The strange silence of God 1

A conundrum is a problem that has no obvious or easy answer. Such as: why is there no other word for “synonym”? Or, why is “abbreviation” such a long word? Or, why did they have to make the word “lisping” sound like you are lisping?

Here’s an important one: why doesn’t God communicate more? Or as the psalmist said, “Why, O LORD, do You stand afar off? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?” (Ps. 10:1). The natural assumption is that if things are going well, God loves us, and if things are going poorly, God must be upset with us. After all, we are all, by nature, theologians of glory instead of theologians of the cross.

Our ways are often directly opposite to God’s ways. He likes concealment - we like display. He does not crave outward manifestations - we often cannot be content without them. These can bring great trials to us. For some, it can be a deal-breaker.

The writer of Ps. 77, Asaph, was one of King David’s three chief musicians, and the author of Pss. 50 and 73–82. In this psalm, Asaph is deeply troubled over something I call the strange silence of God, demonstrated in the defining questions: “Has the Lord rejected me forever? Will he never again be kind to me?Is his unfailing love gone forever? Have his promises permanently failed? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he slammed the door on his compassion?” (vv. 7-9).

This psalm is his journey from despair to comfort. The flow of thought has been described as passing through four stages: Sighing (vv. 1–3); Sinking (vv. 4–9); Singing (vv. 10–15); to Soaring (vv. 16–20). Asaph evidently was seeking some specific help from God but the Lord was oddly aloof. This caused Asaph considerable stress, yet gradually he finds comfort in meditating on the ways God has displayed his great power and gentle care in the past.

This psalm doe not provide an answer for what theologians call the “hiddenness of God.” Rather, Asaph displays honesty with a common experience and learns a way to endure the strange silence of God.  This reflects the phrase “Occupation with self brings distress; Occupation with circumstances brings discouragement; Occupation with Christ brings delight.”