Unexplained Suffering
Have you ever lost the feeling that God is real?
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As a child, I could easily feel God moving and calling my heart. I would walk forward at almost every revival and often with tears, but as I entered adult life doubt often overtook faith.
I cyclically studied church history, poured over theology, and wrestled through my questions point by point late into the night. I would beg for peace and easy answers thinking that my questioning meant there was something wrong with me.
It is also hard to believe that we can hope in God when we are living out the consequences of our own choices.
Regardless of which part of the spectrum you fall on, what we can know is God is faithful, solid, and sure. He is big enough to handle our questions and sure to hold us through.
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Creating a timeline with David’s life and Psalms is fascinating. Not all the Psalms are written by David, but he is the author of this Psalm.
He is writing this Psalm while on the run yet again. He spent most of his twenties on the run from King Saul and spent a little over thirty years reigning peacefully before his oldest son Absalom decided to overthrow him and take the kingdom.
David was called “a man after God’s heart” and worked to move the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and establish the people’s worship of God. Not long after David decided to build a temple for God, but God told him not to, and instead God made a covenant with David. In it he promised that someone from David’s family would always be on the throne. David believed that this would mean that one of his children would always rule Israel, but we know from hindsight that instead, it meant that Jesus would be from the line of David.
Not long after we are told of David’s sin against Bathsheba. He took her as his wife and killed her husband to cover his sin. God sent a prophet to confront him.
To David’s credit, unlike Saul, he repented immediately but there were still consequences for his sin. He was told in 2 Samuel 12:11&12 that his own family would rise up against him. And now as he writes this verse he is living out the consequences of that sin. Yet, amid that David has confidence in God.
Many of us endure pain that is the consequence of our actions. We repent and find forgiveness, but that doesn’t always mean our circumstances change. What we can know from this verse is that God is with us even in that kind of pain. He is a reliable place to put our hope.
