When God Is Silent

Purpose: To show how God gives peace in a difficult circumstance.

Aim: I want the listener to trust God’s love when life is hard.

INTRODUCTION: Has anyone ever asked you how you were doing and you said, "I’m fine" when you didn’t mean it? I know I have.

A farmer named Joe made that mistake once. He decided that his injuries from an accident were serious enough to take the trucking company that was responsible for the accident to court.

In court, the trucking company’s fancy lawyer was questioning farmer Joe.

"Didn’t you say, at the scene of the accident, ’I’m fine’?" questioned the lawyer.

Farmer Joe responded, "Well I’ll tell you what happened. I had just loaded my favorite mule Bessie into the..."

"I didn’t ask for any details," the lawyer interrupted, "just answer the question. Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, ’I’m fine’!"

Farmer Joe said, "Well I had just got Bessie into the trailer and I was driving down the road..."

The lawyer interrupted again and said, "Judge, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the Highway Patrolman on the scene that he was just fine.

Now several weeks after the accident he is trying to sue my client. I believe he is a fraud. Please tell him to simply answer the question."

By this time the Judge was fairly interested in Farmer Joe’s answer so he said to the lawyer, "I’d like to hear what he has to say about his favorite mule Bessie."

Joe thanked the Judge and proceeded, "Well as I was saying, I had just loaded Bessie, my favorite mule, into the trailer and was driving her down the highway when this huge semi-truck and trailer ran the stop sign and smacked my truck right in the side. I was thrown into one ditch and Bessie was thrown into the other. I was hurting real bad and didn’t want to move. However, I could hear ole Bessie moaning and groaning. I knew she was in terrible shape just by her groans.

"Shortly after the accident a Highway Patrolman came on the scene. He could hear Bessie moaning and groaning so he went over to her. After he looked at her he took out his gun and shot her between the eyes. Then the Patrolman came across the road with his gun in his hand and looked at me. He said, "Your mule was in such bad shape I had to shoot her. How are you feeling?"

It was then that I said, "I’m fine."

Today we may say "I’m fine" but honestly that may not be the case

The author of Psalm 130 was willing to admit that things were not fine.

In the first two verses we hear the psalmist:

➽Vs.1-2 I. Crying Out to God

➽Vs.1 A. A cry of desperation "Out of the depths"

"The depths in Hebrew refers to the depths of the sea, the watery chaos of life." [ Williams, D., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1989). Vol. 14: The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 14 : Psalms 73-150. Formerly The Communicator’s Commentary. The Preacher’s Commentary series (425). Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc.]

There are times when we are crying out to God because we have reached the bottom. Just when we think that things can’t get any worse, they do. Those times come when we have done everything we know to do to fix it and nothing seems to be working.

Real prayer begins when desperation sets in. The instinct of a Christian is to pray when life gets hard. I believe this is at least part of the reason why God brings believers through trials.

What does God want from us more than anything else?

Matthew 22:36-39 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" 37 And He said to him, "’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 "This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 "The second is like it, ’You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (NAU)

Love the Lord, love your neighbor. God is not interested in anything we do if it is divorced from a love for Him.

➽Vs.2 B. A cry of doubt "hear my voice"

The psalmist is crying out to God, but he isn’t getting an answer.

Habakkuk 1:2 How long, O Lord, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, "Violence!" Yet You do not save. (NAU)

The Christian must trust in a withdrawing God. William Gurnall[Thomas, I. (1996). The golden treasury of Puritan quotations. Includes index of authors. General index created by Christian Clasics Foundation. (electronic ed.). Simpsonville SC: Christian Classics Foundation.]