Have you ever cried out to God and felt like your cries fall on deaf ears? Like God has forgotten you? Like you’re all alone in your grief? The psalmist in Psalm 88 has felt your pain, your loneliness, and your sorrows. It’s the darkest psalm in the Bible and doesn’t end with any hope. So what does this psalm teach us about how to “hurt in God” and not just “hope in God”?

Psalms of ascent like Psalm 126 & 127 were sung on the way up to the temple. These two are about bringing in God's harvest and building up God's house. Jesus echos these psalms in His own prayers. Jesus wants us to participate in God's mission for the world.

The Psalms teach us that worship is not about escaping your problems, but finding God in your problems. Psalm 46 is written by a psalmist looking for stability in his life, but the waves of life keep coming. How does he find stability so powerful it removes his fear?

"Better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere" How can we have an eternal perspective like this?! Maybe we should remind ourselves of where we are going? When you wake up on a Sunday morning and you decide to go to church, where are you going? In this sermon on Psalm 84 by Marq Toombs we are inspired by the words of David. We long for sacred places and spiritual presence of God like David found.

What is David writing about in Psalm 16? Maybe he wrote it while he was on the run from Saul, a trusted friend who betrayed him? Or maybe he speaks of facing Goliath, a towering foe that that sought kill him? Or maybe its about the loss the child he never got to know? Maybe he's talking about fleeing from Absalom, his rebellious son that sought to undo his fathers house? In this sermon on Psalm 16 from Ryan Swindle we'll see David is speaking to the resurrection of Jesus.

What do you seek? What are you looking for in life? What do you want to see more than anything in the world? Psalm 27 reveals that there's nothing more beautiful and fulfilling than to seek the face of God, but what does that mean and how does Jesus show us the way?

Grief is tough. We don't like it. We try to ignore it or explain it away. But we can't tell the story of God without grief and suffering. Maybe that's why the modern church's telling of the story of God isn't believable.

This Psalm invites us to grieve. And it tells a compelling story. One that will make you want to worship with Gods people on Sunday and skip Sunday Brunch.