Need For God/Remembering God's Work
Preaching
Life Everlasting
The Essential Book of Funeral Resources
Object:
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon -- from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me -- a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God my Rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?" My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?" Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
This psalm expresses what many people feel at the time of loss. They thirst for a taste of God's presence, but cannot seem to find God. They feel abandoned and deserted. They do not want to be angry at God, but they are. They do not want to believe that God has forgotten them, but they feel that way. Use this psalm to address these feelings; to point out that scripture validates the feelings. But, don't leave them there in the emotional turmoil of grief. Use verse 5 as an encouragement regarding how to deal with this burden of grief; remember the Lord and all that has been done for you. Recall the times when God was so real to you that you could reach out and touch the divine. Just as the Israelites soon forgot the power that God had shown them when they were led out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, so we too can forget, when times are tough, that God has been at work in our lives. With a bit of preparation ahead of time you, as the preacher, or someone from the family or among the friends, can share some of the moments from the life of the person who has died, when God was clearly and profoundly present. This is important work at a time of grieving when God seems far away.
Use the final verse of the psalm to point them to a time when they will praise God again. Who knows how long it will be before they are able to do that again? But the time will come.
This psalm expresses what many people feel at the time of loss. They thirst for a taste of God's presence, but cannot seem to find God. They feel abandoned and deserted. They do not want to be angry at God, but they are. They do not want to believe that God has forgotten them, but they feel that way. Use this psalm to address these feelings; to point out that scripture validates the feelings. But, don't leave them there in the emotional turmoil of grief. Use verse 5 as an encouragement regarding how to deal with this burden of grief; remember the Lord and all that has been done for you. Recall the times when God was so real to you that you could reach out and touch the divine. Just as the Israelites soon forgot the power that God had shown them when they were led out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, so we too can forget, when times are tough, that God has been at work in our lives. With a bit of preparation ahead of time you, as the preacher, or someone from the family or among the friends, can share some of the moments from the life of the person who has died, when God was clearly and profoundly present. This is important work at a time of grieving when God seems far away.
Use the final verse of the psalm to point them to a time when they will praise God again. Who knows how long it will be before they are able to do that again? But the time will come.
