Where Are You, God?

People seldom express a deep level of their personal life in public and in social media. I acknowledge that there are people who do not mind sharing their issues and problems in life in a public environment. Most people, however, are not like that.

Some of us only want to share our personal life to a few of our closest friends and family members. Some of us want to keep things to ourselves. 

Reading the book of Psalms is a tremendous honor because the Psalms are filled with different types of deep and personal expression. Psalms technically means "songs". If you listen to music, then you would recognize the different types of genre and tone that give us insight into the author's emotions. I think that's the same with Psalms, they give us insight into the author's life - at a more emotional and personal level. 

The type of Psalm that I want to talk about is the "Psalm of Lament". According to the notes in the ESV Study Bible, the primary function of laments is to lay a troubled situation before the Lord, asking him for help. There are community laments, dealing with trouble faced by the people of God as a whole (e.g., Psalm 12), and individual laments, where the troubles are faced by a particular member of the people (e.g., Psalm 13). The lament category is the largest by far, including as much as a third of the whole Psalter. 

The Psalmists express themselves with real emotions in a real setting - suffering, depression, loneliness, and betrayal. It was as if "God left the author". 

There are many questions that the author ask in prayer to God: 

• "Why, O LORD, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?" (Psalm 10:1) 
• "How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?" (Psalm 13:1)
• "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?" (Psalm 22:1)
• "O LORD, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?" (Psalm 88:14)

After the Psalmists question God and express their emotion, they regain faith in God and express gratitude and worship Him because the negative emotions they're going through is temporary. Psalm 88 is personally the most depressing Psalm in the entire book because the author finds no answers to his situation.

It is possible that these questions from the Psalms reside in your own heart. You may also be asking the same questions the authors asked. I honestly do not know how long they were experiencing the tough moments, but they knew that they can trust God and His faithfulness and love towards His people. Their experiences - personal life and emotion - are shared to the world in the Bible.

These Psalms do not invite us to become more depress as we read them, but they give us hope and joy to trust God because these authors ultimately chose to trust God while going through real pain and unanswered questions. (Job is also a good example of a person who did not get all his questions "answered" in the time of his suffering but he trusted in what God told him in Job 38)

Jesus is the best example of a person who lamented. He was labeled as the "man of sorrow" (Isaiah 53:3). He experienced betrayal by Judas. When Jesus was crucified on the cross, His cry echoed Psalm 22:1. It was one of the most painful moments when Jesus experienced separation from the Father for the first time in eternity. Jesus became fully human in every respect (except for sin) so that he could represent believers as their high priest who can sympathize with their weaknesses. (Hebrews 2:17-18, 4:15) 

Because He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, believers can have confidence in Christ as the high priest and "draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16) If you're suffering and going through doubts and questioning, then let me invite you to talk to Jesus and read the passages in Hebrews and Psalms.