8 MIKE MAZZALONGO Suffering Psalms The Psalms are

8 MIKE MAZZALONGO Suffering Psalms

The Psalms are Not just Poetry • They ask questions • They express awe • They describe joy

Types of Suffering Psalms • General • Imprecatory

Psalms 42 -43 • About a Musician in Hiding • Longs to Worship in Jerusalem • Asks for Deliverance

As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God? - Ps. 42: 1 -2

My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God? ” These things I remember and I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. - Ps. 42: 3 -4

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence. O my God, my soul is in despair within me; Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. - Ps. 42: 5 -6

Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me. The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; And His song will be with me in the night, A prayer to the God of my life. - Ps. 42: 7 -8

I will say to God my rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? ” As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God? ” - Ps. 42: 9 -10

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God. - Ps. 42: 11

Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation; O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! For You are the God of my strength; why have You rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? - Ps. 43: 1 -2

O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your dwelling places. Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And upon the lyre I shall praise You, O God, my God. - Ps. 43: 3 -4

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God. - Ps. 43: 5

It’s not about the trial… It’s about the faith during the trial

Imprecatory Psalms

Do you indeed speak righteousness, O gods? Do you judge uprightly, O sons of men? No, in heart you work unrighteousness; On earth you weigh out the violence of your hands. The wicked are estranged from the womb; These who speak lies go astray from birth. - Ps. 58: 1 -3

They have venom like the venom of a serpent; Like a deaf cobra that stops up its ear, So that it does not hear the voice of charmers, Or a skillful caster of spells. - Ps. 58: 4 -5

O God, shatter their teeth in their mouth; Break out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord. Let them flow away like water that runs off; When he aims his arrows, let them be as headless shafts. - Ps. 58: 6 -7

Let them be as a snail which melts away as it goes along, Like the miscarriages of a woman which never see the sun. Before your pots can feel the fire of thorns He will sweep them away with a whirlwind, the green and the burning alike. - Ps. 58: 8 -9

The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; He will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. And men will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous; Surely there is a God who judges on earth!” - Ps. 58: 10 -11

Why Imprecatory Psalms? 1. Honest Portrayal

Why Imprecatory Psalms? 1. Honest Portrayal 2. Sin & Sinner were the same

Why Imprecatory Psalms? 1. Honest Portrayal 2. Sin & Sinner were the same 3. The concept and language of justice