July 1, 2017 - Church at Worship

Within the Psalms, we find the spectrum of human emotion: from great elation and joy, thanksgiving and praise to deep darkness and sorrow, anger and lament. In the first two weeks of our series called More Than Words, we have heard a song of praise and a song(s) of yearning. Today, we will hear a song of disorientation. Life itself is often a disorienting experience, isn’t it? Life is brutally marked by disequilibrium and incoherence. The Psalms are replete with songs of disorientation, and if church members were honest, we would have to confess that sometimes we get into the rut of singing only “happy songs” in the face of raw reality, which is very different from what the Bible itself does. Some people avoid the “psalms of darkness” and are afraid that the acknowledgement of the negativity in our world and in the human experience is somehow an act of unfaith, conceding that God has lost control. But for the faithful, trusting community of Christ, the use of these songs is a bold act of faith, one that acknowledges the reality of our disorienting experiences and the necessity of giving them expression and directing them to God, who is the final reference for all of life. Join me this week as we listen to more music in the Psalms and orient our hearts back to God, even in the midst of our disorientation. Tyler Stewart, young adult pastor