Message
Psalm 77:7-12
The Storm of Disappointment
There is a phrase that we can use sometimes that brings with it a high level of emotional response – and can create real questions and real hurt.
The phrase is I am so disappointed.
It may be a disappointment with others
We thought a relationship was developing … but it was full of empty promises.
We had expectations that were not met … and now we are broken.
I’m sure you can put your example here.
That is one area of disappointment.
Another area of disappointment is the disappointment in yourself because of your you know you have let others
Disappointment over your response towards a loved one.
Feeling that we have let our own character standards down.
An example from your own life quickly comes to mind.
These disappointments do bring storms, even big storms. However I would suggest that the biggest “disappointment storm” comes in the place where we are experiencing disappointment with God.
I’m thinking of those events happen in life which cause us to question what God is doing.
Why do I feel so much under pressure from God?
Those times when the activities or decisions of God make you upset … at God.
And if the issue was just … that is how I feel … well maybe we should swallow our feelings and put up with it.
But it isn’t just how we feel. Scripture …
… God’s inspired Word.
… the record of God’s interactions with his people through history.
Scripture records times and emotions and responses when people express a disappointment with God.
1 Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
2 I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.
3 I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.
Psalm 69:1-3
I am drowning in the depth of the difficulty I am going through. It is a deep flood. I have no hope of rescuing myself. I am surround by water so can drink to quench my thirst. But I have called out so much that my throat has gone dry. And God … you are nowhere to be seen.
No footprints in the sand. No still quiet voice. No rescue team. Nothing except a deep flood.
13 I cry to you for help, Lord; in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 Why, Lord, do you reject me and hide your face from me?
15 From my youth I have suffered and been close to death; I have borne your terrors and am in despair.
16 Your wrath has swept over me; your terrors have destroyed me.
17 All day long they surround me like a flood; they have completely engulfed me.
18 You have taken from me friend and neighbour—darkness is my closest friend.
Psalm 88:13-18
I wake up and my morning devotion - that action which I do before anything else - in my morning devotion I am praying. I’m committed to you God; I’ve been committed since I was a youth.
But it seems that my whole life has been a struggle.
Despairing. Overwhelmed. Destroyed.
You are meant to be light … a lamp … the friend who walks close.
Where does it end? In the Hebrew version of this Psalm the last word is “darkness”.
“God you are not my friend … my friend is darkness”.
14 Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
15 Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, “A child is born to you—a son!”
16 May that man be like the towns the Lord overthrew without pity. May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle cry at noon.
17 For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever.
18 Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?
Jeremiah 20:14-18
All Jeremiah has been doing is to be faithful to God … a faithful prophet.
In the process of being faithful Jeremiah’s authority and ministry has continually been questioned. He has been accused of being a false prophet. He has been locked in stocks and ridiculed.
Even after this text Jeremiah will be threatened with death and left to die in a cistern.
Job is doing God’s work faithfully. Job has been set apart as a holy servant.
Yet, the challenges have been so great -- and God’s care of him at that time has not been what he expected -- that Jeremiah basically says “I wish I had never been born.”.
6 Know that God has wronged me and drawn his net around me.
7 “Though I cry, ‘Violence!’ I get no response; though I call for help, there is no justice.
8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; he has shrouded my paths in darkness.
9 He has stripped me of my honour and removed the crown from my head.
10 He tears me down on every side till I am gone; he uproots my hope like a tree.
11 His anger burns against me; he counts me among his enemies.
Job 19:6-11
These are the words of Job. And because we know the wider context …
The context being that Satan has asked to test Job, with both God and Satan admitting that Job has done nothing wrong …
Because we know that context we have large sympathy for what Job is saying.
It does feel as if God has wronged him.
There is a real sense of admitting that God has been acting in a way that looks like he is treating Job as an enemy. Job is upset at God, and it seems that Job has a real case here.
Disappointment with God. That is what all these verses are expressing.
They are calling God to task, “I thought we had a deal, God. Why are these bad things happening?”
They are pointing the finger at God, “My life is caving in. It's not fair."
They want answers, “God I am upset. It is time to explain Yourself”.
And we know how they feel don’t we … because most of us have been there at some point.
Why do I have to struggle financially when I work so hard?
What was the point of being in a situation where I suffered abuse?
Where are You when I feel so alone and afraid?
When the significant people in my life abandoned me where were You?
Why do the people I love have to suffer so much?
Why isn’t my life sacrifice for you God sufficient?
Where is your help?
What is the point?
How can You possibly put me in this situation?
When will it end?
… …
You put your questions here. Your disappointment.
That thing where you end up in this really difficult space.
It is difficult because of the relationship.
When you are upset … and disappointed … and hurt by something you have done you can ask for God’s help to forgive yourself.
When you are upset … and disappointed … and hurt by others because of something they have done you can ask for God’s help bring restoration.
When we feel upset … and disappointed … and hurt by God … what do we do?
Let’s read from Psalm 77:7-12
7 ‘Will the Lord reject for ever? Will he never show his favour again?
8 Has his unfailing love vanished for ever? Has his promise failed for all time?
9 Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?’
That is the storm of disappointment
10 Then I thought, ‘To this I will appeal: the years when the Most High stretched out his right hand.
11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
12 I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.’
That is the storm breaker
When we feel upset … and disappointed … and hurt by God … what do we do?
We trust in the timing of God
Part of our difficulty in living on this earth is that we only have a limited perspective.
We have the past … our own past which at the most we can remember back 90 years … and even then we forget so much! And we have the present moment.
That is our timing. God has it all past … present … future.
God has full memory of it all past … present … future.
Think back over the past 10 years of your life.
Can you bring to mind a situation, or event, that at the time seemed hopeless and where you felt let down by God. With the capacity to see over 10 years, has your perspective on what God was doing at that time changed? Changed from disappointment with God to thankfulness for what God has done?
At the time we may have felt let down by God. But today … isn’t there joy? Is there answers? Isn’t there hope and security? God doesn’t forget us … ever … but his plans work themselves out in ways that do require patient trust.
Let’s go back to Psalm 88.
1 Lord, you are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to you.
9 I call to you, Lord, every day; I spread out my hands to you.
13 I cry to you for help, Lord; in the morning my prayer comes before you.
When we feel upset … and disappointed … and hurt by God … what do we do?
We keep coming to God in patient prayer
Psalm 88 ends with darkness. But the darkness has not caused the relationship to stop.
Heman is the author of this Psalm … and despite how he is feeling Heman just keeps coming back to God.
Which is the opposite of what commonly happens. Commonly what happens is we shut down, and withdraw, and keep silent, and stop communicating. Why bother if God is not listening? Why bother if God doesn’t care? But where does that keep us? It keeps us in the dark, doesn’t it.
But crying out to God takes us out of the dark.
And who is Heman?
Let me read 1 Kings 4:29 which is talking about the wisdom of Solomon. (Solomon) was wiser than any other man including Ethan the Ezrahite —wiser than Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol.
Heman was in the dark, but didn’t stay there. People used Heman to get an idea of the wisdom of Solomon in the early career of Solomon. You can’t be in the dark and get that recognition.
When you don’t understand what God is doing keep crying out. The dark will end.
Let’s go back to Jeremiah
7 I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me.
8 … the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long.
10 … All my friends are waiting for me to slip
11 But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior;
When we feel upset … and disappointed … and hurt by God … what do we do?
We remember that the silence in difficulty does not mean God has forgotten us.
Even in the mocking, insult and reproach … the Lord is the warrior.
The Lord has power and control and sovereignty.
And we kind of expect God to use His power and control and sovereignty to make our lives … well to make it easier and smoother.
But that is not Christianity. Here are just a few verses.
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
John 16:33
We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.
Acts 14:22
Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory.
Rom 8:17
When disappointments in life come it is so easy to act as if God has somehow forgotten us or that He is silent and doesn’t care. But God never promised it would be easy. It has never been like that.
Ezekiel 14:14 defines Noah Daniel and Job as righteous men. Noah suffered by watching all humanity … except 8 … die. Daniel suffered constant treats … including the lions’ den. Job’s suffering is very well known.
The disciples … all of them were martyred except John.
David is described as a “man after God’s own heart”. God spoke with Moses as “one friend speaks to another”. Paul is one the greatest apostles. Yet each one of these people’s lives are filled with disappointment … disappoint which could be traced directly to God.
Noah. Daniel. Job. Paul. David. Moses. The 11 disciples. These are the big names in biblical history. If anyone deserved to be protected from disappointment and hurt and being upset you would think it would be these people. Yet they are not.
That’s because, when God looks at our lives – our lives now at the moment – when God looks at our lives it isn’t His priority to make our lives easy and smooth.
His ultimate goal is for us to understand that we have a place in His plan.
Sometimes our place looks messy … but there is an ultimate purpose.
Which brings us back to Job.
25 I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;
27 I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!
Job 19:25-26
When we feel upset … and disappointed … and hurt by God … what do we do?
We bring to mind the eternal perspective.
In the very same chapter where Job wishes he has not been born …
In that same chapter he gives a confession of faith.
Despite how he feels. Despite what he has been through.
Despite the confusion and doubt and harsh words spoken to God.
Despite all that Job knows … in the end ultimately Job knows that his eternal days are in God’s eternal care. God will come through and Job will see God for eternity.
Redemption trumps disappointment every single time.
Death - life. Angels - demons. Present - future. Powers - height - depth
Nothing … nothing in all creation … will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Not even those times when we are ticked off with God and tell him.
We will see. We will be at peace. We will be secure.
When you feel upset … and disappointed … and hurt by God … what do you do?
Trust in the timing of God
Keep coming to God in patient prayer
Know that God’s silence in difficulty does not mean God has forgotten us.
Remember the eternal perspective.
Don’t let what is going on in front of your eyes.
… what you see.
… what you feel.
… what you experience.
Don’t let this become your ultimate reality … or your identity … or your worldview.
For our reality … identity … worldview … they all sit under our relationship with Jesus.
And in Jesus you can know that the storm of disappointment will break.
Prayer
