God's Unfailing Love
If we had forgotten
the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would
not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart?
Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do
you hide your face and forget our misery and
oppression? We are brought down to the dust; our
bodies cling to the ground. Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing
love. —Psalm 44:20–26
Sometimes God seems absent, insensitive,
or downright vindictive—even to the faithful. We may suffer setbacks and
suffering we feel that only the slimy and despicable should have to endure
(people whose names we would gladly supply to God, if only he would ask).
So why does all of this trouble come to us, God’s own people? We don’t
understand how he could allow such things to happen.
Our confusion is multifaceted. For one thing, not every calamity arrives
because God places our name and address on the package and has it UPSed to our
door. The Creator does not necessarily draw red targets on our backs and begin
launching jagged thunderbolts. Life is such that at times we suffer and God
winces as much as we do.
Deep down, the psalmist knew this even as he railed against what felt, in
the pain of the moment, must have been God’s capricious spitefulness. In his
heart of hearts, he recognized that our Lord is the God of unfailing love,
regardless of what we suffer.
O God, remind us that your love never
leaves us, even when trouble comes our way.
Sam
Collins is the adult curriculum editor of Church of God Ministries, Inc., and
lives with his wife Sharon in Anderson, Indiana.
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