Rev. Tom Hathaway - August 30, 2026
Thanks for the Fleas
What does it mean to praise God when life gives you no obvious reason to? Psalm 22 begins with one of scripture’s most devastating questions: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Yet the psalmist still finds a way to praise from inside that forsakenness itself, refusing to let suffering become the whole story. In this sermon, we look at Psalm 22 alongside the story of Corrie and Betsie ten Boom and ask whether gratitude can become something more than optimism or obedience. Perhaps, sometimes, thanksgiving is an act of spiritual resistance, a way of insisting that even in the hardest circumstances, there is still more to the story.
Scripture References: Psalms 22:1-31
From Series: "Summer in the Psalms"
The Psalms are the prayer book of the Bible, and they don't pretend. Across 150 of them, the full range of human experience gets handed to God, not just the polished feelings we bring to church but the raw ones we usually leave at the door. This summer we'll take four different kinds of psalm and learn how each one prays: the psalm that praises, the psalm that trusts, the psalm that gives thanks, and, yes, the psalm that rages. Four weeks on the songs that teach us we can bring God everything, even the parts we're not proud of.
