Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Sports and Religion
Even when God is silent – I believe

Even when God is silent – I believe

Last updated on: June 26, 2021 at 10:39 am by Jim Meisner Jr.

Even when God is silent – I believe 2021-06-26T10:39:09-04:00 Jim Meisner Jr.

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Notes for a sermon…

Psalm 130
130:1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD. 130:2 Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! 130:3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? 130:4 But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered. 130:5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 130:6 my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning. 130:7 O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem. 130:8 It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.

“Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD. LORD, HEAR MY VOICE.”

How often do each of us cry out to the Lord, hear my voice?

From the depths of our despair and sadness. We cry out. From the depths of our frustrations, fears and irritations, we call on the Lord to hear our voice. With anguish and pain, we call upon the Lord. We are lost, O Lord, Lift us up.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” Jesus said, while hanging on the cross.

Even Jesus had his moments of doubt and pain. So there’s nothing wrong with us questioning God. It’s perfectly acceptable for us to ask God why? Why have you forsaken me? Why, God, do I feel alone?

Or perhaps the question should be, Why, Lord, why do I feel forsaken? Where are you Lord, in my moments of doubt? Where are you God, when I need you the most?

I know each of us has faced, are facing, or will face again difficult times.

Each of us has had Jesus moments of doubt and questioning.

You know what’s wearing you down, this week. You know what’s been heavy on your soul. You know why you need the Lord. You know why you wait for the Lord.

Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear our complaints and supplications.

I used to believe that the Lord had more important things to worry about than me and my problems. I used to think that God only worked in the lives of other people. In the lives of those who prayed better than I did. God only listened to people who had faith better than mine. What I once believed was wrong. The Lord, working through the Holy Spirit, has infinite time and patience to worry about me. And you. And infinite time to worry about each one of us.

In verse 5, it says “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;”

The Hebrew word “to wait” is also the word “to hope.” So listen to this slightly different translation.

“I hope for the LORD, my soul hopes, and in his word I wait”

Of course, we know that in the beginning was the word, and Jesus is the word, so in Jesus, we wait. In Jesus, we hope.

Incline your ear towards us, O Lord, and hear our prayers.

Many of the psalms are associated with King David. The same David who defeated Goliath last week. But modern scholars believe that the psalms were written by different authors between the 9th and 5th centuries BC.

No matter when they were written, or by whom, the psalms speak to us across the thousands of years since they were written.

So, too does the Book of Lamentations speak to us.

The Book of Lamentations is a collection of poetic laments for Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BCE.

According to Brennan Breed, Associate Professor of Old Testament, at Columbia Theological Seminary:

“The book of Lamentations was written by and for people who had survived an unimaginable trauma with personal, political, social, and theological dimensions. What if everything you relied upon for your security, comfort, identity, sense of God’s presence, and hope in the future simply vanished overnight? For the residents of Jerusalem in 587 BCE, who watched the Babylonians smash the walls of Jerusalem, burn down the temple, knock down the houses in the city, and execute the Davidic royal family, the world seemed to lose all sense of order and coherence. Life suddenly felt chaotic, brutal, meaningless, and hopeless. These emotions and the questions that arose from the traumatic destruction of Jerusalem are reflected in the book of Lamentations.”

These are the feelings behind the first chapters of Lamentations. The same feelings that are so raw and open in the Psalms.

But chapter three of Lamentations sees a momentary shift away from the losses in the first chapters. In chapter three, we return to the Lord’s love.

Lamentations 3:22-33
3:22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; 3:23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
3:24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
3:25 The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
3:26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
3:27 It is good for one to bear the yoke in youth,
3:28 to sit alone in silence when the Lord has imposed it,
3:29 to put one’s mouth to the dust (there may yet be hope),
3:30 to give one’s cheek to the smiter, and be filled with insults.
3:31 For the Lord will not reject forever.
3:32 Although he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; 3:33 for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.

This chapter is an acrostic poem; the verses of each stanza begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and the verses within each stanza begin with the same letter.

Lamentations is poetry – poetry written from a broken heart, to the broken hearted.

Dr. Breed also writes, “Thus the robust and heroic faith of Lamentations 3:22-33 is part of a larger conversation about traumatized individuals and communities struggling through their own sorrow and grasping for any remnant of a relationship with God. It is a part of faith, but not the final word.”

Sadness and questioning are part of faith, but it’s not the final word.

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Verse 3:25 “The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.”

And then the following verses talk about ways to wait for the Lord:

one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
It is good for one to bear the yoke in youth,
to sit alone in silence when the Lord has imposed it,
to put one’s mouth to the dust (there may yet be hope),
to give one’s cheek to the smiter, or as Jesus says, to turn the other cheek to the smiter, and be filled with insults.

This is how we wait for the Lord, why? Verse 31 – For the Lord will not reject forever.

Verse 32 says, “Although he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love,”

I admit, I don’t understand it… the idea that God causes grief. Scriptures says the rain falls on the just and the unjust. So perhaps God ‘causes grief,’ by allowing things to happen. God allows heartbreaking things to happen, but according to verse 33, “he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.”

When we cry out to the Lord, the Lord hears us, and through the holy spirit, we are comforted, we are never alone. The holy spirit of Jesus is there to comfort us.

Today’s sermon reminded me of a brief poem.

“I Believe”

I believe in the sun even when it’s not shining.

I believe in love even when I don’t feel it.

I believe in God even when God is silent.

This defiant statement of faith was scrawled on a cellar wall in Cologne, France by a Jew hiding from the Nazis during WWII. American soldiers searching a bombed house discovered the poem below a Star of David.

I believe in the sun even when it’s not shining.

I believe in love even when I don’t feel it.

I believe in God even when God is silent.

“Jesus, I believe,” the man called to Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, “help my unbelief.”

I believe.

When bad things happen. When life seems too difficult.

I believe.

When I’m in the bottom of deep, dark hole, and I can’t see any way out. I believe.

When I don’t understand why things happen, or the right way to proceed, I believe.

Even when God is silent, I believe.

I believe God restores the broken hearted. God knows our pain.

There is a Japanese pottery technique called Kintsugi. Translated to “golden joinery.”

This is the art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold, so the broken places aren’t hidden, they are obvious and artfully restored, gold fills the seams of the broken places.

Kintsugi is a metaphor for embracing your flaws and imperfections. For admitting and facing your brokenness.

God is the master potter who can restore us, like Kintsugi. We are not new, we are not the same we were before we were broken, but we are made whole again.

I believe God will restore us, and make us whole.

I believe.

Previous Post

May 30, 2021

We're not prepared for the catastrophe that's coming

Next Post

July 3, 2021 God’s power is made perfect in us, through our weaknesses

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Celtic spirituality Christmas Civil Rights culture Easter Faith images in the news Prayer Quote Scripture Uncategorized vocational ministry Writing

Select a Month August 2026 July 2026 May 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 July 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 July 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 October 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I asked, 'What must I do to be saved?' after an earthquake freed my prisoners. Who am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The Philippian jailer Cornelius A Roman centurion The Ethiopian eunuch