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The Paradox of faith

Today's reading is from the Psalms: 86, 87, 88, 89

As I read these Psalms this verse stood out to me:
"You are their glorious strength.
It pleases you to make us strong." (Psalm 89:17 NLT)

I looked at that verse and thought about it a lot. You see the Psalm before this one is probably the darkest of all the Psalms. I dare say one would not read Psalm 88 as an encouraging reading. It is full of despair, hopelessness, anger, and questions. Then in turning to Psalm 89, the light comes on, the darkness flees, and hope is returned.

That is "paradox". Contradictory truths. Both are true. Both reflect reality. The problem comes when we can't see both. Our faith is not a matter of God doing what we want, but of our seeking to understand what God wants. It is he who is our "glorious strength". In my weakness - of which there is much - God shows himself to be strong. He can/does make me strong, but I need to appropriate that strength, or forfeit it to despair.

I have lived in despair. It is Psalm 88 all over again. I felt the loneliness, the anger, the sense of distance from God and all hope. It seemed to go on forever, but it didn't. In the midst of Psalm 88 I wondered "why God"? It is our pre-disposition to believe that God is responsible for our problems, our sickness, our financial mess, our disease, our job/career issues...but why do we believe that? What makes us want to hold God responsible for a world that is corrupted by sin, especially since he is the one actively working to bring about redemption?
Let's stop the next time when we are in a Psalm 88 time and realize that in time, Psalm 89 comes to past. The paradox of our faith is real.

Peace
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Comments

paul said…
E, I have seen examples of people who seem like they could have written Psalm 88 just yesterday. Heck, I feel like I could have written at least half of it myself. The author seems to be on his last ounce of hope before it runs out when he says,"For my soul is full of trouble and my life draws near the grave." We all have our breaking points when we try to handle our problems ourselves. For some reason God becomes so distant we don't even realize he is there even if we know the truth of his word that says he is. The enemy has almost won. The sad fact is that the enemy is really good at what he does which is to attack our view of who God is. (among other things) Add to that a serious life problem and you have a recipe for death even though the person is still living on this fallen world. My comment here is so dark on purpose. The darkness is so real to some people that any sense of hope is not even a reality. You have taught me through the Holy Spirit that God has a way of restoring things. What if the person is in such despair that they think they are unworthy of restoration? What if they are blinded to the fact that God wants to restore them? I wish I had all the answers, but until I do I will keep "appropriating the strength God gives me," as you say; and pray for the people who seem to be in despair.
July 11, 2011 at 2:06 PM
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