Exasperation with God

Everyone, at some point, faces one of those dry times when the thought of prayer or Bible reading is almost revolting, and seemingly meaningless.  I know I have.  Therefore, I loved this commentary by David Paul Dorr, entitled Exhaustion with God, based on Psalm 77:3 - “When I remember God, I moan.”

Most of us, at some point, will reach an exhaustion point with God. Our motivation to seek Him will dry up, our hopes of having our prayers answered quickly will shrivel, and we will just not want to try anymore. The mention of God, or prayer, or bible study is met with a blank stare; a feeling that says, “what good will it do.”

This experience will be the most direct to those who have experienced God’s hand powerfully in their past. His previous involvement will make the present even more bewildering. The future will be cloudy where once it was bright.

This is nothing new. The psalms are littered with people’s exasperation with God. But they don’t give up on God, although there circumstances seem to tell them that God has given up on them....

...Is this not an incredibly full view of a life with God? God has changed our lives, but the life we now live is full of joy and sorrow, feeling loved and feeling forsaken, incredible hope and sincere disillusionment. But in everything God has his good purpose: the refining of our faith.

For the psalmist in Psalm 77 the answer to his exasperation is the rehearsal of God’s redemption. He remembers God’s action in the past to powerfully deliver Israel from slavery. He knows that God is not impotent, but He is also not a genie, responding immediately to our every request. God has been gracious and will be gracious again; and the answer to the psalmist’s exhaustion and to ours is to look to the merciful work of God in the past, knowing, eventually, that will be our future.

 I love the Psalms!  Don't you?