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We continue in our series “Getting Naked Before God.” Good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to good people, and the Psalmists recognize this simple truth. But the Psalms not only give you permission to yell at God, they give you the words. And they also give you the words to celebrate God’s creation and God Godself as well. This is important, because in our culture we have sort of lost the ability to celebrate God’s presence. We feel awkward, we don’t know what to say, so we say nothing. And here’s why.

At the time of the Psalmists, God was part of every detail of life. There was no separation of the secular and the sacred. There was life. And it was sacred! Period. Back then, God was the gravitational center of people’s lives so that everything related to God. Worship was the central activity in life, not something to attend on a Sunday morning, watch some hired hand perform for you, and then move on with the “real business of living.” Back then, God’s people took every single act and feeling, every experience, whether pleasant or unpleasant, to God.” They were comfortable undressing before God, getting naked with God, because they understood that that’s who they were. Today, we’re ashamed, or embarrassed, or both about getting naked with God, because we don’t know who God is any more. For that matter, we don’t know who we are.

Would that we could go back to simpler times, huh? Strip naked before God. Back to a time when we were so comfortable with God that we could yell at Him and sing her praises all at the same time; back when we didn’t worry about saying the “right words” and just let the Almighty have it. The good news is: we can. Set forth below are the words of Psalm 102 and 103. In Psalm 102, an aged and weakening man feels abandoned by all his friends and by God; it reeks with pathos, despair, abandonment, and pain. The very next psalm, however, is a majestic hymn of praise. “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not his benefits,” reminds the Psalmist. Imagine the same person – you – praying both psalms.

First, Psalm 102:

Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to you.
Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress (lines 1 – 2)
. . . .
For my days pass away like smoke,
And my bones burn like a furnace,
My heart is stricken and withered like grass;
I am too wasted to eat my bread,
Because of my loud groaning, my bones cling to my skin (lines 3 – 5)
I am like an owl of the wilderness, like a little owl of the waste palces.
I lie awake. (lines 6 – 7)
. . . .
For I eat ashes like bread, and mingle tears with my drink,
Because of your indignation and anger;
For you have lifted me up and thrown me aside.
My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass. (lines 9 – 11)
. . . .

Now, Psalm 103:

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me,
Bless his holy name; bless the Lord, O my soul,
And do not forget all his benefits –
Who forgives all your iniquity,
Who heals all your disease,
Who redeems your life from the Pit,
Who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
Who sacrifices you with good as long as you live,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (lines 1 - 5)

Want to fly like an eagle? Pray Psalm 103. Or, do you feel like a lonely owl of the wilderness, lying awake, bereft of all hope? Psalm 102 is at you beck and call.

“Damn it, God, I love you.”

Life is messy.

Amen.

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