Remember these are only notes so don't expect good grammar or even good spelling. Also remember that British spelling is not the same as American spelling.

Musings in Two Moods

Question to his soul (Psalm 42 and 43):

`Why art thou cast down my soul?'

This week Psalm 77. Here too he is feeling low.

People who think deeply about life, themselves, God, human concerns, will experience different moods.

•       Sadness/grief and deep joy and everything in between.

•       Place for grief and joy.

•       Blessed are they that mourn.

More sincere and passionate - the more strongly will they sense these feelings.

Danger that sadness will turn to depression, and further danger that we can be locked into it.

Even religion can make it worse - if it is wrong kind of religion.

Writer of this psalm us suffering from depression and nervous exhaustion:

Ps 77:3      I remembered you, O God, and I groaned; I mused, and my spirit grew faint. Selah (NIV)

Also Faith and hope:

Ps 77:12

12     I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. (NIV)

All who have known the enveloping pressure of a dark mood can be grateful for the candour of this fellow sufferer and also for his courage.

Psalms: Human and Divine.

•       First part of Psalm `I' - concentrating on himself.

•       At the end `I' has disappeared.

•        Facts of God have captured his attention.

It is necessary for us to `examine ourselves' - `test our consciences'

but we must not be obsessed by self examination.

leads to depression or despair.

•       `Am I happy?' - lose happiness.

•       Does God's peace fill my heart? - forfeit you peace.

•       Am I holy enough for God? lose true holiness.

•       Is my faith strong enough? - weaken your faith.

Asaph is experiencing darkness of spirit.

Ps 77:14

1       I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me.

2       When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands and my soul refused to be comforted.

3       I remembered you, O God, and I groaned; I mused, and my spirit grew faint. Selah

4       You kept my eyes from closing; I was too troubled to speak.

(NIV)

Symptoms:

1       Distress

2       Seeking the Lord but no quick solution

3       Can't sleep

New invention for teaching teenagers about family life:

Baby Think It Over—This hightech 8lb doll is programmed to shriek at random intervals day and night. The only way to stop the crying is to hold a key in its back for 20 minutes, just about the length of time it takes to feed a newborn. Developed and distributed by Richard Jurmain, Baby Think It Over is being used in schools and health clinics around the U.S. to give teenagers a realistic view of what it's like to spend day and night with an infant. Usually, they get the doll for a 3night assignment. Its maker insists that the doll doesn't teach values but that it does teach sleeplessness. A microprocessor in the doll monitors how long the baby cried before it stopped and if it was handled roughly.

4       Can't express or explain his trouble to others.

5       He doesn't even want to be comforted.

6       Tried to make himself but that makes him worse - more guilt and depression.

He's experiencing what many people go through.

Stages in Change:

7       vs. 1 - Cries aloud.

•        Prayed with voice.

•       Prayer does not have to be silent in the mind only.

•       Speak - express our mind.

•       Jesus prayed: `with loud cries and tears'

•       Jesus' life and emotions were a  bumpy ride for him.

•        Not just sail through.

•        Rejoiced in spirit but also wept and soul was troubled.

•        We know the prayers of Jesus because He prayed aloud.

8       Next stage:

•        Asaph thinks about his past religious experience

•       - encouragement?

•        only partly.

Ps 77:57 5 I thought about the former days, the years of long ago; 6         I remembered my songs in the night. My heart mused and my spirit inquired: 7 "Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favour again?

It is good to remember the past - what God has done for us.

•       But not enough - still nagging doubt.

•       Thoughts are still self-centred.

9       Next stage:

•        Asaph confesses his doubt.

Ps 77:79

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?" Selah

(NIV)

•       Grateful about his honesty - no pretence.

•       He has his doubts.

•        But in expressing them he begins to find the way out.

Note kind of doubt:

Not doubting existence of God nor the steadfast love of God,

•        but does God love me?

•        I know He cares for others - but for me?

•        Am I not uniquely a hopeless case?

•        Uniquely difficult for God to bless?

•       Hymn: `When you are blessing others, do not pass me by'

•        V. Common feeling.

Yet contradiction:

Ps 77:8

8       Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time? (NIV)

•       How can unfailing love vanish?

•       Can a promise end for all time?

Ps 77:9

9       Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?" Selah (NIV)

•       As if God could forget.

•        We often judge the love of God as if it were like our own.

•       `Moody love - swayed by our fickle moods. or

•       Formal love like the DSS - supposed to love the needy.

•        John 3:16: Dearly loved.

Rom 2 and 3:

Paul asks Q.

•       Given that the Jewish people rejected Messiah, does it mean God is finished with them?

•       No more unique place in the salvation of the world?

•       Ans.: No! Man may be faithless, but God will be faithful to His promises.

•       He will not let them merely disappear into sands of history.

•       They will - at end of time - be restored and accept Christ and then be blessing to all the earth.

•        In answer to Asaph's Question:

•       `Unfailing love cannot vanish, because love is not the same as kindness.

•        Kindness comes and goes.

•        If God were only kind to us - nice time on earth but not ready for our true destiny in glory - beauty and wonder of the future.

•        God loves us.

•       He lets us have painful experiences if He can use them to prepare us for glory.

•       Remove our self-centredness and pride.

•       Painful

•        He bears our pain with us.

•        Takes away all the sin of the world.

•        Can even use our dark times to penetrate deeper.

Turning point in this psalm:

Ps 77:1012

10     Then I thought, "To this I will appeal: the years of the right hand of the Most High."

11     I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.

12     I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds.

(NIV)

1. Power of God all around Him.

2. History of His own people Israel.

Same today - these two things bear witness to the truth of the gospel and the ultimate victory of the steadfast love of God.

Ps 77:1718

17     The clouds poured down water, the skies resounded with thunder; your arrows flashed back and forth.

18     Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, your lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked.

(NIV)

•        Awe of lightning.

•       Ancients - power of God.

•        Of course we say today: `We know how it works'.

•        Do we?

•        Static electricity in clouds. Voltage, Electricity. What is electricity? Electrons flowing. What is an electron?

•        Mystery.

•       We know more about lightning than Asaph,

•       But the more we know the more not less mystery we find.

•       This century we have unpacked the power of the atom, but who packed it there in the first place?

E-mail from an atheist with a longing to go to Church.

•       One of the questions that came to him last week:

•        He has read that laws of nature can be understood by Mathematics

•        - so who made them so precise in the first place?

Something else Asaph sees: `Your ways are holy'. (Vs 13).

•       Can't be appreciating the wonder of creation and thinking evil at the same time.

Asaph's mind goes back to how God saved people from slavery in Egypt and brought them across the Red Sea.

Ps 77:16, 19:

16     The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you and writhed; the very depths were convulsed. (NIV)

19     Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen. (NIV)

The same God who when He became one with us on earth,

spoke to wind and sea and they obeyed.

Later He made his path on the sea

as He came to His disciples walking on Lake Galilee.

Jesus Christ is the Key.

1. Steadfast love of God yet His people - you and me - experience pain.

•       How do we hold them together?

•        Cross of Jesus.

•       What is the way out of dark times?

•        Worship in Jesus' name focused on cross.

Asaph will not just think of the greatness of God -

he will proclaim it.

That is what we do in Church

- not just with our minds -

singing hymns we proclaim to one another `We worship the King'

Worship of God is essential to the Christian life.

Archbishop Temple:

•       The only thing that will save our country from chaos is worship.

•       What is worship?

`To quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to cleanse our imagination by the beauty of God, to open our hearts to the love of God, and to devote our will to the purpose