1 These past couple of months, we’ve been going through the Life of as recorded in 1 & 2 Samuel. David is an amazing man - a king, a great warrior, the giant-slayer, the man after God’s own heart. Today, I want to look at another side of him - David the poet, the musician, the songwriter. You may remember that David was first introduced to King Saul’s court as a young man skilled on the harp. There are 150 in the , and David is responsible for at least 73 of the Psalms, which is incredible. Many of those Psalms have become songs we sing today:

Give us clean hands - Psalm 24:3-6 - Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. 5 He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob. Your love oh Lord - :5-6 - Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. 6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. Create in me a clean heart - Psalm 51:10-12 - Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Psalm 63 - Psalm 63:1-5 - O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. How long, O Lord? - Psalm 13:1-6 - How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? 3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; 4 my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," and my foes will rejoice when I fall. 5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. 6 I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.

This man was a serious top-40 songwriter. And the great thing is that so many of those Psalms come out of real experiences in David’s life, as noted in the beginning of some of the Psalms. See if you hear a common theme:

Psalm 3 – When he fled from his son Psalm 34 – When he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he left 2 Psalm 51 – When the prophet Nathan came to David after he committed adultery with Bathsheba Psalm 52 - When Doeg the Edomite had gone to Saul and told him: "David has gone to the house of Ahimelech." Psalm 54 - When the Ziphites had gone to Saul and said, "Is not David hiding among us?" Psalm 56 - When the Philistines had seized him in Gath. Psalm 57 - When he had fled from Saul into the cave. Psalm 59 - When Saul had sent men to watch David's house in order to kill him. Psalm 60 - When he fought Aram Naharaim and Aram Zobah, and when Joab returned and struck down twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt. Psalm 63:1-5 A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.

I find it so interesting how many of these Psalms were written during times of suffering. See how often David suffered, and how often in his suffering he turned to God, pouring out his heart to the Lord. David’s life was so full of suffering, more than most of us have experienced. He ran for his life from King Saul, he had an infant son die, he ran for his life from his son Absalom, he had family tragedy, and he had enemies bent on destroying him. But David’s Psalms have so much to teach us about how to do deal with intense suffering, pain, and disappointment.

There are three main things we learn from David’s Psalms about how to deal with intense suffering, pain, and disappointment:

(1) The first is to bring the full extent of your emotions honestly to God

David is called a man after God’s own heart, and in the Psalms David wrote, we see why this is the case. These Psalms teach us so much about the kind of relationship God is looking to have with us, how we can approach him in prayer and worship. Not every Psalm arises out of suffering, but this morning those are the ones I want to focus on.

Turn to as an example:

Psalm 6:1-10 - For the director of music. With stringed instruments. According to sheminith. A psalm of David. O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. 2 Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am faint; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony. 3 My soul is in anguish. How long, O LORD, how long? 4 Turn, O LORD, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love. 5 No one remembers you when he is dead. Who praises you from the grave? 6 I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears. 7 My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes. 8 Away from me, all you who do evil, for the LORD has heard my weeping. 9 The LORD has heard my cry for mercy; 3 the LORD accepts my prayer. 10 All my enemies will be ashamed and dismayed; they will turn back in sudden disgrace.

Listen to David pouring out his heart – I am in agony, my soul is in anguish. Save me before I die. All night long I have been in tears, and my eyes are weak with sorrow.

Consider a few others and how honest David is before God:

Psalm 22:1-2 - My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? 2 O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent.

Psalm 69:1-3 - Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. 2 I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. 3 I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.

Psalm 39:7 - "But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you. 8 Save me from all my transgressions; do not make me the scorn of fools. 9 I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for you are the one who has done this. 10 Remove your scourge from me; I am overcome by the blow of your hand. 11 You rebuke and discipline men for their sin; you consume their wealth like a moth-- each man is but a breath. 12 "Hear my prayer, O LORD, listen to my cry for help; be not deaf to my weeping. For I dwell with you as an alien, a stranger, as all my fathers were. 13 Look away from me, that I may rejoice again before I depart and am no more."

Usually the pattern is – I’m suffering, I need you, I trust that you will help me. But sometimes it just ends with sadness. Leave me alone so I can have a little peace before I die. This is in the Bible! How encouraging is that. God can handle your emotion, even when it doesn’t resolve nicely into perfect trust. Bring the full range of your emotional honesty to him.

For some of you this is no problem. You’ve known God can handle your emotion, that he wants to hear your heart. But for others, you have a difficult time seeing a relationship with God in this way. Many of us believe that we need to approach God with carefully constructed prayers, that he only hears us if we say the right words. Or we’re not sure it’s appropriate to be angry with God, to be in despair before him. We feel guilty about it – shouldn’t we just be grateful and quit complaining or arguing? David’s Psalms are so encouraging because they show us that we can bring the depth of our emotion to him, the hurt, the sorrow, the pain, the anger, the disappointment, the feelings of abandonment – it is all relevant. It all matters to God. Drop the pretenses and get real with him. 4

What happens when we don’t come honestly? We miss out on God reaching and healing the deepest hurts. It’s just a fake, surface relationship.

For me, the real beginning of my faith was when I started talking to God as if he were a friend, as if he were right there; not conjuring up what sounded like the right words to say in prayer, but talking normally, bringing my thoughts and feelings to him.

(2) The second is that we can bring the full extent of your emotions honestly to God

Don’t go elsewhere to complain. Go to God. David stays in his face. Even in the darkest of Psalms, he is singing it to God. Even when he can’t even proclaim his trust in God, he is saying this TO God. Think of Job – very similar. He is full of complaining and wanting to defend himself, but he always expressed it to God, even when his wife urged him to “curse God and die.”

How many people give up on God because they experience suffering and can not understand where God was in it, why he would allow such a thing to happen? David’s Psalms are full of those very feelings, but he refuses to give up on God, instead recognizing that his only hope is in Him. Consider Psalm 22 again:

Psalm 22:1-2 - My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? 2 O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent.

David refuses to give up on God, refuses to disbelieve. Just because you can not understand a reason for your suffering or how God could bring good out of it does not mean that there is not a reason or that God can not bring good out of it. But you need to stay in His face so that God can use that suffering to transform you into a person of character and deeper holiness. Suffering can either be the worst thing to happen to you or the best, depending on how you respond to it and whether or not you bring your emotions to God.

(3) Put your trust in Him, even when you don’t understand the reason for your suffering, because you know who He is and what He has done

David’s Psalms are filled with suffering and pain, but he turns to God because of who He is and what He has done. Look at all the ways in which David declares who God is in the midst of his pain:

Psalm 5 – You are a righteous and just God who will punish evil - My shield is God Most High, who saves the upright in heart. 5 Psalm 9:7-9 - The LORD reigns forever; he has established his throne for judgment. 8 He will judge the world in righteousness; he will govern the peoples with justice. 9 The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Psalm 13:5-6 - But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. 6 I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me. Psalm 18:2 - The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. :1 - The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want Psalm 27:1 - The LORD is my light and my salvation-- whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life-- of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 34:18 - The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 62:11-12 - One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, 12 and that you, O Lord, are loving.

David almost always found a way to bring his pain to God and to come away trusting in who He is and what He has done. But the amazing thing for us is that David only had the records of the patriarchs’ dealings with God, and some experiences of his own. We have so many more reasons to put our hope in Him:

(1) The cross – At the cross, God proved his love and goodness and proved that he brings good out of the worst possible evil. He showed us that He will give us whatever it is that we need in our suffering:

Romans 8:31-32 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

(2) The Holy Spirit – We have God with us, the Holy Spirit, witnessing with our spirit that we belong to God, and confirming to us what Jesus has said, comforting and convicting us through everything. God is with us through every suffering.

John 14:26 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

(3) The Bible – We have the records of God’s dealing with people, His promises to us, and reminders everywhere to us of His character – that He is good, holy, loving, just, merciful, and so on.

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 6

(4) The promise of eternity – We also have the promise that one day there will be no more mourning or crying or death or pain, that our suffering and pain will be wiped away.

Revelation 21:3-5 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." 5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"

David did not have those things the way we do. If we was able to turn to god and trust in Him through his suffering, we are also able to do it.

Bring the full extent of your emotions honestly to God and trust in Him, even when you don’t understand the reason for your suffering, because you know who He is and what He has done.