Silence

“Be not silent, O God of my praise!” (Psalm 109:1)

The psalmist, a man of faith, would have no reason to pray, to cry out to God, “Be not silent!” unless he had experienced or was in the midst of experiencing God’s silence. He was suffering some kind of intense oppression from wicked men. He wanted justice and deliverance. He knew only God could deliver him. Only God could hold the wicked accountable. But God was silent. God’s silence can be so discouraging. His silence can shake our faith to the core. God's silence reveals the truth about our faith, or the lack-there-of.

I don't really blame those who turn away from God in those long dark nights of His silence. When God is unseen and unheard, when the silence is deafening, it is human nature to begin to wonder if God is really there at all. Who can fault the one who cannot see God working justice or bringing salvation and so turns away from Him? But to whom or what do they turn for justice and deliverance? Science? In the end it always fails. Science offers no meaning for our existence when life is grand, much less when life is filled with pain and suffering. The government? Even the best of governing powers inflict as much or more pain and suffering than deliverance and justice. Myself? Maybe I’ll just become self-reliant and depend on no one but myself. That is the American way. But only a fool determines to be a god unto himself, as if he needs no one.

So even in those extended periods of God’s silence I will continue to seek and serve and praise Him. It is not just that the alternatives are hopelessly hollow. There is overwhelming evidence both in Scripture and in my own experience that God does not remain silent forever. After the cross comes resurrection. So when God is silent, let us not lose faith and trust that he works even in the silence. Saint John of the Cross reminds us, “God leads into the dark night those whom He desires to purify from all these imperfections so that He may bring them farther onward.”

As I said in the sermon last Sunday, “Suffering may be hard, exhausting, discouraging, perplexing, painful, but there is one thing it is not for those who follow Christ; it is never pointless. God’s greatest work of love was delivered through the suffering Christ. God continues to work through our suffering.”