Where Are You God? When All Is Quiet… Series

Psalm 143

1 LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. 2 Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you.

3 The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in the darkness like those long dead. 4 So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed.

5 I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done. 6 I spread out my hands to you; I thirst for you like a parched land.

7 Answer me quickly, LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit. 8 Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life. 9 Rescue me from my enemies, LORD, for I hide myself in you. 10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground. 11 For your name’s sake, LORD, preserve my life; in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble. 12 In your unfailing love, silence my enemies; destroy all my foes, for I am your servant.

Over the next few weeks I will look to answer this question of: Where are you God? from some different perspectives that we will face in this life. Next Sunday: When Evil Seems to Win…where are you?

But today, with the help of King David, we are going to explore this question when all seems quiet on God’s side, but when everything is breaking down on our side of things.

King David, he had some weeks that didn’t go his way…..when I compare my flat tires and standing in line at Wal-Mart with what he was going through, they don’t really compare very well. But there are times in my Christian experience that I go through periods where I don’t get a clear, direct, emotional leading from God, and it brings me to this question….Where Are You God? I need you. Have you asked that question lately? Life has a way of bringing us to moments where we will ask that question….and if there is anything that we will learn from this series of sermons….I hope that we will realize God allows us to come to these moments on Purpose, and for a reason.

When you come to this question in our Christian experience, the first thing I want to make clear this morning is :

1. Keep talking and crying out to God…..He’s listening.

1 LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief.

If there is one thing that I have learned over the years as I have grown in my relationship with the Lord, He is always listening…..He is a great listener…even if I’m not hearing any response, He is hearing what we are saying.

David, when he writes this passage, he is not yet quite made it to the throne of Israel, in fact he is running from his enemies, some are foreign enemies, some are from his own people, those who support King Saul….so David, even with God’s hand upon him as the future King of Israel, is sitting in a cave, in the dark, no bed, no luxuries, wondering to himself, maybe for the 100th time, God….where are you? He says it like this on this day: LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief. Can you hear it? He is a little desperate. Don’t think so, listen to v. 3-4

3 The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in the darkness like those long dead. 4 So my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed. Even the mighty David, the one who has killed Bears and Lions and one big Giant with his sling, even David is feeling the burden of this question……God speak to me!

I don’t know if you have noticed this, but when I get sick, it ends up being a pretty good time for my spiritual life…..one reason is because I have so much time to just focus on Him, everything else just gets put on hold. Monday night, this fever hit pretty hard, I was lying in bed waiting for the fever to break so I could go back to sleep….that “poor ole me’ thought floated through my head….but before I really even gave it much a chance, I believe God helped me get some perspective…immediately my mind went to our Brother, Saeed Abedini, the American Pastor who has been sentenced to 8 years in one of the worst prisons in the world, especially for a Christian, in the heart of Iran. The Iranian judge may not have executed him by hanging, but most likely Christian brother will not make it 8 years in this prison unless God intervenes…immediately, my mind went to him and what he was enduring, what his wife and kids were going through…and how little I had to complain about….so I began to pray for him and that’s how I went to sleep that night.