This message was preached September 5, 2006

The main reason I offer my sermons here is for family who want to see the messages. So, here is the second in the series, LIVE! Insights for Life from the Psalms.

Psalm 10 - When God Seems Far Away

The story of the Lord of the Rings is about a ring that is in the possession of a hobbit. The ring is an evil ring made by the evil lord, Sauron, and he is in hot pursuit of it. He has sent "the Nine," the Nazgul, his evil servants to find the ring and kill the one who has it. The ring must come to a safe place, and Frodo has set out for the city of Bree to meet Gandalf, the wizard to insure its safety. Frodo has his gardner and friend Samwise Gamgee with him and they encounter two more hobbits, Merry and Pippen. As they travel, they encounter some of the Nazgul. They escape by ferry and finally arrive at the Inn at Bree. But Gandalf has not arrived, nor has he been there for months. The hobbits turn and look at each other with worried looks and Sam asks, "What do we do now?" Whether Gandalf has not come on purpose or by accident, their fears and worries grow. Frodo, does still believe Gandalf will keep his promise and will show up.

The writer of the book of Psalms is asking the question many ask, "God where are you when I need you most?

As David writes he asks a rhetorical question. He knows the answer and so do those he writes too, but, it feels at times like God is avoiding us in our distress. Jesus it seems, even felt this on the cross (Matthew 27:46), "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Sin, and the earthly consequences of sin cause in us a sense that God has abandoned us. Situations like abusive people, disease, hate, financial stress and ruin, loss of job, broken relationships, even personal sin. They can hide from us the realization that God is ALWAYS with us - whether it seems like it or not.
The devil is out to get us. He wants to destroy all that is God's, the Church, Christians, goodness, and hope. Everyone that follow the devil's ways are like him and Psalm 10 describes them as they come against the believer.

• They are proud and arrogant, even thinking they are exempt from God's ways.
• The go after those who are down on their luck (s0 to speak).
• They brag about their evil desires.
• The put God down and love those who are like themselves.
• They believe God will not do anything about what they do, so they at least act like God doesn't exist (you might call it practical atheism).
• It even seems as if they are always successful and don't ever realize God will punish them sooner or later.

Their evil intent and rebellion agianst God grows.

• They believe their ways will never be stopped, that it will always be good for them.
• They curse those who oppose their views and ways.
• In fact, they try to stop and destroy all against them.
• All because they believe God doesn't and will not do anything.

Verses 2-11 which have been described above, paints a vivid picture of our world, even our own country.

• God is looked down on.
• God and religion are not tolerated, though everything else is.
• They would just as soon see Christianity and the Bible stopped, destroyed and out of the way.

In these things, many Christians despair. We cry out, "God, are you there?'' "God, aren't you going to do anything about this?"

With this in mind, there are two realizations we should consider.

First: Sometimes God is just silent. This reality is often hard to accept. The Bible shows God at work, but often we get to look behind the scenes in the Bible, such as the story of Job. Still, its hard to live with. God has three answers to prayer, yes, no, and wait. And we hate to wait. Try using dial-up. While we wait we wonder, what God has us waiting for.

Let me suggest a few possibilities:

1. God's silence is a time of self-examination and reflection. A time to examine our motives, a time to realize and repent of unrepented sin. When God is silent, get rid of sin.

2. God's silence is a reminder of our personal helplessness. Without God, we're nothing. We have no goodness or understanding of our own that reaches the quality of heaven without God.

3. God's silence draws us nearer to him. There are two aspects to this (1st) God delays justice so the wicked have the opportunity to repent, (2nd) God also delays to allow us to trust fully and rely on him only.

4. God wil glorify himself in the circumstance and the life of the follower, in even greater ways than before.

Second, God will answer.

Job it seems waited a long time to learn the answer. But he also found he was asking the wrong question. We like Job always seem to ask why? Even if we learned the answer, the answer never satisfies.

The better question is who? Who is actually in control? Who always carries out and accomplishes his will and when he sees fit too?

Who are you going to trust in? The eternal God who is eternal or ourselves who are finite and lacking in wisdom and understanding of eternal things?

If we are going to really live, then we must have a full faith in God. A faith that trusts and never gives up on him and his ways, even when it seems God is not there or listening or even cares. Remember:

• God has NEVER failed.
• God's ways are higher then ours and through faith, though God may not be answering for the moment, when our ways join with God's then perserverance is never a chore, but a joy.

Does that mean we ever give up offering our requests to God. No, because God notices the afflictions of the afflicted and takes the matter into his own hands.

During one episode of the show Monk, a criminal blinds Monk when he throws some fluid in his face. The doctors are not sure if the blindness is permenant or not. Monk has grown very depressed and is frustrated by the whole situation. At one point, Monk's assistant says, "There is always hope." Monk replies very timidly as if he has been completely defeated, "There is never hope."

Monk is an eternal pessimist. But the faithful believer in God is an eternal optimist, even when it seems God doesn't care, or isn't around, but God's track record has shown him to always be faithful to love and care and help. Monk is wrong, there is ALWAYS hope!