Psalm 88:1-18
“The Storm of Disappointment
There is a phrase that we can use sometimes. It is a phrase which 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 feel hurt and broken.
A person has behaved in a way that makes us feel dismissed.
You can put your example here.
Another area of disappointment is the disappointment in yourself because YOU KNOW you have let others
Disappointment over your response towards a loved one.
Feeling that we have let our own character standards down.
Examples from your own life quickly comes to mind.
Disappointment with others.
Disappointment with ourselves.
These disappointments can bring big storms into our lives.
However, I would suggest that the biggest “disappointment storm” is the storm which comes when we are disappointed with God.
Now, we might think, you can’t tell God that you are disappointed with Him.
Actually we can.
In fact, the Scriptures have many examples of people who expressed their disappointment with God. One of these is Psalm 88.
A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah. For the director of music. According to mahalath leannoth. A maskil by Heman the Ezrahite.
1 LORD, You are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to You.
2 May my prayer come before You; turn Your ear to my cry.
3 I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like one without strength.
5 I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom You remember no more, who are cut off from Your care.
6 You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths.
7 Your wrath lies heavily on me; You have overwhelmed me with all Your waves.
8 You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them.
I am confined and cannot escape; 9 my eyes are dim with grief.
I call to You, LORD, every day; I spread out my hands to You.
10 Do You show Your wonders to the dead?
Do their spirits rise up and praise You?
11 Is Your love declared in the grave, Your faithfulness in Destruction?
12 Are Your wonders known in the place of darkness, or Your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?
13 But 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.
In the Hebrew the last word of the Psalm is “darkness”
18 You have taken from me friend and neighbour—
my closest friend—is darkness.
Heman is disappointed with God.
Such a deep disappointment that it is darkness.
This is a pretty heavy Psalm.
And it is not the only time the Scriptures give us a record of someone expressing disappointment with God.
Psalm 69:3 … written by David the King
3 I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched.
My eyes fail, looking for my God.
I’m calling out to You God, but You are not showing up.
Psalm 77:7-9 … written by Asaph. If you were here last week you may remember that Asaph was a chief musician in the temple.
7 Will the LORD reject forever? Will He never show His favour again?
8 Has His unfailing love vanished forever? Has His promise failed for all time?
9 Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has He in anger withheld His compassion?
God you are failing to do Your job.
Jeremiah 20:18 … Jeremiah is a prophet.
18 Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?
Jeremiah constantly faces ridicule and persecution. And he gets to a point where he feels that God’s care and protection is not at the level Jeremiah expects. So Jeremiah basically says to God “I wish I had never been born.”
David. Asaph Jeremiah.
All these men are mature servants of God.
All these men have a long deep spiritual journey with God.
Even so … all these men found themselves in the storm of disappointment God.
And joining them in Psalm 88 is Heman the Ezrahite.
It is the only Psalm in the Psalter that has Heman’s name.
Who is Heman the Ezrahite?
1 Kings 4:31 says
31 Solomon was wiser than anyone else, including Ethan the Ezrahite—wiser than Heman, Kalkol and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame spread to all the surrounding nations.
Admittedly Solomon was wiser than Heman. But these verses are trying to give people an understanding of how wise Solomon was by using a comparison to Heman. So, when it comes to being wise, Heman is no slouch.
In 1 Chronicles 15 we have a list of people who were appointed by David to work in the tabernacle. Here is a small description of those personnel.
16 David told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their fellow Levites as musicians to make a joyful sound with musical instruments: lyres, harps and cymbals.
… …
19 The musicians Heman, Asaph and Ethan were to sound the bronze cymbals;
1 Chronicles 15:16, 19
Heman’s sons are also in ministry. 1 Chronicles 25:1, 4-5
1 David, together with the commanders of the army, set apart some of the sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals.
… …
4 Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shubael and Jerimoth; Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti and Romamti-Ezer; Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir and Mahazioth. 5 (All these were sons of Heman the king’s seer. They were given him through the promises of God to exalt him. God gave Heman fourteen sons and three daughters.)
17 children given because of a direct promise of God, and all his sons are in ministry.
Heman the wise chief worship leader who sounded the bronze cymbals in the tabernacle and, later, the temple.
Heman has so much spiritual blessing in his life.
And still
… like David … and Asaph … and Jeremiah
… still Heman finds himself in the storm that comes with being disappointed with God.
Now let’s imagine you are in the carpark of the church.
Or welcoming at the door.
Or sitting with someone at church coffee.
And you are talking with them, and you say to them, “How are you going?”
Imagine if their response was …
4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit.
… …
5 God cut me off from His care.
… …
8 God has made me repulsive to my closest friends.
… …
18 Darkness is my closest friend.
Imagine if that happened.
… …
Would it even happen?
Obviously, there is the issue of having an environment where people feel safe to be this vulnerable. But let’s take that aside for the moment and focus on ourselves.
When we are in those places where we are disappointed with God – would we actually say it? Would we be as spiritually honest as Heman?
Or would we be more inclined to hide the reality that we are disappointed with God?
We pretend it is not happening.
We don’t want to hang out what we think is dirty spiritual laundry.
We keep the spiritual masks on.
We are not honest with others. We may not even be honest with ourselves.
If you were disappointed with God … or perhaps right now you are disappointed with God.
More likely than not we will hide that reality and not be honest.
Why do we do it?
A big part of the issue is because, somewhere along the line, we have taken on board an-written rule.
A rule that goes something like, “Believers shouldn’t feel, and certainly they shouldn’t express, their disappointment with God.”
Heman could have done that – feel that he shouldn’t express his disappointment with God. Especially in his situation.
He is known for his wisdom. He is David’s personal seer.
He is a high-ranking worship leader in the tabernacle.
His 14 sons all have a ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, and lyres and cymbals.
What are people going to think when they read this Psalm?
What are his sons going to think? Dad’s all talk and not action.
What about his fellow worship leaders … all those who are accountable to Heman?
Heman has every reason to hide the truth of the dark emotions because
… well
… believers shouldn’t have these thoughts.
… and spiritual leaders definitely shouldn’t have these thoughts.
Heman could have talked himself into pretending, and keeping the mask on.
But He doesn’t. Instead, He is inspired by God to write a Psalm.
Psalm 88.
This is not just Heman’s Song. This is God’s Word.
In Old Testament Times heaps of people wrote songs.
The Levites would write and sing songs.
1 Kings 4:32 tells us that Solomon wrote 1005 songs.
There were plenty of songs available at the time and through the centuries.
But, only 150 of those songs were placed by God in the book of Psalms.
One of those being Psalm 88.
Heman’s one hit wonder.
God could have looked at this song and gone, “Sorry it doesn’t make the cut”. And we would never know anything about this Psalm.
God could have looked at the content of this Psalm and gone, “I don’t want people talking to Me like that.” If that was the case Psalm 88 … those parts of the other Psalms which express disappointment with God.
None of those would be in the Scriptures.
But that isn’t what happened.
What did happen is that God … in His sovereign power and authority.
… God made sure that Psalm 88 is included in His Scriptures.
God Himself is saying to us through this Psalm, “Be completely honest … even when you are disappointed in Me.”
God Himself wants us … encourages us … to remove the pretend. To get out from behind the masks.
God is not going to be offended by our honesty. God invites our honesty.
Why does God act in this way? God does this because God wants us to know that
… even in our darkest moments.
… the darkness which comes when we are feeling disappointed with God.
… even then God wants us to communicate with Him because, ultimately, He is the answer to our problems.
For Heman
– even as he spoke about his disappointment with God.
– for Heman … even He realised that God was the answer.
The Psalm ends in darkness.
But that doesn’t mean Heman has given up on God.
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 But I cry to You for help, LORD; in the morning my prayer comes before You.
Day and night. Every day. In the morning.
Heman still has a vibrant, regular, consistent relationship with God.
Even in the disappointment and darkness Heman knows that God is the answer.
That God is the One we go to when we want to move beyond the darkness.
Yes it is true that the Psalmist is going through a really rough time. And it is also true that he has many doubts and questions. But Heman has not allowed this situation to stop him from coming before God in hope.
That was the case for Heman.
That is the case, even more so for us who now read Psalm 88 through the lens of the cross of Calvary.
The end of the testimony may be “darkness” – but that darkness still does not make it impossible for Jesus to work in our lives. John 1:1, 4-5 says
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
That is Jesus.
4 In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Jesus shines in the darkness.
The darkness cannot overcome. The darkness can never overcome.
The darkness is defeated.
The darkness is powerless.
The darkness does not have the final word.
Jesus has the final word.
There is no darkness that is so dark that God in Christ cannot bring His light.
That is what we have when we are in Jesus.
So …
… as those who are in Jesus.
… and those who are also in the darkness which comes with the storm of being disappointed in God.
… we keep coming.
Crying out … even when that cry is “God where are You?”
Day and night … even when the prayer is “I feel that You have put me in the deepest depths.”
Coming when overwhelmed.
Coming with the questioning.
Coming when we are wondering if God has forgotten.
We keep coming
… without pretend.
… without the masks.
Honest before God.
That is the storm breaker – whenever we find ourselves in the storm of disappointment with God.
Prayer
