Psalm 13

A Personal Story of Disorientation
I want to share a little of my story this morning. While at seminary, my local  church affirmed my call and the leaders of the church in a formal setting affirmed my call. They would ask me different questions regarding ministry. One of their questions regarded marriage and ministry. And I chuckled on the inside at this question, at that time I was single and Randy and I had just seen each other for the second time (I won’t say it was a second date, because I refused to call our first luncheon meeting a date!) But at this second meeting, I had already broached the subject to check out his views of women in ministry, because if he wasn’t fully acceptant of the idea there was no need for us to have a third meeting. God was first in my life and I wouldn’t let anyone come before Him.

It was difficult for us (for me) to find a ministry position in our church. There were few women ministers in our church. God finally opened a door for us to co-pastor a small struggling church just outside of Erie. We, fresh out of seminiary, went there confident that God was going to turn the situation around. But God didn’t. There were just a handful of members with a building debt. We were there about 11/2 years and they decided to close the church.

We were at a point of disorientation:
~We were personally financially in debt.
~We felt God was moving us from our denomination to another.
~Randy and I moved in with my mother. My mother got married while we were there.
~We were in a whirlwind. Our young married lives, our ministry turned upside down.

We visited many different churches. We visited with denominational leaders. We read up on denomination after denomination. We went to speak at different churches. We talked about planting a church in Omaha. We considered a church in the bayous of Louisiana. After about a 11/2 years we were appointed on a weekly basis to the Royer UMC outside of Williamsburg, by Tom Irvin. He appointed us before we ever officially committed to the UMC. It was that fall that we joined the church. We wanted to be sure that was were God was leading us. (If we would have been more familiar with UMC polity, we may not have waited because UMC policy makes sure that your sure and that they’re sure and everybody’s sure. And I say that because we had to wait two years after becoming members to begin the ordination process with the UMC.)

Now there is one thing that kept Randy and I going in the midst of this upheaval in our lives: we were sure of our call. We were sure that God wanted us in local church pastoral ministry. We were sure in our hearts and we had that confirmed time and time again by the body of Christ, by our pastors and church leaders.

That is one instance; one example of the type of disorientation we can experience in life. When things just don’t come together easily. The pieces just don’t fit. And we are left to grapple with them. Sometimes we wonder what God is up to. Sometimes when we don’t feel like God is giving us any direction, we try to figure things out ourselves. Sometimes we feel like there is an enemy triumphing in our lives.

Psalm 13: A Psalm of Disorientation
Psalms of Disorientation follow a typical form which is divided into two major parts, plea and praise. Psalm 13 follows this form closely.

Plea
3 Complaints
God
Self
Enemy

And these are three complaints that the Psalmist makes (in relation to God, self, and enemy). He the psalmist is very abrupt and pointed. He doesn’t take time to mellow his words. He doesn’t take time to reason. His words are from the gut (gut feelings).

He first accuses God of not looking at him; not seeing him; his face is turned from him. (OT if God sees, God takes action.) In this kind of psalm is common for the psalmist to fix the blame on God – you’re not doing what you are supposed to do God. You’re not taking care of me like you said you would. We covenanted together, and you’re not holding up your end of this relationship.

He then says he wrestles with his own thoughts. There is sorrow, pain, anguish, he’s confused and miserable – every day!

And he has some enemy that remains unnamed, that is triumphing over him.

3 Petitions
Look
Answer
Give light

There is no way of coping unless God acts.

These complaints are grounded in a relationship with God-a relationship that can withstand such honesty. A relationship that existed before this moment.

Verses 1-2 the psalmist pent up rage is released. And the rage is released toward one person, God. God is the only one being addressed.

This psalm teaches us it is okay to tell God how we feel. He can handle our emotions. He already knows how we feel. In the telling there is release. It is in the telling, that God can begin the healing.

3 Motivations
I will die
Enemy will say, “I have overcome.”
Foes will rejoice. – The psalmist is God’s partner, so if the partner is overcome; if foes rejoice over the partner, they do so to God.

Sometimes the motivation is bargaining. (if you do this I’ll do that.)

WAIT
The grand pause. The psalmist waits. We wait. There is no place to go. We wait for God’s response.

Praise
Assurance of being heard

3 Statements of Trust
I trust
My heart rejoices
I will sing (vow of payment)

3 References to God
your unfailing love
your salvation
to the Lord

During the waiting there is a change that takes place and we don’t know what caused that change. When the psalmist speaks, he is a different person. He is on his way to a new orientation. Remember we said that orientation is when we have our bearings straight. Things are as they are meant to be. They are stable. The psalmist is on his way to a new orientation, because he will have been changed by this experience. Because it is in these dark times of waiting that somehow we are changed. Our trust is deepened. Our relationship with God grows. Our praise becomes rooted in that ongoing relationship.

These closing scriptures are mixed in verb tense, for the psalmist is not yet out of this dark place. But he has the assurance that God will bring him out. He promises to sing in the future, because “God has been good to me.” He has been faithful in the past; so I believe he will be faithful to me in the present; therefore, I will sing in the future.

Conclusion
We don’t know how long it took the Psalmist to progress through these steps. Many of us may be at different places along this psalm. We may be at the point of weariness, where we need to cry out to God for help. We may be in a place of waiting. We may be in the midst of trouble, standing confident, knowing that God is going to act in our situation. Wherever you are today, pray to God, make your requests known to God. And if you are in need of prayer, if you find yourself crying out "How long?" come for prayer today, so that the body may help carry you through this difficult time.

Last week, we began a series from the Psalms, one of my favorite
sections of Scripture. In the Psalms, we learn about the spiritual life
from these incredible conversations with God. BTW, the Psalms are
commonly referred to as the Psalms of David. It’s true that David was
the most prolific writer of the Psalms, but only about half of the
Psalms are attributed to him; the others are believed to have been
written by a number of other writers.

We began this series by talking about "psalms of orientation," where
God is known and reliable. We looked at Psalm 19, and mentioned some
other examples, too. But I’m glad that not all the Psalms are like
Psalm 19 where everything is in order, because life is not like that,
is it?

While it’s certainly good to know that that there is a firm
foundation upon which we can build our lives, it’s also good to observe
the lives of the faithful when their world came crashing down. And we
see that in the "psalms of disorientation" (or, "psalms of darkness").

Psalms of Disorientation
The Psalmists don’t hold anything back in their language. That’s
especially true in psalms of disorientation. Among these types of
psalms, there are personal laments (13, 35, 86) and communal laments
(74, 79, 137).

I love what Walter Brueggemann says about these kinds of psalms in his book, The Message of the Psalms …

• “I think that serious religious use of lament psalms has been
  minimal because we have believed that faith does not mean to
  acknowledge and embrace negativity. We have thought that
  acknowledgment of negativity was somehow an act of unfaith, as though
  the very speech around it conceded too much about God’s ‘loss of
  control.’”
• “The use of the ‘psalms of darkness’ … for the trusting community …
  is an act of bold faith … a transformed faith … because it insists that
  the world must be experienced as it really is and not in some pretended
  way. There is nothing out of bounds, nothing precluded or
  inappropriate. Everything properly begins in the conversation of the
  heart. … everything must be brought to speech, and everything brought
  to speech must be address to God, who is the final reference for all of
  life.”
• “Life is transformed. Now life is understood to be a pilgrimage or
  process through the darkness that belongs properly to humanness. … in
  such deathly places as presented in these psalms new life is given by
  God.”

There is a certain order found in most psalms of disorientation …

Plea

• Address to God
• Complaint
• Petition
• Motivation
• Imprecation

Praise

• Assurance of being heard
• Payment of vows
• Doxology and praise
• The action that led to praise

As I said, that’s the normal order in many psalms of disorientation, but the psalm we’re looking at today (Psalm 137, a
community lament) follows a pattern of its own. Derek Kidner calls it
“an impassioned protest, beyond all ignoring or toning down."

Read Psalm 137.
This is one of the few psalms with a specific historical reference. It
comes out of the exiled community in Babylon after the destruction of
587 bc.

In the opening scene (vv. 1-3), there is a sense of
abandonment and grief, which is compounded by torment (the Israelites
were forced to sing and dance of their Jewishness). It’s an attempt to
humiliate them and rob them of their identity.

The second scene (vv. 4-6) shows an unwavering resolve, a resolve to not forget who they are and where they came from.

The final scene (vv. 7-9) shows a strong passion and faithful tenacity, although it’s not exactly a noble prayer!

Brueggemann says this Psalm “asks about our capacity to endure, to
maintain identity, to embrace a calling in situation of sell-out.” It
shows a “faithful tenacity.”

Letting go of the past
"Alongside Babylon’s rivers we sat on the banks; we cried and cried, remembering the good old days in Zion." (Psalm 137.1, The Message)

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, in her book, On Death and Dying, identified five stages that a dying patient experiences when informed of their terminal prognosis:

1. Denial (this isn’t happening to me!)
2. Anger (why is this happening to me?)
3. Bargaining (I promise I’ll be a better person if…)
4. Depression (I don’t care anymore)
5. Acceptance (I’m ready for whatever comes)

When we embrace reality, that’s when we can do whatever it takes. We
must let go of the past, and claim God’s frontiers in our Valley and
beyond!

But we must also realize that everyone progresses through the stages
at different paces, so we need to show grace to one another. And we
must help each other at each stage of the journey.

Following God in a strange land
We are strangers and
pilgrims! Repeatedly, the Bible compares life on earth to temporarily
living in a foreign country. This world is not our home! We’re just
passing through. To describe our brief stay on earth, the Bible uses
terms like: alien, pilgrim, foreigner, stranger, visitor, and traveler.

"I’m a stranger in these parts; give me clear directions." (Psalm 119.19, The Message)

How do you sing the Lord’s songs in a strange land?
It may
be tough, but it’s not impossible. It takes passion and an unwavering
resolve to honor God (not stubbornness about one’s own preferences).

When
I think of people in the Scriptures who had to leave something behind
to embrace the future God planned, I think of people like Abraham. But
most of the people I think of, unfortunately, were forced to leave
against their will: Joseph, Jacob, and Jonah.

And I especially think of Moses and the Israelites. After several
generations of living in Egypt, the time finally came for them to leave
Egypt. It was a bold, radical step of faith. They were scared to death,
but somehow they mustered enough courage to venture out into the
unknown.

When they got to the edge of the wilderness and were surrounded by
an army on one side and a sea on the other, they regretted leaving.
They longed for the familiar place they knew!

Instead of going back, however (which was not an option anyway),
they crossed the Red Sea, but out there in the wilderness they failed
to trust and follow God by not entering the land God promised them.

Sending the spies
Before Moses and the Israelites entered
the promised land, they sent out a group of spies to check out the
land. The whole team saw how incredible the land was, but the majority
of them focused on the risks and challenges instead of God’s power to
deliver.

But two of them, Joshua and Caleb, were men of faith. They not only
saw the greatness of the land and the formidableness of the enemy, but
they also sensed that God was able to lead them into the future with
victory.

Unfortunately, Joshua and Caleb were not able to convince the
Israelites to act with faith on God’s promise. As result, they wandered
in the wilderness for 40 years. It was a whole generation later before
God’s people were able to act with faith.

What about us? What about now?
Will we act with faith? Will we enter the place God is leading us? Will we be like Joshua and Caleb?

I don’t know what the future holds for us, but whatever it is, I
hope we will act with faith, a passion to honor God, and a courage that
equals that of Joshua and Caleb’s.

We’re sending out our own group of "spies," to spy out God’s
frontiers. It’s scary. Some are holding onto the past; its all we’ve
known. It’s relatively safe and comfortable here. But what does God
have for us? Where is God leading us? That’s where we must go!

As for me, I’m going to follow God, wherever he leads. If that means
crossing the Jordan, I want to cross the Jordan, and I hope you follow
God, too. The alternative, it seems to me, is to die here in the
wilderness!

“But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24.14)