Answer me!!! (Psalm 4) 190108
The most painful thing a true disciple of Jesus can experience is not carrying the cross daily. This is sort of expected from any true disciple. It is also not about loving or forgiving someone whom I don’t love or I simply cannot forgive. I just have to do it anyway. It is also not about suffering, persecution or even death for my faith. It is an privilege and honor. The most painful thing a true disciple can experience is when God is silence.
Answer me when I call O God (v1). This is the desire for any true worshiper. I long to hear God’s voice. I long to communicate with God through His Words and listen to Him. I love to be in a such intimate relationship with God. I enjoy dwelling in God’s presence and simply rest in Him. I love to do all these even more when I am going through seasons of wilderness and suffering.
I hope to find comfort from God, but I found nothing. I hope to find strength, but I found nothing. I hope to hear a word of encouragement, but I hear nothing. I hope to see the hands of God leading me through the wilderness, but I see nothing. I cry, I shout, I plea, I pray, but I seem to be alone. Where is God?
Theoretically, and theologically, I know that God is everywhere. The difficult word for it is omniscience. But it reality, I don’t seem to have a sense of His presence anywhere near me. Maybe He is somewhere out there, looking, listening and even directing; but He is not near me. I am really fearful of such loneliness. Not being alone physically without any human being understand or coming alongside me, but being alone without any sense of God’s presence in my life. It is a spiritual isolation.
Spiritual isolation is like this psalmist, telling God to answer him. Because this psalmist knew, and I knew too, that only God can deliver me from all the disillusion around me, but He is not there. Answer me when I call, O God. Spiritual isolation is like a person all alone in the universe of loneliness. I am in some ways going through a period of spiritual isolation. No one can reach the hurts and pains of my soul, not even God. No one can touch the loneliness and desperation of my heart, not even God. I am all alone, isolation from the whole outside.
What is the solution? Tremble and do not sin, meditate in my heart upon my bed, and be still (v4). Be still? Yes, be still. Be still in spiritual isolation. I have read this psalm a few times, but I have never notice this little phrase: be still! It hits me hard. It reminds me of what the Lord spoke to me in 2006: Be still and know that I am God (Ps 46:10). Be still in quietness, be still in restfulness, and just be still.
The promise is that in peace I can lie down and sleep, for God alone will make me dwell in safety (v8). Psalm five contains resting imagery, like bed (v4) and sleep (v8). These are words to remind me to be still, to take time to rest and sleep.
I can now comprehend this in a fuller sense as I watch my newborn daughter, Alethea, sleeping. I have a great sense of satisfaction and joy and love for her when I see her sleeping well in her stillness. There is nothing she needs to do to enjoy my protection and my provision. Similarly, there is nothing I can do to enjoy God’s grace and love for me. All I need is to rest in Him and be still even I don’t seem to sense His presence in my life.
Then He will answer me. He will answer you too.
HHS…
Abel…
