Today my daughter and I went to the hospital to visit our elderly neighbor. Back in February her husband was found dead on the floor of their garage, struck down by a massive heart attack. Seeing her broke our hearts. She missed her husband, she was having difficulty breathing, she looked so frail, and she was distressed that now she was also in ill health. It was all just too overwhelming.
Yesterday I shared from Psalm 9 that praising the Lord is a choice. Today, seeing our neighbor reminded me again that sometimes it's really hard to praise.
The psalmist who wrote Psalm 10 knew that. (Many manuscripts combine psalms 9 & 10 and attribute both to David). He begins:
"Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?"
Some of you may be feeling exactly like our neighbor, and the psalmist, because you are up to your neck in trouble, and the Lord seems distant and deaf.
It was the wicked who troubled the psalmist. He says, "In his pride the wicked does not seek Him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God. He says to himself, "Nothing will shake me; I'll always be happy and never have trouble."
For you, it may be a sick or wayward child. It may be working full time, having to raise your children alone, and always being short of money. It may be a divorce or the loss of a spouse. It might be the loss of a job and the resultant financial strain. It may be a bad marriage, or a host of other things.
You might also be thinking, "Where ARE you God? Are you hiding? Don't you see? Don't you care? I'm your child, why don't you DO something?"
One of the things I notice about the psalms is that they often begin with lamenting.
Like Psalm 4 which begins: "Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress."
Or Psalm 6: "O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath."
Or Psalm 12: "Help, LORD, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men."
There are plenty more like that. Lamenting over troubles, wondering where God is, hurting, feeling alone, fearful - desperate words for desperate times.
But the psalmists rarely stay there. Is that because God "shows up" and things get suddenly better? Not always, many times we cry out to God but the circumstances do not change.
Yet, do you know where the psalms almost always end? With praise. The psalmist CHOOSES praise, he CHOOSES to turn His eyes from the circumstances to the God who IS faithful, even when he can't see it yet.
Psalm 11 includes these verses at its end:
v. 14 "But you, O God, DO see trouble and grief; You consider it to take it in hand."
v. 16-17 "The LORD is King for ever and ever. . . You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them and hear their cry."
That is what walking by faith looks like, the New Testament book of Hebrews says this in chapter 11, verse 1: "Now faith is being SURE of what we hope for and CERTAIN of what we do not see."
You may feel like our elderly friend, or be plagued by some other trouble that threatens to overwhelm you. Share it with the Lord. You won't be the first, or the last.
Then choose to praise the God who SEES trouble and grief and who knows how to "take it in hand". Praise the One who is the eternal King, who hears the desires of the afflicted. Let Him encourage you - with His presence, with His Word, with His faithfulness.
In the midst of trouble, choose praise.
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