Let God Have It!

Friends, grace and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. I think we need to start with a little bit of confession time. This is not only me confessing, but all of you confessing as well. Have you ever wanted to really let someone have it? Really give them a piece of your mind? Not just give them your two cents worth, but maybe your three, four, or five cents worth? You just could not stand that somebody was doing something, and you just needed to let it off your chest. How about another round of confession time? Have you ever done that towards God? That's what we're talking about today. Psalm 85 is a psalm of lament. It's letting God have it. Do you know that actually lament psalms are the most common type of psalm? Psalm 85 is just one of these many lament psalms, these psalms where it's letting God have it because you can't stand the way that things are. You know how things should be, and you can't stand that they're not like that now. So, it's letting God have it.

There are a whole myriad of reasons why you might let God have it. You see all the problems in the world. Have you noticed that there's problems in our world? You see all the bad news that comes across maybe your TV screen or your social feed. You see all the crime that's out there, and all the tragedies that are out there, and maybe all the lies that people spread. You see things like the economy is bad, and you see sicknesses going around. There are a lot of problems in our world, and a lot of philosophies and ideas that are opposed to God and his ways. So, you might look at the world, you might say, "Lord, what in the world? Why is this going on? Why are you letting this happen?" And you might lament the world. Of course, you could also lament us. You could say, "Lord, you see that our relationships are not quite what they should be. Our relationships are not up to snuff. We say bad things to each other. We stab each other in the back. Lord, you see that the words that we say to each other are not right. We don't treat each other the way that we should. This thing called love, sometimes there's not enough of it. Lord, you see our church. You see all the problems that your church around the world faces. And often our churches are not what they should be, and we as God's people are not who we should be. And so often we do such a bad job of representing God to his world. And you see our families, and how broken they are, and how much they lack love, and how much we let rotten dynamics and things and words into our own families." Then we could also not only lament us, we could also lament ourselves, couldn't we?

We sin. We sin in our thoughts, we sin with our words, but we sin with our deeds. You and I are not who we should be. And not only do we sin, but our lives reflect the consequences of sin, this curse, this death that's in the world. We all have to look forward to is dying. In the meantime, our bodies don't work right. They're weak, or they're sick, or they don't do the things that they're supposed to do. And not only do we have these problems in how we conduct ourselves and living a sinful life in our bodies, but we also have spiritual problems like doubts. You don't have to raise your hand, but have you ever felt doubts in your faith? We have doubts, and our lives don't go the ways that they should either, by our own doing or by other factors. There's a lot of things to lament. Maybe it's no wonder then that the lament psalms are the most common type of psalm. They're all over the book of Psalms because there's a lot of things to lament. And the reason why you lament is because then you ask the question. When you see all these things going wrong in our world and in us and in ourselves, you start to ask the next question, "Well, who's running this show? Who is it? God? Wait a second, that doesn't add up. If God is a good God and he's a loving God and he made this world and he wants things to go well and he is still running this show, what gives? Why isn't he doing something about it? Why don't things look differently?" And so that's what the lament psalms do. They let God have it. "Come on, God, what gives? Why aren't you doing something about it? How long will you let this go on for?" And that's the heart of lament, remembering who God is, that he's a good God and a loving God, an all-powerful God, and trying to reconcile that with the way that things are in our world and in ourselves.

So, you pray and you let God have it. Now, you might wonder for a second, can we really talk to God that way? Have you ever tried praying really angry at God, letting God have it, really letting him have it? It kind of seems disrespectful, doesn't it? It kind of seems irreverent. Are we allowed to do that? Well, the answer is yes. God gave us the book of Psalms. And if God gives us the book of Psalms, do you think that he wants you to pray them? Yes. And if most of the psalms are psalms of lament, do you think it's okay to pray those psalms? Yes. God is okay with you letting him have it. And I think that there's something remarkable about that because psalms of lament, prayers of lament, are prayers of faith. So, look at how the psalmist does it in verses 5 and 6 of Psalm 85. He says, "Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?" This is remarkable because I think what these psalms of lament do is they give you the freedom to pray your true feelings and not hold back. Has anybody had negative feelings before? The Lord knows you have those feelings, whether it be sadness, anger, feeling let down, depression, loneliness, or betrayal. The Psalms of lament give you the freedom to pray those feelings, to give them to the Lord, because he knows you have them anyway. It gives you the freedom to not hold back. Psalms of lament are prayers of faith. When you pray in lament, you are praying in faith because you are giving God your worst. You're saying, "All right, God, if you are who you say you are, and you are loving and all-powerful, then I know that you can take it. You can take the biggest and worst feelings from little old me because you are God." So, you give them to the Lord.

If you don't give them to the Lord, it's believing that he doesn't want to hear those feelings, that you would be rejected, that he doesn't already know about them. When you don't give those feelings to the Lord, they sit right in here and they fester, they get rotten. You give to the Lord your worst, and he gives you his best, because when you give those feelings to the Lord, he treats them with the gospel. Psalm 85:8-9 says, "Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land." The psalmist is saying that he knows that when he laments, he gives those prayers of lament to the Lord, that he will hear the Lord speak, and the Lord will speak peace. The psalmist believes that salvation is nearer to him.

I've heard the Lord speak to me all the time. Be careful about believing that the Lord will speak directly to you, because most of all, the Lord speaks to you all the time. He speaks to you by his word, and most of all, he speaks to you by his son, Jesus. When you bring your sin, your prayer of lament over your life, and how you've conducted yourself, when you bring your sins to the Lord, the Lord speaks to you through Jesus. He gives you forgiveness to your sin. He speaks peace. When you bring your heartache to the Lord, and bring to him all those feelings and emotions that you carry with you that are so heavy, the Lord speaks hope to you that things will be made right. He speaks that hope to you through Jesus, who defeated death on the cross and rose from the grave. He speaks forgiveness and hope. When you are in need, our Lord speaks peace to you through love in his church. He's gathered you with your church family, and he embraces you with the love of his people. That's Jesus working through his church for each and every member of his church. When you are caught up in lies and searching for truth, our Lord speaks peace to you through Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.

The answer to every single prayer, big and small, is Jesus, his life, his death, and his resurrection. He's not just a band-aid; he's looking to make all things right, to revolutionize this world. Christians lament because we yearn for how things will be. We see what is wrong with this life, and we see what the Lord promises, and we yearn for that life to come. We want that life to come, and we see how our life now compares to what it will be, and we yearn for it. We pray for restoration, for an overhaul. We want Jesus to make all things new, so that our world, when we look at our world, we only get hope from our world. So that one day, when Jesus comes back, our world will be a world full of God's truth, goodness, and beauty. We want our world to be a party hosted by Jesus. When we look at us, God's people, every single relationship you have after Jesus comes back will be only good all the time. It'll be full of words that are only encouraging and loving towards each other. When Jesus comes back, we will no longer have sinful thoughts, words, or deeds. Our bodies will be made brand new. Our lives will be entirely what they should be and go the way that they ought to go.

When Jesus comes back, everything will be made right. The psalmist ends Psalm 85, this psalm of lament complaining to God about how things are and how things should be, with hope. He says, "Steadfast love and faithfulness meet." It's a vision of that future. "Righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky. Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase." The psalmist looks to that future when the Lord will make all things right, when his love, provision, righteousness, and peace will govern all things.

If you don't already pray in lament, start doing it, because otherwise you're letting those things fester. Psalms of lament, prayers of lament, are prayers of faith. You're holding God to his word, holding God to who he says he is, saying, "Lord, this is who I know you are to be." That's faith, even when faced with a life in a world that seems like it's the opposite. That's faith to hold God to who he is. Prayers of lament yearn for God's promises and his love. That's a belief in the gospel. Prayers of lament desire to be who God makes us to be. That's hope. When you pray in lament, it's a prayer of faith, belief in the gospel, and hope. So, friends, let God have it. In Jesus' name, amen.