A Psalm of Suffering

I’ve written of my comfort of walking among the granite stones of remembrance that remind us who are living….its just not a permanent condition. Cemeteries stir a connection from the past to remind us that, we too shall pass. In that moment…in the twitch of an eyelid, we move swiftly through the first death…a gift of Adam that all people of all time agree on whether you are agnostic, atheist, or higher power folks….This absolute of scripture no human can deny.

I am comfortable in black and white dicotemous spaces. It’s clarity and that feels settled.

No place does this powerful message hit me so dead center; as when I sit, leaning against an old gnarled tree and ponder my parent’s graves…and the granite marker that proves they were here and they were my people. It is this place where I encounter face-to-face the sacred. It is a safe place to reach deep…honestly facing who I am in the present and very palpable audience of those who left me a litany of legacy.

I can hear the psalms, the songs if you will, that magnify my memory, and even add clarity to the message given me then by those who loved me…that was not fully understood. A cemetery is a concert, an orchestra of music that is being sung in the presence of eternity.

I was recently in a training class, and the facilitator of the training (I called her professor, as it seemed to inspire her to an even greater desire to teach) asked us to share with the class our favorite song, as an ice breaker-an encouragement of participation.

Mine has been a song I’ve loved and claimed as my “All-Time Favorite Song” since I was a kid. I’ve heard a lot of great songs in my time on the planet….but this one without fail caused me to carefully pick up the needle and rest it on it’s vinyl start over and over again. Now I just have to hit the repeat button as often as I want to sing it aloud with CCR on my playlist.

“Have You Ever Seen The Rain,” by John Fogerty.

Yes…that’s the song that moves me. No real definition why…it just defines something in me.

The pastor this morning declared his big idea in sermonic dissertation as this: God makes Psalms Out Of Suffering.

David, the shepherd turned king, of Old Testament fame was a notable troubadour. He wrote the country ballads of ancient Israel. The Psalms are replete with the words of David’s heart songs…. many of which were cries of despair, followed by praise for redemption.

In Psalm 22, this pattern holds true. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from helping me?” Read it and you’ll see more.

But later in the Psalm, David writes; after all the variations of “ my dog died, my truck won’t start, my girl left me, I’m so lonesome I could cry…”: “You have answered me!”

You HAVE (past tense, declarative) answered me!

Wait, David just wrote regarding his being and mood and circumstance all being regarded as the “dust of death.” And the next sentence out of his mouth is, “You have answered me.”

For several years, I’ve been wandering in a desert (of my own making) that has, as David describes, been filled with words of groaning, loneliness in grief and despair. Feeling shut out from God’s presence. Understanding what that perceived silence from God feels like.

“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it has melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue clings to my jaws; You have brought me to the dust of death.” The desert of desperation!

“You have answered me!”

In real estate sales we called this successful manifestation of future success: the assumptive close. It hasn’t happened, yet, but your experience (trust) speaks to assured reality.

“Therefore (v.22 of Psalm 22), I will declare Your name to my brethren, in the midst of the assembly, I will praise You!”

You see…the Psalm of suffering is the Psalm of declarative exuberant praise in the moment and speaks for evermore.

David closes his country song with the chorus that makes you hit the repeat button:

“A posterity shall serve Him. It will be recounted by the Lord…to the next generation, they will come and declare His righteousness to the next generation. They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He has done this.” (Psalm 22: 30-31).

I sit at my father’s grave, reminded of his legacy to me…

And I can here his favorite Psalm-song of suffering unto trustworthy redemption. Song of praise…..mind you…an orchestra of heavenly worship….the combined assembly of sacred songs of praise.

I leave Stark cemetery with renewed purpose, with a reinvigored passion of trust…a message for those who will be born. Trust God! He will give you a Psalm.