God’s closeness in pleasure and pain

Every day we're reading or listening to part of the Bible together and sharing thoughts with you. Today it’s Bern Leckie:

What did I like about today’s passage?

Mal is going to be talking today about the problems of hurry, and Psalm 89 is a great example for any worship leaders picking a last-minute set in a hurry, checking the introduction and thinking, “That sounds great! Let’s use that!”. It may end in tears.

If you’re in a hurry, you might just glance at the beginning and end (not the very last “Praise be to the Lord” but the closing sentiments of “How long will your wrath burn like fire?... For what futility you have created all humanity!”) and wonder how we could possibly have got from here to there. What made praise turn to lament in a few short (long feeling) minutes?

The visual image which struck me was of a worshiper in rapturous intimacy with God, set against a background of majestic creation and wonder. At the centre, they are seeing David and remembering his everlasting covenant promise with God. But as the camera slowly zooms out, it starts to include brokenness in the surroundings, ruined buildings, fractured relationships, enemies, war and the smoking remains of a splendid palace.

The story of human rebellion against God’s sovereign glory is ancient, but I’m struck by the raw pain of the Psalmist who, for a time at least, seems to blame God for the gap between where the world is and where it should be. If God has rejected his anointed one, he has “renounced the covenant” which was meant to last forever, and all hope is lost. Is life really that bad? Is it possible to hold hope in God at the start of a song and lose it by the end?

If so, I wouldn’t pick that song for Sunday worship.

What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

God inspires praise in the Psalms, but also far deeper, emotionally resonant cries of pain and despair when these can authentically come up in our processing of life with him. God seems to share and echo our sense that the world could, should, must and will be better than it is.

Even when God makes clear his plan to change the world, through a promised line of leadership which would give birth to Jesus, victory and pain seem as close from God’s point of view as they are on the cross with Christ. If we are going to truly rejoice with God about the life he can bring to our world, he may let us join him in surprisingly painful times too.

What am I going to do differently as a result?

Seek God, not just good feelings, in worship. Trust him more that his power can be revealed in difficult times, and that when I feel as bad as the Psalmist does here, God is still close.

Who am I going to share this with?

Family and people I pray with.