Individual Complaints


In this series I will be highlighting the various types of Psalms that you will encounter in the book of Psalm. This is by no means the ultimate and final arrangement of the Psalms, but it is one that I have found to be very helpful. Article 4 of 11

“1 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 
2 How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?” 
Psalm 13:1-2 

As mentioned in the previous article, and what will be developed throughout this series, the Psalms provide us not only with examples of how we may express all of the emotions of life to God but also provide us with a deeper understanding of who God is, what He has done, and what He is going to do.

Similar to the community complaint psalms we discussed in the previous article, you will find that these psalms are much more personal. The Individual complaints are very similar in structure and purpose to the community complaints, except for the fact that they were prayers given by one person. And there may be a variety of reasons for why one will cry out to the Lord, pleading their cause. It could be that the person is tormented by their enemies or a prevailing illness. It could be that they are in prevailing sin and have come to confess their personal sin. It may come out in the form of an imprecatory prayer (prayers to invoke or call down evil or curses upon a person).

When we lift up our complaints to the Lord, it is important to remember that there is always a right way and a wrong way to do so. We do not complain to God as though He owes us anything other than His wrath. Nor do we do so like the Israelites in the wilderness, grumbling and with a lack of faith. We may not do it with any bitterness or anger, but with full trust in Him. If we must complain, we ought to first acknowledge our sins, so that we may receive His forgiveness.

In this way, we sanctify our complaints and present them to the Lord in humility. David set the example in Psalm 13 (also in Psalm 5, 51, etc), when he concludes his individual lament with the following words:

5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

When you present your case to the Lord, do not forget that you serve a good God. A God which causes us to rejoice because we have received forgiveness for our sins and will enjoy Him in eternity through the Son.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Alex

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the fourth post in a series of 11 on the Psalms, if you would like to read the previous articles in the series, you may find them below:
  1. Psalms
  2. Hymns
  3. Community complaints
  4. Individual complaints
  5. Individual songs of thanksgiving
  6. Royal psalms
  7. Torah psalms
  8. Oracle psalms
  9. Blessing psalms
  10. Taunt songs
  11. Songs of trust
Please subscribe and share this blog with all of your friends To subscribe, click on the "Subscribe" button at the top of the blog page (https://aogalvez.blogspot.com/)
****************************************************
You may follow Overflow Church @ https://faithlife.com/overflowtx/activity
or on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/OverflowChurchTX/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Balance

Image
"For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." 1 Timothy 4:8 (NIV) This past weekend (Month even) has been a very busy one. It often happens that when life ramps up, we cut the unimportant things out of our lives in order to accomplish the tasks we identify as most critical. To all my followers, I want to apologize for my having cutting this portion of my life out for a period of time and I will do my best to have more consistency. A years ago, the United States Army deployed a digital "fitness" test to its soldiers and certain respondents received a message that read, "Spiritual fitness may be an area of difficulty. You may lack a sense of meaning and purpose in your life. At times, it is hard for you to make sense of what is happening to you and to others around you. You may not feel connected to something larger than yourself. You may question your
Read more

Satisfaction

Image
“…for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” Philippians 4:11b (NIV) This has been a very busy month for me in terms of traveling around. I returned home from Brazil after a long three weeks and, after two days, I now find myself back in a hotel in the great city of Duncan, Oklahoma. Although it is slightly inconvenient to me, in terms of my schedule for studying the word, prayer, and working out to live in a hotel for almost a full month, I have found great comfort in the words from the apostle Paul. A man who has murderous attempts on his life, been imprisoned on multiple occasions, beaten up, shipwrecked three times, and bitten by a snake was able to find a state of contentedness regardless of what situation he was in. Talk about finding complete joy. This is the same joy that the beloved disciple wrote of many times for other believers to embrace. And this is a joy that over the years I have learned to develop and enjoy. That no matter what situation I find
Read more

Light

Image
“And this is the message which we have heard from him and announce unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5 (ASV) Darkness is not a real thing. Cold is also not a real thing. They are just words that we have made up to define the conditions of an environment or state of existence at a specific period or periods of time. What do I mean then when I say that they are not real things? Well, what I mean is that the darkness that we see (or cannot see because of) is not because it is overwhelming, but because it lacks light. Darkness is the absence of light. When light comes into existence, because light is something real, darkness is expelled. That’s the same with cold. Cold is simply the absence of heat. It is not that it is cold and then at some point it shifts to being hot. It is simply that the heat that exists is too miniscule that it cannot bring warmth to anything. In verse five, we read that God is light, but not a weak source of light
Read more