Turning to the Psalms during Times of Suffering
I want to discuss with you undeserved suffering and how to respond to it. We are Christians. That means that we serve the all-powerful God of the universe. Sometimes we mistakenly believe that our position as Christians means that we will never have any problems in our lives. That line of thinking goes something like this:
God is all-powerful.
We Christians are God’s children.
God loves us, His children.
God does not desire for us, His children, to experience anything we do not like.
Thus, God will not let us, His children, experience anything we do not like.
The first four points on that list are true. Each point is clearly demonstrated in the Bible. However, point five actually does not follow. In fact, point five contradicts both the biblical data and our day-to-day experiences of life. In this life, God’s children will experience things we do not like from time to time. That was one of the last things Jesus said before His crucifixion: “In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 ESV).
We can categorize suffering into two types: the type of suffering that we bring on ourselves or deserved suffering and the kind of stuff that happens to us apparently incidentally or undeserved suffering. Deserved suffering makes sense to us. We experience the consequences of our actions; we reap what we sow (Gal. 6:7). I want to talk to you today about the other kind. Undeserved suffering is the kind of suffering that we cannot trace back to any action of our own. It might even be what Peter called suffering “for righteousness’ sake” (1 Pet. 3:14). Maybe you got tee-boned in traffic. Maybe a sudden sickness emerged or a tornado wreaked havoc in your life. Maybe it is an accidental injury that leaves you broken and unable to do the things that you want to do. In the early part of his life, King David experienced a lot of this type of suffering, and he left some great advice for us on how to deal with it in the Psalms.
David lived a roller-coaster of a life when you really think about it. He was the youngest son of a family of shepherds, and his older brothers bullied him relentlessly. When Samuel came to their house, they made David stay in the pasture with the sheep. They wouldn’t even let him come up. God seemed to flip the script by having Samuel anoint David king, but David wound up straight back out in the pasture. After David trusted God and killed Goliath, he became an instant celebrity in Israel, but then King Saul decided that he wanted David dead. David wound up trading the sheep pasture for a cave. Eventually, David did become king, but then he got run out of the castle by his own son, Absalom. David’s baby son died, and his firstborn got murdered. Some of David’s suffering came as a result of his sin, especially later in life, but his early troubles would definitely fall into our category of undeserved suffering. In the Psalms, David provided a step-by-step pattern for continuing to trust God through our suffering.
Step one is lament. It is okay to cry out to God when you suffer. You do not have to hide your feelings from Him. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” David cried. “Why are you still so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” (Ps. 22:1). Jesus asked God the same question from the cross (Matt. 27:46). God loves you, and He wants to hear from you when you are going through it. Plus, for me personally, I find it a lot easier to share my emotions with God than with any human. Take time to lament your pain, but do not stay there.
After your lamentation, you need to proceed to step two. You need to realize who is causing your pain. We have a tendency to blame God when these things happen. We ask, “God, how could you let that car hit me?” or “God, how could you let that tornado hit my house?” However, I noticed something in David’s writings. He never blamed God for his suffering. Invariably, he either blamed himself or his enemies. You say, “David may have had enemies, but I don’t have any enemies. Who is to blame for my suffering?” However, the truth is you do have enemies. If you are a child of God, Satan wants desperately to destroy you (1 Pet. 5:8). Satan hates your relationship with Jesus, and he wants to eradicate your faith. He wants you to cry and blame God (see Job).
Step three in David’s process is what Satan hopes you will not do: fight back. David asked God to train his “hands for war” against the enemies of God (Ps. 144:1). In our case, that means spiritual warfare. Although Satan’s attacks often include a physical component such as sickness, pain, or loss, he focuses on the spiritual component, the erosion of your faith. Satan wants you to think that God will not save you. The devil wants you to think that God will not keep His promises. We fight back by standing on God’s promises. We find back by being unmovable.
But we have to be trained to be able to fight back adequately. Our training comes from the Word of God. We have to know what God promises. Then we know how to fight the devil. Sometimes we fight by waiting. Our fight is to resist the temptation to do something rash and “fix” the problem. Always, we fight by praising God. There is something so powerful about praising God through your suffering. “God, this is tough for me, but I love you and I trust you, and I always will.” Every single on of David’s psalms of suffering ends with praise. Often, David’s praise preceded the resolution of the issue. Why is praising God through the storm so effective? It counters Satan’s true goal. Please get this: If you praise God while suffering, Satan cannot touch your faith. He fails, and he has no choice but to withdraw and seek easier prey.
We have an enemy named Satan. Are you going to let him beat you? Then, quit feeling sorry for yourself, get up, and go to war. You already won. Jesus, we will praise you forever because You saved us forever. Satan can hurt your bodies. He can make this life hard. But he cannot touch your soul.