Psalm 88:1-8 

Transition in church should not be common, but it is inevitable. And when transition does happen, we should be sad AND extremely hopeful. 

SADNESS, JOY, LOVE, ANGER, FEAR, SURPRISE

Introduction to the Psalms and Sadness

16 All scripture is inspired by God…

2 Timothy 3:16a

Christian writers throughout history have insisted that the only way we can come to understand the Psalms is by praying them and by using them in ways that allow them to shape us. This involves a conscious choice that contradicts common habits. It means that instead of working on the text, we let the text work on us. It means reading formationally rather than informationally, which is the habit we bring to reports, newspapers, textbooks, and most of the reading we do. It means embracing the text rather than holding it at arm’s length. It means being vulnerable to hear how God might address us through the text rather than managing the text to serve our curiosity and need to control. 

Howard R. Macy

Zamar [psalm]: to make music, to touch strings or parts of a musical instrument; to hum or murmur.

Undoubtedly they [the psalms] were simple read or chanted without any accompaniment, but indications are that their performance was at times replete with musical instruments, choir, and dance.

Life With God Study Bible

“The Bible in miniature.”

Martin Luther

Even my close friend in whom I trusted,

    who ate of my bread, has lifted the heel against me.

Psalm 41:9

8 He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt,

    both humans and animals;

9 he sent signs and wonders

    into your midst, O Egypt,

    against Pharaoh and all his servants.

Psalm 135:8-9

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

    Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?

2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;

    and by night but find no rest.

Psalm 22:1-2

The Book of Psalms is fuel for Praise and Prayer

Praise and prayer - these two spiritual practices articulate our most fundamental relationship to God. The Psalter expresses, with more immediacy and completeness than any other part of the Bible, how the people of God are formed spiritually.

Richard J. Foster 

The Psalms are not meant to make us smart, they’re meant to help us feel.

13 After the men who were carrying the Ark of the Lord had gone six steps, David sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 14 And David danced before the Lord with all his might, wearing a priestly garment.[f] 15 So David and all the people of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord with shouts of joy and the blowing of rams’ horns.

16 But as the Ark of the Lord entered the City of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked down from her window. When she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she was filled with contempt for him.

20 When David returned home to bless his own family, Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet him. She said in disgust, “How distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do!”

21 David retorted to Michal, “I was dancing before the Lord, who chose me above your father and all his family! He appointed me as the leader of Israel, the people of the Lord, so I celebrate before the Lord. 22 Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes! 

2 Samuel 6:13-22

Frankly, there is no such thing as purely inward religion. That would defy the reality of our embodied selves and the significance of the body and behavior in our godly form

Richard J. Foster

The Book of Psalms is fuel for Praise and Prayer & 

The Psalms are not meant to make us smart, they’re meant to help us feel.

YOU CAN BE SAD AND STILL TRUST IN GOD.

Sadness, depression, disappointment, dismay, hurt, grief, guilt, loneliness, neglect, regret, remorse, shame, sorrow, and sympathy.

He was despised and rejected by men,

    a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Isaiah 53:3

The Psalms are not a license to be sad all of the time, they are an encouragement to deal with our sadness

Allow the spirit to grow us in how we experience sadness

11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 

1 Corinthians 13:11

 14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

Ephesians 2:14-15