It's Complicated(S1) : WK 4 - FRI
Psalm 55:1-8, 14, 16-17
1 Listen to my prayer, O God. Do not ignore my cry for help!
2 Please listen and answer me, for I am overwhelmed by my troubles.
3 My enemies shout at me, making loud and wicked threats. They bring trouble on me and angrily hunt me down.
4 My heart pounds in my chest. The terror of death assaults me.
5 Fear and trembling overwhelm me, and I can’t stop shaking.
6 Oh, that I had wings like a dove; then I would fly away and rest!
7 I would fly far away to the quiet of the wilderness. Interlude
8 How quickly I would escape—far from this wild storm of hatred.
9 Confuse them, Lord, and frustrate their plans, for I see violence and conflict in the city.
10 Its walls are patrolled day and night against invaders, but the real danger is wickedness within the city.
11 Everything is falling apart; threats and cheating are rampant in the streets.
12 It is not an enemy who taunts me—I could bear that. It is not my foes who so arrogantly insult me—I could have hidden from them.
13 Instead, it is you—my equal, my companion and close friend.
14 What good fellowship we once enjoyed as we walked together to the house of God.
16 But I will call on God, and the Lord will rescue me.
17 Morning, noon, and night I cry out in my distress, and the Lord hears my voice.
We began this week by asking you to think about a friend in your life that just gets you; your kindred spirit, your bestie? But we’ll end the week spending a little time thinking about if you have ever lost one of those kinds of friends, whether through death, a move, a betrayal, or some other type of incident.
If you have, then you know the pain and the very complicated journey of grief.
In Psalm 55, David is pouring his heart out because he has just lost his best friend, Jonathan. He cries to God, he’s overwhelmed with grief, his heart pounding, his body can’t stop shaking, and he’s overcome with fear and trembling. This is what grief does to us.
If we’ve done any studying about grief, we’ve likely heard of the six stages of grief that every person goes through when they’ve experienced loss in their life. Those stages are summed up with these words; shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. And though most people want to see this as a checklist that happens in a linear format, sadly, it is not. You can go in and out of stages, you can have gone through all the stages only to be reminded of something years later and enter back into a stage. And no two people go through grief in the same way, this what makes it difficult and complicated.
We were never meant to experience grief, so when it does happen, it rips us apart.
But the good news is, grief won’t last forever. One day, death and mourning and crying and pain will be no more (Revelation 21: 4b, NLT). Until then, good friends and the right kind of community, can be there for you and help hold you up when you can’t walk. And as much as grief can hurt, and as many risks are involved with putting one’s heart out there to make friends, in my experience, there is nothing like a good friend and community to help you get through the most difficult of times.
1 Listen to my prayer, O God. Do not ignore my cry for help!
2 Please listen and answer me, for I am overwhelmed by my troubles.
3 My enemies shout at me, making loud and wicked threats. They bring trouble on me and angrily hunt me down.
4 My heart pounds in my chest. The terror of death assaults me.
5 Fear and trembling overwhelm me, and I can’t stop shaking.
6 Oh, that I had wings like a dove; then I would fly away and rest!
7 I would fly far away to the quiet of the wilderness. Interlude
8 How quickly I would escape—far from this wild storm of hatred.
9 Confuse them, Lord, and frustrate their plans, for I see violence and conflict in the city.
10 Its walls are patrolled day and night against invaders, but the real danger is wickedness within the city.
11 Everything is falling apart; threats and cheating are rampant in the streets.
12 It is not an enemy who taunts me—I could bear that. It is not my foes who so arrogantly insult me—I could have hidden from them.
13 Instead, it is you—my equal, my companion and close friend.
14 What good fellowship we once enjoyed as we walked together to the house of God.
16 But I will call on God, and the Lord will rescue me.
17 Morning, noon, and night I cry out in my distress, and the Lord hears my voice.
We began this week by asking you to think about a friend in your life that just gets you; your kindred spirit, your bestie? But we’ll end the week spending a little time thinking about if you have ever lost one of those kinds of friends, whether through death, a move, a betrayal, or some other type of incident.
If you have, then you know the pain and the very complicated journey of grief.
In Psalm 55, David is pouring his heart out because he has just lost his best friend, Jonathan. He cries to God, he’s overwhelmed with grief, his heart pounding, his body can’t stop shaking, and he’s overcome with fear and trembling. This is what grief does to us.
If we’ve done any studying about grief, we’ve likely heard of the six stages of grief that every person goes through when they’ve experienced loss in their life. Those stages are summed up with these words; shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. And though most people want to see this as a checklist that happens in a linear format, sadly, it is not. You can go in and out of stages, you can have gone through all the stages only to be reminded of something years later and enter back into a stage. And no two people go through grief in the same way, this what makes it difficult and complicated.
We were never meant to experience grief, so when it does happen, it rips us apart.
But the good news is, grief won’t last forever. One day, death and mourning and crying and pain will be no more (Revelation 21: 4b, NLT). Until then, good friends and the right kind of community, can be there for you and help hold you up when you can’t walk. And as much as grief can hurt, and as many risks are involved with putting one’s heart out there to make friends, in my experience, there is nothing like a good friend and community to help you get through the most difficult of times.
- Have you ever gone through the stages of grief? What was it like? What happened that you didn’t expect?
- If you were to describe the journey of grief to someone who had never experienced it, what would you say?
- How do you know when you know enough about a person to determine that starting a friendship with them is worth the risk of getting hurt?
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