Unresolved Misery Psalm 88

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Unresolved MiseryPsalm 88
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• This is a landscape which some have never known
  and perhaps never will. For others, however, its
  bleak features are well known because of journeys
  there. Some will know of it only as passing
  tourists, but others are longtime sojourners in
  it and know it wellto well
• -- Marvin Tate, Psalms 51-100, 405.

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• The Dark Alienation of Unresolved Misery
• Looking back, this man can remember nothing but
  ill health and ill fortune (15), looking Godward
  he is terrified (15b-17) looking for human
  comfort he can see no-one at all.
• -- Derek Kidner, Psalms, 318-19

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• 2. The Troubled Questions of Unresolved Misery

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A Hopeless Dawn Frank Bramley (1888)
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• The Bleak Response to Unresolved Misery
• - Trusting God for salvation
• Bruised Faith, not broken
• - Recognizing God is sovereign
• - Praying Persistently
• He will not give up!

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• The Ultimate Hope in Unresolved Misery
• A bruised reed he will not break, and a
  smoldering wick he will not quench. . .
• 
  Matthew 1220

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• 5. The Faithful Companions to Unresolved Misery

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• Looking Upwards in a Storm (Cowper)
• God of my life, to Thee I call,
• Afflicted at Thy feet I fall
• When the great water-floods prevail,
• Leave not my trembling heart to fail!
• Friend of the friendless and the faint,
• Where should I lodge my deep complaint,
• Where but with Thee, whose open door
• Invites the helpless and the poor!

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• Did ever mourner plead with Thee,
• And Thou refuse the mourner's plea?
• Does not the word still fix'd remain,
• That none shall seek Thy face in vain?
• That were a grief I could not bear,
• Didst Thou not hear and answer prayer
• But a prayer-hearing, answering God
• Supports me under every load.

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• Fair is the lot that's cast for me
• I have an Advocate with Thee
• They whom the world caresses most
• Have no such privilege to boast.
• Poor though I am, despised, forgot,
• Yet God, my God, forgets me not
• And he is safe, and must succeed,
• For whom the Lord vouchsafes to plead.

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