Psalms

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Wandering Songs #10 - Praying our Doubt

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“I’ve got some questions, God! I’ve been looking at those people over there. I’ve been living my life over here. And I’ve got some questions.” That’s the posture of the psalmist in Psalm 73. He’s got questions and doubts. You too? Trying to make sense of God’s ways in the world when they seem to make no sense at all? Asaph too. Yet, it was the very process of praying his doubts and raising them up to the Lord, that brought Asaph to a place of certainty. “Ah yes, now I see what you’re doing.” Yes, when we learn to pray our doubts, God teaches us to trust him in him even when we can’t make sense of his ways. A sermon on Psalm 73.

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Wandering Songs #8 - Praying our Anger

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Everyone suffers injustice. It comes in all kinds of forms and varying intensities. But everyone suffers from injustice; wrongs are committed against us. But what do we do when it happens? What about the anger the begins to burn inside? What do we with our anger, even our just anger? Bring it to the Lord. If there is anything the psalms teach us to do with our anger it is that. Bring it to the Lord and entrust the case and the cause to Him. A sermon on Psalm 43.

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Wandering Songs #6 - Praying our Weariness

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The problem with wandering in the wilderness is immediately present: There isn’t as much food and water! This leaves us dray, wearing, worn, thirsty, and longing to God. Yet, even then there is sermon we must preach, a sermon our soul needs to hear, a sermon we need to preach to our own souls. “Hope in God!” Yes, no matter,  will yet praise him, my Savior and my God! A sermon on Psalm 42.

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Wandering Songs #4 - Praying our Tears

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Grief and loss surround us on many days. We can easily make a list of the loss that each of us have experienced. We can just as easily make a list of the collective losses. Grief wells up in our hearts. Complaints rise up before the Lord. And God wants to hear it all! He wants to hear our prayers and cries. Even though we faint from our tears, we he is right to be our refuge in the night of our sorrow. A sermon on Psalm 142.

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Wandering Songs #2 - Praying with Confidence

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As we move into the wilderness and cry out to the Lord there, two realities face us. On the one hand, we can be sure that armies will encamp against us and wars will rise against us (v3). Yet, when we put a “my” in middle of our theology, we are confident. On the other hand, the LORD is my light and my salvation. This is the second truth that helps us prevail. We cry out as we wait for the LORD, confident in him. A sermon on Psalm 27.

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Wandering Songs #1 - Prayers of Confession

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David cries out and cries out for deliverance. But what is that weighs most heavily upon him? It isn’t the trouble that surrounds him. It isn’t the death that stalks him. It is the weight of his own sin and his terror before the Lord’s anger. On Ash Wednesday, we cry out as guilty sinners confident of his mercy and sure that the LORD has heard our prayers. A sermon on Psalm 6.