Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday. Psalm 37:5-6
When we read about all the injustice in the world, hear it on the 6 o’clock news every night, listen to people discussing it over coffee or the water cooler or the backyard fence, it can get to the point that we ask, “Where is God in all of this?” The Hebrews asked that while enslaved in Egypt, then while being sent off to exile, while under the clutch of the Roman Empire and during the Holocaust. Slaves in the South asked it, as did the soldiers in the Civil War, and for that matter, crunched down dodging bullets in any war. Some asked it in the aftermath of 911. Some ask it as they hold their deceased loved one who was a victim of random violence, or intentional harm. Others question as they hold their not perfectly formed child, like I did.
The answer is simple – God is in our midst. Instead of asking where He is, ask Him to draw nearer. Ask Him to show you rays of sunlight in the dark gloominess, to feel His warmth around your cold shoulders, to hear birds singing in spite of the deafening silence of grief, to help you laugh again, even if just for a moment. It is a matter of faith, but you can ask for that as well. The verse right before this says if we draw near to God He will give us the desires of our heart. That doesn’t mean wealth or fame, it means Him. He truly is all we need, and like the lilies of the field and the birds in the air, He will provide if we seek Him and His righteousness first.
So seek. As I said, it’s so simple, yet it can be so very hard, can’t it? Hard because our viewpoint is so limited to the here and now. God, on the other hand, sees all and knows all. He has the timing worked out. We just need to hang on, trust and draw near to Him for comfort. Countless believers have. The Psalmist knew to do that. The next time you feel wronged or think that life is just not fair ( guess what, it isn’t) read this Psalm 37 and take it to heart. It is soothing balm for a hurting soul.
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself (vs. 7) . . . For the Lord loves justice;
he will not forsake his saints. (vs.28)
