Experiencing God's Presence #170

Experiencing God's Presence #170

Your favor, O LORD, made me as secure as a mountain. Then you turned away from me, and I was shattered.

Psalm 30:7

God turned away. He hid His face, and David was dismayed. This psalm of dedication for a temple that hasn’t even been built yet is full of joy and gratitude for God’s goodness, but one line interrupts the joy with an absentee God and shattered hopes. Why?

It could be for one of the many moments when David’s life was in danger or when his family was in turmoil as a result of David’s sin. That would give us a tidy explanation of God’s seeming absence—He only appeared absent because of the crisis, or He righteously punished His servant’s misdeeds—but David doesn’t point out any particular circumstances. In fact, he almost seems to fit the absence of God into the natural flow of life. Sometimes God seems very present, sometimes He doesn’t. It just happens, and there’s no explanation.

We’ve all experienced that. We sometimes feel very close to God, and then for no discernible reason, we don’t. Sometimes He leads us through green pastures, and other times through dry deserts. We don’t understand why—and the psalms do an honest job of mentioning life’s disappointments—but God values our trust in those times more than our understanding. Perhaps He allows our isolation to see how we respond in the absence of outward evidence of Him. Will we believe and hope or doubt and despair? Whatever the reason, God can hide His face, and we’re dismayed.

The good news is that dry times don’t end that way. Mourning is turned to dancing (v. 11). But when life includes seasons of longing for a God who seems strangely silent, sandwich your lament in the middle of your life’s psalm of praise. Don’t get stuck in the middle of the story. God turns disappointments into joy.

Lord, I don’t understand my disappointments, but I know they aren’t how my story ends. I know Your face even when I don’t see it. In the midst of dismay, I choose hope and faith.