Brothers and sisters, it's a privilege to open God's Word again to you this morning. And of the multiple portions of the Psalms that we'll be considering this morning, I invite you to begin with me at Psalm 38. While you're turning there, I want to read to you from the words of a minister in our denomination, and until just recently, a professor at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. That seminary has a historic tie to our denomination. Carl Truman is writing in an article called, What Can Miserable Christians Sing? This is what he says. Having experienced and generally appreciated worship across the whole evangelical spectrum, from charismatic to reformed. I am myself less concerned here with the form of worship than I am with its content. Thus, I would like to make just one observation. The Psalms, the Bible's own hymn book, have almost entirely dropped from view in the contemporary western evangelical scene. I'm not certain why this should be, but I have an instinctive feel that it has more than a little to do with the fact that a high proportion of the Psalter is taken up with lamentation, with feeling sad, unhappy, tormented, and broken. In modern Western culture, these are simply not emotions which have much credibility. Sure, people still feel these things, but to admit that they're a normal part of one's everyday life is tantamount to admitting that one has failed in today's health, wealth, and happiness society. That little bit of an introduction, I want to read from Psalm 38, and I'm just going to be reading from the first 10 verses. This is the Word of God. O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath. For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me. There's no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation. There's no health in my bones because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head, like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness. I am utterly bowed down and prostrate. All the day I go about mourning, for my sides are filled with burning. There is no soundness in my flesh. I am feeble and crushed. I groan because of the tumult of my heart. Oh, Lord, all my longing is before you. My sighing is not hidden from you. My heart throbs. My strength fails me. And the light of my eyes, it also has gone from me. This is the Word of God. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, may we not be too wise in our own eyes not to accept a wonderful provision that you've provided in the Scriptures, in this hymn book of the Bible. for our brokenness, our sinfulness, and our sorrow. Lord, in a wonderful way, would you encourage and lift up the sad souls that are here this morning by connecting us all, and them especially, to this wonderful and mysterious portion of your Word. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. I want to continue reading from that article, What Can Miserable Christians Sing? Carl Truman continues. Now, one would not expect the world to have much time for the weakness of the psalmist cries. Very disturbing, however, when these cries of lamentation disappear from the language and worship of the church. Perhaps the Western church feels no need to lament, but then it is sadly deluded about how healthy it really is in terms of numbers, influence, and spiritual maturity. Perhaps, and this is more likely, the church is drunk so deeply at the well of modern Western materialism that it simply does not know what to do with such cries and regards them as little short of embarrassing. He concludes this section, yet the human condition is a poor one, and Christians who are aware of the deceitfulness of the human heart and are looking for a better country You should know this. Brethren and sisters, this morning as we continue in our study of why sing the Psalms of David in our worship, we come to this second sermon to address what is a very prevailing theme in the book of Psalms, and that's the theme of sadness. This book of Psalms is composed of multiple kinds of songs. We're going to look at various kinds of the songs, but far and away the largest, almost half of the book of Psalms is categorized as songs of lament. Children of Lament is a song where you sing about how sad you are. That's what a lament is. Carl Truman is saying, we don't know what to do with these in at least our part of the church in the West, in the 21st century, we're not sure how that fits with worship. there is something that is reflected back on the church when we don't know how these songs fit in worship, and if we're honest, we're not even sure how they fit in worship. the Christian life. So that's what we're gonna look at this morning as we continue to consider those psalms, particularly in light of our now having all 150 of them put to music in our pew racks in front of us. Three questions this morning. Why is the psalmist so sad, first of all? Secondly, why are sad songs good for worship? And thirdly, why should we sing sad songs even when we're not sad? Look at those three things, and we'll need to hurry. You'll need to have the Psalter open, the book of Psalms, rather, open. And the first of five reasons why there are sad songs in the Psalter, why the psalmist who writes them is sad, I've found five main reasons. I'm very open to being told I've missed one, but I think it's about this number, five. The first is that the psalmist is brokenhearted. about his own sin and its consequences. That's the first reason why there are sad songs in the Psalter. And Psalm 38 is really a remarkable description of the sadness that a sense of sin brings. You see in that section I just read, the first 10 verses, the psalmist is aware of his sin. He says, my iniquities have gone over my head. You could say that he's drowning in a sense. of his own sin. He's aware of the consequences of his sin. He knows that the way he feels the suffering that he's experiencing is because of his sin. He says, I'm feeble and crushed. He's also aware, keenly aware of how his sin has displeased God. He's aware that his sin, even though God is his father, his father's angry. He says in Psalm 38, your arrows have sunk into me. What are those arrows? The arrows, the stabbing sense of conviction of sin. He knows it's God sent. Now, as I read Psalm 38, it doesn't appear to me that it's a garden variety set of sins that the psalmist is confessing here. This is pretty intense. He's going through an experience of being overwhelmed with a certain sense of sin. And I rather suspect that Psalm 38 has as its twin sister in the Psalter, Psalm 51, where we know very clearly that David in Psalm 51 has just come to be aware of a profound horrific season of sin in his life, certain kinds of sins that are not the garden variety, not the everyday kinds of sins. It's tearing him up. He is hurting deeply, and he expresses it in a song. I want you to see that the presence in your psalm book of songs like this one make very clear that big, moral, failing is part of the life of the church and of the Christian. Big sin. Bad sin. You know what stands behind this, the life of David. And you know that he is a man held up to us as a man after God's own heart, and we don't have spelled out in quite such detail all the inner workings of his horrific season of sin. We shudder at what that man was able to do in his sinfulness. And brothers and sisters, the Psalms are written and given to the people of God, aware that this is true of every one of us. We're capable of and we fall into grievous sin. Maybe you're here this morning and it's not known to the rest of us, but you are guilty of grievous sin. There's a song for that. It's found in the Psalter. Psalm 38 is one of them. It's the expression of acknowledgement of great sin and the groaning that, by the grace of God, a heart that's convicted of that sin feels. And it's put in the hymnal of the Bible. Psalm 40 is another example. My iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They're more than the hairs of my head. My heart fails me. You come in here some Sundays feeling that way? The book of Psalms makes clear in a very gritty way, this is the life of the people of God in the covenant. It ought not be this way, but it is. There's a song for that. The psalmist is brokenhearted about his own sin. and the consequences of it. Second reason he's sad, turning your Psalms to number 69, the second reason he's sad is because of the sins of others, and the sins of others that are directed against him. He's hurting from the sins of others against him. You'll know if you're familiar with the Psalms, there are quite a few songs that are written out of this sense of sorrow. Psalm 69, we'll again begin at the first verse. Save me, O God. The waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire where there's no foothold. I've come into deep waters and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out. My throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God. Why is he sad? Why is he undone? Verse four. More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause. Mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies. What I did not steal, must I now restore? Oh God, You know my folly. The wrongs I've done are not hidden from You. Let not those who hope in You be put to shame through me, O Lord God of hosts. Let not those who seek You be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel. For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face. I've become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother's sons. For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you. have fallen on me. It's clear enough, I trust by now, what this psalm is about. The psalmist is writing out of a season in which though he knows himself to be a sinner, Lord, you know my sin, he's being slandered and accused of things he's innocent of. Reproach, children, is when someone says something evil about you and they're trying to influence the way other people think of you. and you're suffering reproach when what they say about you, though it's not true, actually influences other people. That's the experience of the psalmist. He's unjustly accused. He's slandered. He's threatened. He's attacked. He's made miserable by certain people in his life. And so out of that kind of pain, he cries out to God. You've suffered that kind of pain. You know the pain of your own sin, but you also know the pain of others' sins. You can rightly say at times, I did not deserve that comment or that way of behaving, or you can say that. John Calvin wrote a commentary on the Psalms like most other books in the Bible, but his introduction to the book of Psalms is the place where Calvin uncharacteristically reveals more about himself than any other place. We wouldn't know anything about John Calvin's conversion, but for the sharing that he does in the introduction to the Psalter. We wouldn't know, for example, about how he came to Geneva, the whole story about him not wanting that kind of public ministry and William Ferrell telling him he better get himself into Geneva and take part in the Reformation there. That's all revealed in this uncharacteristically personal way in his introduction to the Psalms. Calvin also reveals how he connected with those particular Psalms that express great angst over false accusations. Listen to what he says. As that holy King David was harassed by the Philistines and other foreign enemies with continual wars, while he was much more grievously afflicted by the malice and wickedness of some evil men amongst his own people, So I can say as to myself that I have been assailed on all sides and have scarcely been able to enjoy repose for a single moment, but have always had to sustain some conflict either from enemies without or within the church. Goes on to give examples of that. He says, I believe in a secret providence of God that governs all things, and I'm accused of believing that God's the author of sin. slander. He shares how he found comfort in the Psalms where the psalmist is groaning under the attacks of men. There are wrong ways brothers and sisters respond to the abuse of others, quite a few wrong ways, but the Psalms point to a good way, a right way to respond. Cry out to God. when you're attacked unrightly by others. Third, kind of sorrow in the Psalms. The psalmist is dismayed when he sees Setbacks in the kingdom. That's how I've described it in recent months. Setbacks in the kingdom of God. Psalm 74 is an example of this. And that's a psalm that's written after the fall of the city of Jerusalem. And when I speak of setbacks in the kingdom of God, I'm not suggesting that the future of the coming of the kingdom is in any doubt. The kingdom advances in the earth because the king is an omnipotent king. It's very clear from the Scriptures themselves and from looking around in our society that there are local and temporary and sometimes profound setbacks. Churches rise and fall. They flourish and they decay. One of the greatest setbacks in the history of the kingdom was the fall of the city of Jerusalem. Verse 1, Psalm 74. Oh God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture? Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt. Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins. The enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary. Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place. They set up their own signs for signs. They were like those who swing axes in a forest of trees, and all its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers. They set your sanctuary on fire. They profaned the dwelling place of your name, bringing it down to the ground. They said to themselves, we will utterly subdue them. They burned all the meeting places of God in the land. We do not see our signs. There's no longer any prophet. There's none among us who knows how long. How long, O God, is the foe to scoff. Is the enemy to revile your name forever? You hear where that sadness is coming from? That sadness comes from outside of the psalmist's own, relatively speaking, little life. It's a sadness that comes, you might say, from reading the paper. It's a sadness that comes from hearing the reports of what's happening in the world and particularly what's happening in the church in the world. We've done this as a church. We've responded with this kind of lament, particularly in prayer when we see the church disgraced by scandal, by prominent leaders falling and giving the enemy a reason to accuse the church and to dismiss the church When we've seen divisions in the church and factions in the church, or when we've seen the church persecuted and all but wiped out in certain parts of the world, this is the right way to respond. Is there another way? When we live in a society that is losing its capital, its Christian capital, we see significant decisions by our leaders. in each branch of government that we know seals the decay of our society, this is something that is worth crying about. That's the kind of sadness that the Psalms embody in certain respects. Number four, kind of sorrow we find in the Psalms is one that's rather general, and I'll say it this way. The psalmist groans under simply the pain and frustration of human existence. It's very broad, and rightly so, Psalm 88's a great example. One of the saddest songs in the Psalter. Nothing but pain, you would be tempted to say, about this psalm. It sounds like it's written by someone facing a life-threatening illness. but it could apply to many other kinds of calamities that fall on us in this life. Oh Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you. Incline your ear to my cry, for my soul is full of troubles and my life draws near to Sheol. I'm counted among those who go down to the pit. I'm a man who has no strength, like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they're cut off from your hand. You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. caused my companions to shun me. You've made me a horror to them. I'm shut in so that I cannot escape. My eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon you, O Lord. I spread out my hands to you." He continues, but you can well imagine, and the evidence is actually there in the book of Job. for that servant of God crying out to God in those kinds of ways. The kind of psalm that's written particularly for veterans of life, psalms that are for those who have lived long enough to taste deeply how painful life can be. And you know what, folks? Some among us don't have to live that long to taste that. In God's province, there are some Christians, many in fact in the history of the church, that you could say just from a human standpoint, they've known more suffering than pleasure in this life. There's a song for that. One other kind of sadness that we find in the Psalter, and it's a challenging one, and it's the last of the five. The psalmist struggles with confusion and dismay at God's ways in the world. Now, before I turn or look with you at Psalm 22, you can begin turning there, you'll know, if you know the Psalter, there are many songs, there are happy songs in the psalm book that praise God and just exult in what God has done in the world, His mighty acts. They're sung in the Psalter. There's also a mirror image of that kind of song. There are songs not only that thank God and praise Him for what He's done, there are also songs that cry out to Him in dismay at what He hasn't done. Psalm 22 is a personal example of this, what God hasn't done in the life of a specific saint. It begins, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer. And by night, but I find no rest. Psalmist is there undergoing something that's not laid out for us. And he feels that though God has promised that he would never forsake his people, he's promised that he'll provide exactly as they need. He's promised that he will only be good. The psalmist is saying, I don't see it. You're being really quiet. I've asked you at the very least to draw near to me in my pain, and I'm not even getting that from you. The psalmist is saying, Lord, you've abandoned me. That's pretty poignant pain. Sometimes it's bigger than the psalmist's own personal experience. Sometimes, again, it's the psalmist looking out at the world and comparing what he sees in the world to all the things that God has said he's going to do in the world, and he says to God, I'm not seeing it. Psalm 10 is an example. You know that there are songs in the Psalter that praise God for blessing the righteous In bringing judgment on the wicked, they praise him for his justice. There are songs in the Bible, sorry, there are songs in the psalm book that make much of how God is faithful to reward the righteous and to punish the wicked. And then there are songs of the mirror image kind that say, that's not happening, Lord. Psalm 10, verse 1. Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? In arrogance, the wicked hotly pursue the poor. Let them be caught in the schemes that they've devised. For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord. In the pride of his face, the wicked does not seek him. All his thoughts are, there is no God. His ways prosper at all times. Your judgments are on high out of his sight. As for all of his foes, he puffs at them. You hear what the psalmist is doing here. Lord, I have a protest to file with you. You and your honor are at stake in how this world is run. So what are you doing? Remember last week I said there's parts of this altar. You wouldn't have the nerve to pray if they weren't in the Bible. This is one of them. dismay at what God's doing or characteristically what he's not doing. Now folks, that's five, I count, main sources of sorrow. that lie behind these sad songs in the Psalms. Sorrow over our own sin, over the sins of others, setbacks in the kingdom, the general hardships of human existence, and the confusing and distressing ways of God in the world. Before we go any further, let me just point out the obvious to you. After that little survey of the Psalms and all the sources of sadness that are embodied in the inspired words of the Psalms, it's quite clear, isn't it? Sadness is not always sinfulness. You might need to be reminded of that this morning. Sadness is not always sinfulness. If it was, the Psalms would look very different. There are many things in this world that those who have hearts after God's own heart cry about. As a matter of fact, It's not spiritually healthy for us to suppress the sadness that rightly wells up in us at all those things. Calvin, again, the Holy Spirit has here drawn to life. all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated. Brothers and sisters, I am keenly aware as I talk to you about the fact that there is no inherent sinfulness in the emotion of sorrow. I'm very aware that sorrow, sadness, is a way that sin enters into our hearts and lives. I'm very keenly aware that Satan is quite the opportunist when we get sad. I don't know about you, but sadness in me leads so often to self-pity, to resentment towards God, to a kind of cynicism that isn't consistent with hope. I'm fully aware Satan can make much of our sadness, but here's my proposal to you. He has his greatest opportunity when those sad thoughts, those sorrowful feelings are bottled up. and carried around, sort of nursed. And you fought the enemy. He would make much of your sadness for his purposes when you pour out your sorrows to God. That's my conclusion from the abundant presence of sad songs. In the Psalms, it's a purifying thing for that godly emotion of sorrow to make them prayers. That's why the psalmist is so sad. Let's move on to ask, secondly, why are sad songs good for worship? Because I realize that thus far, all I might have done for you is to convince you that the Psalms make a great personal prayer book. Find yourself in a situation of pain or sorrow, any number of kinds of sorrows, there's a song for that. Look it up, it'll be a great profit to you. And I know that many of you have found tremendous blessing, personally, individually, by finding those songs. But this whole series is actually about something bigger. It's about the question, why should we sing the songs of David in worship? Isn't worship supposed to be a joyful event? Isn't it supposed to make us glad? So how does this fit with the purpose of worship? I think that's a question many Christians do not know the answer to, and as a result, we don't sing these songs in the Psalter. And we're not, by the way, writing new songs of lament, not much. There's a few exceptions. Three answers to that question. Why are sad songs good for worship? Number one, because certain kinds of sorrow are themselves pleasing to God. Do you know that about sorrow? You probably don't have time to turn to all these passages now. Listen, just listen to Psalm 51. You know this psalm well. David says, for you'll not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it, you will not be pleased The burnt offering, the sacrifices of God, that's a picture of worship in the Old Testament economy. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Oh God, you'll not despise. You know what David's saying? David's saying, in my circumstances, with this kind of sin in my life, here's what will please, what will delight, the God I'm wanting to worship. It's my sadness. It's my true, genuine, authentic, growing conviction of sin leading to godly sorrow. This is a bigger view of worship than the therapeutic view of worship. The therapeutic view of worship, very common in our day, is worship is about making us feel better than when we walked in. And you don't want to walk in with a mood here and then have a little dip down to here. That would not be good for the therapeutic purposes of worship. Brothers and sisters, in worship every Sunday morning, when we pause and confess our sins, as we did this morning, we express our sorrow for sin, we're not pausing worship at that moment. You know, we gotta stop, guys. We'll come back to worship in a minute. We need to confess our sins so that we can worship. That's not how David sees repentance and sorrow for sin Sorrow for sin is worship. Think of it this way. You feel sorry for sin, offer that up as an offering. It's not much, or this is what I got. It's just sad. It's worship. Interesting, isn't it? The psalmist is telling us to be very intentional about our sorrows, not to just go around being glum. No, no, that's not consistent with what the Bible says about life in the covenant. Rather, something's making me sad. I think it's something I ought to be sad about. Lord, here it is. Here it is. Number one, certain kinds of sorrow are themselves pleasing to God. Number two, turning to the Lord in our sorrow is honoring to Him. When you are at your lowest and most desperately miserable, if you turn to God, He's honored. by that. Your Father in heaven does not take pleasure in your pain, but He is pleased. You cry out to Him in your pain. Psalm 130 begins, out of the depths. I cry to you, O Yahweh. O Yahweh, hear my voice. I've seen it here on the campus of the church. countless times. One of our little ones is tearing about, happy to be playing with his comrades, and then there's a fall or a bump and his world comes falling apart. And there are kind-hearted members of the church standing around. They want to offer comfort, but you know what happens then. It's no good. Thanks for trying. He's got one person he wants to see. Where's my mom? Dad's a distant second. I remember those days. Dad, Dad, you'll do, but where is my mom? And I don't think there's a parent I've ever met who wants to see a child in that kind of distress. But I've not met a parent who doesn't find it somehow very deeply affirming, rewarding, endearing that when his child is in pain, she looks to her, to him. That's why this direction, sorrow, Jesus, is worship. It's worship. honoring the one who is most important to us, the one that we most seek out for comfort. And that is, of course, as you probably would suspect, one of God's purposes in actually bringing trials. It's actually this turning from the bump or the fall to Him that's actually A big reason why they come at all. Third reason that it's right to sing these sad songs as part of worship is that pouring out our sorrows at the throne of grace is the way to receive that comfort. And with that comfort, I'm talking about joy. Folks, in this whole thing and in the Psalms themselves, we're not trying to make sorrow and sadness something that's inherently desirable. We're not doing that. It's normal. It's inevitable. It's even godly to respond with sorrow and sadness, but God is gonna one day wipe away all our tears and songs of lament will not always be part of the worship of the redeemed. But this is what's so amazing about singing our sorrows. According to Psalms in particular, singing our sorrows is the way God leads us from our sorrows to the comforts of the gospel itself. Worship's not just God's provision for distracting us from our sorrows. It's God's provision for dealing with them. and actually leading us from them into joy. And we don't have time, but you know how many times in the Psalter there is this crying out and dejection and a sense of abandonment, and then there's movement in the song. And something about saying to God how bad one feels about any number of things is the means by which there's some rebirth, hope, joy. You read Psalm 42 later on today, you tell me, is that a song of lament or is that a song of hope? It'll be hard to classify it as one or the other. My tears have been my food day and night while they say to me continually, where is your God? That sounds like a lament. Why are you cast down, oh my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God. For I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. You see what's happening with the psalmist? I don't know if this is true of you. When I can verbalize what I'm sad about, that's progress. If I can verbalize it to someone else, particularly to the Lord, that's even greater progress. And oftentimes, There is a relief that comes from sorrow, having expressed it to the one we love and trust. There's relief. And you know what? There are times when the Psalms will give you whiplash. Wow, the relief comes like that. One Psalm, he's down in the gutter. The other Psalm, something happened. We might be missing something. Sometimes it doesn't happen so fast. Sometimes it does. A light comes on in the midst of the grieving. The conclusion of most of the laments in the Psalms is an expression of faith. I know God has heard me. I know God's gonna take care of me. It's wonderful, and my suggestion to you is that that sense of reassured faith and hope many times requires going first to the depths of the sadness and letting God lead us from there to the solace of having His promises renewed before our weak faith. If you're sad this morning, you may need to get to joy by that route. by the sad songs that hold our hands and take us to the Lord. Almost done. One more question. I think it's important, or I'd leave it out. Why should we sing sad songs even when we're not sad? You can pick up a psalm that fits your mood. But what if you're in a fine mood? Your sky is blue. You walk in here and somebody picked a sad song for worship. I think that's actually a pretty significant struggle that probably lies underneath this culture. And I'm saying the church's reluctance to make these part a regular part of our worship. I want to sing something happy if I'm happy. I don't want to get depressed. Singing something that doesn't fit my mood? Let somebody who's depressed sing those songs. I don't want to sing those songs until I get depressed. Well, that misses something of what we saw already that the laments lead to joy, that misses that. But here's something else it misses. It misses what we're doing when we come together to worship. when we unite as one body, one voice, and sing, and do everything else we do. You know what's happening when we do that? We're actually getting outside of ourselves for a few minutes. We're getting into each other, and not just the ones that are seated here in the pews in this room. We're entering into that whole body of the, the church of Jesus Christ. And we're mindful of them. And as much as we are mindful of them, whether it's happy, and we're not so happy, or sad songs, and we're not so sad, we're recognizing that worship is an opportunity for us to rejoice with those who rejoice and grieve, lament with those who grieve. That's actually what worship requires of us, and the Psalms enable us to do that. Karl Truman concludes, by excluding the cries of loneliness, dispossession, and desolation from its worship, the church has effectively silenced and excluded the voices of those who are themselves lonely, dispossessed, and desolate, both inside and outside the church. And this brother actually suggests this may have something to do with why evangelicalism in America is a pretty comfortable middle class phenomenon. He's actually suggesting that people whose lives are really hard don't find a place among us because our songs don't connect with them. So what should we do? when there's a sad song to sing. And our own circumstances are really quite jolly. Number one, remember the suffering of many saints with whom you're united in the Spirit throughout the world. Remember the persecuted church and sing on their behalf. Remember the brothers and sisters of Christ that live in this city that are under grinding poverty. Remember that there are those in this room, you may not know who they are, that are themselves very sad. Enter into their sorrows. Number two, remember that sorrow will come sooner or later for you. It will, it will. And this is a good school. This is a good way to train ourselves how to deal with sorrows when they come for each one of us. And I'll close with number three. Why should we sing sad songs even when we're not sad? It's because there's a reason, brothers and sisters, that this life does contain so much joy for us. There's a reason. Every pleasure, every glad moment has been purchased by the suffering one. The one who took to himself not the experience of every sorrow in this life, but every ultimate source of sadness and sorrow, Jesus took that upon himself. And the whole psalter falls short in at least this one respect. in expressing what the man of sorrows underwent for you. That means that if nothing else, you take a sad song from the Psalms and you start singing it, you are praising the suffering one who died for you. And indeed, we've been looking at Psalm 22. And two of the gospel writers not only want you to know that Jesus hanging on the cross prayed this prayer of dereliction, they also want you to know what verse one of Psalm 22 sounded like from Jesus' mouth on the cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus was suffering for our sakes. Becoming acquainted with the sufferings and the sadness of the Psalter not only helps us with our sufferings, it also helps us with our praise for the one who took our sorrows to himself. So that one day, one day, there'd be no more sad songs in worship. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we're thankful for so many comforts this particular time and place has brought to us. We're ashamed of a great deal of our sorrows because you have blessed so profoundly. We also want to be better at being sad, being sad for our sins, being sad for the setbacks in your kingdom, being sad because we get out of ourselves. Think of each other. Think of your honor in the earth. We want to get better at being sad, in order that you might cleanse those sorrows and lead us time and again to greater joy in the Lord Jesus. We thank you that he's indeed taken our sorrows. And for those of us who put our faith in him, we've cried out to him like a child to his father. He will one day deliver us from all sadness. Praise be to you, O Lord. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Let's stand together, and we'll close with a very ancient hymn.