Introduction:
When it comes to Lament Psalms, like this one, I believe that you and I run the risk of being disconnected... or at the very least we run the risk of rushing to resolve.And, I think the reason is that the lament Psalms are foreign to the Christian culture we are so comfortable in.
Whether we like to think of our culture in this way or not, we live in a culture of hope, answers, courtesy and niceties.
It’s in our songs both in worship and on the radio stations.
It’s in our paintings. Thomas Kinkade is the “painter of light,” painting happy little trees and happy little cottages where light plays freely and you feel like your “in heaven.”
It’s in the reality that we can find a “Christian” substitute for anything and everything that meets the standard definition of entertainment.
Transition:
In fact, I tend to identify most with C.S. Lewis most when it comes to the way we understand and seek to interpret and apply the Psalms.
C.S. Lewis in his book "Christian Reflections" (published in 1967), wrote,
"The dominant impression I get from reading the Psalms is one of antiquity... In that momentary proximity they are almost shockingly alien; creatures of unrestrained emotion, wallowing in self-pity, sobbing, cursing, screaming in exultation (pg.114) ... we shall find in the Psalms expressions of a cruelty more vindictive and a self-righteousness more complete that anything in the [Greek] classics. If we ignore such passages and read only a few selected favourite Psalms, we miss the point. For the point is precisely this: that these same fanatic and homicidal Hebrews, and not the more enlightened peoples, again and again -- for brief moments -- reach a Christian level of spirituality. It is not that they are better or worse than the Pagans, but they are both better and worse." (pg.116)I think that sums it up nicely... as you and I approach the Psalms it’s as if we are approaching something that is shockingly alien to our life and experience.
Yet, more often than not we assume a familiarity with the words that we are reading and in a hope to apply the authors circumstances to our own situation we rush through to the resolution and discredit the journey that it took to get there.
Psalm 13:
In Psalm 13 we could do the same... we could read the first two parts of this Psalm, this visceral confrontation with God, as though it is a kind of charade, a puppet show... and then jump to the last two verses for the real stuff, the true heart of the Psalmist is in this last part... the hope and trust.
And I understand the desire for resolve... but we rob ourselves and we rob the Psalmist of the intent of the passage and of the reality of the struggle of life in this fallen human condition if we fail to see the genuine despair and utter desperation for Yahweh to come and do something, because He can, and He’s the only one who can.
This is radical speech that gets straight to the point in an almost condescending way, vs.1
“How long, oh Yahweh? Will you forget me forever?” Forget? How can God forget?
vs.2
Does God hide? More specifically... does God hide his face?
What do we know God cannot look on? Sin.
Allow me to submit to you that this is not the case here in Psalm 13... the Psalmist is not living in known or unknown unrepentant sin.
In times when we searching for God, longing for His response in our life and we are unable to hear Him speak to us... our starting place must always be repentance.
Now, we’re going to stop here in the Psalm, picking it back up next week, so that we can deal with confession and unknown sin.
Confession and Unknown Sin:
1 John 1:9
This verse ought to be familiar to every believer in Christ.
Each of us needs to rely on it every day of our lives.
It is by confessing our sins that we receive the forgiveness which we need.
While it’s true that our sins do not result in the loss of eternal salvation, they do interrupt our personal relations with God our heavenly Father.
Human confession and God given forgiveness restores that harmony.
But what about unknown sins? How can you confess something that you are unaware you did?
And some people might respond, “That’s ridiculous. How can you not know that you have sinned? You lie, you know it. You lust, you know it. You respond in self-righteous anger, you know it. At best you simply deceive yourself into thinking that whatever sin you committed was justified.”
But here’s the thing... sin is subtle... it’s deceptively subtle... and more than that, sin is best defined as anything you say, think, our do that runs contrary to the nature of God.
We tend to think of sin in terms of commission... stuff that we do... but what about sins of omission?
Jesus dealt with this concept in His parable of the good Samaritan.
In fact, if you go just 1 verse up in 1 John 1:8... what you get is, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
The reality is that every time we come before the throne of God... we come to Him as sinners, not as the just.
However, no one can confess sins that they do not know... it would be impossible for God to hold us up to this standard... and He doesn’t.
Look closely at the verse.
In the NKJV the second "our" is in italics. This means that the translators have supplied it, but that it is not actually in the Greek text.
Let's translate the first part of the verse literally without the second "our":
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us the sins . . .
What does "the sins" mean?
Obviously it means "the sins we confess."
If we confess the sins we know, God forgives us the sins we confess.
But He does more than that. He also is faithful "to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness"!
Conclusion:
So that's the answer! When I am honest with God and confess the sins I am aware of, His forgiveness and cleansing extend to "All unrighteousness."
But what if sin has been confessed, forgiveness has been doled out... and you are still unable to see and/or hear the response of God?
We’re going to delve into that a little more next week.
For tonight allow me to encourage you with another shockingly alien-like Psalmist response... Psalm 66:16-20
