Journey through the Psalms: A 7-Day DevotionalSample

Never Forsaken

Sometimes—often during the worst crises—God seems absent. If he is all he has promised to be for his people, why is he hard to find when we need him most? Not only does he allow our trouble to continue (and sometimes worsen), but he also seems to hide from us. We find no comfort when we cry out, and he provides no evidence that he cares about our plight. That’s where David found himself. He felt forsaken by God, and his prayers brought no sweet peace to give him hope (vv. 1–2). Hopeless though he felt, he clung to his faith, reminding himself of God’s deliverances in times past (v.  4) and of the lifelong relationship he’d enjoyed with the Lord (v. 10). We don’t know exactly what David’s trouble was in this situation, but we do know that it involved people who sought to harm him and shake up his faith (vv.  7–8, 12–13). Such is the case with our greatest enemies too. In fact, anyone or anything that seeks to convince us that trusting in God is fruitless is an enemy. And when such enemies gain a foothold, God seems farther away than ever, and we are overcome with mental, spiritual, and sometimes physical weakness (vv.  14–18). Despite all this, David doesn’t give up. He doesn’t turn elsewhere for help. He perseveres in prayer, pleading for rescue and for a sense of God’s nearness once again (v. 11). As he does, his confidence is restored, and he sings of future days when his cries of angst will instead be joyful testimony and cries of praise (vv. 22–24).

Even when God seems absent, he is not. And when he seems callous to our cries, he is working out his answer even then. Of this we can be confident because of the One he did forsake, the One whose cries he turned away from. It was Jesus, not David, whose hands and feet were really and truly pierced and whose suffering was made into sport. God didn’t rescue his Son; he let him suffer in order to rescue us. That’s why, when our enemies are doing their worst and God seems most absent, we can still rejoice. “It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it” (vv. 30–31).