Scripture: Psalm 42
Sermon: Longing, Yearning, and Singing the Blues
Topics: longing, yearning, hope, ashes, blues
Preached: June 7, 2020
Rev. Mike Abma
1 As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me continually,
‘Where is your God?’
4 These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help 6and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the thunder of your cataracts;
all your waves and your billows
have gone over me.
8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock,
‘Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
because the enemy oppresses me?’
10 As with a deadly wound in my body,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
‘Where is your God?’
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION
In a sermon at the end of April, I told the story of Jelle Rekker and his young family who immigrated to Canada in 1948. In that story, I focused on a letter Jelle’s aging and injured father wrote his son. It was a letter that asked, pleaded in fact, for his son to return home. With a heavy heart, Jelle, the son, wrote back to his father, telling him that it was simply not possible for him to return.
Let me now tell you why it was not possible for him to return.
You see, Jelle and his wife, and their 3 young children had only been in Canada for less than one year. In that year they had found an old farmhouse that they were living in. They were also working the farm, trying to make a living. Finally it was autumn. The harvest was over. They felt they could breathe a little. So they decided to visit another immigrant family that was living about 50 miles away. They left in the morning. They had a great time. They returned at suppertime. But when they returned, their house was gone. It had burned to the ground.
What had happened?
Was it an accident?
Was it arson – not everyone was thrilled with the arrival of these foreign
immigrants.
What was it?
They never learned the cause of the fire.
All they knew is that they had lost everything.
Everything they owned was in that house.
And everything in that house was now just ashes.
So there they stood, before the smoke and ashes,
in shock, in bewilderment, in despair.
They had never felt so alone or so destitute.
The oldest of the 3 children, who was about 6 at the time,
looked to his parents and asked
“Where was God when this happened?”
WHERE IS GOD?
That is the question, isn’t it?
Where is God?
We cannot help but ask that question when our life gets turned upside down.
And we cannot help but ask that question lately:
* as the coronavirus continues to ravage the world;
* as the world economy seems to have ground to a halt;
* as our nation has erupted in protests;
* as the church, and our church, still is worshipping separately,
* and as Emmanuel Bileya,
a pastor and preacher we here in Woodlawn know,
someone who worshipped with us
and sang in our choir;
someone who himself preached just last week on the need
for peace, and forgiveness, and reconciliation;
We cannot help but ask “Where was God?”
when we hear that he and his wife were gunned down by thugs
on their own property, on their own farm.
We look out into the ashes of this world,
we see the misery of so many people,
we realize the loneliness of our own lives,
and we cannot help but realize we are thirsty —
thirsty for God’s presence;
thirsty for God’s kingdom;
thirsty for his justice to flow down like water,
and his righteousness like an ever-mighty stream.
PSALM 42
Psalm 42 was written by someone facing just such a bleak reality.
It was written by someone feeling just such a deep despair.
It was written by someone who had just such a parching thirst.
When read carefully, Psalm 42 is a very compelling Psalm.
I ask you, “Who is talking to whom in this psalm?”
Psalm 42 is not like most psalms – it is not talking to God.
Psalm 42 is not like many other psalms – it is not talking directly to us or someone
else.
No, Psalm 42 is the voice of someone who is talking
to herself, talking to himself.
This is a psalm in which someone is lamenting their situation.
They are singing the blues, to themselves.
Why are they doing that?
Well, for one, they are coming to grips with their feelings.
They are being honest about
how down they are feeling,
how depressed they are,
how disturbed they are.
They are feeling forgotten and defeated.
They are feeling lonely.
They clearly miss the company of others.
They miss worshipping with the crowds,
and singing hymns of praise with the throngs.
So that is the first thing this psalm does.
It is honest about how overwhelmed we can be by these dark and destitute feelings.
But this Psalm does not leave things there.
No, it talks through them.
The preacher Tim Keller calls what is happening in this Psalm a form of spiritual self-talk therapy.[1]
That is because how we feel about things
and how we face them
are not solely based on what happens to us.
How we feel about things
and how we face them
are also determined by what we tell ourselves
about what is happening to us.
Psalm 42 is an exercise in this self-talk therapy,
this talking to ourselves about what
has happened and what is happening to us.
Yes, we acknowledge our harsh reality.
Yes, we acknowledge the smoke and ashes of our lives.
Yes, we acknowledge our deep grief, our deep sadness, our deep “blues.”
But in our talking to ourselves
we acknowledge another reality,
a deeper reality,
an often hidden reality.
We talk to ourselves about the reality of God’s love, his steadfast love.
We talk about the reality that even in the darkest night,
when we feel most alone,
nevertheless, God’s love is still there with us.
Psalm 42 is all about talking ourselves through the tough things we are facing.
It is about talking about the harsh realities,
but also the deeper spiritual realities.
We talk through them
in order to re-awaken our hopes,
in order to re-affirm our convictions,
in order to realize that all is not lost,
God has not given up on us
and God has not given up on his world.
Yes, the troubles of our life may be Big.
And yes, the troubles of this world may be very Big.
But God is bigger than any of these troubles.
God is bigger than all of these troubles.
Why are you downcast, O my soul
And why are you disquieted within me.
Put your hope in God.
Put your hope in God
for hope in God will not disappoint.
Know that God’s love has been poured into your heart
by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).
THE END OF THE STORY
As the family of Jelle Rekker stood there,
looking into the smoke and ashes,
feeling stunned, overwhelmed, in shock
because they had lost everything……
Just then a car slowly drove onto their property.
A man and his wife got out of the car.
They recognized them as farmers from a neighboring farm.
They had never really spoken to them before.
Speaking was not easy.
The Rekker family still did not know much English.
And this couple, they knew absolutely no Dutch.
But this couple struggled to communicate, nonetheless.
They introduced themselves as Mr. and Mrs. Ireland.
Through gestures, and very simple English words,
this couple said that they had seen the smoke
but by that time it was too late to save anything.
They had waited much of the day for the Rekker family to come home.
They then invited the whole Rekker family to come to their house for supper.
After supper, they invited the whole Rekker family to stay in their home,
in fact, to have their whole upstairs for themselves
for as long as they needed it.
Within a few weeks, Mr. and Mrs. Ireland invited the Rekker family to their church – a little United Church of Canada nearby.
At that church service, the deacons presented the Rekker family with
clothes, shoes, coats,
and money from a special collection
so that the family could get back on their feet.
The Rekker family could not really believe what was happening to them.
Before the fire, Mr. and Mrs. Ireland were almost complete strangers to them.
How was it that now, after only a few weeks with them,
they felt as close to them as brothers and sisters?
They felt as close to them as their own family?[2]
CONCLUSION
How do we go forward from here
as we lament for the world,
as we lament for our country,
as we lament for our own struggles?
We sing Psalm 42.
We talk ourselves through this troubled time.
And we live the way we know we are called to live:
doing justice.
loving kindness.
and walking humbly with God,
all the while knowing that he is always with us,
and that those who hope in him
will never be disappointed.
Amen
PRAYER
As the deer pants for the water,
So our souls long for you, O Lord.
When can we come to you again,
To praise you as we did before?
Do not let only sorrow our souls fill.
Help us to know you are our hope and Savior still.
Amen
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