Divine Silence

Ever felt totally removed from God’s awareness? It’s almost like you’re standing at the bottom of a long stairway looking up. The light is off, and even though you knock and call out for a response, nothing happens. There isn’t even a stir.

You are not alone. Many a soul struggles at this very moment with divine silence. You likely know the story by heart. A calamity comes. Afterward, the victim crawls out, cries out, and expects overnight relief. It doesn’t come. To make matters worse, the divine silence can grind on for days, sometimes weeks.

A mate who has been there for years suddenly packs it in and walks out. The one who is left alone to face what seems to be endless responsibilities turns to God for His intervention—for His comforting reassurance—only to be met with silence. That awful silence!

A lingering illness eats away at body and soul day after day. No prayer, it seems, is effective. As the deafening silence continues from above, the pain intensifies below.

Believe it or not, God speaks even in such silence. How? Read Psalm 19. This grand song that directs our attention to the skies has something to say about those anguishing times of silence on earth. In beautiful ways, the heavens above us speak with profound wisdom, without ever saying a word.

The philosopher Kant once wrote:

There are two things that fill my soul with holy reverence and evergrowing wonder—the spectacle of the starry sky that virtually annihilates us as physical beings, and the moral law which raises us to infinite dignity as intelligent agents.¹

Kant could have been influenced by the Nineteenth Psalm when he wrote that statement, for this ancient song describes both of the things that filled his soul with reverence and wonder.

Verse 14, one of the most familiar verses in the entire book of Psalms, adequately sums up the psalmist’s feelings in the form of a prayer:

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

God has revealed Himself. If you feel deafened by divine silence, remember this truth. We constantly bask in the sunlight of His presence. We have His Word in our language—clearly printed and conveniently punctuated, bound, and preserved for our use. Added to this, He stands as our Rock (our stability, the One on whom we can rely) and our Redeemer (our deliverance from evil acts, evil men, and our own evil nature).

Stay in the Word this week, my friend. Claim His blessings—dare Him to fulfill His promises. The “words of your mouth” and “meditation of your heart” will take on a whole new pattern of godliness and power.

Furthermore, He will no longer seem distant from you or silent to you.

—Chuck

1. Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason [1781].

Comments

[Pierre Franco]

Thank you Pastor Chuck. Those are difficult moments, the kind that bring about silence. Thanks be to God for those wonderful and beautiful Psalms. They remind us to look up instead of looking down.

[andrew gibbs]

Chuck,

Thank you for your article and inspiring words as I go through financial hardship where the bills are now insurmountable and the cupboards are bare while God seems to be silent.

Today's devotional(082611) Elijah's brook has dried up, succinctly describes my situation as i hang on to the threads of hope in God's faithfulness. I recently came across these words which I suspect you may also appreciate

Trusting without waiting = striving
Waiting minus trusting = worry
Trusting plus waiting = rest

Thanks for all that you do, I continue to learn from you.

lots of love, andrew.