Saints In The Complaint Department Series

It is always a shock when an innocent little child all of the sudden lets loose with a swear word, or

some other sort of vulgar language. We are startled because we had no idea the pollution of the

world had seeped into their little mind. We have the same emotion when we read the Bible, and all of

the sudden we are hearing unbelievable words of doubt, despair, and all kinds of negative language

of complaint. It is the Holy Bible, and yet, the language at times sounds like it is coming from the

gutter of unbelief. It is like a sweet little innocent 4 year old talking like a pimp.

The Psalms are especially loaded with language that our Western ears find shocking and

inappropriate. The concept of praising God by means of complaining and gripping is one we cannot

grasp very easily. Yet, we cannot really value many of the Psalms unless we learn to enter into the

Hebrew understanding of emotions and worship. If I write a song to sing in our service that went like

this:

Lord you just don't seem to care,

And you don't answer my prayer.

I'm feeling so low and in despair,

Because life is so very unfair.

You would think its been too long since my last vacation, and you would recommend I get away and

rest my weary mind. But the fact is, this kind of blues song was sung in the temple on a regular basis.

The Jews were really into the blues. They sung about how they really felt, and they often felt down.

It was a Jewish conviction that all emotions should be expressed, and none should be suppressed.

They did not leave any feelings out of their songs just because they were negative feelings. If they

felt hate, they sang about hate. If they felt depressed, they sang about depression. If they felt

God-forsaken, they sang about it, or if they felt God was not being fair, they sang their complaints to

Him. They sang how they felt, and they felt all the emotions, good and bad, and so they are all in

their Psalms.

It is hard for us to buy into this. We prefer to sing only the positive feelings, and go to therapy to

deal with the negative ones. The Jews had no therapists, and so they had to bring all their feelings to

God. God was the one they had to deal with to have mental health. They had to get all their negative

feelings out before God. They had to lay all the cards on the table, and be open and completely

honest before God.

Only a secure people can feel free to complain to God and sing about it in worship, or confront

God with their complaints in prayer. This sounds to us like being a rebel child, but the Psalms make

it clear that it can be the way of the secure child that knows he or she is loved even if they do not

understand God's ways, and tell Him so. The more intimate the relationship, the more likely one

feels free to complain without loss of love. Children develop bad feelings toward their parents, and

will on occasion blast out with words like I hate you, or your way of doing things stinks, I wish I had

been born to other parents. You can respond to these negative thoughts with a whip, or you can say,

I'm glad you could be honest with your feelings. Let's talk about them, and see why you feel that

way.

Freedom of expression is a key way to keep a family sensitive to each other, and it can prevent

long range resentments. This does not mean that it is healthy to be ever complaining and shouting

nasty words, but it means that there is a legitimate place for complaining and communicating

negative emotions in the family. A gripe session is not out of line for a Christian family. It was not

out of line for God's people even in church, for they knew how to praise God even in complaining.

Psalm 77 is one of these negative complaint type Psalms, and Asaph, who was apparently gifted at

lamenting and complaining, has a whole series of pessimistic questions in verses 7 through 9.

1. Will the Lord reject us forever?

2. Will He never show His favor again?

3. Has His unfailing love vanished forever?

4. Has His promise failed for all time?

5. Has God forgotten to be merciful?

6. Has He in anger withheld His compassion?

How is that for a half dozen depressing thoughts for the day? Asaph is obviously not very high on

the reading list for positive thinkers. He is the patron saint of the pessimists. It would be fascinating