Another week, and another barrage of heartbreaking bad news stories in the media. Do you ever look at the world, or your own life, and wonder if God has forgotten about the people he’s made? Perhaps you can echo the words of the psalmist in Psalm 10 v 1: “Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” But the same Psalmist doesn’t stop there...
12 Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God.
Do not forget the helpless.
13 Why does the wicked man revile God?
Why does he say to himself,
‘He won’t call me to account’?
14 But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;
you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked man;
call the evildoer to account for his wickedness
that would not otherwise be found out.
16 The Lord is King for ever and ever;
the nations will perish from his land.
17 You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
18 defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that mere earthly mortals
will never again strike terror.
This psalm teaches us that the right response to this situation and these feelings is not to cut off communication with God, but to cry out to him.
The ultimate proof that God hears the desires of the afflicted and listens to their cry is in the life of the Lord Jesus, as we see when we open the pages of a Gospel. God does not “stand far off” (v 1), even when it feels like it. He has come near to us in his Son, who did everything necessary for him to come and live in us by his Spirit (John 14 v 16-18). His timings may be different to ours. His ways are often different to ours. But he has never forgotten. He will always encourage, listen to and defend his struggling people.