Experiencing God's Power and PresenceSample

In Times of Injustice

You’ve probably felt the emotions of injustice. Maybe you’ve experienced the pain of abandonment, the betrayal of a business partner, the shock of being cut out of an inheritance, the frustration of working harder than everyone only to watch someone else get promoted ahead of you. Maybe you’ve struggled to explain to your child why he or she sits on the bench while the coach’s child gets to play. Getting a raw deal can be emotionally disturbing. The unfairness eats away at us. 

I remember feeling that way in college after sacrificing a long-term relationship for the sake of Christ, hoping God would give it back to me, only to watch my ex-girlfriend walk away with another guy. I opened my Bible in my dorm room and gave God an ultimatum—speak to me or I’m out. I had been reading through Psalms and was going to give him about three or four chapters before I gave it all up. The first two made no impression on me. Then I saw Psalm 73 and immediately sensed something different. It led to an encounter with God that changed me forever. With tears still in my eyes and confusion clouding my soul, I read the psalm aloud. I heard my own words in the psalmist’s complaints. 

I had been tied up in knots because I was trying to do what God says is right, yet I had more problems and frustrations as a Christian than I could remember ever having before. Like the psalmist, “When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply” (v. 16). And, like the psalmist, the solution was right in front of me: “I entered the sanctuary of God” (v. 17). I began to see life from an eternal perspective again. 

Worship of the God who is above all—and who ultimately vindicates his people—unravels our sense of injustice. His promises and perspective soothe the pain. What appears unfair for now works out extremely well for his people in the end. Our hearts soften, our perspective shifts, and we celebrate with the psalmist’s words in v. 26: “God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”