For thousands of years people have struggled with fear, anxiety, anger, grief, suffering, guilt, betrayal, injustice, and faith. The veneer of circumstances and environments has surely changed, but the core issues have persisted in the human heart. More importantly, one of God’s most incredible gifts to us—the Psalms—has continued to help people meet God amid their joys and struggles.
Consider Psalm 77 where the Psalmist agonizingly searches—as if he’s groping in the night to find God and understand his troubling circumstances. Clearly he believes and trusts that God is faithful to hear and respond (1), yet the journey must go through the valley of darkness, pain, and confusion to the point that his soul “refuses to be comforted” as he moans and even feels faint (2-3). He prays, seemingly, without the verbal expression of words.
He searches his soul to remember the goodness of God and when he does he wonders if that same goodness will ever be shown to him again. He wonders if God has intentionally forgotten His love and compassion (4-10).
Can you relate? Have painful circumstances in your life obscured your view to the kindness of God?
Here, in verse 11, he gives himself a pep talk—he preaches to himself—and then begins to talk with the Lord (11-15). Now the Psalmist begins to meet God in prayer! Remembering God’s wonderful works leads him to praise (13-20), reminding himself that God is good and therefore His ways of leading him are best. He remembers God’s power over everything and everyone, culminating in his remembrance—and soul-quieting peace—that God faithfully leads His people through the gravest of circumstances. He has met God in prayer, and God has met him!
Often, God doesn’t remove the trial, or negatively-perceived circumstance. No, His purposes are far greater and His means for satisfying our souls is much deeper than removal of difficulty from our lives. God’s greatest gift to us is that we may personally know Him more fully and completely than we have ever imagined possible. And there, in knowing, loving, trusting and resting in the Lord through Jesus Christ we will find persistent, lasting, eternal joy.
Does anything in the world sing—or pray—like the Psalms? It is a school of prayer for us, overflowing with the richness, beauty, strength and care of God, who meets His people in whatever circumstance, trial or test they find themselves. What’s more, God’s tests are always open-book (or screen). Read them aloud and agree in prayer; quote them, copy them, emulate them and adapt them to your circumstance and see how you will meet God as He meets you. (Pray Psalm 13 with your questions; Ps 22 with Jesus in suffering; Ps 91 when you are afraid; Ps 84 when longing for your home with the Lord; Ps 32 when guilty for sin; Pss 33, 34 to remember God’s goodness; Ps 46 to find refuge in the Lord; Ps 105, 145 in praise.)
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