This Psalm is appropriately named “In the Day of Trouble I Seek the Lord”.
“I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me. In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints. You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak. Then my spirit made a diligent search: ‘Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?’ Then I said, ‘I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.’ I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? You with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; indeed, the deep trembled. The clouds poured out water; the skies gave forth thunder; your arrows flashed on every side. The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lighted up the world; the earth trembled and shook. Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” (1-4,6b-10,12-13,15-20)
I struggled with omitting any verses from this Psalm – it evokes powerful emotions and riles the spirit to read it. Truly the author suffered greatly and has laments to match those of David and Paul.
Verses 1-3 to speak of the weakness of the author, whose moans and fainting spirit cannot allow him to experience peace in his soul.
Verses 4-9 speak mention a sense of being deprived of the Lord’s presence, this depressing feeling like the Lord has turned His back on the author. In fact there is so much confusion and hopelessness that the author asks questions such as “Has his steadfast love forever ceased?” and “Has God forgotten to be gracious?”
That being said, the author finds a sense of hope in their soul as he vows to begin spending time contemplating the history of mankind in God’s presence (v10).
In verses 11-20, the entire second-half of the Psalm, the author begins reflecting on all the the past deeds of God and experiences of God’s people. He recounts the glory and wonders of God for who He is and what He has done. He reflects on God’s deliverance of Israel through the Red Sea and out of Egypt, with specific emphasis on God’s power over nature and circumstance.
I’m not sure about you, but I’ve certainly had moments where I had a very hard time seeing God in a situation. It seemed that God had completely ignored or maybe even maliciously caused some terrible thing that was happening and my head could not quite understand why this particular event (or interpersonal situation) was allowed to unfold.
Unfortunately, we can be deceived by the enemy into thinking that it’s somehow God’s fault that whatever circumstance exists – this is only true because God didn’t do something about it. That is one way of looking at it. However, is that the biblical way of looking at it? There are two passages that are key to my understanding this conundrum.
“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (1 Cor 13:8-12) In this passage, Paul is suggesting that in this world we will never have perfect understanding of anything – events, motives, principalities and powers, etc. He’s also suggesting that this world and us are broken, imperfect, unable to know or see a full picture. For me, this means on this side of eternity our imperfect minds and bodies will never fully understand why God does or does not allow certain things to happen. I think God wants us to depend on Him for wisdom and discernment – if we knew and understood everything, would we be more or less likely to rely on Him? This passage also reminds us that love never ends, it is eternal, just as God is eternal and God is love. This promise is repeated throughout scripture, so it must be true.
“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day… Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’ And to Adam [God] said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, “You shall not eat of it,” cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’ ” (Gen 1:31, 3:13,17-19) God made a perfect world that was very good – and then we ruined it. All kinds of nasty consequences entered the world when mankind sinned. The disasters and tragedies we experience were not God’s plan, or even His fault, we have nobody but ourselves to blame. The devil deceived/deceives us, and we’re paying the price.
Now this all sounds a little gloomy, however, there is glorious hope: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (Jn 3:16-17) I think that’s sufficient cause for celebration. Just as the author of this Psalm meditated on God’s glorious works and gestures, His outpouring of love on the world, so too we can meditate on God’s expression of love. Filling our minds with the truths of scripture (including God’s eternal and abundant love for us) is the only way I know to flush out the lies the devil tells us.
Father God, God of love, Jesus, the one who loved us so much You gave Your life for us, we praise You. We recount Your glorious works and love for Your people, and sing praises for Your glory. May You bind us together with a belt of truth, equipping us with a shield of faith that deflects the lies of the enemy and Your word as a sword of the spirit which will destroy enemy strongholds. We submit ourselves to You will, Your leadership, and Your teachings. Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God?
~Conqueror in Training