Tag: grief

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God Your Protector – Psalm 121

Why doesn’t God take away our problems and suffering when we ask Him to? Why does God tolerate so much suffering in the world? We heard last month about God as Immanuel, this notion that God through Christ is present with us in that suffering.

But the question remains – if a chef makes terrible soup, does it make it better if he comes out of the kitchen and eats it with you?

But then, the soup isn’t always bad. In fact, often the soup is incredible – but when we are in the midst of those bouts of “bad soup” out makes us question God. Academically we can recognize that we are not in a position to question the nature and decisions of the creator of the universe. But if we are His children, as He tells us, maybe we do have a relationship where that kind of question is ok to ask. Maybe He even welcomes it.

We can all agree that a good parent does more than be present in the pain of their children, but they do what they can to take away that pain. So if God can do that, why doesn’t He always?

Psalm 121 sure makes it seem like there is more of a role for God to play. The word “Protector” or “protect” appears six times in the eight verses. The single word šāmar or “your protector” appears at the exact syllabic middle of the psalm.

The psalm begins with a question and is followed with an unambiguous answer. The psalm includes multiple “merisms” or contrasts between two opposites in order to demonstrate the totality of something. God protects by night and day; from the physical danger of the sun and the emotional danger of the moon (i.e. lunacy); in the going out of the city walls to work to the returning from the fields to our home. And not just now, but from now until eternity.

But what does this protection entail? It doesn’t mean we won’t be hurt. It never has – no ancient worshipper singing this song on the way to the temple thought they would never see any problems. So what does it mean? As a child we definitely see it as a simple protection, but as we mature and faith matures.

Losing that simpler understanding is a real loss, and we do need to work through the “tasks of grief” and reassess our relationship to what has changed for us.

So what does that protection mean? It’s not protection from pain or sadness. It means, for one, that he will not let us get lost. No matter how far we wander, he will not leave us. He knows how he will bring us home, no matter how far we go or how long it takes. This is the heart of the gospel – no matter how lost we are, we are never lost to Him.

When we are in dark seasons of loss, that is probably not what we would pick. We would want the pain gone and the loss restored, right away! But God’s protection means that the doubt and pain will not take us away from Him. We don’t need to be afraid of our feelings – we can feel our feelings and God is still there right beside us.

It also means that there is no journey to God out of grief. God is there with us in the midst of it, and the moment we need Him, He is right there.

— Sermon Notes, Denise Lindberg, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, April 21, 2024

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What is Grief if not Love Persevering? – Lamentations 3

English psychiatrist Colin Murray Parkes wrote “The pain of grief is just as much a part of life as the joy of love; it is, perhaps, the price we pay for love, the cost of commitment.” We can see the truth that is in this statement in the third chapter of Lamentations, the center point of the book, traditionally by Jeremiah, grappling with the fall of Jerusalem.

Grief is part of our experience of life. “Life is pain… and anyone who says differently is selling something.” We learn something when we accept that the life we live in is peppered with grief and will end in grief. This is a truth that we want to ignore but that scripture implores us to address head on.

The book of Lamentations does so forcefully. Jeremiah and those around him have watched the temple – the connection point between the creator of the universe and His chosen people – be destroyed by pagans, who have slaughtered those people and scattered them across their sprawling empire. The sorrow goes even deeper, though, with all this coming as a judgement against the people of Israel for their sin.

In this life, we all bear the consequences of sin – toil, death, suffering, loss. Our hearts break when we lose what is meaningful to us. Grief is an expression of what our heart loves, but also of the eternal perspective God has placed in our hearts.

Some people seem to think that sorrow and grief are an indication of a lack of faith. But we see from Jesus’ tears at the tomb of Lazarus that this is not the case. Our grief and loss and death and evil is an awareness that something in this world is not right. There is something broken, something wrong, and our hearts know this at their very core.

How we handle our grief matters. Jesus calls us to walk well in our grief, and when our grief aligns with the heart of God it is more a sign of weakness or doubt but rather entering into the process of life. Jesus grieved, Paul grieved, David grieved, Jeremiah grieved, Moses grieved and all who came before us grieved.

Grief happens in a larger context. Grief is a result of the Fall, but there is a bigger story than that. Grief is for but a moment because we do not grieve apart from God and His truth. In grief, God has provided us with two tools. One of those is patience – the author of Lamentations did not live the 70 years it took for God’s people to come back to Jerusalem. The other is the promise that God is faithful.

We will one day walk in wholeness because of the blood of Jesus Christ. This is why Paul can tell those in 1 Thessalonians that we do not grieve like those who have no hope. We experience the grief now, but it is a reminder that we have a future of wholeness. Our grief is not hopeless, but rather a lifeline to eternity. God is with us and working His God and perfect will. There is Joy on the other side of our grief.

If we are in Christ we grieve with hope.

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, November 7, 2021