Faith Lives by Affirmations, Not Answers
Series: Grief
Tony Nester
Psalm 10: 1
The Bible has a fearless honesty that reveals the false advertising of much popular preaching. Today's preacher competes with prominent self-help gurus who sell strategies for fashioning enjoyable lifestyles and achieving successful careers. And so preachers find a hundred ways to say that God is good for us - good for our self-esteem, good for our marriages, good for our health, and good for our finances. They portray God as brimming with benefits for us.
There is truth here - God is indeed good for us - but this one bit of truth has been separated from the greater truth that we cannot reduce God to our own notions of what is good for us. We can't set God's agenda according to our ideals of love, justice, and goodness. We can proclaim that God is love (1 John 4:16), but we stray from this truth when we insist that love, as we conceive it, is God.
Psalm 10:1 is a spiritual slap in our face telling us we will not always experience God as present for us, nor always caring for our needs - at least not as we like to be cared for in times of trouble. The words are hard, but we need to listen to them. They are words that every grief sufferer knows.
Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1).
Life has hit the Psalmist with a double blow of doubt. He experiences God as distant and indifferent to his needs. He is crying out, ''God, why aren't you closer? God, why don't you care?''
This is not the preferred spiritual stance of the Psalmist. The preceding psalm, Psalm 9, gives voice to the writer's usual trust in God's presence and providential love.
I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. (Psalm 9:1).
The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you. ...
Series: Grief
Tony Nester
Psalm 10: 1
The Bible has a fearless honesty that reveals the false advertising of much popular preaching. Today's preacher competes with prominent self-help gurus who sell strategies for fashioning enjoyable lifestyles and achieving successful careers. And so preachers find a hundred ways to say that God is good for us - good for our self-esteem, good for our marriages, good for our health, and good for our finances. They portray God as brimming with benefits for us.
There is truth here - God is indeed good for us - but this one bit of truth has been separated from the greater truth that we cannot reduce God to our own notions of what is good for us. We can't set God's agenda according to our ideals of love, justice, and goodness. We can proclaim that God is love (1 John 4:16), but we stray from this truth when we insist that love, as we conceive it, is God.
Psalm 10:1 is a spiritual slap in our face telling us we will not always experience God as present for us, nor always caring for our needs - at least not as we like to be cared for in times of trouble. The words are hard, but we need to listen to them. They are words that every grief sufferer knows.
Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1).
Life has hit the Psalmist with a double blow of doubt. He experiences God as distant and indifferent to his needs. He is crying out, ''God, why aren't you closer? God, why don't you care?''
This is not the preferred spiritual stance of the Psalmist. The preceding psalm, Psalm 9, gives voice to the writer's usual trust in God's presence and providential love.
I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. (Psalm 9:1).
The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you. ...
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