When did you last feel you needed someone who knows the road, because you no longer knew where to go? We would like God to guide us like the best GPS, turn by turn, step by step, yet so often we meet silence and the sense that the line to heaven has gone dead. This sermon turns to Psalms 123 and 124, the prayers of people who were mocked and then rescued, and who learned to look up in hope and back in gratitude. Listen, and look for the places in your own story where God was on your side even though you could not feel it at the time.
Discussion questions
For your small group or for personal reflection after the sermon.
- In Psalm 123 the psalmist compares his gaze to the eyes of servants fixed on their master's hand. What does this picture reveal about his situation and what he expected from God?
- Psalm 124 repeats, "If the Lord had not been on our side." What images of danger appear in this psalm, and what do they tell us about what Israel went through?
- Marcin, mocked at the warehouse for his faith, prayed the words of Psalm 123 and over time began to feel compassion for those who ridiculed him. What helps you not to answer contempt with contempt when someone looks down on you?
- The sermon says that God's silence does not mean His absence or indifference. How do you respond when you pray for a long time and nothing changes, and what helps you keep holding on to God then?
- The story of the tree that wrecked the car but kept the driver from going over the embankment invites us to look back. What "tree" can you now see in your past that looked like failure at the time?
- This week, how can you intentionally "look up with hope" in one specific difficult situation and "look back with gratitude" for what God has already carried you through?
