgently for He has told us in His Word that we should cast our sight upon Him for He cares about us. So in summary, we should go to God properly and complain. With a remembrance, I think of a salvation. That is one way we can avoid grumbling is in our very address to God. I think it's not insignificant that the psalmist addresses, in verse 14, God as Yahweh by his covenant name, which should hearken members of salvation from Egypt. I think when we address God in our prayers as Father, and we actively meditate upon what that means, we will be laid low. For we know we are sinners. We do not deserve to be called in by that way. And once we posture our hearts that way, I think we should rejoice and relieve our griefs honestly. We don't have to share good things. And we should go persistently, knowing that He hears our prayers. So let's pray. Father, we thank you that you hear us, that you ordain all things that come our way, and that your will towards us is one of a Father who cares for our every desire and need. And we thank you that we can call ourselves sons of God and that we can call you Father because of Christ, what he has done for us on the cross, hanging helpless there on the tree, suffering under your wrath, Thank you for this. Thank you for your psalm. These words in Psalm 88 that point us to that great truth. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.