Sermon Series: You Belong Here
August 13, 2023 – Week 2: Healing through Grief and Lament
Sermon Series: You Belong Here – Text: Psalm 42
“How is it with your soul?” I have found myself asking that question in a lot of different settings over the last few months. Transitions in life are hard. Grief is hard. Change is hard. All of these things can leaving us with a lot of feelings swirling inside of us. We even ask, “Where are you God?” I ask you to take a moment to pause right now and reflect on these questions for yourself. “How are you doing? What are you feeling? How are you experiencing God right now?”
The Bible has a lot to say about grief and lament, especially the Psalms – the Bible’s song and prayer book. They help us give voice to what we are feeling on the inside. This Sunday we will enter into the space of lament in the hope of growing in greater awareness of ourselves and discovering the healing grace of Christ, our Savior. If you have been experiencing feelings of grief and loss, you belong here, and you are not alone!
Blessings,
Jimmy
Psalm 42
Longing for God and His Help in Distress
To the leader. A Maskil of the Korahites.
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[a]
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 6 and 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 torrents;
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.