In Psalm 88, we know who wrote the psalm because the heading tells us it was Heman, and it's a very bleak psalm. It writes of the struggle of a soul that's full of troubles, and it's been that way throughout his life, the psalm says. He's without hope. He's without strength, according to the psalm. Very vivid imagery. He's adrift among the dead. dark depths, heavy wrath, waves of affliction. So the backdrop is very, very bleak, and the psalm is very, very negative. The people that were familiar friends, the people that were acquaintances, are now considering Heman as an abomination. The Bible tells us that he is isolated. The idea of being shut up is to be isolated from everyone else, which leads to discouragement. And even so, he daily calls upon God with outstretched hands. And somewhere in the prayer, he reasons along this line, Lord, I know that if I were in the grave, I would not be able to bring you glory. How would people see your loving kindness? How would they see that you're a faithful God? And yet he is floundering in darkness and forgetfulness. And when you get to the end of the psalm, there's no resolution. There's no happy ending at all. The entire psalm is negative. The kernel of his prayer in verses 14 through 16 is very revealing. He says, Lord, why do you cast off my soul? Why do you hide your face from me? I've been afflicted and I'm ready to die from my youth. I suffer your terrors. I am distraught. Your fierce wrath has gone over me. Your terrors have cut me off." Now, it is probable that this Heman is the Heman that is spoken of in 1 Kings 4. And in 1 Kings 4 we learn that Solomon was among the wisest men of all that were upon the face of the earth. And then there's a list of the wisest men upon the earth that are being compared with Solomon. Heman is among them. And so we know that this man, if he is the same Heman, is a man that has wisdom. And yet the wisdom doesn't stop the affliction or the suffering. The affliction and suffering comes in like a wave. I mean, even Solomon, we know, suffered and went through great affliction, and he was wise too. So wisdom does not mean that we will live a life free of affliction or any kind of suffering. As a matter of fact, he even faced great trouble and great sorrow, and he did so throughout his life. And the idea we get from reading the psalm is that it never ended for him. So as I look at this, I begin to think, OK, well then, what do we learn from this? Well, we probably could resonate with the words of this psalm because we felt that way. I mean, you say, well, that's not the way it is, but it's the way we feel. And so that perspective becomes very real to us. I look at him, at Heman, and the words of the psalm as a man that you have to talk down from the ledge. You know what I mean? This is a person that really, really gets pessimistic very quickly because he's probably very emotional. He's probably somebody who is quite pensive. He is probably someone that really has a hard time of seeing a way of escape. He was probably one of these people that are melancholy, that are very inward, that are very intense maybe. but very pessimistic. They see the glasses being half empty, not the glasses being half full. Now, there are people that have a very cheerful disposition upon life, and it's very difficult to get those people down. But there's the other extreme as well. There are some people you can't ever seem to talk out of the mire or the slough of depression. The pessimist is always going to see evil and the shadow of God's judgment hovering over them. They're going to struggle with darkness. And they remind me kind of the poet, the gloomy beatnik of the 60s, maybe, who sits in the corner of a bar somewhere, lost in his dark thoughts, trying to think up weird poetry. There are people like that. They brood, and they ruminate, and they're all inward. and they do very little about getting the revelation of God within them, or living in an eternal quality of life. I think that this can happen even to people who study their Bible. You study your Bible, but sometimes people study it in an analytical way, not in a devotional way. I'm not saying that we shouldn't study our Bible in an analytical way. I'm teaching our 6th graders how to study it devotionally right now, but we're going to go through synthetic and analytical study of the Bible together. And those things have their place. But if you leave out the devotional aspect of Bible study, you're done. You can mount up all of this knowledge and all that it does is it distracts you from where your thoughts need to be. You're still trending in a dark direction. You're still not where you need to be because The Bible study is just distracting you, almost like noise distracts people. They keep the radio on in the car, they turn on the TV immediately when they get home. Well, people can occupy their thoughts just with the nuts and bolts of Bible study and not really ever allow it to enter into their lives and become real to them. I mean, it's hard for us to think of that. But as a pastor, I know that's true, because there have been times where I just am kind of on automatic, because it's my job, right? I've got to preach several times a week. It's hard not, during a few of those times each year, not to be on automatic. and not to really be dependent upon the Lord and just kind of going through the motions. Well, people will often do that for great periods of time. And I think if you live in that kind of darkness for an extended period of time and you've allowed yourself to fool yourself about the way that you're living your life, that will play havoc with your emotional life and you will be in a very dark place before you know it. You know, your body, it runs down physically, your emotions are frazzled, you get to the end of yourself and then what's left? All the care and the anxiety of this life and the pressure that you're facing, it can lead you to a place where you get very, very discouraged and very distracted from the life that is yet to come. I remember seeing this, I have to say I've seen it in myself, but I remember seeing this in a friend in Bible school one time. He was the kind of guy that just kind of would be on this emotional pendulum, swing from one side to the other. And when he spiraled into despair, he was a Bible student, when he spiraled into despair because of some sin that he committed, it was almost impossible to talk him up out of that despair. He would ruminate about it for a few days. Normal things that we would do, sin that we would commit against God would grieve us. We'd confess it. We'd get right with God and get on the bike again. This guy would just think about it for a long period of time and wouldn't let it go. It is, from my perspective, it was almost like this man relished the idea of being miserable. Have you ever met a person like that? I mean, there are people that are out there that are like that. They have this guilty conscience, and they hang on to it, and they experience, I think, what is the worst condemnation of all condemnations, and that's self-condemnation. because they don't see that Christ has forgiven them. And they say silly things like, I can't forgive myself. Well, that is dumb. That really is silly. I mean, the only one that needs to forgive you is God. And if you're a Christian, he says that he has. And if you acknowledge that you have sin in your life, then you can rejoice in the fact that it's cleansed. It's gone. And you can start doing what is right once again. There doesn't need to be this constant spiraling out of control into despondency and despair and disillusionment. God doesn't want us there. Now, I would say that a lot of this despair is demonic. Isn't that true with Job, for instance? The Bible tells us that Job was a righteous man. He was right with God. But it also tells us that Satan attacked him because of his righteousness. So sometimes the wisest people, sometimes the people that are the choice people of God, the people that are favored by God, are the ones that go through the suffering and the affliction. And they put their hands up, and they say, I don't understand this. Well, understand this. The devil doesn't fight fair. We have an adversary, and he is accusing us day and night before God, and he wants to see us downtrodden. He doesn't want to see us living a life of hope. He's like a roaring lion, Peter says, walking about seeking whom he may devour. In the sense that he's looking for the sheep that are wounded, the sheep that are easy prey. He's going after the stragglers. He's going after people that are shut up, people that are isolated, people that are left to their own thoughts. Yet God allows all of this. I mean, it's very clear in the Psalm that God is allowing this to happen to Heman, that He is permitting adversity in his life, and it's a lifelong type of thing. God allows adversity in my life, in your life. Sometimes it's a long period of time before you get relief from it. We sing a song that has this idea to it when we say, send your sweet messengers, these messengers of pain and these messengers of sorrow and grief. Well, those are messengers. What message do they bring with them? Well, here's the overall message that pain and grief brings to us. God loves those whom he chastens. That's the message. It's that simple. If we're experiencing chastening, we can know for sure that God loves us. Jesus himself said, my soul is troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? He doesn't pray that. He knows that that can't possibly be. But for this purpose, I came to this hour, he said. So instead, he prayed, Father, glorify your name. That's John 12, verses 27 and 28. You say, well, what good comes from a psalm like this? What good comes from all of this suffering and this adversity? Well, I think wisdom comes from it. I think strength that is supernatural comes from it. I think that people look at us and say, how can they possibly go on? And yet God is glorified through that. That comes from it. I think that as we live our lives, we see that we're receiving extraordinary gifts from God just to keep going, just to keep moving on in life. Many people that are around us fritter their whole life away on sensate pleasures in this world, and they don't learn these lessons. They don't hear these messages through their adversity and suffering, and they waste it. That's why they get so bitter when something bad happens, or when they get a sickness, or when they get a trial that comes their way, an inconvenience in life. They can't handle it. They grow deeply bitter. because they're wasting their suffering. And if God can't trust us with just a little suffering that we're experiencing right now as a church or maybe as families or as individuals, can you imagine when it gets even more intense? That's something that I think we all need to be challenged with. So as we look for this life of wisdom and grace and a life filled with the Holy Spirit, we need to remember that there's no guarantee that we won't experience suffering and pain. When we were at the dinner table yesterday, we read about that. And I read about that in our devotional time, and we talked about it. God won't keep us from affliction. An earthquake could occur here, and we could suffer greatly. Calamities happen all the time. And it needs to teach us that we need to constantly be close with God. It needs to teach unsafe people that they should repent, because they will likewise perish. And we should live life for what is really, really important. And remember, what Satan uses to destroy us, God will use for our good. That's the wonderful part about being a Christian. So let me just mention four things that I think are important lessons from all of this affliction in the psalm. The first is, the end of any sin that we commit is death. Whether we're a Christian or not, it's death. And so the evil in this world is because we are sinners. We want to think of evil as being a tangible thing that God somehow threw into the world to foil us. But the evil is present in this world because of us, because of our rebellion against God. Right? And so, there are repercussions when it comes to the sin that you commit. Whether you see those repercussions immediately or not, they're there. Secondly, as you live an eternal quality of life, you will have a certain degree of peace and joy in your inward spirit. That's God rejoicing your soul, and you should be quick to thank Him for it. Because we don't deserve it, it's a gift. When we are at peace with God, even in the midst of adversity and suffering, we can say, you know what? God is reviving a broken and contrite heart. Glory to his name. He is the one that deserves the glory for the peace that he gives to us. The third lesson is God's grace truly is amazing. It's a gift. And so that God would send his son into this world to loose us from sin's penalty, to redeem us from sin's power, and to ultimately, this is even more incredible, to deliver us from sin's presence once for all, that is God's amazing grace that he would do that. And that's where our thoughts should dwell, and that's where they should settle. By the way, the Bible says that Jesus was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. And so when we look at the Lord Jesus, throughout his whole earthly life, he was well acquainted with grief. And at the end of his life, he not only drank from the cup of God's indignation, he drained it for us. Right down to the dregs, Isaiah tells us. And so we look to him who was forsaken so that we would not be forsaken. And then finally tonight, the end of those who die without Christ, that ought to be a terrifying thought for all of us tonight. In other words, as difficult as it became for the psalmist during life, can you imagine your existence throughout all of eternity and being shut up from God? shut up from everyone, being alone, twisting in the wind, the hot fire of hell. and all because you denied Christ, because you refused the love gift that God has offered to you. To be barred from the presence of God is the worst hell that we could ever think of. And then add to that all of the torment of hell that God talks about in the Scripture. You're separated from God, and the Bible says, not only are you barred from His presence, but you are judged to suffer eternal death. And you will be eternally dead throughout all of eternity, and yet experiencing the excruciating pain of that reality. See, not a lot of people preach that anymore. That's the truth. That's what God has revealed. And for us to not think about that would mean that we would have no desire to tell people who are oblivious to these four lessons that come with suffering and adversity. And there are a lot of people in our community that need that message. And I trust that the Lord will help them to find Him. You know, that's what the Scripture tells us to do. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let's pray together. Lord, thank You for this psalm. And it is a very dark psalm. There is not one. real sign of hope in the psalmist, except for the fact that he's praying and still calling upon you when the psalm ends. And we know that this man is with you, and yet he suffered immensely in this life. All of that is forgotten from his perspective now, and yet the lessons he learned through it all, our eternal lessons. Lord, we pray that we would not waste our suffering, that we would look at it as an opportunity to grow closer to You. And when You do give us peace and joy in our inward man, when You do rejoice our soul, Lord, help us to be thankful, because it's Your amazing grace that's doing it. We pray for your blessing and your help, in Jesus' name, Amen.