The Psalmist has gone through a time when he thought he was going to die, and apparently, God was silent. What did the Psalmist do?

Here is the video link:

Psalm 30… What to do when God is silent

The audio links are to the right.

Here is the transcript used for today’s podcast:

Psalm 30

For Norma. He sees you.

Praise for Physical Healing

1 I will exalt you, Lord,
    for you lifted me out of the depths
    and did not let my enemies gloat over me.

2 Lord my God, I called to you for help,
    and you healed me.

רָפָא rāpā’1, v. [Q] to heal; [N] to be healed, be cured; [P] to heal, repair; [Ht] to recover:

3 You, Lord, brought me up from the realm of the dead;
    you spared me from going down to the pit.

No metaphorical meaning here….the Psalmist was seriously ill, and it was feared he would die (“… out of the depths…; “…going down to the pit…” refers to dying).

On the Other side of calamity

4 Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people;
    praise his holy name.

5 For his anger lasts only a moment,
    but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may stay for the night,
    but rejoicing comes in the morning.

I remember the first few moments after the end of Hurricane Hugo – the incredible sense of relief and being awestruck as I surveyed the damage outside that my family and I had just come through. I could have echoed these very words. Compared to the anger of that storm, His favor and mercy does indeed last a lifetime.

6 When I felt secure, I said,
    “I will never be shaken.”

7 Lord, when you favored me,
    you made my royal mountain[c] stand firm;

God is Hidden

but when you hid your face,
    I was dismayed.

8 To you, Lord, I called;
    to the Lord I cried for mercy:

9 “What is gained if I am silenced,
    if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
    Will it proclaim your faithfulness?

10 Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me;
    Lord, be my help.”

He doesn’t tell us what that situation was – perhaps this is the illness hinted at in the opening verses. Perhaps he is so ill that he thinks he is dying and is, at the moment, receiving no comfort from God.

There have been times when it seemed as if God was not there in my life. Elijah felt it, even Jesus felt it on the cross. I have most certainly felt the despair that accompanies the feeling that God’s Presence cannot be felt. What do you do when that happens? You do what the Psalmist does -talk to Him anyway. That is what this Psalmist is doing here. The words almost don’t matter. The very act of praying an honest prayer like this is evidence of your faith. The Psalmist isn’t trying to muster up his courage by pretending to be brave. Quite the contrary – he feels abandoned and lost, and freely admits it. 

It might seem odd to you, but the very fact that it bothers you that God cannot be felt should tell you His Spirit is in you. An unregenerate person would not say things like this. An unregenerate person has no concept of a God Who delivers. This is a prayer of someone who has seen God and experienced God in the past and is puzzled by his NOT feeling God in the moment. This is an honest prayer. No fluff here. Just plain old-fashioned honesty. 

“Lord, I am used to hearing and seeing You… but today I don’t see You. That matters not, because I will speak anyway.”

Sometimes our faith in Him is best displayed when we see no evidence of Him in our circumstances. When Hurricane Hugo was destroying our home and our neighborhood, I did NOT feel the Presence of God. I was NOT feeling powerful in my faith. I was NOT feeling protected. I was as fearful as anyone in my house was at that moment. But I prayed. I prayed in faith. I prayed “as if” I had all the  confidence in the world that God would deliver me, even as I was engulfed in fear. That’s what faith is. Faith stares destruction in the eye and declares God’s Name. 

Disaster says:

 “Where is God NOW? You can’t feel Him here in this room, can you? Where is He?”

Faith responds:

“God is where He always is. He is omnipotent and omnipresent. He is everywhere. It matters not if I can see Him. He is here. He knows. He sees. He is El Roi – “the God Who sees”. He is Jehovah Jireh – “The God Who provides”.

Just because you cannot see Him does NOT mean He is gone. I remember as a child being alone in my dark bedroom waking up in the middle of the night after a nightmare. At first I was terrified by the dark, but almost immediately realized that Mom and Dad were sleeping in the next room. I couldn’t see them… but I knew they were there, and I went back to sleep.

Rejoicing

11 You turned my wailing into dancing;
    you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,

12 that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent.
    Lord my God, I will praise you forever.

This is the guaranteed result of those who are His – at the end of whatever experience you are going through that has seemingly caused you to NOT hear His voice or sense His Presence, there is rejoicing and praise. Why? Because we have a God Who delivers. We have a God Who makes us want to dance! 

As helpless as I felt during Hurricane Hugo, afterwards my heart was filled with wonder and joy. When I walked through the neighborhood the day after the storm, I was filled with awe when I realized that even when I was thinking He was silent  – He was in fact protecting me from all the destruction I was viewing. I felt like that little child waking from a nightmare, initially overwhelmed with fear from those monsters in my dreams, only to realize that my father was close by… even though I could not see or hear him. 

Whatever those monsters represent to you in your current situation. El Roi  – the God Who sees – is there. Even if you can’t see Him (like I couldn’t see my father in the middle of the night as a child when waking from a nightmare), pray anyway. The enemy of our soul would have you believe that God is uncaring. We know that is a lie. Your ability to sense His Presence or to NOT sense His presence is NOT the catalyst for His delivering you from whatever is assailing you. 

Do you feel His Presence? Pray!

Do you NOT feel His Presence? Pray!

God.Is.There. He.Sees.You.

In His Grip,

Paige