Praise in the Midst of
Pain and Sorrow

Text:  Psalm 103
  
This Sunday we are looking at the second part of our series on prayer and will focus on the theme of “Praise in the Midst of Pain and Sorrow.” Our text is Psalm 103, part of Book 4 of the Psalms. As a background to the Psalms, let me just describe briefly what they are and why they are important.

The Psalms are a kind of hymnbook of prayers, compiled mostly for temple worship in Israel and made up of 5 sections or “books.” Psalm 103 is the second of two psalms attributed to David, King of Israel, found in Book 4 (the other being Psalm 101). Frequently, a psalm is set in the midst of some kind of trouble, some kind of difficulty in which the psalmist sees no escape or no hope. In this particular psalm, there is no specific issue or petition; there is a general sense of gratitude which moves out from the individual to the ends of God’s creation. Or, one might describe it as moving from a personal sense to a vision for all of the created order, or, again, from the God who is personally concerned with me to the God who is Lord of the Universe.
It is this God who David celebrates and worships in Psalm 103.

Now juxtapose David’s vision with our modern and/or post-modern vision. Prayer is difficult for modern men and women. Jacques Ellul, in his book Prayer and Modern Man, suggests that we operate under a completely different world view--rational vs. non-rational. He writes, “The man of our time does not know how to pray but much more than that, he has neither the desire nor the need to do so.  He does not find the deep source of prayer with himself.  I am acquainted with this man.  I know him well.  It is I, myself.”

A celebrated example of this replacement of God is recounted in the famous meeting between Napoleon and the French scientist, Laplace:  When challenged by Napoleon to show where God lay in the explanation of the evolutionary development of animals, Laplace famously answered “I have no need of God in my hypothesis!”

Charles Taylor,  the universally recognized Canadian philosopher, has argued that secularization has meant an ever decreasing sense of enchantment or as we might understand it, a decreasing recognition of transcendence. This diminished acknowledgement of transcendence has led to a diminished view of prayer or the need for prayer. Paul Tillich, when asked if he prayed, responded:  “No, but I meditate.”

The Psalmist begins this psalm with the belief that prayer and/or praise is not only the natural consequence of a good God, but the presupposition for the opportunity to pray. That is, prayer or praise would be impossible without God’s prior gracious acts. And so this morning I want to suggest to you that rather than seeing the psalms as an argument for God, they are the presupposition which the psalmist understands undergirds or makes possible prayer/praise at all.

Here is how the psalmist David understands the possibility of prayer and praise in Psalm 103.

1. Prayer / Praise arises out of the prior work of God. At the very beginning of the Psalm, David enumerates 5 actions which God performs before any response is possible. God forgives, God heals, God redeems, God crowns and God satisfies. Not only do these verbs describe actions which have significance for the individual but they also apply directly to Israel and Israel’s history. The psalmist recognizes that God had always been sufficient for Israel’s needs--consistent with claims to be their God. God was the God of his “Covenant People.” He was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses and David. He delivered Israel from Egypt, sustained them in their darkest hours, gave them a land, made them a nation and protected them as a people. Out of God’s prior acts of salvation, prayer and praise are possible.
   
   
2. Prayer / Praise arises out of the continuing “hesed” of God. “Hesed” or God’s “loving kindness” or as it is sometimes translated, God’s “covenant love”, refers to God’s faithfulness to his people from the time of the liberation of Israel from Egypt onwards. It continues out of the ongoing grace and mercy of God throughout all of Israel’s history, even the hard times. The hard times, the pain and suffering are seen as enduring only for a time, as provisional, not eternal.
   
   What is our experience of God? Have we experienced his forgiveness? His compassion? His revelation of himself? His vindication? His satisfying our needs? His recognition of our state as human and as made in his image?
   
   Praying means giving up a false sense of security, no longer looking for arguments which will protect us if we get pushed into a corner, no longer setting our hope on a couple of lighter measures which your life might still offer.  Praying means “to stop expecting from God that same small mindedness which we discover in ourselves”.  To pray is to walk in the full light of God, and to say simply without holding back, “I am a human and you are God.”
   
   
3. Prayer / Praise arises out of the unwillingness to let suffering and evil be the final word.
   Peter Berger, the American sociologist, in his book Rumors of Angels, described as one of the signals of transcendence, defiance in the face of suffering. This is not denial because pain and suffering are real and difficult. But this defiance is the recognition that no matter how hard the pains and the sufferings of this world are, they are not the final word. Hesed, the deep covenant love and faithfulness of God is the ultimate reality and it will overcome any and all of the sufferings which we will experience. “Defiant praise reminds us that evil and suffering will not have the last word, but some day God’s reign will come in all its fullness and God will renew all of creation.”  (Rev. 21:1-4)  Dan Epp-Tiessen
   
   
4. Prayer / Praise connects us with God. Praise helps us make contact with God, according to Claus Westermann. Praise creates a world of trust and confidence in which we can live with assurance and hope. Walter Brueggemann, in his little book Praying the Psalms, suggests that the prayers of the Psalms are the common voice of the people addressing God. The psalms start from locations of security in which the orientation is comfortable, move to the experience of dislocation and insecurity or disorientation which is painful, and end in a relocation or new security resulting in a reorientation which is surprising and good.

Most of us live in areas of deep discontinuity in our lives.  We expend a lot of energy, are pre-occupied with different issues--work, family, income, health, relationships and so on. These are the areas which are liminal, which connect our world with transcendence, with contingency, with ultimate questions. These are the areas where the Psalms come from. That is why they resonate so deeply. That is why they are so important. That is why we need to learn how to read them, so they can help us make sense of our lives, become our words, and help shape us into becoming the disciples of Jesus.

Let us read Psalm 103 again. This time with hands first clenched, then hands opened and finally hands opened and outstretched.
Amen.

Back to Top