Groaning For God

“Why, O LORD, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1, ESV)

If you spend enough time around children, you’ll eventually hear one say to another, “Why did you do that?!” Sometimes it follows a stolen toy, an unkind word, or a shove that seemed to come out of nowhere. The question is rarely asked after careful reasoning. It’s the instinctive complaint of someone who feels hurt.

In today’s verse, the psalmist speaks to God in a similar way—his question is more about voicing complaint than gaining understanding. He protests that the innocent suffer violence while the wicked prosper and say, “God won’t see—he’s hidden his face!” (see verse 11). Why does the Lord—our “very present help” (Ps. 46:1)—seem so far away when such evils take place?

Lament is how we cry out to God when he feels distant in our suffering.

This complaint cuts to the quick of a common problem: pain that’s compounded by God’s perceived lack of consideration or care. Sometimes the deepest pain is not the suffering itself, but the sense that God is absent within it. We long for our Father’s nearness, yet in our grief he can feel painfully far away. We seek his face . . . but find shadows. We look to him for pity . . . but see none. Grief deepens as God seems indifferent to our distress—like he’s withholding the help that we need. Hiding himself.

The appearance of divine neglect, paired with the absence of deliverance, may be a source of tremendous pain for you today. Why cry out to the Lord in faith, you might wonder, when he appears to stand far away? But as the psalmist shows us, this perception isn’t reason for resignation. His felt sense of God’s distance does not preclude his prayer. Lament is for times when our faith feels confused—it helps us bring our complaint about God to God himself.

Yesterday, we normalized our struggle to find words for our pain. Today, we normalize our struggle to find God in our trouble. When you grapple with a sense of God’s neglect, resist the temptation to break communion with him through silence. Bottled-up hurt makes a heart bitter, not better. Faith persists in crying out for God, even when he seems nowhere near (see Matt. 27:46).

Reflection:

• In your sorrows or struggles, how much of your pain comes from the situation itself, and how much comes from the feeling that God is distant, silent, or indifferent to you? How has that perception affected your prayer life in this season?
• Sometimes we hesitate to cry out for God in faith because we harbor unspoken or unaddressed doubts about him in our hearts. What doubts about God’s care do you have today? Which aspects of his character (for example, his goodness, wisdom, sovereignty) are you struggling to believe right now—and why? How might those doubts be shaping the way you interpret your circumstances?