“My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Psalm 73:26
In Psalm 73, Asaph reveals for us one of the deepest and darkest hours of his life. He admits that he was on the brink of giving up his confidence and faith in God. The unresolved questions and the obvious injustice he perceived almost drove him to despair. Indeed, he had the impression that there were more visible blessings in the godless lives of the evildoers than in his own. He felt plagued (verse 14), perhaps tormented by poverty and illness, while the sinners were obviously doing well. They had success and he had pain.
Such despair not only shakes our feelings, it can also shake the foundation of our faith. These are the times when God seems far away, when our prayers seem futile and unanswered. Not only does that cause great distress, but it can endanger our personal faith in God.
The Bible does not gloss over such times of struggle. David knew them as well. He cries out: “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck” (Psalm 69:1). Here we gain insight into the struggle David wrestled with and then the victory he experienced by the grace of God. At the end of Psalm 69 he concludes: “For God will save Zion” (verse 35). In addition to David, the Bible gives us other portraits – not of perfection, but of true heroes, who find themselves in crises!
Gideon – When God’s promises do not seem to match our experience
Gideon had withdrawn into hiding to do his threshing work. Perhaps his soul was crying out to God when he heard an angel say: “The Lord with you, you mighty man of valor!” (Judges 6:12) In despair, he bursts out: “if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about?” “But now the LORD has forsaken us” (Judges 6:13).
His question is not rebellion. It is the groaning of his soul to God: “I don’t understand all this. Lord, where are you?” God does not condemn him, but responds with trust, with a calling to special service. God trusted Gideon much more than Gideon trusted himself.
A calling in a crisis of faith – that was Gideon’s plight. He followed the call in faith, knowing that he could not do what was demanded of him in his own strength. He was completely reliant on the eternal, strong, and gracious God, whom he got to know more intimately during this crisis.
Elijah – When everything seems to be collapsing
The heroes of God were not exceptional people. James says that “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours” (James 5:17). Is it not encouraging to know that in his grace and mercy, God will carry us through our times of extreme weakness? He responds to our questions of doubt and fear with great patience. Elijah seemed to be at the height of his calling when God answered with fire at the altar on Mount Carmel. Elijah practiced judgment, and then according to his prophecy a heavy rain began to fall. But only a little while later he was lying under the juniper tree wanting to die. Elijah was burned out. Instead of celebrating tremendous victory, he suffered persecution and loneliness, and could only perceive failure.
But God does not admonish him. He lets him sleep, and then provides him with food and water to replenish his strength. God speaks to him, not in storm and fire, but in a quiet, gentle, fatherly voice. Sometimes God helps us in our times of need with the realization that although He may not meet our expectations in a spectacularly intervening way – yet He is completely faithful. We can commit ourselves into His eternal arms.
Asaph – When God is silent
Let us look at this man of God, Asaph, once more. He cries out: “Do not be silent, O God! Do not hold your peace. And do not be still, O God!” (Psalm 83:1). It is the cry of his soul! He has been crying out to God for help for days, weeks, perhaps even months in his distress. He knows that God is listening. But where is the answer?
God hears our cry, sees our distress, hears our questions, sees our helplessness – but we may not perceive an answer. We see no change. We go through temptations and trials, through weakness and illness, we cry out to God for help – but nothing seems to change. It may be that we have taken on an assignment or a ministry according to God’s will. But suddenly we face a severe dilemma, we feel weak, we may have made a wrong decision that causes us distress, we cry out to God, yet everything remains unchanged. The storm rages, our insecurity grows – yet God does not seem to respond.
In circumstances when our faith is being severely challenged and Satan wants to make us desperate, we may be thinking: “Did God really want me to do this? Is this really His leading? If it were, wouldn’t God help, relieve the distress?” How did Job feel in the greatest crisis of his life? Who encouraged him? Who comforted his shattered soul? Yet, Job believed God. Job placed his full trust in the mighty hand of the omniscient Creator. But Job was misunderstood by his friends and was even despised. We may find ourselves in similar situations – times when we can only do one thing: trust unwaveringly in God’s faithfulness. Once we have resolved to do this, then we just need to remain faithful to the one who called us, and continue to occupy the role He placed us in, and do our part there, even if we don’t know what tomorrow will bring.
Asaph says: “God is my part – even in the deepest darkness” (Psalm 73:26). He does not say this at the beginning of Psalm 73. The verse comes at the end of a long journey full of pain, temptation, perplexity and disappointment. Asaph had been distressed and endured much when he finally concluded: “But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all Your works” (Psalm 73:28).
A crisis of faith is not the opposite of faith. It is not unbelief. It is a time when personal faith is put to the test. This is when heroes of faith counter their own weakness, inability, helplessness, and ignorance with a “nevertheless,” a firm resolve of “no matter what.” Faith may be weak, but the important thing is that it remain firm. Those who stand firm in such circumstances – often it is just a case of “not giving up” – experience God in a deeper and more powerful way. The true hero, our heavenly Father, becomes visible in the end. He is the one who carried us through by His grace. We are weak, but He is strong. He is the one who gave us the power to overcome and remain faithful. So, be faithful and have courage in every situation, because HE is faithful.
Hermann Vogt
Gifhorn, Germany
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