Voices from the Ragged Edge

The Gritty Spirituality of the Psalms for a

Broken World

J. Richard

Middleton

Psalm 150

1 Praise the Lord!

Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.

2 Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.

3 praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, 4 praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, 5 praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.

6 Let everything that has breath Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord!

Psalm 46

1 God is our refuge and strength,

an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea 3 though its waters roar and foam

and the mountains quake with their surging. 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

the holy place where the Most High dwells. 5 God is within her, she will not fall;

God will help her at break of day. 6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;

he lifts his voice, the earth melts! 7 The LORD of Hosts is with us;

the God of Jacob is our fortress.

These Plastic Halos

By Mark Heard

From the album Eye of the Storm

© 1983 Bug ‘n Bear Music

These Plastic Halos

These plastic halos

They seem so out of place

Behind the mask

lurks a scarred and fragile face

We lie so spiritually

Familiar smiles displayed

Misleading masquerade

We hide our pain

We try to laugh

Fools to think our tears

Would provoke holy wrath

These Plastic Halos

In stone-gray silence

We do not face our fears

We bite our lips

And we press on

with feeble cheer

With hearts of sadness

We say our thankful prayers

Refusing comfort unawares

We hide our pain

We try to laugh

Fools to think our tears

Would provoke holy wrath

These Plastic Halos

We learn the protocol

We bare our souls to none

We praise our peers

For the optimism shown

“Brave men don’t cry,” we say

As we watch

the world turn to dust

The tears of God fall for us

The Problem of Evil

God is good (God doesn’t want evil and suffering).

God is sovereign (God could remove or prevent evil and suffering).

Evil exists.

C. S. Lewis

The Problem of Pain (1940)

C. S. Lewis

We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities; and anyone who has watched gluttons shovelling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating, will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to.

C. S. Lewis

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. A bad man, happy, is a man without the least inkling that his actions do not ‘answer’, that they are not in accord with the laws of the universe.

C. S. Lewis

Until the evil man finds evil unmistakably present in his existence, in the form of pain, he is enclosed in illusion. Once pain has roused him, he knows that he is in some way or other ‘up against’ the real universe: he either rebels (with the possibility of a clearer issue and deeper repentance at some later stage) or else makes some attempt at an adjustment, which, if pursued, will lead him to religion.

C. S. Lewis

No doubt pain as God’s megaphone is a terrible instrument; it may lead to final and unrepented rebellion. But it gives the only opportunity the bad man can have for amendment. It removes the veil; it plants the flag of truth within the fortress of a rebel soul.

C. S. Lewis

A Grief Observed (1961)

C. S. Lewis

Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him, so happy that you are tempted to feel His claims upon you as an interruption, if you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be—or so it feels—welcomed with open arms.

C. S. Lewis

But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you fine? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence.

C. S. Lewis

You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become. There are no lights in the windows. It might be an empty house. Was it ever inhabited? It seemed so once. And that seeming was as strong as this.

C. S. Lewis

What can this mean? Why is He so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in time of trouble?

Psalm 30

1 I will exalt you, O LORD, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me.

2 O LORD my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me.

3 You, O LORD, brought me up from the realm of the dead; you spared me from going down to the pit.

Psalm 30

4 Sing the praises of the LORD, you his faithful people; praise his holy name.

5 For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

Psalm 30

6 When I felt secure, I said, “I will never be shaken.”

7 O LORD, when you favored me, you made my royal mountain stand firm;

Psalm 30

6 When I felt secure, I said, “I will never be shaken.”

7 O LORD, when you favored me, you made my royal mountain stand firm;

but when you hid your face, I was dismayed.

Psalm 30

8 To you, O LORD, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy:

9 “What is gained if I am silenced, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness?

10 Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; LORD, be my help.”

Psalm 30

11 You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,

12 that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will praise you forever.

The Psalms and Human Experience

The Psalms and Human Experience

The Psalms and Human Experience

Psalm 30

6 When I felt secure, I said, “I will never be shaken.”

7 O LORD, when you favored me, you made my royal mountain stand firm;

The Psalms and Human Experience

Psalm 30

6 When I felt secure, I said, “I will never be shaken.”

7 O LORD, when you favored me, you made my royal mountain stand firm;

but when you hid your face, I was dismayed.

Psalm 39 1 I said, “I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth while in the presence of the wicked.”

Psalm 39

2 So I remained utterly silent, not even saying anything good. But my anguish increased;

3 my heart grew hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned.

Psalm 39

2 So I remained utterly silent, not even saying anything good. But my anguish increased;

3 my heart grew hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned.

Then I spoke with my tongue:

Psalm 39

4 “Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.

5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.

6 Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom; in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth without knowing whose it will finally be.

Psalm 39

7 "But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.

8 Save me from all my transgressions; do not make me the scorn of fools.

9 I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for you are the one who has done this.

10 Remove your scourge from me; I am overcome by the blow of your hand.

11 When you rebuke and discipline people for their sins, you consume their wealth like a moth— surely everyone is but a breath.

Psalm 39

7 "But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.

8 Save me from all my transgressions; do not make me the scorn of fools.

9 I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for you are the one who has done this.

10 Remove your scourge from me; I am overcome by the blow of your hand.

11 When you rebuke and discipline people for their sins, you consume their wealth like a moth— surely everyone is but a breath.

Psalm 39

· Save me (v. 8)

· Don’t make me the scorn of fools (v. 8)

· Remove your scourge from me (v. 10)

· Hear my prayer (v. 12)

· Listen to my cry (v. 12)

· Don’t be deaf to my weeping (v. 12

Look away from me (v. 13)

Psalm 39

7 "But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.

8 Save me from all my transgressions; do not make me the scorn of fools.

9 I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for you are the one who has done this.

10 Remove your scourge from me; I am overcome by the blow of your hand.

11 When you rebuke and discipline people for their sins, you consume their wealth like a moth— surely everyone is but a breath.

Psalm 39

7 "But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.

8 Save me from all my transgressions; do not make me the scorn of fools.

9 I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for you are the one who has done this.

10 Remove your scourge from me; I am overcome by the blow of your hand.

11 When you rebuke and discipline people for their sins, you consume their wealth like a moth— surely everyone is but a breath.

Psalm 39

7 "But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you.

8 Save me from all my transgressions; do not make me the scorn of fools.

9 I was silent; I would not open my mouth, for you are the one who has done this.

10 Remove your scourge from me; I am overcome by the blow of your hand.

11 When you rebuke and discipline people for their sins, you consume their wealth like a moth— surely everyone is but a breath.

Voices from the Ragged Edge

The Psalms and Human Experience

The Psalms and Human Experience

The Psalms and Human Experience

The Psalms and Human Experience

Exodus 2

23 The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

Luke 22

41 Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” 43 Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. 44 In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.

Luke 22

41 Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” 43 Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. 44 In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.

Luke 22

41 Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, 42 “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” 43 Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. 44 In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.

Mark 15

34 At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? ”

Romans 8 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons

of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected

to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of

the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation

itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and

brought into the glorious freedom of the children of

God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been

groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the

present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have

the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait

eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our

bodies.

Romans 8 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons

of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected

to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of

the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation

itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and

brought into the glorious freedom of the children of

God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been

groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the

present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have

the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait

eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our

bodies.

Joel 2

32 Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”

• Quoted by Peter on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:21

• Quoted by Paul in Romans 10:13

Voices from the Ragged Edge

The Gritty Spirituality of the Psalms for a

Broken World

J. Richard

Middleton