invisible God – Moment to Moment (Bible blog)

One thing I’ve noticed about the psalms as I’ve been going through them is that a lot of the themes seem to be similar.

Particularly, the struggles people have when dealing with an invisible God. It’s kind of comforting, actually.

Psalm 77 is no different. The psalmist starts out by crying out,

I cried out to God for help;
I cried out to God to hear me.

When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;
at night I stretched out untiring hands,
and I would not be comforted. (Psalm 77:1-2)

How often do we do the same? We cry out to God, and yet hear…nothing. And because of our troubled hearts, we can’t sleep. Instead, we start asking as the psalmist did,

“Will the Lord reject forever?
Will he never show his favor again?

Has his unfailing love vanished forever?
Has his promise failed for all time?

Has God forgotten to be merciful?
Has he in anger withheld his compassion?” (7-9)

In short, have you abandoned me? Have you given up on me? Do you consider me a lost cause?

But in the midst of his despair, he cries out,

“To this I will appeal: the years when the Most High stretched out his right hand.

I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.

I will consider all your works
and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”

Your ways, God, are holy.
What god is as great as our God?

You are the God who performs miracles;
you display your power among the peoples.

With your mighty arm you redeemed your people,
the descendants of Jacob and Joseph…

You led your people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron. (10-15, 20)

In a moment, he thrusts out all thoughts that God has abandoned him.

And he says, “God, I cannot believe you’ve abandoned me. You’ve done too much for me in the past to believe that.

“You cared enough that you redeemed me and my people. And you led us as your sheep through the desert to where we are now.

“Because of all the love you’ve shown to me in the past, I refuse to believe you’ve abandoned me now.”

That’s faith. It’s believing though we can’t see.

Though we can’t see or feel God’s love at a particular moment or time, we believe he still cares.

Though we can’t see or feel God’s presence for a season, we hold on to the belief that he is still there and that he has not abandoned us.

But faith is not completely blind. Because when we look back on our past, we can see the evidence of God’s power and love in our lives.

So when we feel abandoned as the psalmist did, let us look back on God’s goodness in our lives, and know that the God who was with us then, is with us now.

The frustration of dealing with an invisible God

After being severely blasted by Eliphaz, in which Eliphaz for the first time levels specific (if completely baseless) accusations against Job, Job cries out once again for a hearing before God. He said,

If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling! I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would find out what he would answer me, and consider what he would say to me.

Would he vigorously oppose me? No, he would not press charges against me. There the upright can establish their innocence before him, and there I would be delivered forever from my judge. (Job 23:3-7)

Here we see Job once again defending his innocence and his strong belief that God was fair. That if he could only present his case to God, God would affirm his innocence.

But Job goes on to say,

But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him. (23:8-9)

In other words, “Where are you God? In the midst of all my suffering, where are you? Why do you seem so much against me?”

And that is the frustration of dealing with an invisible God.

There are times in our trials that we nevertheless sense his presence and are comforted.

But there are other times for reasons we can’t understand and that God never explains when he seems distant from us. We pray, and our prayers bounce off of the ceilings. We read the Bible and it seems dry.

And we start to wonder like Job, “Why are you so against me? If I did something wrong, just tell me already!”

How do we deal with that? There are no easy answers.

The thing that impresses me about Job, however, is that throughout his questioning of God, throughout his feelings of abandonment, throughout his feelings of even being persecuted by God, he never once even contemplated walking away from God.

And in the midst of all his questions, complaints, and even bitterness, he would still come out with statements of faith such as,

But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. (23:10)

And so despite all that happened, he continued to say things like,

My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside.

I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread. (23:11-12)

I think that’s the attitude we need to take as well. When God seems distant, when God even seems against us, we need to nevertheless cling to him.

We need to keep believing in his ultimate goodness. To keep believing that he is just. And to keep believing that though we may be suffering now, in the end, he will bring us forth as gold.

So let us not turn aside from him when trials come. Let us not walk away when he seems nowhere to be found. Let us not depart from the words he has spoken.

Rather, let us continue to treasure his words and seek him. And the day will come, as it did with Job, that we will find Him once again.