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GIVING

PRAISING GOD THROUGH GRIEF

25 May 2025
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PRAISING GOD THROUGH GRIEF

Speaker: Fred Sigle

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SUNDAY LESSON, 5/25/25
 
PRAISING GOD THROUGH GRIEF
Psalm 116
 
Next Monday is Memorial Day, a day set-aside to pause and remember those servicemen and women who sacrificed their lives in securing the freedoms of our great nation.   This was also the day that my mom referred to as “Decoration Day.”
On “Decoration Day” every year, my family (parents and siblings) would climb into our 1958 Ford Country Squire station wagon (my little brother and I sat in the back seat that faced the rear) and head for the cemetery where my mom would lay a reef on her Dad’s (Grandpa Robertson) grave.   She would lean the reef up against his tombstone and just stand there in silence with tears running down her cheeks as she fondly remembered her dad.
In Psalm 116 the Psalmist writes about a grievous circumstance where he either came close to death himself and/or possibly lost a loved one.  However, through his grief his faith in God does not waiver.  He expresses his love and gratitude to God for being there with him every step of the way.
Grief is a natural process that everyone deals with during a loss.   And, although grief takes on different shapes and forms, it doesn’t go away; and the reason being is because the love you have for the one(s) you lost does not go away.  But even in the midst of grief, God is to be praised.  Come join us Sunday as we learn that nothing should ever prevent us from PRAISING GOD THROUGH GRIEF.
PSALM 116 (NIV)

I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;
    he heard my cry for mercy.
2 Because he turned his ear to me,
    I will call on him as long as I live.

3 The cords of death entangled me,
    the anguish of the grave came over me;
    I was overcome by distress and sorrow.
4 Then I called on the name of the Lord:
    “Lord, save me!”

5 The Lord is gracious and righteous;
    our God is full of compassion.
6 The Lord protects the unwary;
    when I was brought low, he saved me.

7 Return to your rest, my soul,
    for the Lord has been good to you.

8 For you, Lord, have delivered me from death,
    my eyes from tears,
    my feet from stumbling,
9 that I may walk before the Lord
    in the land of the living.

10 I trusted in the Lord when I said,
    “I am greatly afflicted”;
11 in my alarm I said,
    “Everyone is a liar.”

12 What shall I return to the Lord
    for all his goodness to me?

13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
    and call on the name of the Lord.
14 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
    in the presence of all his people.

15 Precious in the sight of the Lord
    is the death of his faithful servants.
16 Truly I am your servant, Lord;
    I serve you just as my mother did;
    you have freed me from my chains.

17 I will sacrifice a thank offering to you
    and call on the name of the Lord.
18 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
    in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the house of the Lord—
    in your midst, Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord.[a]