Being heard through times of anguish

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: By the Rev David Macartney, North Coast Parish, Church of Scotland

One of the things I like most about the psalms is that they demonstrate a healthy relationship with God. These people living thousands of years ago had no qualms about getting angry and upset, their faith was not hidden behind flimsy walls of politeness, respect and habit and it allowed them to have a much deeper and honest relationship with God, as the start of this poem from Psalm 10 shows: “Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”

Their culture and values were different to ours and yet they had to live through wars, violence, famine and disease just as we do, but without access to the modern skills and medicines that we often take for granted. It’s unhealthy to say things are fine, when they aren’t. The world does not magically become a fairy tale place just because someone has faith. It is okay for us to get frustrated and annoyed, it is okay for us to ask, “why?”.

Ultimately, we too will discover the same thing that the psalmists discovered, which is that God is with us through these times, and we can trust in him not to abandon us, the author may have started in anguish, but they finished in hopeful joy: “You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed.”

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