Tough Texts

This Month's Tough Text Sermon

The Darkest Psalm: How to Deal with Hard Times

“You have to ask yourself the question, ‘Why in the world is this prayer in the Bible?’ Psalm 39 and Psalm 88…I never knew what to do with these prayers. I just normally skipped over them really quickly. I would never imagine, by the way, preaching on them.”

As Keller admits for himself, Psalm 88 is a passage to which many may not run to preach in their churches. And yet, as he helps us understand in this sermon, this darkest of psalms shows us that God Himself ensured this prayer would be included in the Psalter so that we know Him more: that He knows what people are like when everything falls apart. Keller shows us God’s grace and His mercy, so pronounced when we are in the darkest of times. Therefore, here are just a few reasons why this is an exemplary sermon:
1) That he preaches this text at all. I will admit, to date I do not recall ever hearing this psalm preached in a Sunday service. May more preachers be unwilling to let those in their sphere of influence deal with the hardest passages on their own, or never encounter them. 2) He emphasizes the realistic nature of the Bible and the Christian faith. The Bible is honest about suffering in this life for God’s people, and Keller reminds us of this, and reminds us of Jesus’ own words from John 16:33. 3) He places this psalm in the context of the whole Bible’s redemptive story, showing that the psalmist’s suffering—misunderstood by Heman himself—is taken on in an ultimate way by Jesus Christ so that our relative suffering is purposeful and only temporary. Keller makes this application personal, poignant, memorable, and illustrates it from Scripture.

This sermon helps the hearers know their God more intimately, more truthfully. It shows them the God of all grace, who can bear our most desperate prayers, even if we scream them, because He gives us the way of healing, of life, in Christ.

– Jordan Wilbanks