The Days Between

Psalm 130

A song of ascents.

1 Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord;
2     Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
    to my cry for mercy.

3 If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,
    Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
    so that we can, with reverence, serve you.

5 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
    and in his word I put my hope.
6 I wait for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning.

7 Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
    for with the Lord is unfailing love
    and with him is full redemption.
8 He himself will redeem Israel
    from all their sins.

Being the competitive person I am, I am always keeping a record of statistics in my head for various events in my life.  I have a tendency to dwell on the extremes, both good and bad.  I don’t really know why I am this way.  I am sure there is some deeper psychological understanding but it is just who I am.  For example, when I play softball, I remember the games where I played well and I remember the games that I played terribly.  When I rake hay, I remember the fields that looked really good when I got done and I remember some that did not look so hot.  I remember some of my really good sermons and I remember some of my really bad ones.  I remember the moments when I thought I did a great job parenting and I remember the times when I did not do very good at all.  I have played a lot of softball games that were average for me.  I have raked a lot of acres of hay that were done correctly.  I have given a lot of sermons that stirred some sort of movement by the Spirit.  I have a tendency to remember the extremes and I often forget about all the time between.  I am not very good at all about letting things go and I am thankful I serve a God who is nothing like me.  

Psalm 130 is called a lamenting Psalm and I think the word “lament” is somewhat lost on us today.  In the Old Testament, lamenting was a form of praise to God.  To lament means to passionately express grief or sorrow.  It does seem odd that expressing grief or sorrow is a form of worship.  Jerome Creach, a professor of Old Testament at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, says that, “Lament is a form of speech that allows the worshipper to complain about injustice and to call on God to hear the cries of those who suffer... Because lament is offered to one in covenant relationship, however, lament also is praise, and a very important expression of praise at that.  It gives evidence of faith worked out in the midst of hardship, hurt, and loss.”  That last line is the key: lamenting as a form of worship gives “...evidence of faith worked out in the midst of hardship, hurt and loss.”  Today, that is exactly what this town, this country, this world needs.  We are called to show others that through even the darkest of  times in our lives we can come together and stay strong in our faith.  For far too long we have believed and gave others the impression that God does keep a record of wrongs.  

“If you kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness so that we can, with reverence, serve you.”  The psalmist asks very plainly, who could stand before God if He kept a record of wrongs?  And yet we expect our fellow man to be near perfect?  We ask for credentials.  We wonder how on earth others deserve God’s love as I do?  Our expectations for one another are higher than they are for ourselves.  Griffin often wonders why he has to behave when others aren’t.  And then I sit there and judge that child’s parents and wonder why aren’t they doing something?  In that situation, I am the one who is wrong, not for making Griffin behave but for judging the other parent.  God should expect our best, just as we expect the best out of our children.  As a parent, I do everything within my power to raise our children in a way that guides them towards God and teaches them to respect one another.  I, of course, make mistakes but even in the midst of those mistakes, I get to see God’s forgiveness just as our children should know what it is like to be forgiven.  As a society, if we went out of our way to make others know what it was like to feel forgiven, we may accomplish more.  

“...Put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.”  God’s love never fails despite our thoughts to the contrary.  Because we do often keep a record of wrongs, we remember vividly the times we felt that God has failed us.  We remember the time we lost a loved one and the day we were baptized but what about the days between?  What about the daily struggles that God helped us conquer in the days between?  The point of the message today is that I want us to start seeing God in the days between.  The days between Sundays.  The days between tragedy and happiness.  The days between rich and poor.  The days between defeat and victory.  I want us to see God in the days between.  Put your hope in the Lord.  Lament.  Pray. Love.  

But, when God does not come through with the expected result after we lament, pray, place our hope, and love is when we are hurt the most.  It is at this point we think God no longer hears us.  When we feel our thoughts and prayers are falling on deaf ears is when we start to lose faith.  This morning, I want you to know, that no matter what, God hears you.  You may not have received the results you were seeking.  You still may be full of doubts and questions.  Keep asking them.  God’s unchanging, never ending love is the essence of who God is, and God’s power is precisely the power to redeem.  It is that redemption, not to be confused with justice, that we are so desperately after.  We often think that since negative event “X” happened to us that positive event “Y” should happen to balance things out.  That is not how God works.  He will redeem.  He will recover.  He will hear.  God is our companion in the days between.  Our relationship with God places us in fellowship with others who have suffered.  Our relationship with God places us in a church family that cares about us.  Fellowship with God places us into fellowship with others who have been through hardships with evidence of their faith still intact.  I relate it back to the story of Thomas.  Thomas’ biggest mistake wasn’t that he doubted the risen Christ.  It was that he had abandoned fellowship with the other disciples.  The biggest mistake we can make is not the doubts that surround us.  It is abandoning our fellowship with our church family.

Over the past several years, many have stopped their fellowship with their church families for any number of reasons.  The Church has had a tendency to blame God for this shift in society instead of looking inward.  The Church has maintained its relationship with God but has abandoned its fellowship with one another.  It has lost sight of God in the days between.  Even as a few in number we can change that.  We can show others that God is still listening.  We can show others that we keep no record of wrongs.  We can show others that there are people who care for them on the days between.  Amen.