Psalms 42 and 43
Preaching
A Journey Through the Psalms: Reflections for Worried Hearts and Troubled Times
Preaching the Psalms Cycles A, B, C
Object:
Thirst is a powerful thing. In a society where few ever go thirsty it's a difficult concept to embrace. Even though millions of people around the globe suffer from thirst, abundant and potable water is a blessing for most people in the United States. Think, though, about falling asleep with the mouth wide open. Then imagine awakening to a dry and parched tongue. The first thing that happens is a run to the bathroom for a quick glass of water. How good that water feels as it courses down the throat. This is a peek into the reality of thirst. It is a sense of absence of moisture, a dryness, a brittle parchment of flesh that yearns for water: This is thirst. This is the kind of thirst that humanity has for the holy.
There is a deep unmet yearning for a connection with God that is somehow built into the human spirit. It even visits those who deny God's existence. It is as though someone is in the desert without water for a number of days and stands swaying in the sun denying the existence of water. Within the human heart lives a desire for a refuge that represents a complete safety that is unavailable in most other corridors of life. There is a longing for something that completes and fulfills. This something is God.
God is missing in the lives of so many that it is not an easy thing to ponder. It is especially difficult when God seems to go missing in the lives of those who claim to believe in (him).
When tragedy strikes or bad luck turns terrible, believers wonder about this God of refuge. When injustice rears its contorted face or when implacable systems quash the human spirit, those who claim God find themselves despairing of God's presence.
Yet, it is precisely into these fractured moments that God reaches to find us. It is into the turmoil of brokenness and grief that God's healing wonder seeps. This is why the psalmist does not abandon prayers of praise, even though the enemy is at the gates. This is why the trust and hope in the holy is never withdrawn, even when oppression grinds the soul into dust and tears.
There will be moments, days, perhaps even years when it feels as though God has, as the young folk say, "blown us off." But it is in this darkness, in the crisis time, in the midst of mourning that the dawn of the holy shines forth.
It is not for nothing that down the years we learn that it is only through the cross that we find the resurrection.
There is a deep unmet yearning for a connection with God that is somehow built into the human spirit. It even visits those who deny God's existence. It is as though someone is in the desert without water for a number of days and stands swaying in the sun denying the existence of water. Within the human heart lives a desire for a refuge that represents a complete safety that is unavailable in most other corridors of life. There is a longing for something that completes and fulfills. This something is God.
God is missing in the lives of so many that it is not an easy thing to ponder. It is especially difficult when God seems to go missing in the lives of those who claim to believe in (him).
When tragedy strikes or bad luck turns terrible, believers wonder about this God of refuge. When injustice rears its contorted face or when implacable systems quash the human spirit, those who claim God find themselves despairing of God's presence.
Yet, it is precisely into these fractured moments that God reaches to find us. It is into the turmoil of brokenness and grief that God's healing wonder seeps. This is why the psalmist does not abandon prayers of praise, even though the enemy is at the gates. This is why the trust and hope in the holy is never withdrawn, even when oppression grinds the soul into dust and tears.
There will be moments, days, perhaps even years when it feels as though God has, as the young folk say, "blown us off." But it is in this darkness, in the crisis time, in the midst of mourning that the dawn of the holy shines forth.
It is not for nothing that down the years we learn that it is only through the cross that we find the resurrection.
