A Case for Complaint

REFLECTION QUOTES

“Anxious cares are heavy burdens with which good people often load themselves more than they need.”

~Matthew Henry’s commentary on Psalm 13




“A full 70% of the time our subjects opted to receive more-painful shocks right away rather than wait for less painful shocks in the near future. We infer from this that dread—the anticipation of negative outcomes—is a powerful force… And we think these findings show that dread is so painful that people will pay a significant price, in the form of more physical pain, to avoid it.”

~Giles Story, clinical researcher in behavioral economics at University College, London and Imperial College London (from Harvard Business Review, March 2014)



“It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge.”

~Friedrich Nietzsche, 19th-century German philosopher



“The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part.”

~“The Waiting” by Tom Petty



“I will stay, should the world by me fold,
Lift up your name as the darkness falls.
I will wait, and hold fast to your word,
Heart on your heart, with my eyes on yours.”

~“Stay and Wait”by Joel Houston (Hillsong)

SERMON PASSAGE

Psalm 13 (ESV)

How Long, O Lord?

To the Choirmaster, A Psalm of David.



1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.