[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Farticles\u002Fthose-spiritual-ups-and-downs":3,"\u002Farticles\u002Fthose-spiritual-ups-and-downs-surround":66},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"bibleBooks":8,"body":11,"columnName":48,"date":49,"description":17,"extension":50,"image":51,"meta":52,"minRead":53,"navigation":54,"path":55,"postType":56,"publication":57,"publicationUrl":51,"seo":58,"stem":59,"topics":60,"__hash__":65},"blog\u002Farticles\u002Fthose-spiritual-ups-and-downs.md","Those Spiritual Ups and Downs",{"name":7},"Dave Faust",[9,10],"Psalms","Romans",{"type":12,"value":13,"toc":44},"minimark",[14,18,21,24,27,30,33,41],[15,16,17],"p",{},"According to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian and writer who suffered imprisonment and death at the hands of the Nazis, \"The Psalms are God's gifts to the church, and when we have nothing else to give God, we can give these back to him in the form of prayers.\"",[15,19,20],{},"The Psalms reveal countless insights about the heart of God. They also serve as a devotional encyclopedia—an unsurpassed prayer manual for anyone who wants to communicate with the heavenly Father.",[15,22,23],{},"Feeling grateful? Read Psalm 100—\"Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.\" Need to confess your sins? Consider David's heartbroken plea in Psalm 51—\"Have mercy on me, O God . . . and cleanse me from my sin.\" Frustrated by injustice? Read Psalm 58—\"Surely the righteous still are rewarded; surely there is a God who judges the earth.\" Unable to verbalize your sorrow? Soak up the reassurance of Psalm 34—\"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.\" Hurt by unkind words? Read Psalm 109—\"O God, whom I praise, do not remain silent, for wicked and deceitful men have opened their mouths against me.\"",[15,25,26],{},"The Psalms teach us to worship God with music and \"sing to the Lord a new song\"—but some days our songs aren't cheerful. In exile in Babylon, the Jews tearfully wondered, \"How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?\" (Psalm 137:4). The life of faith has its disappointments as well as its victories, so the Psalms lay bare the occasional agony of the soul even while they assure us of God's faithfulness.",[15,28,29],{},"Evidently, periods of spiritual dryness are among the temptations \"common to man\" (1 Corinthians 10:13). The Psalms paint a bold portrait of those emotional ups and downs, sometimes changing moods abruptly from one chapter to the next. The uplifting affirmation of Psalm 9:1, \"I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart,\" is immediately followed by the cynical-sounding Psalm 10:1, \"Why, O Lord, do you stand far off?\" The comfort of Psalm 23:1, \"The Lord is my shepherd,\" follows immediately after the woe of Psalm 22:1, \"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?\" Psalm 31:5, \"Into your hands I commit my spirit,\" comes before \"Why have you rejected us forever, O God?\" (Psalm 74:1).",[15,31,32],{},"It's a good thing God doesn't judge our prayers by their beauty and eloquence, for sometimes the best we can do is stammer like a frightened child crying out for his mom or dad in the middle of the night. The Psalms reassure us that the same powerful God who deserves all creation's praise is also a loving Father who hears our cries in the night.",[15,34,35,36,40],{},"In ",[37,38,39],"em",{},"Disappointment With God"," (Zondervan, 1992), Philip Yancey wrote that believers must exercise both extravagant faith (childlike, unflinching confidence in God's power) and fidelity (the \"hang-on-at-any-cost\" faith, toughened through testing, that trusts God's wisdom no matter what happens). Regardless of our changing circumstances and changing moods, we must cling to the hope that \"does not disappoint us\" (Romans 5:5). In Yancey's words, \"The Bible never belittles human disappointment . . . but it does add one key word: temporary.\"",[15,42,43],{},"The psalmist said it even better: \"Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning\" (Psalm 30:5).",{"title":45,"searchDepth":46,"depth":46,"links":47},"",2,[],"From the Editor's Desk","1998-11-08","md",null,{},3,true,"\u002Farticles\u002Fthose-spiritual-ups-and-downs","column","The Lookout",{"title":5,"description":17},"articles\u002Fthose-spiritual-ups-and-downs",[61,62,63,64],"Spiritual Formation","Biblical Theology","Church Leadership","Discipleship","oJMZRYjiRQpXytYZbLLydc2q2_Emsg6okvdA4XoQQ_w",[67,72],{"title":68,"path":69,"stem":70,"description":71,"children":-1},"The Wonders of His Love","\u002Farticles\u002Fthe-wonders-of-his-love","articles\u002Fthe-wonders-of-his-love","We hear a lot about wonder during this \"Winter Wonderland\" time of year.",{"title":73,"path":74,"stem":75,"description":76,"children":-1},"Through Angels' Eyes","\u002Farticles\u002Fthrough-angels-eyes","articles\u002Fthrough-angels-eyes","The Old Testament prophets \"searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.\" These glories of the gospel, Simon Peter wrote, are things into which \"angels long to look\" (1 Peter 1:10-12)."]