“I cried out to the God for help; I cried out to God to hear me. When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands, and I would not be comforted.” (Psalm 77:1-2 NIV)
Recently, a new friend asked a hard question. “Why doesn’t God answer my prayer?” I wonder if I flinched; I’ve been stuck in such seasons myself. It’s a tough business, leaning in on the same old prayer request for months on end, asking with such consistency that the silence is deafening. Why doesn’t God answer? Where is He?
The psalmist certainly had such questions. Psalm 77 reads like a personal diary and we are let in on the struggle. Many more devout Christians than I have described such a season as the dark night of the soul: a season where prayers seem to bounce off the ceiling and back into our frames unanswered, perhaps even unacknowledged. Why?
Sometimes God says no. Sometimes He doesn’t say anything at all. Perhaps it’s an answer that exceeds our pay-grade? Perhaps the truth is too heavy of luggage for our human flesh to carry? I’m more and more convinced that occasionally, God steps back to see if we’ll step forward. He moves away just a smidge to test us: will we live with the gap page or will we move closer, determined to live in intimacy with Him?
The psalmist refocused by remembering. He spent his limited human effort recalling the perfect record of a holy God. He reminded himself how God led the Israelites out of Egypt through a dark and storm sea. His footprints were unseen but His presence was palpable.
I love how the book of Hosea describes such a season. Hosea had been torn open, gutted and left to bleed out by a an adulterous wife. Surely God felt far off: the God who instructed him to marry a harlot knowing full well she’d wander. Yet Hosea persevered. He refused to let his personal insults and injury infect his relationship with the Lord. He pressed on to acknowledged God even when God felt far off, misunderstood and perhaps taken advantage of.
Hosea and the psalmist trusted the truth of God over the roar of their feelings. They both believed that the goodness of the Lord would one day be apparent again. Do we?
“Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but He will heal us; He has injured us but He will bind up our wounds. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will restore us, that we may live in His presence. Let us acknowledge the Lord, let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” (Hosea 6:1-3 NIV)
Lord, help us when You feel far off. May we trust our knowings over our feelings. May we remember Your Word and Your past performance record with us and with others. Help us believe You’ll tell us what we need to know by the time we need to know it. Let us keep pursuing You, even when You feel out of reach. Amen.