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Spiritual Desertion

The Psalm we are looking at this evening is one of the blackest of all the Psalms and is a clear testimony to us that the Bible is a very realistic book. Life is not easy, in fact at times it is exceedingly difficult. For the believer God's sovereignty is at the same time a terrific encouragement and a source of questioning. If God is in charge of all things then ultimately is to Him we look as the source of all that happens to us.

This Psalm is a believer's Psalm because it is all taken up with God. The fact that the Psalmist is in trouble attributed to the LORD rather than to man's activity. Indeed the only humans mentioned are his friends who have withdrawn from him and that too is attributed to the LORD. For this Psalmist the fact that he is troubled in soul is down entirely to the LORD.

And yet it is to this Sovereign LORD that the Psalmist turns and we must learn to do the same.

The Psalm will teach us that:

a)       some believers may well experience just this kind of unrelieved suffering as part of their earthly lot. William Cowper is an example of just such a one.

b)       a "happy end" is not always the case for the believer in this world. We have no automatic right to see the positive resolution of our problems here and it is certainly not our "due". A realisation of this should make us all the more appreciative of the grace that the LORD so often showers upon us! Most of us are not called to walk permanently in darkness as this Psalmist seemed to be. Most of our dark patches are just that – patches – and this is the Lord's grace.

c)       even in the dark we can pray and indeed must pray.

Let's now turn to the Psalm more closely.

If we are looking for positive notes in the Psalm there are just two and the first one is found here.

The Psalmist is praying to his God, the God that he knows as the God of His salvation. He calls upon this God while using the Covenant name of God "the LORD".

As the Psalmist will progress with His psalm he will be describe what the problems are as far as he sees the situation that he's in. He'll argue and complain – but not to men! He goes to God with His problems and He pleads with this God – the God of his salvation.

The Psalmist is going to describe the blackness that he feels in his own soul and he's going to speak of the darkness that envelops him. This is the blackness of feeling himself to have been abandoned by the Lord; this is the darkness of desertion. Our forefathers in the faith knew about this and called it "spiritual desertion". It describes the sense of having been forgotten by God and it leaves us feeling isolated and directionless.

When we are in such a situation our natural reaction is to turn in upon ourselves in a depressive, self-pitying, hopeless sort of way but our Psalmist shows us a different path to follow. He is really in darkness but he cries to the LORD, the God of his salvation whom he has known! The whole language of desertion is based upon the fact of the existence of a prior relationship. Indeed it is the very memory of such sweetness in the past that renders the absence of such in the present so hard to cope with.

Our Psalmist prays.

The second positive note found throughout the Psalm is that despite it all the Psalmist keeps on praying! The very structure of the Psalm shows us this as the Psalm is split into three sections each beginning with a reference to the psalmist's prayer life.

v.1 "I cry out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry!

v.9 "Every day I call upon you, O LORD; I spread out my hands to you."

v.13 "But I, O LORD, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you."

This is designed to show us that his prayer was not that of mere form – he was passionate, fervent and earnest in his praying. At the same time his praying is characterized by a humble submission to the will of God evidenced by "let my cry".

As the first section of the Psalm opens the Psalmist describes his situation as he is living it. This is why he wants to pray, why he needs to pray.

a)       v.3 his soul is full of troubles – he's at his limit – he can't take any more. And he feels as though his life is reaching its end.

b)       vv.4-5 he feels as though others have given up on him as a lost cause; and not only have they given up on him they've turned away from him and shun his company. How isolated he feels.

c)       vv.6-7, 8 and all this is the LORD's doing! The psalmist can't believe that what is happening to him is some freak accident – God Himself is involved and consequently the Psalmist the feels totally overwhelmed. How on earth can he carry on when he is treated this way. In fact he's receiving the treatment he would deserve if he were in no way different from the wicked. What can he do in such a state? There's no escape anywhere! He's hemmed it! There's seems to be no release whatsoever for him from his predicament – how sad it all is. What sorrow it causes him.

d)       The Psalmist's faith is a factor in his problem – he believes in God, believes passionately about Him and in Him, but can't find Him now and that is the greatest problem for him.

Before we proceed any further let's point out that this man is a Godly man. After all he is being used to insripturate the word of God!! Heman is mentioned as the heading to this Psalm. It is likely that this Heman was the one mentioned in 1Ki.4:31. The context is that of describing just how wise Solomon was and to make the point the author cites amongst others Heman. Nowhere in the psalm is sin suggested as being at the root of the psalmist's problems.

No here we have a godly man who is struggling and experiencing such a sense of being spiritually deserted.

And this godly man who feels shut in with no escape yet continues to cry out in earnest prayer!

Having outlined the nature of the problem the psalmist now turns more to pleading with the LORD. He is coming to the LORD in prayer with a series of arguments that he considers well designed to secure the help he wants from the LORD.

Now the Psalmist is not concerned in these verses to develop a coherent theology of the afterlife. While resurrection and life after death are touched upon in the OT it is not until the NT that these matters are dealt with in great clarity. No! The Psalmist is in trouble and he wants solutions now, before he dies. If the LORD delays then any help will be too late! He is looking for deliverance in the here and now and longs to be able to proclaim the LORD's goodness in the here and now when the LORD delivers him. If no help be forthcoming he'll not be able to bear such a testimony when dead.

Basically the Psalmist has in mind that it is only the living who can glorify God and that is what he wants to do. So in his praying he marshals this strong argument. The LORD always has a concern for His own glory – surely such a plea will prevail with Him.

Most of this type of psalm end on a positive note of hope. But not in this case. No answer at all comes to the Psalmist and his situation carries on much as before.

He longs for the presence of God but the LORD seems to be continually pushing him away and deliberately hiding His face. Rather than the smile of God's face this silence, this rejection is like being exposed to the wrath of God from which there is no shelter. He feels attacked on every side – not by a human enemy (after all his friends merely abandon him) no his enemy seems to be God Himself!

And the Psalm ends with the word that bleak word "darkness".

Just as the Psalmist was concerned about God alone and not any human enemies so Christ was perfectly focused in His life on earth.

He knew why He had come into the world and His concern was to fulfill the purpose that the Father had given Him regardless of the cost to Himself.

As His ministry progressed so His thoughts turned progressively to the Cross – the Cross was important to Him because of what it meant to God.

He was a man who turned often to prayer (cf. vv1-2) and His prayer life turned more and more to the climactic events of His life.

In Jn.12:27 we hear Him praying:

"Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour." Cf. 88:3 "my soul is full of troubles".

The writer to the Hebrews comments this way on the Lord's life of prayer:

Heb.5:7-8 "In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. "

As the Cross approaches more we see Him suffering in prayer in Gethsemane – the Cross is dominating His thinking and on the He will bear the full wrath of God the Father against human sin – it is this that causes bloody sweat in the garden for Jesus. Pilate, Herod and His other antagonists do not worry Him but oh the seriousness of facing the wrath of the Father! See Mt.26:36-46. As He prays His disciples sleep. When the soldiers come for Him His disciples abandon Him and run away.

He must do the work unaided for there is none able to help Him. He knew He had to be rejected, to suffer and to die. Cf. vv.4-9.

 Then vv.13-18 speak to us of the Lord's experience of the Cross. He cried out there but heard no answer. Wave after wave of the righteous anger of God the Father broke upon Him as the Father turned His face away. And darkness covers the earth and His soul as He expires accomplishing the work which He had been sent to do.

There was no sunshine that day for the Lord but on the third day it was all change! The questions that lay unanswered for the Psalmist in vv.10-13 find a solution in the events of that Sunday morning! Death had lost its grip and its power had been broken forever!!

There may be darkness for us to experience from time to time. For a small minority there may even may an ongoing darkness that knows no end in this earthly life. But ultimately darkness has lost its power too.

Listen to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and be glad! Listen to His words as recorded in Jn.12:46-47:

"I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world."

May God be pleased to bless His Word to us today. Amen.