When God Doesn't Seem To Answer

When God Doesn’t Seem To Answer!

Introduction:

-          The night was dark and foggy.  A man walked in the darkness from his house to the cobble-stone street, his step determined and relentless, but his face – had anyone been able to see it in the dark – was tear-stained and weary.

-          As he reached the street, he peered both ways, looking for the lantern of a horse-drawn, London cap. 

-          The man muttered:  “Nothing!  Am I too late?  But no!  I must end all tonight!  And the river it must be!” 

-          Then, in the distance, he saw a hazy light, slowly enlarging.

-          Almost whispering, the said bitterly:  “God, you provided me no support, but here you provide the cab to take me to my death!”

-          “Where to?” asked the cabbie.  “London Bridge,” the man replied.  “A cold night it is, sir – what sort of business have you at the bridge at this hour?”  But the man said nothing.

-          The cabbie ended his attempt at conversation, and set off toward that well-known destination.  But the fog became thicker and thicker, so that the cabbie could not even see the nose of his horse.

-          What should have been a 20 minute ride lasted an hour, and still there was no sign of the river or the old bridge.

-          The cabbie peered into the fog, desperately looking for some familiar sign.  Suddenly the fog lifted.  The passenger, startled from his stare looked to his right and saw, to his amazement, his own home.

-          The cab, lost in the fog, had circled back to the very place he began the journey.

-          “My God!  You have answered me!”

-          Later that night, this man, William Cowper (Cooper), one of the greatest of England’s 18th century poets, meditated on Psalm 77 Read

-          That same night, William Cowper penned this great poem, “Light Shining out of Darkness” Read

-          This poem has actually been written into a Hymn that I am not familiar with and it isn’t in our Hymn book but it is called “His Way” taken from this poem and Isa 55:9 "So are my ways higher than your ways.”

• But here in Psalm 77 we find a man who has called out to the Lord, but doesn’t seem to be getting an answer.
• Have you been in that situation?
• Are you in that situation right now?
• You have called out to the Lord, and you remember that, yes, in the past He has always answered you, but now there seems to be no response.
• The sky seems to be solid, like brass, and God is silent, as far as you can hear.
• If so this Psalm is for you.  Actually this Psalm is for Every Christian, because I believe that all of us go through such times in our lives.
• We are going to look at Four parts of this Psalm tonight.
• The Cry, The Questions, The Resolve, But God!

Outline:

I         The Cry (Vs. 1-6a)

A      The Bibles gives us all aspects of life.  It does not hide the troubles that are a part of life.

B       This Psalm is telling us of a man who is in deep trouble.

C       We don’t know why.

D      We can see that it is clearly a personal issue and not a national issue.

E       The psalmist is seeking the Lord in the midst of his trials.

F        And yet, as he calls out to God and gets no answer, the Psalmist says his soul refuses to be comforted.  (Vs. 2)

G      He is caught up in the middle of his trouble, and he expressed his belief in God through his crying out, but his soul is refusing to be comforted.

H      The thought of God brings no relief to him.  He moans when thinking of God.

I         We get a clue as to why this is by looking at Vs. 5-6

J         He says that he considered the days of old, and remember the past, recalling his “song in the night.” (Vs. 6)

K       This sounds like in the past he was in a tough time and cried out to God and God lifted him up out of the trouble and gave him a song and brought Joy and Peace back into his life.

L       But that remembrance now brings pain rather than comfort, because his burden is NOT lifted this time, he isn’t receiving any comfort from God this time.

M     This leads to the Psalmist’s second problem.

N      His first problem is his day of trouble – the grief.

O      But his second and really more important problem is that he begins to question God’s love and care. 

P        This time of grief in itself is no worse than other days he has faced.  But this time, when he calls out to God he gets “No” sense of his presence.

Q      Which leads to his Questions

II      The Questions (Vs. 6b-10)

A      He brings out these questions concerning God.

B       These are logical questions given his circumstances. 

·         “In the past,” he says, “God answered my cries.  He gave me a song in the night.  But today, what do I get?  I hear nothing from him.  Has God Changed?”

C       All of these questions in these verses are interesting, because in a sense they answer themselves. 

D      Look at the first half of Vs 8 “Has His unfailing love vanished forever?”

1        The phrase “Unfailing Love” in the Hebrew is just one word.  A word that implies the whole covenant relationship between Israel and God

2        Translated in different ways:  loving-kindness, faithful love, steadfast love, mercy, but the idea behind it is that God has made a promise to these people.

3        God has made a promise that he will always be there for them, day after day and century after century, working out history to fulfill the promises he has made to them.

4        All of this is included in this word “Unfailing Love.”

5        So the Psalmist is asking, “Has this covenant love come to an end?  Has this unfailing love failed?  Is God’s Word no longer valid?  Are God’s promises no longer valid?  Has the flow of his mercy stopped?”

E       Remember that for the Psalmist there is nothing in his present circumstances that gives evidence of God’s love.

F        So he is faced with the a choice: 

1        He has believed God in the past, when God answered him.  Now he has to ask

2        “Do I believe God when I don’t hear an answer?”

3        In the past have I believed God because of his blessings?  Now, do I simply believe God regardless of whether he is blessing me or not?

G      Recall the Story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego:

1        These three young men (Probably Teens)

2        Did not bow down to the image and the king ordered them to bow down and gave them one last chance, “bow down or be thrown into the Fiery Furnace!”  “What God can deliver you out of my hand?”

3        God had been with them in the past and blessed them with wisdom and stature

4        But now God didn’t seem to be there stop this nonsense.

5        They were faced with a choice:  “Believe God regardless of our circumstances, or did we believe in the past only because of his answers?”

6        How did they respond?  They answer the most powerful man in the world with these words:  “Our God is able to deliver us; but even if he does not, let it be known that we are not going to serve your gods.”

7        They chose to believe God regardless of their circumstances.

8        That is what the Psalmist is faced with and that is what we are often faced with.  Do we believe God because of what he does for us, because of His blessings, or do we simply believe God because of who He is?

H      The Psalmist comes to the brink, he examines the logical implications of answering ‘yes’ to these questions about the failure of God, and then he changes in Vs. 11-12.

I         So that brings us to the Psalmists Resolve.

III   The Resolve (Vs. 11-12)

A      If you notice back in Vs 3 & 6 the Psalmist is sighing and feeling sorry for himself.  Focused inward instead of upward.

B       At the beginning he is dwelling in his pain and suffering, but in Vs. 12 it is quite different.

1        Here he has turned his attention away from himself and onto God. 

2        The first three phrases in Vs 11-12 all begin with “I Will.”

3        He is moving from having his emotions control him and being under the circumstances around him, to stepping back and allowing his will and his intellect to be engaged.

4        He is forcing himself to move away from indulging in the feelings that he has as powerful as they are – and saying, “What is it that I really know?”

C       His mind and will have become engaged to overcome his powerful emotions.

D      You may have heard it said that “Truth does not depend on what you had for dinner.” 

1        What we had for dinner can affect our feelings and emotions, and those feelings can have an impact on what we tend to believe.

2        But truth does not depend on what we ate; truth does not depend on our feelings and emotions.

3        What the Psalmists does here is to remind himself of the great truth that are shown in the history of his people, and his own personal history.

E       So the Psalmist in Vs. 11 & 12 resolves to change himself by reflecting on God, reflecting on the mighty deeds of God.  So let’s look at the last section:  GOD.

IV   The King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Vs 13-20)

A      We have a few of God attributes here in Verses 13-15

1        He is Holy, He is Mighty, and He is the Redeemer.

2        These things are not things to fear but things to trust in.

a         He is great and mighty, holy and just, we could go on and on.

b        No matter what trial may come your way you can take heart because God is in control.

c         The Psalmist reminds himself of this fact and is comforted.

d        And then not only is He Mighty and Holy but He is the Redeemer.

i          The one who loves, the one who has come to seek and to save the lost.

ii        He cares specifically about each one of us individually.

B       With this confidence then in the character of God, the Psalmist reminds himself of an even in history which he knows to be true, similar to his present circumstances.

C       So after he thinks in general about God’s attributes he narrows it down to a specific event and dwells on that.

D      Something that reminds him of God’s faithfulness; the Red Sea.   Remember?!?!

1        Israel was at the edge of the Red Sea with the Egyptian army closing in fast on them, soon to over take them.

2        They could go forward into the depths of the Sea and they couldn’t go back into the fury of Pharaoh.  So they accused Moses,

3        “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?”  They were desperate!

4        Like the Psalmist they had seen God’s work in the past, they just witnessed the plagues of Egypt and God’s mighty hand at work bringing them out of the land, but they quickly took their focus off of God and onto there surroundings.

5        Moses responded with, “Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which he will accomplish for you today!”

6        Lets read the way the Psalmist describes the event:  Read Vs 16-20

E       What were the Israelites afraid of?  The Egyptians, but they were also afraid of the Sea.  They couldn’t walk into the water, that was certain death.

F        But what does is say about the waters in Vs 16?  “When the waters saw you, O God, they were afraid.”

1        The very things that we fear fears God.

2        Anything we face in this world that causes us to fear is under the control of a sovereign God.  No matter what you fear it fears God.

G      Vs. 17 Thunder and lightning belong to God.  God has control of everything.

H      Vs. 19 “Your path led through the sea, you way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen.”

I         They could not tell that that was God’s way for them and they cried out and accused Moses of leading them to their death.  God was working in and through a situation that was causing them pain and sorrow.

J         They couldn’t see that he was going to lead them right through the middle of this turbulence, right through this difficulty, to a tremendous victory.

K      That is our King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Conclusion:

1. There will be times in each of our lives when we will “Feel” abandoned by God, or feel like he is not answering our prayers.

·         If you haven’t experienced it yet hold on You WILL.

1. But God tells us in Isa 55 “My ways are not your way, my thoughts are not your thoughts.”
• It is for that very reason that we cannot fathom, we cannot understand the way God works, the mysterious way in which God works in our lives.
• God is so much higher and bigger than us making him mysterious to us.
2. Was God there for the Psalmist?  YES!
3. God’s way is frequently Through the Sea, instead of around it.  He uses those waters to teach us valuable lesson in our Christian walks.
• Psalm 23 “Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, because thou art with me.”
4. How will you respond the next time God seems far away?
• Our relationship to God like our relationships to our husbands or wives is not one of going through some formal ceremony and then living happily ever after…
• But like our marriages our relationship with God will have its up’s and down’s (no because of him but because of you).
5. God is ALWAYS there, no matter what you feel, you can depend on that.
• We need to hold onto what He has done for us in the past and trust Him that he knows what is best for us in any situation.
• The emotions will come and feelings will come drawing us away
6. When this happens we need to lean back on the Solid Rock of God’s Faithfulness, and to know that even when we don’t sense his presence, even when we don’t feel his love, he is there.

Hymn # 526 “The Solid Rock”