The Storm Of Dissapointment Series

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.”.