It sometimes seems that God is hiding from us. But He isn’t. - Day 14

“Why do You stand afar off, O Lord? Why do You hide in times of trouble?”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭10:1‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

When somebody else is going through a hard time and they feel that somehow or another the Lord has turned His face from them, it’s very easy to encourage them and reassure them that God does care and that He is not hiding Himself. But what about when it’s you feeling forsaken of God?

It’s undeniable, there are times that—for whatever reason—we may feel that the Lord has forsaken us. Now, if we’ve been in open sin and rebellion against God, or living against His word, we can understand that we have lost touch with Him through our own doings. We are the ones who are “lost,” not God. But, there are times when, though you feel you are doing the very best you can, you find yourself in a tight place, and suddenly it seems the Lord is absent—just when you needed Him the most!

I don’t think anyone would argue that Jesus was somehow mistaken when He cried out on the cross feeling forsaken by God.

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭27:46‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Now, we could argue that since Jesus was taking on the Sin of the world, the Father had to turn away. Or we could say that because He references “My God,” rather than “My Father,” as He generally did, the part that He now felt of God was only His judgment and not the Fatherly relationship. But, whatever was going on, it was real and it was bad. And, Jesus endured that for us!

In our opening portion from Psalms we see that David was feeling forsaken by God, a theme often expressed in the psalms of David. As a matter of fact, Jesus was quoting from Psalms 22 when He spoke “Why have you forsaken me?” from the cross!

“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭22:1-2‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

But, every time David talked of the feeling of being forsaken by God, he would always follow up with praises of God, expressing the goodness and steadfastness of our Father!

“Do not hide Your face from me; Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the Lord will take care of me.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭27:9-10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

So what is the summation? Simply put, we all feel forsaken by God at times. But we must know that He has not forsaken us even though we don’t “feel” Him in that moment of crisis. Reflecting back to what we considered earlier, Jesus Himself felt forsaken by God. He experienced that in the midst of taking our punishment. So, with that, won’t He also come to your aid and make Himself known to you when you cry out to Him?

For today let us know and understand what David knew:

It sometimes seems that God is hiding from us. But He isn’t.

#100dayswithdavid