Psalm 77:8

Psalm 77:8

Big Questions!

The “darker” section of this song contains 6 big questions. The first two were dealt with in the verse 7. “Will the Lord reject forever? Will He never show His favour again?” These are not unique; they are the kind of questions that countless people have asked over the centuries. These questions are the consequence of doubt, they come to us at a time when we cannot understand the ways of God, we have lost control of our own destinies, we no longer know what the future holds and because of our distress we start to question the Lord. We question His integrity. We question His intentions. We even question the truth of His Word. 

“Has His unfailing love vanished forever?” In our state of confusion, we realise that we always believed that God’s love would prevail and that this was a foundation in our lives. His provision and protection were unquestioned, but now it is not possible to be so sure. How terrible it would be to discover that the love of God has its limits and that it might even have been withdrawn from us – forever. Sometimes, we need to experience the sense of that love-withdrawal to help us to understand how precious and beautiful it really is.

“Has His promise failed for all time?” The hope and future of Israel was built on God’s promises. The Israelites believed God’s Covenants were established forever. For instance, when He promised the land to Abraham, the promise was for all time and was unconditional. There was and is nothing that the Jews have to do to fulfil that Covenant promise, even today. Here in the Psalm, the writer is beginning to doubt that God keeps His word, maybe He is not so dependable as it first appeared? 

We must never question God’s purposes or His timing, even if things do not work out the way we expected, the Lord’s ways remain steadfast and true and way beyond our understanding. It is often when we get to the point of questioning His ways that He is able to take us on a deeper journey of faith where we trust Him even more, especially in the bad times!

 

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