Een preek voor elke dag · Geloofstoerusting

Ds. A. Th. van Olst | Ook na Pasen klinkt ons klagen en vragen: hoelang nog?! | Psalm 89: 47-52

·40 min·2 clips

The preacher describes how Psalm 89 pivots at verse 39 from praise of God's faithfulness to a direct accusation: 'U hebt het verbond met uw dienaar teniet gedaan.'

1. Ds. A. Th. van Olst delivers a sermon on Psalm 89:47–52 for the Dutch congregation 'Een preek voor elke dag,' preached on the eve of Memorial Day (4 May) and Liberation Day (5 May). 2. The preacher is identified only by title and name (Ds. Van Olst); no guest appears — the episode is a solo sermon. 3. The central thesis is that Psalm 89 models a faith that does not suppress grief or confusion but brings formal lamentation — even accusation — directly to God. 4. Ds. Van Olst opens by noting that 4 and 5 May belong together: liberation cannot be celebrated without first remembering the cost, including 55 million total dead and 6 million Jewish victims of the Second World War. 5. He references a book described as the diary of a Jewish doctor who survived Auschwitz, arguing that one personal story is more graspable than an abstract number of millions. 6. The question 'How could this happen in Christian Europe?' — where the gospel came from church councils — is posed without easy resolution, setting up Psalm 89 as the text that lives with such unanswered questions. 7. Psalm 89 is structured in two halves: verses 1–38 celebrate God's covenant faithfulness and the promise that a son of David will rule; verses 39–52 begin with 'Maar' (But) and pivot into accusation. 8. The preacher counts thirteen consecutive 'U hebt' (You have done) phrases in verses 39–46, which he distinguishes from mere klacht (lament) and names as aanklacht (formal indictment). 9. He argues this formal accusation does not signal weak faith but arises precisely from the psalmist's belief that God is sovereign — it is because God could have acted that the psalmist holds him accountable. 10. Ds. Van Olst asks rhetorically whether people have a 'tegeltje' (wall tile) reading 'do not complain but bear and pray for strength,' and suggests the psalmist would have found this inadequate. 11. Klaagliederen 3 (Lamentations 3) is cited as another biblical text where the speaker accuses God: 'U bent voor mij een loerende beer geworden' (You have become for me a lurking bear). 12. The sermon applies Psalm 89's 'How long?' questions to contemporary suffering — wars in Ukraine, Israel-Gaza, and conflicts on the African continent — as ongoing occasions for the same lament. 13. The figure of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is introduced as a historical embodiment of 'bearing the reproach of the anointed': he led the Bekennende Kirche, travelled to the US to warn of Nazism, then returned to Germany saying 'I want to follow Jesus to the cross,' and was executed for joining a plot against Hitler. 14. A theologian named 'Ruhle' is cited at verse 52 with the observation that the Christian church has itself contributed to the reproach against Christ through internal conflict, lukewarmness, and complicity. 15. Ds. Van Olst asks whether the Dutch church in the 1940s responded sharply to the occupation, and whether today's church would respond sharply if placed at the same crossroads — implying the answer is uncertain. 16. He cites Hebrews 2 ('we do not yet see that all things are subject to him, but we see Jesus') as the New Testament's own acknowledgment that Christ's rule is not yet visible in the normal sense. 17. The sermon frames 'seeing Jesus' in the midst of unanswered questions as a work of the Holy Spirit, not of rational argument. 18. The tone is meditative and dialogical — the preacher addresses his congregation directly ('Herken je die vraag?') and oscillates between third-person theological exposition and second-person pastoral address. 19. Best suited for Dutch-speaking Reformed or Protestant listeners who engage seriously with lament as a theological category and who observe Dutch Memorial Day. 20. Likely not for listeners seeking cheerful Easter devotionals, practical life-application sermons, or non-liturgical Christian content.

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