“I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him” (Psalm 142:2).
Do you remember customer complaint cards? Businesses used to place these cards by the cash register for you to fill out and tell them about a problem or issue you had with their service or product. These days, we receive follow up emails with a questionnaire to answer about our experience with a particular company.
In the Psalms, the Lord invites his children to pour out their complaints or troubles to him in prayer. I think the phrase “pour out” is appropriate. The past couple of months, I’ve voiced numerous complaints to the Lord in prayer. Disappointments. Uncertainties. Worries. Troubles. Concerns. Questions. I’ve told him all my distracting thoughts and swirling emotions. I’ve bombarded him with questions such as: Why? How long? When? I’ve asked him to intercede in my troubles and concerns. I’ve asked him to provide comfort and hope. I’ve asked for provision for needs. I’ve asked for the Spirit to do a mighty work in my heart and in our land.
The Bible provides many examples of God’s people bringing their troubles and complaints to the Lord. We see this most notably in the Psalms, but we also see it elsewhere, such as in Job or Lamentations or Habakkuk. “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?” (Habakkuk 1:2). These are examples of holy complaints. What makes them holy? The heart posture of the one complaining.
Central to a holy complaint is a heart that fears the Lord. Such a heart loves, honors, reveres, and worships God for who he is and what he has done. This heart is humble and acknowledges its utter dependence upon God’s grace for all things. That is why the godly cry out to the Lord. They come into his presence because he is the only One who can rescue and redeem. He is the great provider; all things belong to him and he generously shares his riches with his children. He is a loving Father who knows just what his children need and ensures they receive it. Therefore, the godly cry out to him for help and trust in his perfect and timely will to be done. These complaints are ones that honor God and he is pleased to hear and respond to them.
There are however, complaints that do not honor God. A prime example of this is when the Israelites grumbled against God during their desert wanderings. Though they witnessed God deliver them from the Egyptians at the Red Sea, they grumbled against God the first time they lacked food and water. “And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food” (Numbers 21:25). The Apostle Paul referred to this account in 1 Corinthians 10:9-10, “We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.” Their complaints stemmed not from a heart that trusted the Lord to provide, but from unbelief.
The Puritan, Thomas Watson, called such complaining or grumbling, “mutiny in the soul against God.” He wrote, “Murmuring springs from pride, thinking you deserve better at God’s hand, and when the heart begins to swell, it spits poison. Murmuring also springs from distrust, for men do not believe that God can make medicine out of poison, and bring good out of all their troubles.” Men murmur at God’s providences because they distrust his promises.”
May we turn to God and give him our troubles and cares because we know he is the source and fountainhead of grace. May our hearts trust in him alone to rescue and redeem. May all our complaints be holy complaints. “He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them” (Psalm 145:19).
