Proverbs 31 contains the wisdom of King Lemuel’s mother.  She addresses two main topics.  The first concerns the dangers of drinking alcohol.  She warns him that alcohol isn’t for kings.  It will destroy him and lead him to forget justice.  If he wants to defend the rights of the poor and needy, he needs to abstain.

The rest of the chapter concerns the worthy woman.  She is a trustworthy wife to her husband, works hard in providing for her household, cares for the needy and the members of her own family, and earns their praise.

Psalm 82 is addressed to the judges of the earth (called “gods” in 82:1 and 82:6 because they exercise the authority of God).  It warns them that as they sit in judgment on others, God sits in judgment on them.  He calls them to account for their failure to judge in favor of the weak and vulnerable.  Because they have not judged wisely, God will strike them down, and they will die as other men do.  The psalm concludes with an appeal to God to exercise this judgment.

Psalm 83 asks God for His help in battle.  Many of the nations around Israel, from the Philistines to the Assyrians, have joined together and conspired against her.  The psalmist appeals to God to defeat this alliance as He defeated the Midianites in the time of Gideon.  He asks God to make them as impermanent as chaff and fire, so that they will be defeated and forced to acknowledge Him.

Psalm 84 is an expression of delight in God’s temple.  The psalmist longs to be in the temple, and he compares being in the temple to a bird being in its nest.  He belongs there, and he envies those who are always there.  Similarly, the most blessed people are those who know how to travel to Zion, where the temple is.  God will protect them. 

Finally, the psalmist asks God to hear his prayers.  Because of God’s presence and attention, a day in the temple is better than a thousand elsewhere, and dwelling in the temple is better than dwelling with the wicked.  God will surely bless those who seek Him.

Psalm 85 is an appeal to God to restore His favor.  It begins by pointing out His past kindness in bringing Israel back from captivity.  Now, the psalmist asks God not to remain angry forever, but to show similar kindness to His people in their current trouble. 

The psalmist then expresses his determination to wait for what God will do.  He is confident that God will bring peace and bless the land.  All sorts of virtues will come together there, the land will prosper, and God will dwell there.

Be merciful to me, O God!
To You my soul will fly;
Beneath Your wings I will abide
Until the storms pass by.
To God Most High I will cry out,
For He will send and bless
To put to shame my enemy
With all His faithfulness.

My soul is in the midst of foes
Whose ways are not the Lord’s;
Like spears and arrows are their teeth;
Their tongues are sharpened swords.
Be great, O God, above the skies,
With glory over all!
With hate, they dug the pit for me
Where they themselves now fall.

With steadfast heart I praise the Lord
And make a melody;
Awake, my heart, to honor Him;
Awake the dawn for me!
Among all nations, I will sing
And hail Your faithful love
Because it stretches to the skies
And to the clouds above.

Last Sunday night, Clay led the young families’ devotion, and he focused our study on 1 Thessalonians 5:18, which tells us that we are to give thanks in all circumstances.  Clay observed, and rightly so, that “all” means “all”.  Even in times of sorrow, Christians are supposed to be thankful people.

That raised the question, though, of how we do that.  How can I be thankful when I’m in the middle of some horrible trial, when everything in my life is going wrong, and the last thing I want to do is to thank God for anything? 

We batted around some answers to that question, but as I was meditating on it over the next few days, it struck me that a different answer appears in the Psalms.  As hopefully our Bible reading plan this year has shown us, many psalms are written from dark places.  They reveal God’s people grappling with the same kinds of trials we face.  And yet, with only one exception that I can think of, even the most downcast psalms are psalms of thanksgiving too.  With that in mind, let’s turn to Psalm 77 this evening to learn how we can offer thanksgiving in sorrow.

The first thing that we see in Psalm 77 is THE PSALMIST’S UNHAPPINESS.  Look at Psalm 77:1-4.  The thing that jumps out from this text is that the psalmist is doing what he ought to be doing, but it’s not working.  He’s praying, he’s expressing his confidence that God will hear him, but God is not giving him the peace that he wants.

In particular, the psalm paints a vivid picture of his misery at night.  He can’t sleep, he’s praying all night long, but despite this constant prayer, he can’t find any peace.  His misery continues, and it so oppresses his thoughts that he can’t string a coherent sentence together.

I don’t know about you brethren, but I identify with this.  There have been many times in my life when I felt exactly this way, right down to the insomnia and misery all night long.  I think this is a perfectly legitimate place for a Christian to be.  We can be righteous and miserable at the same time.  Jesus himself was called a man of sorrows, despite being perfectly righteous.  When we demand constant happiness from ourselves and our brethren, we are holding up a standard that goes beyond anything that God asks.  No matter how faithful we are, all of us will encounter suffering.  It’s the nature of life in this fallen world.

Indeed, his predicament leads the psalmist to QUESTIONING GOD’S GOODNESS.  Let’s read from Psalm 77:5-9.  You know, this is one of the places in the Bible when I have to stop and appreciate God’s compassion for us as shown by His revelation.  It’s so important that the Psalms aren’t happy-happy joy-joy all the time.  They show that even the most faithful of God’s people go through times of questioning and doubt.

I think there are two lessons for us here.  First, for those of us who aren’t going through those hard times right now, but are around those who are, we need to learn to accept faith questions as a natural response to suffering.  It is not ungodly for Christians to wonder aloud if God ever will allow them to be happy again! 

Second, though, if we are the ones going through the valley, we have to make sure that our questions are genuine.  Are we asking these things because we want reassurance, or are we asking them because we are looking for an excuse to leave the Lord? 

The first, as I’ve said, is completely legitimate.  The second isn’t.  There’s nothing wrong with engaging God in our doubt.  There is something wrong with refusing to engage Him because we doubt.

What keeps the psalmist from going down that dark road is his RESOLVE TO REMEMBER.  Consider Psalm 77:10-12.  This is the key turning point in the psalm.  Even when he’s in the middle of this terrible suffering, the psalmist says, “I’m not going to think about my horrible present and judge God on that basis.  I’m going to remember everything that I have learned about God from the past.”

This is important because it highlights one of Satan’s great deceptions.  Remember how last week I said every temptation has a lie in it?  Here, we see the lie in the temptation of suffering.  When we are experiencing suffering, Satan wants us to get tunnel vision about that suffering.  He wants us to make our judgments about God solely on the basis of our current horrible experience.  He wants us to conclude that because we are unhappy right now, God is not a good God, and there is no purpose in serving Him.

When we remember the past, we defeat this lie.  If we’re going to put God on trial, we’d better make sure we’re bringing in all the evidence, and our current suffering does not provide all the evidence there is.  When God’s people have suffered in the past, how has He dealt with them?  For that matter, when we’ve gone through hard times before in our lives, how has God dealt with us?  If we’re going to be fair, those are the questions we must ask.

This takes us, then, to THE IMPORTANCE OF THANKSGIVING.  Let’s conclude the psalm by reading Psalm 77:13-20.  Notice that the psalmist isn’t thanking and praising God for what he is going through right now.  Instead, he is looking to the past.  In particular, he is looking to the time when God delivered the Israelites by parting the Red Sea so they could escape from the Egyptians.

That wasn’t a happy time either.  Before God acted, the Israelites were convinced that He had led them out into the wilderness only to die under the Egyptian chariots.  However, God confirmed His faithfulness by delivering them with a display of power so great that none of them could have imagined beforehand what He would do.

Even though the psalmist doesn’t spell this out, his conclusion is plainly implied.  He is comforted because God’s past deliverance of his people shows that God will deliver him personally.  Even though the present is awful, the past reveals what the future will be like.

This is why thanksgiving in sorrow is so vital for us too.  When we pause, even in the middle of suffering, to glorify God for His past goodness, it reminds us that He is faithful and will surely bless us once again.  Has God ever abandoned us before?  For that matter, do we see Him ever abandoning any of His faithful people?  If the answer is “No,” we can be sure that He won’t abandon us this time either.

After my sermon last week on the work of the devil today, I figured I was done with the series.  However, then I got to talking after services with Wayne and Carolyn, and they mentioned that they were curious about what angels might be doing today.

I think I might have to stretch to get to 25 minutes about the things I was sure angels were doing today, but angels are far from alone in the spiritual realm.  We often think of the great spiritual struggle as being between God and the devil, but in reality, things are considerably more complex than that. 

There are all sorts of beings about whom we know little, and probably others about whom we know nothing.  However, many of these beings either have exerted or still are exerting influence in the lives of God’s people.  Let’s spend some time this evening, then, considering the work of other spiritual beings today.

The first class of such beings that I want to consider is the ANGELS.  We see the classic statement of the work of angels in Hebrews 1:13-14.  Contextually, the Hebrews writer is drawing a contrast between Jesus and the angels.  In v. 13, he quotes from Psalm 110 to show that Jesus currently is reigning at the right hand of the throne of God in heaven.  On the other hand, the angels are ministering spirits who render service to Christians.  Jesus as King is thus superior to angels as servants.

Even though it’s incidental to his argument, the writer in passing also reveals a great deal about what angels are up to today.  There’s no time limit on Hebrews 1:14.  We’re just as much Christians as our brethren in the first century, so it follows that God sends out His angels to aid us too. 

It may be, in fact, that many of the answers to prayer that we attribute to God are really the work of angels.  After all, even if they aren’t the Almighty, the angels still are very powerful entities.  The same heavenly messengers who slaughtered 185,000 Assyrians in the days of Hezekiah are perfectly capable of keeping us safe on our car trip!

More provocatively, there’s reason to believe that angels continue to work through dreams.  I admit to being a little suspicious when people say that they are guided directly by the Holy Spirit because everybody in the New Testament who experienced similar guidance was a gifted prophet.  I think promptings from the Spirit are probably associated with miraculous gifts.

However, the same thing isn’t true with respect to angelic visions.  For instance, Joseph the husband of Mary had an angel speak to him in a dream, and though a righteous man, he was not a gifted one.  There are many others in Scripture, some of whom weren’t even part of God’s people, who were sent true dreams.  The wife of Pilate is a prominent example here.  Additionally, there is no 1 Corinthians 13-like expiration date for angelic visitations.

However, before we put too much emphasis on dreams, we need to pay attention to Paul’s warning in Colossians 2:18-19.  He wants us to understand that focusing on visions can lead Christians away from Christ.  However else God may be working in our lives, we know for certain that He works through the gospel of Jesus, and we always must remain faithful to that!

Next, let’s consider UNCLEAN SPIRITS.  Interestingly, the most revealing passage about their work today appears in the Old Testament.  Turn with me to Zechariah 13:1-3.  The first verse of this reading sets the stage.  It tells us that everything else in the reading will happen when a fountain is opened in Jerusalem to cleanse God’s people from sin.  In context with the last part of Zechariah 12, which is clearly Messianic, it’s easy for us to conclude that this is about things that will happen after Jesus completed His saving work.

In the time when the fountain will be opened, Zechariah predicts that two things will happen.  First, people won’t worship idols any more in the land of Canaan.  That certainly happened.  To this day, all the people who live in Palestine, Jew and Muslim alike, are monotheists.

Second, God promises that He will remove both the prophet and the unclean spirit.  This is a truly fascinating prediction for a number of reasons.  First, the only way for God to remove prophets is to stop bestowing the gift of prophecy.  Thus, along with 1 Corinthians 13, this is a text that foresees the end of miraculous spiritual gifts, and it says that their end will come close to the time of Jesus. 

Also, this passage tells us why we don’t have to deal with demons and demonic possession anymore.  God removed the unclean spirits at the same time as He removed the prophets.  Sure, the devil still can tempt us today, but he can’t send one of his servants to take over our bodies and make us do things against our will.  The unclean spirits are not working today.  I, at least, find that extremely reassuring!

Finally, this passage implies an equivalency between the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the one hand and possession by unclean spirits on the other.  The more of the one you have, the more of the other you have too. 

Indeed, this tracks the pattern of demonic possession recorded in Scripture.  During the ministry of Jesus, demons were everywhere, legions of them, because Jesus had the Holy Spirit more abundantly than anyone else ever.  By contrast, even in the book of Acts, demons aren’t as prominent.  This text implies that they aren’t so significant because the apostles didn’t have the Holy Spirit to the same measure that Jesus did.  In short, it seems like one of the rules of the contest between God and the devil is that neither side gets to have more of a supernatural presence on earth than the other.

Finally, let’s turn our attention to THE SPIRITUAL FORCES OF EVIL.  They make their appearance in Ephesians 6:11-12.  Sometimes, I think we’re inclined to read this verse as being about powerful, evil people, but that doesn’t fit the text.  Notice that these are cosmic powers.  They are spiritual forces.  They abide in the heavenly places, which is Ephesians-ese for the spiritual realm.  Nonetheless, despite not being unclean spirits, apparently, these spiritual forces of wickedness cooperate with Satan in trying to overwhelm Christians.  The devil has his servants too.

Note, by the way, that I think that the spiritual realm is far more complicated than any of us have any idea.  In addition to the angels, the cherubim, and the seraphim, when Paul talks about Jesus creating thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities, I think those are spiritual rather than earthly beings too.  They’re part of some heavenly hierarchy that we don’t know anything about because their business does not concern us.

However, we are the business of the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.  The bad news is that the devil has helpers, but the good news is that we fight those helpers in the same way that we fight the devil.  In fact, the whole armor of God, which we’re so familiar with from countless sermons, is effective in defeating these bad guys too.

Most of us don’t like causing controversy and stirring up trouble.  However, some do.  In Proverbs 25:21, Solomon warns, “As charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.”  To use a more modern metaphor, people like this are a spark to gunpowder.  With seemingly little effort, they cause an explosion.

Certainly, Christians should not be quarrelsome.  Especially in our dealings with brethren, but also in our dealings with everyone, we should seek to unite and reconcile.  If that means keeping our lips clamped down on personal opinions that others find offensive, so be it!  Romans 12:18 urges us to live peaceably with everyone so far as it is possible with us, and even if limiting our self-expression may not be pleasant, it is certainly possible.

Indeed, the only inflammatory views that Christians should express are those that come from the law of God.  Like Paul, we are to declare the whole counsel of God, even knowing that it will prove divisive. 

Too often, though, brethren shy away from proclaiming the gospel while freely expressing their provocative personal views on any number of topics.  They get the Biblical pattern exactly backwards. 

The sources of this problem are obvious.  There are many in our society, of every political and philosophical persuasion imaginable, who do not honor the Bible’s teachings on the importance of peace.  Instead, their goal in life is to stir up strife. 

This is often quite calculated.  They know that if they take a loud, obnoxious stand on some contentious issue, they will get lots of attention.  Half the people will hear them, get infuriated, and start screaming back.  The other half will hear them, applaud them for “telling it like it is”, and scream in the opposite direction. 

Page views and video clicks skyrocket.  Blood-pressure readings elevate.  Our poor, divided country becomes even more divided, as suspicion of the other increases.  People become more cynical, more embittered, less warm and loving. 

Incalculable spiritual damage is done, but the instigators don’t care because they got money and attention out of the deal.  Next week, they will try to do the same thing again and recklessly cause even more damage.  Only God knows where it will end, but the outcome won’t be good.

As Christians, we need to be very, very suspicious of the professional disturbers of the peace.  They want to manipulate us too.  They want to use fear and anger to enroll us in their hateful little tribes.  Even though it’s true that fear and anger leave no room in our hearts for the love of Christ, they’re not concerned about that. 

We need to be concerned.  Paul points out in Romans 13:8 that love is something we owe to everybody.  To Christians, there is no “them”, other than the devil and his angels.  We are on everybody’s side, even the side of the people who aren’t on our side.  When we stop listening to Christ’s call to service and self-sacrifice, we become less than the disciples He wants us to be.

Watch out for the strife-kindlers.   Watch out for the people who want us to look at others with anything less than love.  When they provoke enmity in our hearts, it is not the work of God that they are doing.  It’s the work of someone else.