“Inside Out” tells the story of an adventure inside 11 year old Riley’s head. Award winning Amy Poehler is the voice of Joy, Riley's first emotion at birth. Amy said in a recent interview: "Joy has been in charge for 11 years and is pretty comfortable being in the driving seat and assumes she's going to be there forever, but we find out very quickly that Sadness, Anger, Fear, Disgust - the other emotions - want a turn at the wheel." Poehler adds: "I love the message of the film which is basically that no-one can be happy all the time - and that's OK.”  That message resonates with kids and adults alike! Many things in our lives cause us to get stressed out, grow weary, feel overwhelmed, and sometimes we can fall into depression. Yet we can try to go about our daily business and even come to church and go through the ritual: “How are you?” “I’M FINE”. Many of us struggle to admit what’s really going on!

More than half the Psalms are Psalms of DISORIENTATION for times when everything falls apart and our lives turn upside down! We live in a fallen and broken world, so such times are inevitable!

“there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror…all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities…” (Calvin).

“under all the circumstances of life, we shall find that these divine songs suit ourselves and meet our own souls’ need at every turn” (Athanasius).

Q. Have you ever felt distant from God?  Have you ever felt overwhelmed by your circumstances?

Psalm 88 combines both experiences: Heman is alone in the dark!

Normally the lament Psalms end in the light resolving to trust in God and hope in His salvation … but this Psalm ends in a minor key, it ends in the darkness and in despair of death.

BIBLE STUDY QUESTIONS (OBSERVATION AND MEANING)

• Asterisk (*) all the questions Heman asks God? What answers does he receive?
  • There are no answers given to his queries: Why is this happening to me?  Just like Job experienced no answer for a very long time.  Sometimes we will suffer without understanding and without immediate relief or explanation.
• Underline Heman’s descriptions of how he feels God is treating him?
  • Forgotten
  • Judged in wrath
  • Brought near to death
  • Abandoned
  • Taken away his friends
  • Assaulted and destroyed him
  • Hidden from him
• “Heman has lost his faith in God” – Do you Agree or Disagree? Why?
  • He remembers that God is “God of salvation … steadfast love…faithfulness…righteousness”
  • He is praying to God and arguing with God – that is faith. He does this even though he’s not getting any answers and doesn’t feel any better: “faith is learning to trust God in the dark” (Atkinson)
• Does Heman say anything that you think is wrong?
  • There are questionable things that Heman says and blames God for based on how he feels about his circumstances.
  • The lesson is that we cannot always rely on our feelings to tell us the truth about what God is doing in our lives.Culture tells us to rely on our feelings for truth…However – our feelings are like a boat, we can go up and down with the waves. We need something more stable than our feelings, and for that we need to look outside ourselves, and seek safe shelter and anchor our lives in the harbour of God’s truth.
  • Dr John Coe says: “We must learn that our feelings of God’s presence do not necessarily correlate with the reality of God’s presence - God wants to wean us off feelings alone – He’s always there even if he sometimes feels present or absent. He’s doing a deeper work.”
• Why may God have given His people Psalm 88? (Look at its companion: Psalm 89:38-48)
  • God gives His people words to use for their personal sufferings during the days of national suffering to come during the exile.
  • These journeys through the dark valley of the shadow of death and depression can come to any of us … but God ahead of time has graciously given us help to call upon in those times!

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (APPLICATION)

• How can Psalm 88 help us know what to do when we are experiencing hard and dark times in our lives?
  • Don’t feel ashamed
  • Don’t isolate yourself
  • Don’t rely on your feelings to tell you the truth
  • Don’t stop praying to God
  • Don’t be afraid to tell God what you’re really feeling and thinking – He can take it!

• How can we help others who are going through the darkness?

“Suffering is not a question which demands an answer, it is not a problem which requires a solution, it is a mystery which demands a presence” (Dr John Wyatt)

• • Church community
  • Friends to love and pray for and point to God
  • Doctors/medicine (like having a hurting body, sometimes hurting minds and emotions can be helped with medicine)
  • Counselling
  • Books

• Heman finds no help or hope in the darkness. How can the suffering Christian answer the question “Does God care?” in light of Matthew 26:36-39, 27:45-50?

“Whenever I read straight through the Bible, a huge difference between the Old and New Testaments comes to light. In the Old Testament I can find many expressions of doubt and disappointment. Whole books Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Job centre on the theme … almost half of the psalms have a dark, brooding tone about them. In striking contrast, the New Testament Epistles contain little of this type of anguish. The problem of pain has surely not gone away: James 1, Romans 5 and 8, the entire book of 1 Peter, and much of Revelation deal with the subject in detail. Nevertheless, nowhere do I find the piercing question, Does God care? The reason for the change, I believe, is that Jesus answered that question for the witnesses who wrote the Epistles. In Jesus, God presents a face. Anyone who wonders how God feels about the suffering on this groaning planet need only look at that face. Jesus gives God a face, and that face is streaked with tears.” (Philp Yancey)

The God who is cried out to in Psalm 88 is the same God who enters into that darkness as Jesus. He has come and shared in our pain. Jesus was called “a man of sorrows” and He knows what darkness and despair feels like because He suffered it in the garden of sorrows, the night before He was brutally crucified. That night is recorded for us in Matthew 26:37-38 “Jesus began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, ‘My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.”

Just think about what the words of this Psalm might have meant to Jesus in that moment. They give us a window into His agony as He faces death for our sins on the Cross. In Psalm 88 Heman cries out to God feeling abandoned… and on the Cross Jesus cries out to God His Father “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?” He died to destroy evil, and rose again to bring the hope of healing beyond this valley of darkness. Yet until then, in the midst of your sufferings, you need to remember that He has been here too – He understands and He will be with you!  On the radio recently Archbishop Justin Welby was interviewed about a car crash in 1983 involving his family. His daughter Joanna was only 7 months old and she died. He said: “Christian faith doesn’t hide us from the cruelties of life. Jesus himself faced every aspect of the cruelty of life that is possible. “It’s just in it he is there in the middle of the mess with us”.  Heman finished feeling that “darkness” was his “only friend”… but that will never be true for us, because we have a friend in the darkness, Jesus is with us. The darkness is dark, it veils your eyes so you cannot see Him or feel Him…but He is there with you! You cannot see Him, but hear His words “I will never leave you or forsake you”.

Resources to recommend:

• “Streams in the Desert” (book of prayers and readings)
• “Depression: The Way Up When You’re Down” (biblical counselling booklet)
• “Spurgeon’s Sorrows” (filled with biblical and practical wisdom from the life of one who struggled)