Meditation for 14 October 2009

From The Rev. Peter A. Munson

Psalm 13

1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

                  How long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long?

                  How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God!

                  Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,

4 and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”;

                  my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.

5 But I trusted in your steadfast love;

                  my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

6 I will sing to the Lord,

                  because he has dealt bountifully with me.

How Long, O Lord?

There are times in our lives when we are in the exact same place as the Psalmist was when this psalm was written. “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?”

I have been wrestling with computer issues and internet connection problems and in the process I have made many phone calls to Comcast, had many conversations with people who know way more about computers than I do, made many trips to get parts for the computer and many return trips to the store because that part didn’t change anything, and – at this moment – I still don’t have anything resolved. There are times when I absolutely hate computers for all the energy that they drain out of me. It seems that my family has bad computer karma, for it doesn’t seem like anyone else struggles this much with computer issues.

How long, O Lord? How long?

Much bigger than my little test with computers, Julia’s mom – Helen – struggles each day with pancreatic cancer. One day she feels okay. The next number of days she is in severe pain, and can hardly eat. Most Christians I know are not afraid to die. But it is the dying process that can be, in some instances, excruciating. And it can also be pretty excruciating also for the loved ones who are with the one dying – loving, serving, watching, seeing the pain their loved one goes through, and wondering how long the suffering must continue.

How long, O Lord? How long?

There are millions of folks around the world – even in our own country – who struggle with depression or panic attacks or severe loneliness or the after-effects of trauma, and it can be a daily battle… a huge battle. And loved ones and doctors and therapists and nurses and peers in support groups try to help, and those with these maladies take medications, and hang in there while medications are adjusted and changed, and go to different appointments, and miss work, and go to work even when it is terrifying to go to work, and go through life in a way that most of us cannot begin to comprehend.

And we say… How long, O Lord? How long?

Someone is injured in a car accident, and that person may be in the hospital for a very long time. Someone else wrestles with chronic illness and/or chronic pain, and each day is a challenge. Others struggle with being unemployed, and they start to get down on themselves. And those who struggle to recover or to get relief or to find a job, and those who love them, cry out, “How long, O Lord? How long?”

I don’t begin to understand the “whys” and “wherefores” of all these situations. Some things in life are hard to figure out, and trying to figure out the “why” questions can sometimes just lead us to further agony.

I do know this. When we cry out to the Lord, we are crying out to the right person. Because we believe in and follow a Lord who has been through the worst kind of pain and struggle and torture, not to mention rejection and betrayal, too. Yes, we have the story of Job in scripture. But even more than Job’s story, we have the story of Jesus. He came to bring love and healing to the world, he came to reconcile all of us back to God, and some welcomed him and loved him and received what he had to offer, with deep gratitude. But he was also hounded and attacked and abused and finally killed.

We follow as Lord one who quoted from the cross a psalm that is very similar to Psalm 13: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1)

This Lord is not some far-away God who cannot identify with our struggles. This is a Lord who went through everything we will ever go through, and then some, and who was raised to new life by God, largely so that he could proclaim to all of us the ultimate message: Pain and struggle and even death do not have the final word. There is, in the end, healing and joy and reunion with loved ones and new life.

So… if you are going through a time of great challenge right now – a time of extended unemployment, a time of protracted illness or depression, a time of deep loneliness, a time when you are watching a loved one go through great pain and suffering, your own time of dying – then, by all means, cry out to the only One who can be fully present to you during your time of anguish, cry out to the only One who will never forsake you but will stay with you and love you until you come through to the other side.

I don’t know the answer to “How long?” What I do know is that when you cry out to the Lord, you are crying out to the right one, to the only one who can really help. He hears your cries, and He will come through for you. I don’t know exactly what moment that will be, but make no mistake. Your enemy shall not prevail. The Lord will come through for you. In the end, the Lord will deal bountifully with you. So keep hanging on to Him. Keep asking others to help you hang on to Him. For He will deliver you.