Emotions: Sadness

[podcast]http://www.revkwon.com/podcast/emotions-sadness.mp3[/podcast] What was the saddest experience you’ve ever had in your life?

•  Dad dying
•  Not getting into my choice high school.
•  Losing bets to Michelle that cause me to not be able to drink soda.
•  When Notre Dame loses a football game.

I won’t say that all of these are equally sad, but at the moment I experience them, the emotion of sadness is so great through all these situations that the sharpest memory of them are the bad memories that stem from it. I said it last week, but I’ll say it again this week. The good news about emotions is that there is no emotion that we experience that hasn’t been experienced by people before us or that is not written about in the Bible. Seriously, do you think the Bible doesn’t have stories about people who experience incredible sadness? Of course there are so many stories where the main characters in the Bible are so sad that they don’t even know what to do. I can name a few: Esther, Job, Noah, David, Samson, Martha, Mary, Jesus, etc. Do you want me to keep going? Of course not because sadness is as universal as the sun coming up in the morning and going down in the evening. However, the reason we’re talking about this emotion of sadness, like we spoke of the emotions of anger and excitement is because when left unchecked, this emotion of sadness takes us to a place we never intended to be and never wanted in the first place. We said that anger takes us to a place where we never intended to be and places us in situations we’ve never wanted even though it was usually a situation we never wanted to be in that got us into trouble in the first place. Likewise, excitement, when left unchecked is a distraction that keeps from being where we wanted to go and the focus we need to have. Sadness, when left uncheck, leaves you broken beyond repair and unable to move forward with your life. I want to read from the Psalms today. We’re going to read from Psalm 42. A lot of you should know this Psalm, it’s a very famous Psalm. Before we look at the Psalm and read it together, I want to give it some background. This Psalm is called a maskil. A maskil is a poem that is supposed to cause you to think. In this case, this Psalm, Psalm 42 is a poem that is supposed to be read so people can listen to music and think about it. This poem was written by the “Sons of Korah.” Here’s something interesting about the sons of Korah, and you should know this: they were warrior singer priests. What does that mean? It means they were priests that also happened to be good at fighting and singing! The legend says that the sons of Korah guarded the Temple and could strike with a sword as beautifully as they strike the harp. Let’s read this Psalm.

1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” 4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng. 5 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. 6 My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar. 7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. 8 By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life. 9 I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” 10 My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?” 11 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Three Places where Sadness Dwells First, Sadness comes from not being able to praise God. Look at what it says in verse 2: My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? This may be the most complex thing to explain because we never think about it this way but the reason we are sad sometimes is because we have no reason to praise God. Here’s what I mean: have you ever been in a place where nothing good comes out of your mouth about God? Like you want to sing a song or jump up and down and be excited by thanking God for something in your life, but there’s nothing to say because you don’t feel like you have anything that you can be thankful for. That’s exactly a place where sadness comes from. There’s nothing to praise God about. So you don’t praise God and sadness is the result of you not being able to praise God. It’s the craziest thing because our bodies thirst to praise God and not being able to praise God makes us sad whether we know it or not. Second, Sadness comes from not experiencing God. Its one thing to have nothing good to say to God or about God. It’s completely another thing when you don’t even feel God. A big part of our sadness comes from not experiencing God’s love. Rather, it comes from not knowing that you are experiencing God’s love. I love this in verse 3. It says, “My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” [example of not experiencing God] Third, Sadness is a feeling that everything is against you. Look at verse 7: Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. The created universe is acting against you. It feels like you’re being drowned and you can’t breathe. You can’t even get your head above the water to take a breath of life. This is just one reason we get sad. It feels like the universe is against us. When we examine our sadness, aren’t these the three places where our sadness dwell? It dwells in our inability to praise God, our inexperience with God, and nothing ever going right in our lives. So how do you remedy sadness in our lives? If unchecked these three places of sadness take root and sit in our lives for a while and we sometimes don’t ever recover. However, if we decide we want to take control, we have three steps we can take to help us. Faith silences pain, sadness, and sorrows of the heart. By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life. Let me tell you something about faith—it is louder than all the sadness in your life. When you have faith, there is nothing Praising God restores your hope. Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (Philippians 4:4). Hope allows you to rejoice through sadness.