Psalm 88 A Familiar Feeling Part 2 “Taking Your Soul to Task”

Psalm 88:1&2 1O LORD, the God who saves me, day and night I cry out before you. 2 May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry.

Psalm 88:3&4 3 For my soul is full of trouble and my life draws near the grave. 4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like a man without strength.

Psalm 88:8&9 8 You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape; 9 my eyes are dim with grief.

Psalm Why, O LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me? 7 Your wrath lies heavily upon me…16 Your wrath has swept over me? You see, your experience in the near future will be a psalm 88 experience.

Psalm 88 Experience

Hebrews 2: For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. 17For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

“It is an amazing comfort to realize that the One we run to get’s it.” -Paul Tripp

“What ever happens to the sinful creatures of God, however tragic, is less monstrous and criminal than what happened to the Son of God.”

“If you invented a religious system, it’s unlikely that you would imagine a god who became like the people he created. But God did even more. He became like his creatures and willingly suffered a horrifying death so that they could be spared. Even the men and women who studied Scripture didn’t anticipate that God would come this close. They never guessed that the Messiah, God himself, would suffer in the way he did.

If you think God is far away and indifferent, here is the surprising revelation. From the foundation of the world, God knew your sufferings and declared that he himself would take human form and participate in them. This is not a distant, indifferent God. You know these things about Jesus and it should shock you that anyone would voluntarily take such suffering on himself.”

“Taking your soul to task.” “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” - King David

You have to take yourself in hand…You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself, “Hope thou in God” – instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way.” - Martyn Lloyd-Jones

James 1: 2-4 2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Hebrews 2:10 10In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.

Suffering “Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” - 2 Corinthians 1:9 “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.” - Psalm 119: 67 - Psalm 119: 67

Minister to Others 3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

Testing 2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years; to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. - Deuteronomy 8:2 - Deuteronomy 8:2

Paul 7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.

9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

1 Peter 5:10 10And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

“Where do I need to take my soul to task?”