I mentioned yesterday in the sermon Psalm 13, which is a display of the doubt of David. I was thinking of this psalm this morning as I read more terrible news coming out of Texas. This is the whole Psalm:
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
When I see news reports of children dying as a result of tragedies like this, it’s devastating. It breaks my heart knowing what families are going through right now. It shouldn’t be this way. There are no easy answers for this – I am reminded of Matthew 2:18, where the prophet Jeremiah is quoted about the mother Rachel, a symbol in that context of all Hebrew mothers, when it says – “Rachel weeps for her children, and she refused to be comforted.” There is an honesty to that kind of despair that is refreshing – there are those hurts that cannot be let go of easily. The only consolation sometimes is knowing that God came to the Earth to both know those kind of desperate pains and to redeem them. With Christ there is hope of eternal life, but also of reunion. Imagine that day when parents and their children united in Christ will embrace once again, laugh again, sing again, and it may be all the sweeter because of how they were separated. Jesus is that balm for us – he is the answer and our empathizer. That does bring me comfort.
Because here’s the thing about David’s doubt, too – he was quite serious when he cried out “how long, o Lord?’ And yet amidst the uncertainty are verses 5 and 6 – yet, I have trusted in you, and because of that trust I will both rejoice and sing. That will be hard for people to do in Texas, but you know that many of them will. Those who trust in you, Lord, especially, will rejoice in your salvation and long to be reunited with whom they’ve lost. They will sing, even, and be thankful for their children that are gone, that they spent that time with them, that they lit up their lives with joy, and that they will be safe in the arms of their Savior.
I hate moments like this, I really hate them. And yet, I will rejoice in my salvation, I will cling to that cross, and be thankful.