God Listens to Our Miseries
Psalm 79 is a Psalm of Lament. It is a psalm of pouring out to God one’s battered and bruised heart: “We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us. How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?” (verses 4-5)
Psalm 150 is a more joyful psalm. It is a psalm of praise. Indeed, the word “praise” appears 13 times in the six verses of Psalm 150.
Both Psalm 79 and Psalm 150 are included in Holy Scripture because God is as interested in our cries of pain and our moans of anguish as he is in our declarations of praise. What God wants is for us to come to him honestly. If it is pain or fear or anguish or anger or sorrow that fills our hearts at any particular moment, then that is what God wants us to bring to him.
Amy Grant sings,
God loves a lullaby in a mother’s tears in the dead of night
Better than a Hallelujah sometimes.
God loves the drunkard’s cry, the soldier’s plea not to let him die
Better than a Hallelujah sometimes.
We pour out our miseries; God just hears a melody.
Beautiful the mess we are, the honest cries of breaking hearts
Are better than a Hallelujah.
The woman holding on for life, the dying man giving up the fight
Are better than a Hallelujah sometimes.
The tears of shame for what’s been done, the silence when the words won’t come
Are better than a Hallelujah sometimes.
We pour out our miseries; God just hears a melody.
Beautiful the mess we are, the honest cries of breaking hearts
Are better than a Hallelujah, better than a church bell ringing,
Better than a choir singing out, singing out.
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