Walk Of Life – Day 18, August 2022 – Thoughts From The Book Of Psalms
The God who Cares
Psalm 35: 22, 23 – This thou hast seen, O Lord: keep not silence: O Lord, be not far from me. Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord.
Am always awestruck at the honesty of the psalms. We often find ourselves in such situations. If at that point, we were to write a song, it may sound like Psalms 35. There are so many instances when we feel the Lord is silent. Whether in our personal life, family life, or church life, this question keeps propping up. Lord, why are you silent? Are you there? Do you even care? Why do I feel you are so distant? Why is all this happening in my life? The number of whys seem so countless. The number of times we feel we are cornered, targeted, bemeaned, put down, spoken ill of, and been ill-spoken by those for whom we have done good, those who are not gentiles or strangers, but many a time, our very own brethren.
The last fragment is so powerful. The psalmist is kind of telling the Lord, it looks like you are asleep. Wake up dear Lord and judge righteously. Do not forsake thy servant. This truly needs some guts to actually tell God ok how long will you keep quiet, do something Lord. We have been there many times and may be there at the moment. Call that boldly entering the most holy courts and placing our requests before Him. He does care. His delays are not denials. His silence does not mean that He will not act, His time has not yet come.
I always think of Hagar in that situation. Here is this Egyptian girl, if you see from her standpoint, she did not do anything wrong. She just obeys her mistress. In those days, slaves were supposed to implicitly obey and they probably did not have a choice. Just imagine she is sent out of the house with no where to go and she has a son who is asking for water and she is totally clueless. It is then the Lord tells us don’t worry go and submit yourself, I will bless your son also and make him a great nation. She is the only person who gives God a name EL ROI, the God who sees. It is amazing how God cares. He knows the mistake is not Hagar’s and He listens to her. If you closely see the life of Leah and Rachel, it is amazing how God blesses Leah because she is despised and made her the mother of so many tribes of Israel. The names that she gives her sons are so meaningful and you can feel her pain each time. However, she holds on and the Lord blesses her abundantly.
You may be going through some tough situation and wondering where is God. He is there and He cares, His time has not yet come and all will be fine soon. Just cling on!!
