No sermon on Psalm 88 would be complete without expressing the warnings in the whole of scripture about the sin of complaining. God gives us allowance to bring our complaints and yet there are warnings and many examples of God striking those whose words of complaint tread the line and go over the line into blasphemy. We must beware. I love the careful language of the South on every side. It seems baked into their culture to carefully tread the area of complaining. There is a clear line of god-fearing and not god-fearing on this regard. Numbers 11 is a fearful text about the area of complaining about God’s provision. Albeit that God was kneading trust into His people’s hearts to prepare them to be a vessel fit to bring us the Messiah; foundational was contentment in speech and heart before the Lord. This is a family discipline that we have certainly strayed from. The lesson of the slippery slope of lust from food to other more sordid lusts is laid out before our eyes in Numbers 11. God had to kill them.
God give us grace to shine contentment and gratitude to God as a foremost attribute. We belong to Jesus! God comfort Tim Kellers family and I am grateful for his message on this Psalm as a meditation, even from the grave he is ministering.
1. Sometimes a light surprises
The Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord Who rises
With healing in His wings:
When comforts are declining,
He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining,
To cheer it after the rain2. In holy contemplation
We sweetly then pursue
The theme of God’s salvation,
And find it ever new;
Set free from present sorrow,
We cheerfully can say,
Let the unknown tomorrow
Bring with it what it may.3. Tomorrow can bring us nothing,
But He will bear us through:
Who gives the lilies clothing
Will clothe His people, too:
Beneath the spreading heavens
No creature but is fed;
And He Who feeds the ravens
Will give His children bread.
