It is a great, great blessing to be here with all of you today. You know, I've been in this building many, many times serving on presbytery committees and in presbytery meetings and things of that nature, but this is my first time getting to be with you for worship. So I've imagined what your worship is like many, many times, but such a joy to be able to engage in the worship of our great and awesome God with you, and so good to see you. So thank you to your session. for inviting me to share the word with you this morning, and thank you to all of you for greeting me and for welcoming me and my family here with you today. Such a great joy to be here. And on behalf of all of your friends at the Whosoever Gospel Mission, I bring you warm greetings in the Lord, And we are grateful to the Lord for all of your prayer and all of your support to us as a mission. Over the years, the Whosoever Gospel Mission is located in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, for those of you who are not familiar with us, where for almost 130 years, since 1892, we have served the Lord, offering the hope and healing of Jesus in word and deed to homeless men in the Philadelphia area. And currently, we have 55 men living at the mission who are enrolled in our New Life program. The New Life program is a job readiness and recovery program. It's a holistic program that is designed to help lift men out of chronic homelessness. And we do that through various educational classes and teaching and tutoring. through daily chapel services, through counseling services, through job readiness training and things of that nature. So thank you for all of your prayer and support. We also provide, of course, housing and three meals a day and clothing to all of the men who are in the program. And I'm pleased to be able to report to you that currently of the 55 men in the program, 16 of them have gained full-time employment, and they're currently working and saving up their money to get a place of their own, and such a joy to be able to serve the Lord in that capacity. And so even in a difficult season, the Lord continues to provide for us. Many of you know our executive director, Bob Emberger, recently had open-heart surgery, over the summer and thank you for your prayers for Bob he is recovering well he's back working he's working around three quarters time now and and we're trying to you know sort of say Bob just hold off to getting to getting a full time again because he needs his rest but the Lord has been really really gracious to us and and you no doubt are a great part of that supporting us through your prayers and and in other ways and so thank you today I want to invite you to look with me at a passage of scripture that is deeply, deeply meaningful to me personally, and I'll share a little bit about why that is later in the sermon. It's also a passage that I find myself in my counseling to the men at the whosoever gospel mission going back to again and again and again. It's psalm 77. So if you have a copy of God's word, turn with me in your bibles to psalm 77 or click with me. However you're you're using your bibles these days, I guess we with the screen is up so we don't have it back there, but turn with me or click with me to psalm 77 and let me read it for us. Psalm 77, hear the word of our God. To the choir master, according to Jeduthun, a Psalm of Asaph. I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me. In the day of my trouble, I seek the Lord. In the night, my hand is stretched out without wearying. My soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God, I moan. When I meditate, my spirit faints. You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said, let me remember my song in the night. Let me meditate in my heart. Then my spirit made a diligent search. Will the Lord spurn forever and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has He, in anger, shut up His compassion? Then I said, I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work. and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy. What God is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders. You have made known your might among the peoples. You, with your arm, redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid. Indeed, the deep trembled. The clouds poured out water. The skies gave forth thunder. Your arrows flashed on every side. The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind. Your lightnings lighted up the world. The earth trembled and shook. Your way was through the sea. Your path through the great waters. Yet your footprints were unseen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us pray. Lord, you are great and awesome and holy. And so we pray now that the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts, O Lord, might be well-pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our Redeemer. For the sake of Jesus, your only and beloved Son, we pray, amen. So as we look together at this incredible prayer in Psalm 77, and that's what it is, it is a prayer, I want to consider with you the question What does it look like for us to wait upon the Lord in times of suffering and sorrow in our lives? What does it look like to wait upon the Lord in times of sorrow and suffering in our lives? And I want to start here with a saying that's become sort of a cliche in Christian circles, that the more I live and the more I minister and the more I read scripture, I've come to question more and more. It's the one that goes like this. the Lord won't give you any more than you could handle. Have you heard that one? What do you think about that? I'm not so sure about that one, right? It doesn't really match up well with my own experience. It doesn't match up well with our experience, especially in the world today, right? For a couple years, I mean, we've seen thing after thing after thing, and it's like, Lord, how much more can we take? And in your own life, I know that you can probably think about times, and maybe you're going through one of those times right now. where you're just crying out to the Lord, Lord, how long, how long is this going to keep going on? And so, I want you to see that, and listen to this. The Lord won't give you any more than you can handle. The Apostle Paul, who I think we can all agree was a man of great faith, right? The Apostle Paul, there was a time in his life where he actually wrote these words. This is 2 Corinthians 1, verse 8. A little bit after those verses we started off with this morning, the God of all comfort who comforts us in all of our affliction. A few verses later, in chapter 1, verse 8 of 2 Corinthians, Paul writes this. He says, we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. So utterly burdened, that's the Apostle Paul, so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Sure sounds to me like Paul at that time was going through some stuff that was a little more than he could handle. Right. But then he goes on to say this. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. You see, beloved, the truth is not that God won't give you any more than you can handle. The truth is that God won't give you any more than he can handle. Amen. And at those times when we're going through things in our lives that are more than we can handle, His purpose is so that you and I would rely all the more heavily upon Him and His grace. Which is exactly why Psalm 77 is in the Bible. This psalm was written for times that are more than we can handle. This psalm was written for those times when it's just like, Lord, I can't take it anymore. and that's such a gift to us, such a gift from our God to us. And so I want to invite you to consider with me three things this morning from Psalm 77. First, sinking in sorrow, what is it like? What does this psalm hold out to us to show us, to remind us what it's like when we find ourselves sinking in sorrow? And then second, the reach of faith And then third, the peripheral vision of faith. So sinking in sorrow, the reach of faith, the peripheral vision of faith. First, sinking in sorrow. Now we don't know a whole lot about this guy, Asaph, who wrote this psalm. Other than that, we have 12 psalms that were written by him, Psalm 50, and then the group of psalms that this one is written in, Psalm 73 through Psalm 83. You know, I used to say that that Asaph is like the Ben Simmons of psalm writers, like Joel Embiid, or David is like the Joel Embiid of psalm writers, Asaph is like the Ben Simmons, but nobody likes Ben Simmons anymore, so I can't say that now. But you get the point, right? Asaph is the second psalm writer. After King David, he's written the second most psalms in scripture. We also don't know, what the situation that this guy Asaph exactly was, was going through, right? We don't know the events that were transpiring in his life to cause him to pen these words. All that we know is that this is really, really bad. This is a time in this man's life that he refers to in verse 2 simply as, what, the day of my trouble. In the day of my trouble, I seek the Lord. And here are some of the things that Asaph says that he was doing on this day of his trouble. Verse two. In the night, my hand is stretched out without wearying. My soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God, verse three, when I remember God, I moan. When I meditate, my spirit faints. Verse four, you hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I cannot speak. Like a sleepless night, right? Holding his eyelids open, and he's crying out, arms continually stretched out, refusing to be comforted, moaning, fainting spirit, unable to sleep, unable to speak. Have you known times like this in your life? I know that I have, and I'm sure that most of us know what it's like to go through times like this, don't we? This man Asaph is so distraught, he says, that he cannot even speak, and yet here's the thing, beloved. It's just amazing to me. He says, I can't speak, and yes, and yet, he has given us these words. You see, and this is one of the things that is so deeply, deeply meaningful to me about the Psalms, because, you know, have you ever had those times in your life, either in your own suffering, or you're looking at what's going on in the world, or in the life of somebody else, and it's just like, you know, I have no words. You don't have any words to describe what's really going on, the depth of sorrow that you feel yourself in or that you sense in the life of somebody else. What a gift it is, beloved, to have words that are inspired by God himself that we can speak to him at those times when we have no words of our own. That's what Psalms like Psalm 77 are they give us words when there are no words They give us words when there are no words and for me personally Psalms like Psalm 77 are also deeply meaningful because I'm somebody who has throughout my life battled depression and And I guarantee you there are many in this congregation who are battling depression, right? It is a deeply oppressive thing in my life and in our society. And the thing about depression, for those of you who haven't quite experienced it yourself, is that you can't always articulate what's going on right you can't necessarily point to a certain event and say like this happened therefore that's why i'm feeling the way i'm feeling right it's just like this kind of dark cloud that settles over you uh or or like a bully who just keeps coming back over and over again, and his attacks may be more or less violent, but sure enough, even if he goes away for a little while, he's going to come back, and he's going to take your lunch money. He's going to steal your joy. gonna steal your joy. And so Asaph talks here in Psalm 77 about the day of his trouble, but in reality, right, whether you're today in a time in your life where you're feeling really good about things, or you're in a time like Psalm 77, right, you have to remember that that we live in a world of trouble, don't we? Well, you don't need me to remind you of that, do you, given the times that we're living in? We live in a world of trouble. And what's happening in the population at large is why the epidemic of depression is something that doesn't just touch a few people. And the numbers in the population at large are bad enough. You know, more than 17 million adults are diagnosed with depression, and that's just the people who are diagnosed with depression. I mean, many, many other people suffer from it but have not been diagnosed. But through the year 2020 and into 2021, right, while all the focus has been on the COVID pandemic and the economy and politics and all of these things, I really have to wonder whether we're focused on the biggest epidemic that's really before us as a nation, which is the epidemic of our mental health. And it'll be years and years before we see the full fallout of all of these things in our society. Because with all the darkness and the fear and the isolation that is all around us, it's just getting worse and worse and worse. Really, most jarring to me is the increase of depression among our young people. It's, you know, if you look at the statistics, it's deeply jarring in 2019. So we're talking here even pre covid, right? In 2019, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services conducted a study that produced the following statistics since since from 2009 to 2019 depression among 20 and 21-year-olds had more than doubled from 7% in 2009 to 15% in 2019. Among 16 and 17-year-olds, it had risen by 69%. Among adults 18 to 25 years old, serious psychological distress, meaning anxiety and feelings of hopelessness, had risen 71%. And suicide attempts by among people in their early 20s have doubled. And by the way, did you know what the second leading cause of death is for people 10 to 34 years old? Suicide. Second leading cause of death. Beloved, something is deeply, deeply wrong. All of these things are prophetic. It testifies to the fact that we live in a broken world and we cannot fix it ourselves. And, you know, why do I bring these things up? I don't bring these things up because I want to ruin your day. It's your picnic today, right? I'm not trying to make you sad. You should have fun at the picnic. Eat the pig. It's gonna be great. I'll hope to be there with you. It's a beautiful day, right? But I bring all of these things up because I want us to be awake and have our eyes open to the fact that this is the world that your God loves. This world, this world that is suffering and in sin and misery and oppressive darkness, this is the world that your God loves, that Jesus died for, that he is redeeming, and that he is coming again to wipe every tear from every eye, amen? Which is why When you think about the life of Jesus, you know, Isaiah chapter 53 says to us that Jesus the Lord was a man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief. Now I want you to think about that. King of kings, Lord of lords, creator of the universe, the glorious son of God, a man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief. Why? Not because He's sadistic and just wanted to feel the pain because he came in order to take upon himself the depth of our sorrow and the depth of our suffering and the depth of our despair and take all of that and our sin and our misery and take all of that upon himself so that your God would know what it's like. which is why the book of Hebrews says that he is a great high priest who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, for he has suffered in every way that we suffer. He cried out from the cross, I thirst. He cried out from the cross those words, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me so that you and I can know if we have times in our lives where it feels like God has left me and I have those times very, very frequently, beloved, we can look to the very beloved Son of God, see Him suffering on our behalf before us, with us, and for us, and say, even Jesus knows what that's like. Amen? And so, which is at least one reason why, at least one reason why when we go then to the second part of this psalm, Asaph, because he knows that this, even before Jesus came into the world, he knows that God is a God who looks upon his people with compassion. He knows that when he cries, he cries out to the Lord, he's not crying out into the void. He's not crying out into the abyss. He says, I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me. He knows that like God said to Moses there in Exodus chapter 3, when the people of Israel where in Egypt is suffering and oppressed, and God said, I have surely seen the suffering of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries, and I have come down to deliver them. Asaph knows that he is crying out to a God whose ears are open, whose eyes are open, and who acts to deliver his people, even though what he's feeling doesn't jive with that, right? And so he eventually is able to start to make this climb upward, so that he can get a glimpse beyond his circumstances to the character of God. And so, he has this, what I'm calling, this long reach of faith. Look at verses 5 and 6. Asaph, crying out from the depth of sorrow, he then starts to say this, I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said, let me remember my song in the night. Let me meditate in my heart. Let me remember my song in the night. It shouldn't be lost on us, beloved, that the place where Asaph's heart starts to play a different tune is with remembering a song, right? Singing is something so, it's not a cure-all, but it is so important for those of us who find ourselves trapped again and again in the grips of despair, because singing has a tendency to change the tune of your soul, doesn't it? And you know, Think about it, right? One of my favorite songs of the night, to use Asaph's words, is the hymn that we're going to sing after the sermon this morning, Abide With Me, Fast Falls the Even Tide. And, you know, it's one thing to say the words, God is my only hope. And that's true, and we should say those words. But it's another thing entirely to sing to the Lord words like these, I need thy presence every passing hour. What but thy grace can foil the tempter's power? Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be? Through cloud and sunshine, oh, abide with me. Amen. That is life-giving stuff. Those are words to change the tune of your soul in the darkness of the night. And so, don't miss what happens in Psalm 77. Asaph, Having remembered his song in the night tells us at the end of verse 6 that he began to make this diligent search, right? And he asked this string of five questions in verses 7 through 9. Let me read through them again. Verses 7 through 9. Will the Lord spurn forever and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion? Now, what is it that each of these questions has in common? Each of these questions is essentially asking this, is this final and is this permanent? Is this day of my trouble that I find myself in right now, is this final and is this permanent? And the answer to each one of the questions is what? No, it is not final and it is not permanent You see beloved it is right and it is good in the day of your trouble to lay your complaint before the lord To lay it before the lord to pour out your heart like asaph does this this just onslaught of suffering right that's going on within you but We cannot remain in the place of complaint forever. We cannot remain there indefinitely. And to be clear, you can remain there for a really, really long time, but eventually, reach higher start to climb yourself up by faith upward and so asap what is it what does he do it's as if look it's as if he's he's looking out and before him all he sees is just this thick dark wall of suffering that he cannot see past and yet He asked these questions, and you could almost see each of these questions as like a notch in the wall, right? Like those rock-climbing walls that you climb up. I took my son to urban air a while back, and he was climbing up the rock-climbing walls, right? Your God has put notches in the wall, amen? so that you can grab hold, they are His promises, and each of these questions is sort of reminding us of the promises of God, so that you can grab hold and start to pull yourself up that dark wall of despair that stands in front of you, and get a peek over the wall to the character of your God, and the things that you know to be true about the Lord, and the beauty of His promises, and hear Him saying to you, John, insert your name there, whatever it is, this is not final, and this is not permanent, and yes, I know that it is hard, and you feel like I've left you, but I have not. I am with you. Climb up the wall by the arm of faith, and you know, I think this is really important. Because a lot of times we get mixed up and confused about faith because we tend to think of faith as a feeling, right? You ever fall into that trap? And so if you're feeling good, well, my faith must be great. If you're feeling bad, what do you think? My faith must not be very good. Beloved, nothing can be further from the truth. Faith is not a feeling. Faith is the arm of your soul by which you reach beyond what you can see and what you feel and what you experience in the world to the things that you know to be true about your God. Amen? That's what faith is. Don't ever let anybody tell you if you're depressed, it's a failure of your faith. That is a lie from the pit, right? Faith reaches beyond your feelings, which is why Hebrews chapter 11 says what? Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the assurance of things not seen, and I would add also the assurance of things not necessarily felt either. And so, yes, ASAP, right now, my circumstances are so desperate, the darkness is so thick, the tears are so constant that it seems like the Lord is absent, but I know better. This is how it is now, but this is not how it's always gonna be. Will the Lord spurn forever? No. Has his steadfast love, his hesed, has his steadfast love forever ceased? No. Are his promises at an end for all time? No. Has he forgotten to be gracious? No. Has he in anger shut up his compassion? No, no, no, no, no. This is not final. It is not permanent. Thanks be to God, and I and you know better. Combat those lies. And here's the thing, beloved. Bringing us then to the last point, why do you know better? Where do you look to have this assurance that things are not as they seem? To have this confidence that God is going to turn the dark night of weeping into the morning of rejoicing? Where does Asaph look? Asaph looks to the past, doesn't he? He looks to the past. The way that God has worked in the past gives Asaph what I am calling a peripheral vision of faith. the peripheral vision of faith. Look at verses 10 through 15 once again. Then I said, I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy. What God is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders. you have made known your might among the peoples, you with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. Asaph says, I will remember. I will remember the deeds of the Lord, right? You see, what we know about how God has already acted in the past to redeem us for our salvation both informs our present and shapes our vision of the future. It informs our present, and it shapes our vision of the future, right? But what is the problem? I don't know about you, but I am really, really forgetful. I am really, really forgetful. It doesn't come natural to me to remember. It's always like, Lord, what have you done for me lately, right? It doesn't come naturally, and so we're forgetful. We are all forgetful, right? And so it is a daily fight, is it not? It is a daily fight to remember, to keep before my eyes all those ways that the Lord has shown his mercy and his love and his grace to me, right? And because in front of me, What is there? It's that dark wall, right? And, you know, there's this ongoing pandemic that we just cannot seem to get past as a society. There is political widespread, political unrest, not only in our country, but throughout the world. There is hatred. There is violence. There is my own tendency to just want to give up and throw in the towel, right? There is this body that keeps getting older. You know, I'm at that time in my life where I'm starting to feel all those aches and pains. that my parents used to tell me about, and I always said, ah, you know, that's never gonna come. Well, guess what? It's come. And it ain't going away, right? So all of these things, that's what's in front of me. And so you see, remembering the works and the promises of God, it needs to be a daily conscious decision, beloved. I mean, notice the verbs that Asaph uses in Psalm 77. Notice this, I will appeal, I will remember, I will ponder, I will meditate. You see, these are proactive decisions. Remembering just doesn't happen to you, right? You have to make the conscious decision to appeal, to ponder, to meditate, and all of these things. And when you do that, what do you find? Well, at least one thing you find is that the God that we're dealing with here is not the God of mere theological speculation. It's not just a theory. This is the God who has acted in real flesh and blood history to redeem us and has acted in tangible ways in our lives to comfort us and to restore us and to save us, amen? He is the true and the living God who does not turn his eyes away from his people. This is the God that we're dealing with, because note well, there is one specific act of the Lord that Asaph calls to mind when he comes to the end of this psalm, and what is that? It is the exodus of his people out of Egypt. That's where all of this imagery, when Asaph comes to the closing verses, all of this imagery comes from the Exodus, right? Verses 16 through 20. The waters saw you and they were afraid. The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind. The earth trembled and shook. And look how he concludes in verse 19. Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters, yet your footprints were unseen. God was with his people in the place of death to deliver them out. Your footprints were unseen, he says. What was seen? It was the army of Egypt and the Red Sea. Now we look at the Red Sea and we think of the Red Sea as the place of salvation. They looked at the Red Sea and they didn't think it was quite that. Just to remind you, what did the people of Israel say to Moses as they had their backs against the sea and the army of Egypt was coming? It says in Exodus 14 verses 10 and 11 that when Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them and they feared greatly and the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, is it because there are no graves in Egypt? that you have taken us away to die in this wilderness. You see, for the people of Israel then, before the seas opened up, the Red Sea was nothing but a giant grave. That's what it was. It meant their sure destruction. They were trapped. But what did God do? He made a way where there is no way. And that's who your God is, beloved. Your God is the God who makes a way where there is no way. He is the God that turns the place of death into the place of salvation. He made a way through the sea, through death, and he brought out his people, but he buried their enemies in that very same sea. Now, does that sound familiar to you? It should, beloved, because that is the very thing that your God has done for you in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, your Lord. Amen. His way was through the cross and the grave. He made a way where there is no way. He has turned the place of death into the place of your salvation, right? So that the grave has become the place where life has sprung up. The darkness has become the place where the light shines. And in your life, your God is in the business of turning all of your darkness into light, all of your weeping into rejoicing, all of your sickness and death into health and life, amen? Weeping will tarry for the night, but joy will come with the morning, and beloved, that morning of joy, guess what? It never ends. You know the weeping of the night Has an end the rejoicing of the morning does not and he has given you in your life now today through fellowship with his sorrowing suffering and victorious son the joy of having Fellowship with him and all those things that you might suffer. I This is good news. This is the good news of the gospel. Our God doesn't make light of our suffering. He acknowledges it for what it is, but he shows you how he is victorious over it. And so, beloved friends, as you continue to wait and cry out in this day of trouble, remember your song and reach upward and remember what you know about the Lord and look back and out and remember how he has shown his faithfulness to you and remember how both that upward reach and that outward look come together in the cross of your Lord Jesus Christ and how in the cross he has for you made a way where there is no way and at those times at those times that are more than you can handle. Cling to the cross. Cling to the cross. It is our hope. It is our life. It is our salvation. It is our joy. And let those things inform your present and shape your vision of the future as you look toward that day when your God will say, and He will say it, enough. Enough. And Jesus comes back and he comes to wipe with his own blessed finger every tear from every eye. And death will be no more. Neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. For the former things on that day will have passed away. and life and light will reign eternal. Let us pray. Oh Lord, haste the day when our faith shall be sight. The clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend. Even then, it is well with my soul. Lord, help us, we need you. I pray today, especially and specifically for anyone who has been for a long, long time experiencing a dark night of the soul, that you would break through with your light and bring a measure of joy and peace that will sustain them through the trial. Help us all, oh Lord, to grow more and more in the love and the life and the comfort and the peace that is in Jesus as we seek to receive the comfort that you have for us ourselves and to reach out to one another with the comfort with which we ourselves have been comforted by God. We pray this in Jesus name and for the sake of his glory. Amen.