Psalm 142, and I'm going to read in your hearing the whole psalm, which is seven verses. So let's give our attention to the reading of God's Word. A mascal of David when he was in the cave. A prayer. With my voice I cry out to the Lord. With my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before Him. I tell my trouble before Him. When my spirit faints within me, you know my way. In the path where I walk, they have hidden a trap for me. Look to the right and see. Technically, in the Hebrews, I look to the right and see. There is none who takes notice of me. No refuge remains to me. No one cares for my soul. I cry to you, O Lord. I say, you are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name. The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me." That's for the reading of God's Word. A few years ago when I was, this is a number of years ago before I came here to Grace Covenant Church when I was a PhD student at Southern. Spent many days and hours on the second floor of Boyce Centennial Library at Southern Seminary. And sometimes I just needed a break. I just needed to give my mind a break. And oftentimes I would sometimes go to the chapel, one of the two chapels on campus, and either sleep or pray, sometimes both. But other times I would roam around, I would take my Hebrew Bible and just start walking around and reading it, usually in Habakkuk. One time I went to the very bottom floor of Boyce Library. I mean, this is the belly of the library. And I saw, I encountered down there a man who I found out was basically a book mender. He was hired by the seminary to live out his days in the belly of the Boys Centennial Library and mend books. And he was surrounded by shelves of some old books, very antiquarian books that needed to be patched and mended and the spines needed to be fixed. And then some library books that had been damaged probably by the undergrad students. And he would sit there and fix them, and I was holding my Hebrew Bible, and I got to talking to this guy, and the spine was ripping off, so I asked him to fix it for me, and he did, and I'd never seen it before. I'd never seen a book actually repaired. It was something to behold. But I started talking to this guy, making small talk, and as I got to know him, He told me about his family. He told me that he had a wife, and I said, do you have any kids? He said, no kids. And then he proceeded to tell me that the one day of the year that his wife doesn't go to church, well, I'll bet you can guess it. Anybody know? Mother's Day. And of course I knew why. He said, she just can't go. She's tried to go in the past and every time she goes, it's not the pastor's fault, it's not the church's fault, but the church in a noble manner, wants to make much of wives, and wants to make much of mothers. And so they celebrate mothers, and they give flowers to all the mothers, and corsages, and I know of even some churches that'll have a photo booth where you take a picture with your mom, and they send it to you, and there's a photo contest, and all this pomp and circumstance, and he said, she just can't take it, no children. wanted to be a mother all of her life, and the Lord, for whatever reason, has chosen not to give us children. I think that sometimes we forget about people like that. I don't know about you, but as a minister, maybe you've never thought about this, but the elders and I have talked about this extensively. Mother's Day is very hard for us. Father's Day is very hard for us. It's not just that woman who wants to have a child but can't. But it's also the mother who perhaps has lost a child. It's the mother whose children are grown and have possibly walked away from the Lord. It's the mother who has had a falling out with one or more of her children, or it's the child who has had an unloving mother, an uncaring mother, or maybe even an abusive mother. The child whose mother abandoned him or her, or the child who has lost a mother. Now, again, we want to rejoice with those who rejoice, do we not? We also want to weep with those who weep. But I think that, unfortunately, some churches, in an attempt to make Christianity appealing and practical to either unbelievers or immature Christians, try to craft a worship service in such a way that everything is happy-clappy, optimistic, and even fun. So, there is no place for solemnity, there is no place for lament, there is no place for complaint, there is no place for sorrow. Now don't get me wrong, there is much to celebrate in our time of worship, trust me, And ultimately, at some point in our worship, we should crescendo with the reminder that Christ has conquered all things in heaven and on earth, and that He will wipe away every tear. He will give us all things. He will radically change our minds on the last day so that we can rejoice with our whole soul and body in the new heavens and the new earth. But until that time comes, We want to leave room in our worship services when appropriate and our prayer times when appropriate for lament Have you ever been in a service where maybe? Somebody in the congregation has died and maybe not all of the service but some of the service was giving over in prayer or in song to lament Complaining. Complaining to God. Complaining to God for what it seems He has allowed to happen. Not blaming God, not making Him the bad guy, but complaining, lamenting. You see, you must remember that the Psalter is the communal songbook, if you will, of the people of God. The Psalter was crafted, when I say Psalter I mean the book of Psalms, the Psalter was crafted for the purpose of public worship. In fact, in some of the superscriptions in the Psalms, the superscriptions are the titles to the Psalms. Not all of them have them, but oftentimes the superscriptions will say a Psalm of Asaph on the dedication of the temple or whatever the case may be. They're giving what's called the Sitzleben, as the Germans say, the situation in life of the Psalm in the life of Israel, and that's meant to do two things. Number one, as Christians, we are to sing that psalm, read that psalm, hear that psalm preached, and on the one hand commemorate that dimension or that situation in life of the Israelites, because after all, the faith of the Israelites is the same faith as the Christian, is it not? They looked to Christ, we look back at Christ, but we're looking at the same Christ. We have the same God, we have the same faith. But the second thing it does, and this is where I think it's relevant for us as a people of God today on this side of the cross, is in the Psalter when you see these different situations in life, like we're seeing tonight in Psalm 142, it's giving you, for example, here a picture of what David was going through when he was in the cave. And we'll talk more about that in just a second. But what you can know is that he was in a time of dire straits. He was between the proverbial rock and the hard place. He was at his wits end. He was about to crack. He was about to be overwhelmed, and he needed God to intervene. Have you ever been in a place like that? Maybe it wasn't a cave. Maybe it was 3 a.m. in the morning, husbands, as your wife was on the operation table and she was losing her baby. Maybe it was at the bedside of your mother or your father who were slipping into shale. Maybe it was on the side of the road at a horrific accident where you lost a loved one. We could go on and on. But the Psalter gives you situations in life that you can grasp and relate to and connect to, and then it gives you words that you can utter to God, either in thanksgiving or as we see in this case tonight. in lament. So we must remember that life contains blue notes. Have you ever heard that? Has anybody ever said, you know, that song or that movie or whatever, it hit those blue notes. Those blue notes are the sad notes. Those blue notes are the lamenting notes. And I fear that sometimes, and I will even include ourselves as a church, We may want to give their impression that everything's okay when maybe there are things within the life of our congregation that need to be what? That need to be lamented, that need to be complained about to God. And I think that that's what David does for us tonight. So what I'd like to do tonight in just three movements here. is very quickly unpack this psalm, and I mean very quickly, and then just give some reflections, give some reflections on how we can incorporate a prayer of lament or a complaint into our prayer life and even into our worship service. So let's consider first off very quickly the situation in life of the psalm. It says in the superscription, and this is a mascal of David, when he was in the cave at prayer. Now, there were at least two times when David was in a cave, I won't bore you with the details, but the event that I think he's referring to is 1 Samuel 22, when you remember David was fleeing for his life from Saul, remember that? And he went to Philistia, and he tried to join forces with them, okay? Which, if you just think about it, that would have been crazy if that would have happened. If David would have been on the battlefield with the Philistia jersey, killing his own kinsmen. But God sovereignly intervened, and a higher commander said, we can't let this guy come battle with us. This is the guy that says, you know, Saul slayed his thousands, but David his what? His 10,000s. You know who they're talking about? Philistines. Can't let this guy go with us. So David comes back and he ends up feigning madness and he ends up getting out of there and he goes, 1 Samuel 22, 1 to the cave at Adullam. This is kind of his headquarters while he's, it's his home away from home. I mean it's kind of like a mobile home for him as he's fleeing from Saul. And just think about it right now. I mean have you ever had this, don't answer this question out loud. Have you ever had to live in your car for a time? I have. Have you ever had to do that? Have you ever had to live in a small, cramped apartment temporarily? Maybe we're in that right now, I don't know. But to not be in your native environment and for everything, not to be a symbol of how everything is out of whack. That's what David's in right now. And I think, as a result, he's at his wit's end and he needs to complain to God. So that's the situation in life. Secondly, I want you to notice the elements of this complaint psalm, okay? Now, before I give you the elements, there are six and I am going to fly through them pretty quickly. I just want to say, in any given complaint or lament, they are somewhat synonymous, they mean the same thing. It is basically complaining to God about something or lamenting to God about something. There are typically standard elements that go into a prayer of lament. Call them ingredients, if you will. But you don't want to make the mistake of saying every lament is going to have these six things. Maybe there's only four of those six things, and maybe they're not in the same order, but generally speaking, four to six elements are involved in a lament. So here's they are, and I did send this out on the listserv for those who want to look at it and get a list of them. There are six typical elements in a lament. The first one is the address. David addresses his complaints to God. He turns to God as something of an introductory cry for help, and we see this in verses 1 and 2. With my voice, I cry out to the Lord. With my voice, I plead for mercy to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before Him. I tell my trouble before Him. He goes to God." So that's the first thing addressed. Secondly, we see the actual lament in verses 3b and 4. And there's two focuses on this lament. First, he focuses on his enemies, 3b. In the path where I walk, they have hidden a trap for me. And then in verse four, he focuses on himself. Literally in the Hebrew, I look, the translators in your ESV have translated it as an imperative or a command, but it's not. I look to the right and see there is none who takes notice of me. No refuge remains in me. No one cares for my soul. We'll come back to that. So that's the lament. He focuses on his enemies and he focuses on himself. So we have the address, the lament. Now third, a confession. 3a and 5. When my spirit faints within me, you know my way. Verse 5. I cry to you, O Lord. You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. And then fourthly, we see the petition. Verse 6 and 7a. 6. Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low. 6b. Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. Verse 7a. Bring me out of prison. He was speaking metaphorically there. The fifth element we see is a vow of praise. 7b. And this is important. On the tail end of verse seven, bring me out of prison, here's a purpose clause, that I may give thanks to your name. We'll come back to that. And then finally, the sixth element, an assurance of being heard. The righteous will surround me, for you deal bountifully with me. So notice these six elements. the address to God, the lament, the confession of trust, the petition, the vow of praise, and the assurance of being heard. And now third and finally, I wanna now give you some reflections on these. I wanna give you three practical reflections on how you can understand this lament and how you can incorporate it even into your prayer tonight, because we're gonna get to do that when we enter into the school of prayer. Three reflections, here's the first one, okay? There is a place for complaint in the Christian life. There is a place for complaint in the Christian life. What does Paul tell us? Do all things without what? Grumbling and complaining. And because he says this, I think we often tend to rebuke our own grumbling and complaining, and especially the grumbling and complaining of others. And certainly the grumbling and complaining of others and our own can be wrong, it can be misguided. There is a grumbling that doesn't accomplish anything, grumbling to self, grumbling to others, and grumbling that oftentimes turns into what? gossip, and slander. That is the kind of grumbling and complaining that Paul is saying that we should not enter into. But let's balance Scripture with Scripture. If Paul's exhortation is meant to be all-inclusive without any exceptions, then the psalmists were sinning when they grumbled to God. Jeremiah was sinning when he grumbled to God. Habakkuk was sinning. Job was sinning. The whole book of Lamentations, throw it out. I mean, the book is actually called Lamentations. You know what that is? That's the plural of lament. And lament means complaint. Now, David complains here. In the path where I walk, they have hidden a trap for me. I look to the right and I see there is none, there's none who notices me. No refuge remains to me. No one cares for my soul. That's complaining. saying, God, do you see this? Are you aware of what they are doing to me? Are you aware, God, that I feel alone? I feel like there is no one that understands my pain. I feel like there is no one that hears my cry. Father, hear my cry. That's what David's saying. He's complaining. So number one there is a place for complaint in the Christian life but number two that leads us to the second and all-important reflection about the blue note of Lament in the Christian life, and it is this listen to me very carefully Complain to someone who could do something about it complain to someone who could do something about it. I think we, let's be honest, okay? We've all been in gripe sessions with our wives, right? Don't be a liar. We've all been in gripe sessions with our wives, our friends, our coworkers, and others, and while there may have been some semblance of relief after such sessions, the fact of the matter is they often don't change things. This is especially the case if you gripe or complain to someone who isn't very objective. What do I mean by that? Have you ever complained to somebody that becomes your amen section? Right? That's not the objective analyses that you need. That's the subjective amen, rah, rah, shish, boom, bah, I'm with you, and everybody else, you know, is the enemy, and you're Jesus. You might as well walk on water. Okay? When you take your complaints to those people, you're getting no help whatsoever. You know what you need when you want to rehearse your complaints? You need some semblance of objectivity. What do I mean by that? Besides my fellow pastors and my wife, because my wife's certainly not that subjective analysis. She'll tell me you're being a blockhead and you need to stop. Besides my fellow pastors and my wife, there are two other men in my life who are the objective analysis givers in my life. And I know that if I go to them with my complaints about how I think I'm being wronged and how I think that people have hurt me and how I think people have offended me, and I try to be as objective as I can in giving them the details, I know that they're going to, because they know me, they know me, they know my ways, my shenanigans, They know, and they're gonna tell me, Josh, I think you may have erred here, okay? So what do you think I'm tempted to do? Not talk to them, okay? But that's what I need, and that's what you need. True story, I'll leave the names out, you don't know them anyway. There was a pastor and his wife who were driving home from church on a Sunday morning. Had the kids in the back, kids were screaming and fighting and all that. And he gets a call from one of his parishioners, one of his members in his church, and basically, long and short of it, this member ripped into him and said, there's something that you said that hurt me, and there's something that you left undone, that you didn't do, that hurt me very badly. Won't go into details. This pastor began, after this guy got done telling him all the things that he had done and not done, this pastor began to defend himself. They begin to say, well, yes, I did say that, but I also said this, and yeah, I didn't do these things, but I did this and this and this and this, and so I don't think your analysis is right, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Conversation was done, he hung up the phone, and he started to complain to his wife. Can you believe that this person said that? Can you believe it? And then he got done, and she said, you know, as I listened to that conversation, of course it was one-sided, all I heard was you, but all I heard you doing the whole time is defending yourself. You know what I never heard you do? I never heard you acknowledge the hurt of that person. Whether or not they were right or wrong in how they interpreted you, you didn't register the hurt that they felt. I think that doing something like that is incredibly important. We need an objective analysis that can tell us how to process our complaints. And who is the most objective one to whom we can turn to get an assessment of what's really going on? It's the triune God. As we pour out our complaints to Him, He is faithful through His Word and His Spirit to show us what we are not seeing if we are willing to see it. Notice he says in verse 1 and 2, with my voice I cry to the Lord, with my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before Him. I tell my trouble before Him. and then a confession of trust, and then a petition. The conclusion here is take your complaints to someone who can actually do something about it. And then finally, reflection number three. Lament in hope. Lament in hope. Notice that David does not end his lament in pessimism, but optimism. We'll see this in two ways. Two ways in which we see him ending his lament in optimism, not pessimism. Number one, his vow of praise in 7b. 6b to 7, deliver me from my persecutors for they are too strong for me. Bring me out of prison, here's his vow of praise, that I may give thanks to your name. What are you seeing here? You're seeing David being expectant that God is going to do something. Now that isn't critically important. You know what being expectant means? If I can translate it into another word, it means having faith. It means believing that God is good and that God wants to bring you out of the pit and that God delights to bring you out of the pit and that God brings glory to himself as he brings you out of the pit. God wants to do that, but we have to go into the lament optimistically saying, Father, I'm already planning on the other side of this thing to give praise to you. Can you do that? Can you go into a prayer of lament even as you're wiping away the tears and wiping your brow and say, Lord, I have every intention to give thanks to You on the other side of this. This shows the purpose of lament. We must be hopeful. But the second way in which we note his optimism in this lament is in verse 7C, his assurance of being heard. And I am excited to talk about this. This pumps me up. His assurance of being heard, he says, In verse 7c, the righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me. I find this assurance of being heard to be so very encouraging. Why? He assures himself, two things, that God will deal bountifully with him. That is to say, he believes God is good. But notice also, secondly, he assures himself that the righteous will surround him. Look around. Look around this room. The righteous are surrounding you. This is an assurance of being heard. The righteous surround you, the church, the assembly of the saints. As you pour out your lament to the Father in heaven, he hears, but the saints also hear, and they then continue to pray for you. They serve you in any way they can, so you are surrounded not only by a God who can do something about your complaint, but also by a church who can help you to bear that burden. It's a beautiful thing to be a Christian. Paul exhorted the Thessalonians not to grieve as those who have no hope. Whether it is in the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, infertility, the loss of friends, the betrayal of a friend, the betrayal of a lover, our grieving as Christians should be a full-throated grief, a full, teary-eyed cry. But it should never be a grief that bears no hope. We grieve as those who have hope because we serve the man of sorrows who has taken our sorrows upon himself, Jesus Christ. He will one day put all of our grief away and to the degree, listen, to the degree that you can anticipate the fulfillment of that great promise, that He will wipe every tear away, to the degree that you can anticipate that promise in the here and now, as the psalmist said, in the land of the living, now, here, that you can live in the reality of that hope, you can learn to grieve as one who has hope. So this evening, we're gonna do something different as we go into our school of prayer. We're not gonna take any prayer requests. Pastor Ken's gonna open us up and it's gonna be an open season of prayer. Whoever wants to pray is free to pray. And I would simply encourage you to take these six elements of the lament that I've unpacked for you this evening and put your story, where you're at, what you're complaining to God about into those six elements and lift your prayer of lament up to the Lord and have the assurance of being heard, not only that God will deal bountifully with you, but the saints that are here, the righteous who are surrounding you, they will bear you up as they supplicate with you during those prayers. So I want to encourage you to lift up a prayer of lament, but I don't want to limit it to that. If you have another prayer that you came ready to give a prayer request for, you're more than welcome to do that, but I would like to put into practice the things that we have been hearing tonight in Psalm 142, because I think we could stand to learn much about what it means to grieve, what it means to lament, what it means to complain to God in forms and rubrics that He has given us, and know that He will hear us. So Pastor Ken is going to start us out, and after a season I will close us out. Feel free to pray whenever you feel led. Pastor Ken.