Food for Thought by David Jackson

Where is God when we are hurting? (Psalm 22)

With the coming of December, many of us celebrate the season with Christmas carols, family gatherings, and exchanging gifts with those we love. But not everyone is able to join in the festivities. I’m thinking of those who have recently said goodbye for the last time to one they loved for their entire life (parent), or for most of their adult life (spouse). Others are stressed by world conflicts, health concerns, or financial burdens. I heard a report recently that 25% of Americans are still paying for their gifts from last year!

All of this raises a question for us. What is a person to do when their world doesn’t correspond to the season of the year? What can we say to someone who is wondering where God is when it seems he has deserted them in their difficulties? Such questions are important at any time, but never more so than now when so many seem to be perfectly happy.

I’m closing this year’s emphasis on the Psalms with a paradox for this time of year. While nearly everyone is thinking about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, Psalm 22 begins with the words that were spoken by Jesus as he hung on the cross shortly before his death. The psalmist’s words are the contemporary words of every sufferer who feels as if God is paying no attention to his/her pain. How do those two points of the Incarnation belong together? 

First, only eight days after his birth Jesus’s parents encountered Simeon in the temple (Luke 2:23-35). After praising God for keeping his promises in the form of this infant, Simeon said to Mary, “A sword will pierce your own soul too.” It was an unmistakable reference to the end of Jesus’s life on earth. As someone has said, “the shadow of a cross hung over the manger in Bethlehem.” This was God’s plan “before the creation of the world” (Eph. 1:4).

Second, these beginning moments of the Incarnation did not mark the most significant days of Jesus’s time on earth, because after his death, on the third day he rose from the dead. By his resurrection he conquered death and sin. These events marked a new beginning for humanity, the coming of a new kingdom of God, and a new basis of our relationship with him. 

If we follow that thought to its conclusion, we arrive at this truth: in the entire history of the world there has never been a time that God was not aware of the world he made and the people in it. In his infinite love he is there in our loneliest moments. When he seems to have forgotten us, or when it feels as if he is not paying attention to our prayers, he is always there, working for good for those who love him (Rom. 8:28).

In Psalm 22, which speaks from the human perspective in all its troubles, the sufferer doesn’t address their best friend, or their parents, or a religious leader. They address their concerns to…God: “My God, my God….” And the complaint in vv. 1-2 is followed by a statement of faith based on knowledge of the past. Faith is there, but it is momentarily overwhelmed with the emotion of grief.

The emotion appears again: I am not worthy of your attention, because look at what others are saying about me. But trust in you is what I know, what I have known my whole life. “Do not be far from me” sounds like the language of faith, not doubt.

I think of examples from the biblical record: Abraham complained that Yahweh had given him no children, and God said, “Look at the stars. So shall your offspring be.” Jacob worshiped at Bethel because “Surely the Lord was in this place, and I did not know it.” Moses reminded the Israelites that during 40 years in the wilderness “your clothes did not wear out, nor did your sandals on your feet.”

In other words, this psalm that begins with a statement of faith slipping away, is really not that at all. The times are difficult, but God is still there. He works in ways that are not always clear to us. But he has not deserted one whom he has claimed as his own. No matter what we are facing, God is faithful, and he will provide, if we will just wait on him.