Thursday, November 02, 2006

I cannot fathom going through life without the hope that I now have in Christ. Psalm 88, how can a Psalm that ends in "Darkness is my closest friend" be of any hope..here Paul Tripp provides some cause for Hope....

If your hope rest in your circumstances, then there is no hope to be found in Psalm88. If your hope rests in your ability to figure life out enough to solve your problems, then there is no hope to be found in Psalm88....
First Psalm88 reminds me that the God in whom I hope really does understand the deepest issues of the human heart. He is never caught off guard, never confused or overwhelmed...God looks with loving understanding into the deepest caverns of the human experience. He hears with patience and mercy the most desperate cries of the human heart. He never minimizes, mischaracterizes, misunderstands or mocks my struggle. There is really one who understands...

Yet there is more, how does Psalm 88 fit with the rest of the Psalms and the rest of the Bible? Psalm88 tells us how deep, how wide and far the arms of our Redeemer extend. God's grace is not wimpy, it extends, with life altering power, to the deepest level of suffering that is the result of damaging effects of sin in our world. Our Lord redeems the lost and the lonely, the rebel and the fearful, the confused and the doubtful, the sinner and the sufferer, the poor and the forsaken.

Because Psalm88 is in the Bible, you can say to yourself, "What I am going through right now is not beyond the scope of redemption. The loving hands of a powerful redeemer are long enough to reach into the details of this expereince as well...Here is the hope: YOU CAN NEVER LIVE BEYOND THE REACH OF GRACE...........

Lost in the Middle
Paul David Tripp