12/16/2023 0 Comments Tim keller psalms![]() In fact, the trip can take a lifetime! But the end is always praise. Any prayer, no matter how desperate its origin, no matter how angry and fearful the experience it traverses, will become praise. What the psalms are teaching us is that all true prayer pursued far enough will become praise. ![]() But how does a prayer of tears become a prayer of joy? Eugene Peterson says, If you suffered for me I can be patient with this suffering for you."Īll sorrow ends in joy ( Ps 126:6). My sufferings are nothing compared to yours. but weeping in self-pity will make you a small little person, someone who can't forgive, someone who is always feeling ill-used, someone who gets incredibly touchy and incredibly over-sensitive. I can suffer without impatience, for I can trust that God's purposes are good even when I don't understand, just like people didn't understand the cross. When I look to the cross, I can suffer without guilt, for I know God isn't punishing me because Jesus was punished instead of me. Jesus cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" and found heaven empty, so that when we cry "Turn your face away!" God won't abandon us ( Ps 39:13, Matt 27:46). God understands our desperation because Jesus experienced desolation. I understand what it's like to be desperate. "I want you to speak and feel in my presence. They belong in pre-reflective outbursts from the depths of your being in the very presence of God. Ultimately where your tears belong is not managed or packaged or manicured in some little confessional prayer. Psalm 39 shows where your deepest feelings - your anger, your tears - belong. He knows how we speak when we are desperate. The very presence of such prayers in the Scripture is a witness to God's understanding. That's why the Bible includes disturbing psalms like Psalm 39, which ends "get away from me, God!" Derek Kidner says, We need to know before we start crying that it's safe to pour out our hearts to God. We should plant our tears in three things. When we pour our tears into prayer, it transforms both the tears and the weeper. ![]() Tears give way to joy ( Ps 30:5) but they also produce joy ( 2 Cor 4:17). We shouldn't deny or dump our tears, but see them as an opportunity for growth. If a farmer leaves his seed in the shed, or dumps it all in one spot, there will be no harvest: he must sow his seed. "Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy" ( Ps 126:5-6). Once thing at a time is all we can take." "You're weeping about the thing that made you weep, and you're weeping about the weeping. If I don't expect tears, I'll always be crying about two things instead of one. Isn't God good? Isn't he supposed to protect me? What have I done to deserve this?! But I should expect to suffer more as I become more like Jesus. I know they'll live on in my heart and mind for a long time. I've included a few quotes: they're wonderful, so take the time to read them. The Psalms give us a gospel third way of responding to our emotions: to pray our feelings.īut what about suffering? How do we pray our tears? How do we use them to soften, rather than harden our hearts? Here's what Keller says. The world tells us that we need to acknowledge, express and follow our feelings, so we vent and dump them.ģ. Many Christians are uncomfortable with feelings, so we deny and suppress them.Ģ. I like Tim Keller's way of putting it: that the Psalms teach us a gospel third way of responding to our emotions.ġ. There's no better guide to what to do with our feelings before God than the Psalms. Sometimes I feel like getting older is just working through the Psalms, one emotion at a time! ![]() I love the Psalms! It seems that every emotion I've ever felt is expressed there, ready to be prayed to God. Today I'll tell you about the one on tears next time, the one on fears. They're both free online, and are part of a series on the Psalms about responding to our feelings. I'd like to tell you about two great talks I listened to recently: Praying our Tears and Praying our Fears by Tim Keller. ![]()
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