A Song of Bitterness
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Invitation to Lent
Invitation to Lent
What is Lent about?
Introduction to Series
Psalms of Lament
Learning to be faithful to God through pain, suffering, and hardship
Repentance requires honesty first
Culture of dishonest joy and optimism
Covering up Despair
Covering up Despair
Historical Background of Ps 137
“Wept when we remembered Zion”
The source of Joy is now one of Despair
Death of a loved one
Realization that something is wrong or missing
“Sing a Song of Zion”
Culture of dishonest joy
Humiliation: pretend to be happy
Death, injury, trauma, etc. “Why are you still upset?” “Shouldn’t you be over it by now?”
Pressure to conform, pressure to forget, move on, put on a mask
Response, “We hung up our harps”
Israelites refuse to pretend
Israelites gave up on singing
Despair makes often makes us feel as if we’ll never be happy again.
“Time heals all wounds,” more often, time only makes wounds more bearable.
Sitting in the Dark with God
Sitting in the Dark with God
We must acknowledge what’s wrong. Being faithful to God means being truthful with him, not pretending things are happy when they are not.
Giving God our Hate
Giving God our Hate
“Dash their heads against the rocks”
This is not just with despair, but even the darkest movements of the heart such as hate.
How do we square with “love thy enemies?”
Cruciform Confession
Cruciform Confession
Christians cannot avoid the darkness. But we do always have someone to address in the midst of it.
Not only one to address, but one who is in the darkness with us.