Our pastor was continuing his message series on suffering yesterday, and he made an interesting point.
“Just because God doesn’t ‘cooperate’ with us, doesn’t mean he doesn’t exist.”
That is, just because God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we want, doesn’t mean that he isn’t there. Nor does it mean that he doesn’t care.
And that’s what I see in Psalm 22. Here, David cries out,
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. (Psalm 22:1-2)
But despite God seeming silent and distant, the psalmist affirms,
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises.
In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them.
To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. (3-5)
In other words, “I still believe you’re there. And you are the same God that our ancestors trusted, and they were not put to shame. So I’m going to keep trusting you, even though I can’t see you or what you’re doing right now.”
Still, David pours out his troubles before God, but in them, we see something else. We see Jesus whom this psalm foretells.
It foretells his state on the cross (14-17). It foretells his mocking, and the casting of lots for his clothes (7-8, 17-18).
And it foretells his ultimate triumph and the salvation and blessing that would come because of his sacrifice (22-31).
Jesus, himself, as he was dying on the cross, quoted this psalm and applied it to himself, when he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)
What can we get from this?
When we are suffering and God seems distant and uncaring, those feelings are just that. Feelings. And they are not true. God is there. And he does care. David sings,
For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help. (24)
God doesn’t make light of our sufferings. Nor does he ever hide his face from us. Rather, he hears our every cry. And he feels and understands our every pain.
How do I know? Because Jesus himself suffered. He too had feelings of abandonment by his Father. He too knew what it meant to go through pain.
And just as God used all that Jesus went through for his glory, he will use all our sufferings for his glory too, if only we’ll keep trusting him.
Moment to Moment (Bible blog) 