You have fed us with sorrow
and made us drink tears by the bucketful. Psalm 80:5
What’s your go-to tear-jerker? Most of us have a movie that always makes us cry, and we aren’t afraid to watch it. In fact, we look forward to the catharsis sometimes. It gives us relief from bearing or repressing our difficult emotions. We feel less alone in our pain, grief, or sorrow when we tap into the shared stories of humanity.
The Psalms are the shared stories of the ancient Hebrew people. In them, voices plead for mercy, some seek divine retribution on their enemies, and all show respect and honor for the One True God. In the unfolding story of their life together, the Psalms guided God’s people in worship and informed them, not as another rigid book of law, but as a chorus of song and poetry and a testimony of faith.
Have you ever been overwhelmingly sad or angry, but somehow, it felt bad, or wrong, or even sinful, to admit how you were really feeling? Have you encountered a huge blow in life and felt like the faithful response was to paste a smile on your face and tell everyone that “God is good all the time?”
The Psalms give you an alternative to proud, soul-numbing piety. With Psalms like Psalm 80, we hear faithful voices pray and praise with raw emotion. Like the tear-jerker movie that provides an outlet for our emotions, the Psalms express the worst and best of life with words we couldn’t have said better ourselves.
Give up your pride, your hope of being proper or sinless, and let this Psalm assure you. Even when it feels like God has fed you sorrow and given you only tears to drink, even when you have the audacity say it out loud, you belong with the people of God. It may not feel as much like a miracle as walking on water and slaying giants, but it is faith that gives you the freedom to be honest with God when life stinks.
Questions for reflection:
- What did/does make you unsure about God’s goodness? How does it feel to say, “Why are you feeding me sorrow?” instead of “God is good?”
- Martin Luther said of the Psalms that “their words have no flavor to a godless man.” How do you interpret this phrase? What flavor do the words of Psalm 80 have for you?
- Are there ways that even in expressing our anger or frustration to God, we are actually acting in faith?