THE SOUND OF SILENCE

 November 20 

Why do You hide Your face from me? Psalm 88:14b

There is a trite sort of response to human suffering and depression that offers pat and formulaic answers to everything. But then there’s the real world, where even the greatest champions of the faith, from Elijah to Spurgeon, have descended into a terrifying maelstrom of blackest despair—“the dark night of the soul.” Our Bible, stamped with the imprimatur of total authenticity, always “tells it like it is”—and life is sometimes like this.    

 Thus, we have Psalm 88—what R.E.O. White has labeled the "darkest corner of the Psalter," or what Brueggemann has aptly called “an embarrassment to conventional faith.” As with Job, the Psalmist’s “soul has been saturated with calamities”—physical, emotional, and spiritual—as he attempts to endure, amidst a nightmare of isolation and personal abandonment. This is a Psalm to reflect upon when God seems silent and distant in the face of unmitigated disaster. We need a word such as this, because life is sometimes like this.  

   Many of the Psalms deal with the issue of abandonment and despair—but here, there is no indication of some impending resolution. Further, there is not even the hint of a “rational explanation” or theological analysis of some sort that clarifies the reasons behind the Psalmist’s suffering. Life is sometimes like this.  

 But even if God is silent, the Psalmist is not! Though feeling abandoned by Heaven, he will not—indeed, he cannot—abandon Heaven! He persists in outcry, giving voice to Pain. He seeks, he knocks—he clings to the hem of the Lord’s garment. He cannot loosen his grasp and remain himself. What else can he be? And so, Faith prevails; God remains “the God of my salvation.” 

Terry L. Reese