When Darkness Is My Only Friend
Introduction
Warning: I want to build your faith, but my first point of this sermon is a real downer.
The book of Psalms is filled with desperate prayers. There are personal laments and corporate laments. It is in these that the psalmists express their frustrations, fears, protests, and complaints to the God that they are in a relationship with. As we saw in our last lesson, the majority of them end on a high note. They move from lament to praise. They may be filled with complaint, but in the end, they say things like, "But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me" (Psalm 13:5-6 NIV). All except for two: Psalm 39 and Psalm 88. They do not end on a word of hope. Psalm 39 asks God to stop looking at the psalmist. It is a cry of desperation and isolation. The psalmist just wants to escape from the entire world. This evening we are going to look at Psalm 88. The word darkness shows up three times in Psalm 88. It is clearly the theme. In fact, in Hebrew, the last word of the Psalm is darkness. "And my only friend is darkness."
You might ask why a prayer like this one is found in the Bible? Timothy Keller suggests a number of reasons that it is here, and there may be many more. Tonight we are going to talk about four of them. Here they are:
1. Darkness can be something that lasts a long time for a Christian.
2. There is no better place to learn about the grace of God than in the dark times.
3. There is no better place to become a person of greatness than in dark times.
4. Darkness can be relativized.
Psalm 88 (CSB)
A Cry of Desperation
A song. A psalm of the sons of Korah. For the choir director: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
1 Lord, God of my salvation,I cry out before you day and night.2 May my prayer reach your presence;listen to my cry.
3 For I have had enough troubles,and my life is near Sheol.4 I am counted among those going down to the Pit.I am like a man without strength,5 abandoned among the dead.I am like the slain lying in the grave,whom you no longer remember,and who are cut off from your care.
6 You have put me in the lowest part of the Pit,in the darkest places, in the depths.7 Your wrath weighs heavily on me;you have overwhelmed me with all your waves. Selah8 You have distanced my friends from me;you have made me repulsive to them.I am shut in and cannot go out.9 My eyes are worn out from crying.Lord, I cry out to you all day long;I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you work wonders for the dead?Do departed spirits rise up to praise you? Selah11 Will your faithful love be declared in the grave,your faithfulness in Abaddon?12 Will your wonders be known in the darknessor your righteousness in the land of oblivion?
13 But I call to you for help, Lord;in the morning my prayer meets you.14 Lord, why do you reject me?Why do you hide your face from me?15 From my youth,I have been suffering and near death.I suffer your horrors; I am desperate.16 Your wrath sweeps over me;your terrors destroy me.17 They surround me like water all day long;they close in on me from every side.18 You have distanced loved one and neighbor from me;darkness is my only friend.
1. Darkness Can Be Something That Lasts A Long Time
He is praying and trusting God as Savior. The beautiful thing about the Psalter is that it encourages us to bring everything to God in prayer. This psalm is the perfect example of talking to God about it all. There is no other place to go. There is no other God to Whom we may bring our prayers. There is no one else to hear.
1 Lord, God of my salvation,I cry out before you day and night.2 May my prayer reach your presence;listen to my cry.
There are two kinds of darkness. Outer darkness and inner darkness. The psalmist seems to be facing death. He mentions Sheol, the pit, the dead, Abaddon, and darkness and complains that he is near them. His outward circumstances are difficult. He may be physically sick. But, he is also experiencing inner darkness.
You can be a Christian and experience darkness for a long time. The Bible does not tell us how long Job's trial was. There are moments in our lives where we experience difficulty after difficulty as life rolls. There are transitional moments in our lives that can bring about darkness. Sometimes it is as our children grow up. when we experience an unwanted divorce, sickness, aging parents, or the death of a loved one. It may be a shift in the political scheme or economic hardships. But the reality of life is that sometimes things are hard for a long time.
I know it's a downer, but... it is also a mercy.
If you have ever seen the movie The Princess Bride, there is a quote that Wesley makes to the princess right before she discovers that he is alive. He says,
"Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something."
The Bible is not selling something. Christianity is real. The Bible is real. There are real miracles, and real deliverance, but...
Success in our Christian walk has to do with our expectations. Sometimes people think that when they become Christians that now everything will be perfect, but... the very first Christian, the Lord Jesus Christ, was rejected, suffered, and died. A servant is not above his master.
There is a promise found in Scripture that you do not have to ask God for. You don't have to claim it or stand upon it. It just flows toward us. Jesus said that "in this life, you will have tribulation" (John 16:33). When we have a realistic view of life we will lower our expectations. I am not speaking doubt to you. But, realizing that life is not always going to turn out the way we plan can help us not to backslide and live an erratic life that moves around from place to place, job to job, relationship to relationship, church to church in hopes that we will find the perfection that we are looking for. There are dark times in life, and you can stay a Christian and walk through the dark times.
Not only is this Psalm a downer, but it is also merciful to us. God placed it in His Word for the purpose of helping us realize that event the sheroes and heroes of the faith, the writers of Scripture had moments where life just didn't work out as they thought it should. That is merciful. What would it be like if we only read about perfect lives in the Bible? We would be certain that we were doing everything wrong, wouldn't we?
Being realistic is merciful.
2. There Is No Better Place to Learn About the Grace of God than in the Darkness
10 Do you work wonders for the dead?Do departed spirits rise up to praise you? Selah11 Will your faithful love be declared in the grave,your faithfulness in Abaddon?12 Will your wonders be known in the darknessor your righteousness in the land of oblivion?
Some of the Psalm is sarcastic. The psalmist asks, how am I going to do your will if I am dead? Who is going to experience att of your Glory if I am gone?
Answer me, God!
He is exaggerating.
15 From my youth,I have been suffering and near death.
He is probably speaking in hyperbole. He is asking, when will this ever end?
Then he ends with, darkness is my closest friend. In essence, he is saying, God, darkness is a better friend than you are right now. It is the only companion I have left. Earlier in the psalm he speaks of social isolation, there is no one he can talk to, not God, not another human being.
Why is this Psalm in the Bible? It is like the final verse of Psalm 39, "Turn your faith away from me O God so that I can get a little peace."
Tim Keller quoted this that I think is so relevant:
"The very presence of these prayers in Scripture is a witness to God's understanding. God knows how men speak when they are desperate."
The fact that God put these prayers in the Psalter is a testimony to God's understanding and identification with those of us that pray this way sometimes. God is saying to us collectively, and to each of you individually, "I am the God of this man even though he is not getting it right, I am a God of grace."
I have learned way more about the grace of God in the dark times than in prosperity. I have learned way more about God in the moments of my brokenness and disorientation than in my moments when there was smooth sailing. His grace is sufficient in our weakness. It is perfected there.
Whatever darkness you are experiencing right now, God's grace is there! Where sin abounds grace much more abounds! It is in the darkness that the light shines the brightest!
3. There is no better place to become a person of greatness than in dark times
He is saying all kinds of things he shouldn't be saying, but he is saying them to God. Can I say that again, he is saying tons of things that sound scary when you think about them, but He is saying them to the right Person. If you can't tell God about it, who can you tell?
It's a lot like the book of Job. Satan accuses God and Job. He says that God and Job have a transactional relationship. Job does not love God for God's Self. If God will take away all of Job's stuff then Job will curse God to His Face. The adversary questioned whether or not Job loved God for God.
Satan does not just say that about Job, but about you and I. There is a very real spiritual battle that surrounds us on a daily basis.
How did Job honor God? He was praying. He never turned away from God. He stayed with God when he was getting nothing out of it. Which means Satan is defeated.
During Job's trial, he kept talking to God. When you read the things that Job said, they are not unlike the things that the writer of this psalm says. Job curses the day he was born, he welcomes the darkness to surround him and hide him. He talks about his eye being consumed with grief. But, he keeps talking to God. We sing songs about what we consider the noble or good parts of Job's speech. We sing, "I know my Redeemer liveth..." We quote, "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away, blessed be the Name of the LORD..." But, there is a whole lot that Job says in the middle of the book. And he says it to God. At the end of Job's story, God has been pleased with what Job has said. Don't think that you can't bring your complaints or protests to God. The way to become a person of greatness is to keep talking to God, even in the darkness.
The man in the Psalm was still talking to God.
When you serve God despite what may be ahead it will turn you into a person of greatness.
Are we serving God and loving Him or ourselves. It makes us solid when we choose to serve him.
I don't like the dark times. I don't wish for them, for me, or for you. But the reality of human life is that there are going to be moments when life just isn't what we wished it would be. And it is in those moments when God often does His best work if we just keep talking to Him.
As Jesus hung on the cross, He kept talking. When the darkness covered the earth, He kept talking.
4. Darkness can be relativized.
The psalmist believes that his darkness is absolute, not temporary. He was saying God, you're not here.
But we know that God was there for him. His suffering was relative. God cannot be absent from us when we keep talking to Him.
The psalmist was a man named Heman. In 1 Chronicles 6, he was the leader of the Korathite group who wrote many of the psalms. If you peruse the Psalter you will find two sections where there are groups of psalms from the Korahthites (the 40s and 80s). These were the descendants of Korah who died in his rebellion against the LORD and Moses. Heman wrote many of the Psalms. He has helped millions of people. His works have been read and reread, over and over again. We are preaching specifically about a psalm that he composed right now. Through his suffering, he was being turned into a great artist.
He did not know what God was doing when God was doing it. He could not see it, but we can. God was there. God was working. God is with you. God loves you.
At the end of Psalm 39, God's face is turned away. At the end of Psalm 88 darkness is the only friend the psalmist knows. It sounds a lot like Matthew 26. Remember that the Psalter is a Messianic book.
The Lord Jesus received what Heman thought he had received. Only Jesus was completely abandoned by all. In Matthew 26, the Jewish nation and their leaders come against the Lord Jesus, his friends abandon Him. They cannot even pray with him for one hour without falling asleep on the most intense day of His Life. And on the cross, only He was the One who experienced darkness as the only friend left. Jesus experienced ultimate abandonment from all relationships. In the mystery of the Incarnation, He experienced the true abandonment of God so that you and I would not have to.
His cry of dereliction as He hung there in the darkness is from another Psalm, Psalm 22:1. "My God, My God why have you forsaken Me?" Jesus experienced our death for us!
On a life, I did not live and upon a death, I did not die, I stake my whole eternity!
He will not abandon us. He will never leave you nor forsake you. He is with you always, even to the end of the age. He is Jehovah-Shammah, the LORD is there.
Do you remember that sarcastic question that Heman asked? Will the dead rise up and praise You?
Yes! There is a resurrection! Nothing that the resurrection will not cure. Earth has no sorrow that heaven can't heal! Jesus experienced death for us and with us, he experienced the grave and the place of the dead for us and with us, but He did not stay in the grave. He is alive! Darkness can be relativized!
Michael Wilcock
This darkness can happen to a believer. It doesn't mean you're lost. This darkness can happen to someone who does not deserve it. After all, it happened to Jesus. It doesn't mean you have strayed. This darkness can happen at any time as long as this world lasts, because only in the next world will such things be done away with. This darkness can happen without you knowing why, but there are answers, there is a purpose and eventually you will know it.
Conclusion and exhortation
1. Darkness can be something that lasts a long time for a Christian.
2. There is no better place to learn about the grace of God than in the dark times.
3. There is no better place to become a person of greatness than in dark times.
4. Darkness can be relativized.
It is okay to tell the LORD about the darkness in our lives. He understands! But, always try to add the cross into the mix.
One final thought. Don't let others who are suffering, suffer alone. If someone is in a place of disorientation, make it a point to be with them. This was Jesus's example. He spent time with the broken, the sick, the leper, those bound by sin. If you are going to see others come out of the darkness you have to be with them where they are.
For The Road:
Read Psalm110 and meditate on it throughout the week. What do you hear God saying to you through its words? How did Jesus and the writers of the New Testament use it?
