Denver Seminary

Grace is everywhere in this sad song of loss. Our sacred Scriptures, breathed out by God Himself, allow and even encourage us to bring our bruised and bloodied lives to Him. Hemen is our friend. God inspired Him to give voice to our pain. We must not rebuke Hemen, but rather sing with him even when darkness is our closest friend. Hemen wrote one psalm. King David wrote dozens, many well known, given their profundity. Psalm 23 is beloved by multitudes, Christian and otherwise. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." But David also wrote the one other psalm that does not end in a triumph of faith. In Psalm 39, this "man after God's own heart" tries to unburden himself before his Shepherd—and fails. In this song for Israel, David records his complaints and reflects on the shortness of life. He ends by calling out to God, but with a twist. Hear my prayer, Lord, listen to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. I dwell with You as a foreigner, a stranger, as all my ancestors were. Look away from me, that I may enjoy life again before I depart and am no more (Ps. 39:12-13). All the translations I consulted agree that David is asking God to leave him alone! And this comes after David says, "Hear my prayer, Lord." We must agree with Hemen and David that God can be difficult to live with. But God is gracious, since He does hear our prayers and because He has inspired prayers of lament in the Bible. THE REALITY OF GRIEF IN GRACE One more suffering prayer brings grace and pain into the sharpest focus. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, knew and prayed the Psalms, as James Sire notes in The Psalms of Jesus. One of Jesus' prayers will resonate for eternity. As the Lamb of God, Jesus was destined for the Cross. As He said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life" (Luke 9:22). God so loved the world, He sent Jesus. Jesus so loved the Father and the world, He came (John 3:16; Phil. 2:5). This is pure grace, since the offended party initiated the pardon of His rebellious mortals. But God's grace meant grief. While impaled on a Roman cross for crimes we committed, Jesus cried out from Psalm 22, "My God, my God. Why have You forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46). In this divine grief, we find divine grace. David asked God to depart from him, but God did not. Jesus felt as if God had departed from Him, but God had not. Nonetheless, Christ wailed before His God. God heard Him, raised Him from the dead, and insured that the gospel of grace would cover the whole world (Hab. 2:14). Christ suffered for us that we might become the righteous of God. But that gift is not without grief. This gospel set my wife and me free many years ago. Christ suffered for us that we might become the righteous of God. But that gift is not without grief. As Becky and I suffer through her dementia, we know there is grace in time of need, grace within suffering. We know that our Savior suffered far more than we ever will or can imagine. In that, she and I find comfort, and so should we all. "Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory" (Rom. 8:17). ENGAGE 9 MAKES YOU THINK Douglas Groothuis, PhD PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY Dr. Groothuis has been a professor at Denver Seminary since 1993. He is the author of 12 books, including Christian Apologetics and Philosophy in Seven Sentences. tellmemore000/iStock

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