Sermon 8.2.26 | "An Object of Ridicule

The fine print image frames Psalm 89 as a psalm for people who read God’s big promises, look at their actual life, and wonder if some hidden clause got missed. Psalm 72 had sounded bright and hopeful, with the king bringing thriving to his people. Psalm 89 steps into the moment when that thriving feels almost impossible to believe, because the king looks defeated, the nation is in crisis, and God’s promises look very far from reality.

Ethan the Ezraite does not begin by pouting, curving inward, or ignoring God. Ethan looks to God first. Psalm 89 opens with loyal love, faithfulness, righteousness, and justice, because God’s character has to be remembered before the complaint is spoken. Faithful love and truth are pictured almost like two attendants walking in front of the King, always with him, always tied to who he is. God is not just well intentioned either. God rules the raging sea, stills the waves, crushes Rahab, and makes heavenly beings tremble. The God who made covenant with David has both the love and the strength to keep what he promised.

The covenant with David makes the crisis sharper, not easier. God had promised David a throne, a line, protection, victory, and enduring faithful love. Even if David’s sons sinned, God said discipline would come, but covenant love would not be withdrawn. So when the king is disgraced and the people are covered in shame, Ethan’s complaint is not random bitterness. The complaint is the cry of someone holding God’s own words up to God and asking, “How can this be?”

Holy Saturday becomes the clearest picture of that tension. Christ lay in the tomb, and every visible thing seemed to say that death had won, that the Son had been abandoned, or that God had been overpowered. Psalm 89 gives permission to spread out those bleak moments before God without cleaning them up first. The lament asks time questions, “How long?” and space questions, “Where are the former acts of your faithful love?”

The final word of Psalm 89 is still, “Blessed be the Lord forever.” That praise does not erase the pain, and God does not give Ethan a neat answer in the psalm. The praise stays because lament only makes sense if God really is the strong, loyal, covenant keeping God described at the beginning. Psalm 89 calls hurting faith to turn its tears heavenward, because Holy Saturday is not the last page of the story, and there is no fine print that can cancel God’s promise.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. God has no hidden fine print. Psalm 89 refuses the idea that God tricked his people with bright promises and buried suffering in the fine print. Trouble was never hidden from view, because God has said plainly that glory and disgrace belong to the road of union with the King. The honesty of Scripture protects faith from surprise, while the faithfulness of God protects faith from despair. [34:32]
• 2. Lament brings pain toward God. Lament is not spiritual immaturity dressed up as prayer. Lament is pain refusing to become distance, bitterness, or denial. The tears turn heavenward because the sufferer still believes God is the only one strong enough and faithful enough to answer from ground zero of the pain. [27:36]
• 3. Buried feelings grow stronger underground. Unspoken grief does not disappear when it gets pushed down. Those feelings “lift weights” in the basement, then return stronger and often more destructive. Psalm 89 offers a better way, not by rushing toward a silver lining, but by letting pain speak honestly in the presence of the covenant keeping God. [28:24]
• 4. Holy Saturday is not final. The tomb looked like the end, and no visible evidence could explain how God was still faithful to his Son. Yet God loves to answer prayers from tombs, where every human option has already run out. The believer’s bleakest Saturday can be real without being ultimate. [23:11]
• 5. Faith asks from the tomb. Psalm 89 does not resolve the complaint with a tidy explanation. Ethan still asks, “How long?” and “Where?” because faith can question God without walking away from God. The final blessing matters precisely because it rises from a place where the answer has not yet arrived.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [00:31] - The Fine Print That Got People
• [01:47] - Royal Psalms And King Jesus
• [03:06] - When Thriving Feels Unbelievable
• [05:04] - When God Seems To Break Promises
• [06:20] - Psalm 89 As Lament
• [07:19] - Looking To God First
• [09:45] - Loyal Love Walks With God
• [12:40] - God Rules Chaos And Egypt
• [15:40] - David’s Covenant And The Complaint
• [22:33] - Holy Saturday And A Defeated King
• [26:11] - Asking In Faith From The Tomb
• [31:12] - Lament Without Wallowing
• [34:12] - Turning Tears Heavenward
• [36:10] - No Fine Print, No Last Page

Bible Reading

Psalm 89
“A Maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite. I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. For I said, 'Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.' You have said, 'I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: 'I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations.'' Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones! For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord, a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him? O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O Lord, with your faithfulness all around you? You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them. You crushed Rahab like a carcass; you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm. The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them. The north and the south, you have created them; Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name. You have a mighty arm; strong is your hand, high your right hand. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face, who exult in your name all the day and are exalted in your righteousness. For you are the glory of their strength; by your favor our horn is exalted. For our shield belongs to the Lord, our king to the Holy One of Israel.” [01:44]

Psalm 72
“Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son! May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice! Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness! May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor! May they fear you while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations! May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth! In his days may the righteous flourish, and peace abound, till the moon be no more! May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth! May desert tribes bow down before him, and his enemies lick the dust! May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute; may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts! May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him! For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence he redeems their life, and precious is their blood in his sight. Long may he live; may gold of Sheba be given to him! May prayer be made for him continually, and blessings invoked for him all the day! May there be abundance of grain in the land; on the tops of the mountains may it wave; may its fruit be like Lebanon; and may people blossom in the cities like the grass of the field! May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun! May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed! Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!” [02:39]

2 Samuel 7:12-16
“When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.”

Observation questions

1. In the opening part of Psalm 89, what words and images are used to describe God’s character and strength before any complaint is raised? [07:39]
2. According to 2 Samuel 7:12-16, what exactly does God promise David about his offspring, his throne, discipline, and steadfast love?
3. Psalm 72 paints a picture of the king’s reign. What kinds of flourishing and justice are described there, especially for the poor and needy?
4. In Psalm 89, what kinds of questions does Ethan finally ask God, and what do those questions show about the kind of prayer this psalm is? [26:52]

Interpretation questions

1. Psalm 89 begins with praise for God’s steadfast love and faithfulness, even though the rest of the psalm is full of grief. Why might it matter that the psalm starts there instead of starting with the complaint? [07:19]
2. God promised David both discipline for sin and steadfast love that would not depart. How does that make the crisis in Psalm 89 more painful and more confusing, rather than less? [17:51]
3. Psalm 89 ends with, “Blessed be the Lord forever,” even though no clear answer arrives. What does that suggest about the difference between lament and unbelief? [31:12]
4. Holy Saturday is a vivid picture of a defeated king and a promise that seems impossible to believe. How does that moment help make sense of Psalm 89 for believers living through dark and confusing seasons? [23:11]

Application questions

1. When life feels like it is contradicting God’s promises, is the first response usually to look to God, or to withdraw, numb out, or stay irritated? What does that tendency reveal? [06:53]
2. Lament turns tears heavenward instead of burying them. What painful situation, disappointment, or unanswered prayer has been kept underground instead of being honestly brought before God? [28:24]
3. Ethan asks “How long?” and “Where?” Are those the kinds of questions that come naturally in prayer, or do they feel off-limits? What would it look like to bring those exact questions to God this week? [29:40]
4. Some struggles feel like Holy Saturday, where everything visible says loss, silence, or defeat. What has felt like that recently, and what makes it hard to believe that Saturday is not the last page? [36:51]
5. God has no hidden fine print, but he does speak plainly about trouble on the way to glory. How might expectations need to change so that suffering does not automatically feel like God has failed? [34:32]
6. Praise at the end of Psalm 89 does not erase the pain; it keeps clinging to God in the middle of it. What might it look like to say something true about God’s character while still admitting that the situation hurts? [32:48]
7. Union with the King means sharing not only in future inheritance but also in present disgrace. Where might there be a temptation to follow Jesus only as long as the path looks like Psalm 72 and not Psalm 89? [36:36]