God Hears Our Complaints and Loves Us The Same

In Psalm 69:1-4 David writes out of his anguish (and I'm sure stinky bad breath because he had to hide in caves a lot):

David had some very real enemies. His own son, Absolom, wanted to cut his head off. He was a warrior king who felt things at a very deep emotional level, like me, and he wasn't afraid to wear a tunic and play a harp. He kicked butt and wrote songs. So far my worst enemies are in my head and my teen-aged daughter still wants me to drive her to the mall. I don't own a tunic or an ephod but I do have some baggy jeans. I'm just learning that it's okay to sing a lament or two along with the happy-clappy praise stuff that can momentarily lift any of us out of the doldrums.

Maybe that's the real lesson here. God is big enough to hear the praise and take the complaints. He doesn't love us more when we're happy than when we're sad. He is with us in the good and the bad, when we want to love Him and when we can't understand why He doesn't seem to be listening. He sees us when we're on the mountaintop and when we're hiding in a cave somewhere fearing for our lives. Maybe it's just okay to feel what we feel and remember that Jesus was well acquainted with our weaknesses. Hebrews 4:15 says, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet without sin."