How long, LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your
wrath burn like fire? (Psalm 89:46 )
Children play, “Hide and Seek.” It is a lot of fun for kids. When God hides,
however, it is not a game! The seriousness
of this is seen in Psalm 89 . How can such a thing happen? Could this be what you are experiencing? Is your church going through this? What can be done? We look into this psalm for answers.
The first lesson for us is this: GOD’S PEOPLE ARE MEANT TO
BE IN FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM (v.1-29). God
is not hidden in this stanza of the Psalm.
“Blessed
are the people who know the joyful sound!
They walk, O LORD, in the light of Your countenance.” (v.15) One of our old hymns echoes this, “When we
walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, what a glory He sheds on our
way.” We have the sunshine of God’s
smile beaming upon us for there is a sky unclouded by sin above us—nothing
between the soul and the Savior. This
was the experience of Ethan the Ezrahite, whose contemplations are documented
here. We do not know about him, except
that he was grateful for the Lord’s mercies.
He is inspired to sing, and says this will be his eternal theme. He rejoices in the faithfulness of God—the
word, “forever,” is used eight times,
and the word, “faithful,” seven
times. Should there be a breach in the
fellowship between God and His people, it is not that God has been
unfaithful—He cannot be!
The second lesson reminds us:
GOD’S LOVING AND HOLY NATURE WILL LEAD HIM TO CORRECT OUR DISOBEDIENCE (v.30-45). His love will not let us go! Since sin is the most destructive thing we
can know, our Heavenly Father will apply the rod of chastisement to bring us
back into alignment with His will—which is the most delightful place we can
be. There are two forms of child
abuse. One is cruel and hateful, where
children are damaged. The other is more
subtle and that is where children are uncorrected and no discipline is
administered. They never learn the
consequences of wrong choices, as rebellion lodges in their heart. God will be guilty of neither. When He corrects us with the rod, we may be
sure it is for our good (read Hebrews
12:5-11 ).
The third lesson reveals: GOD’S
CORRECTION MAY COME AS HE HIDES HIMSELF (v.46-52). We may get to the place where we presume upon
the grace of God and take His mercies for granted. It is possible to be wrapped up in the world,
where we no longer have a hunger for His Word and a longing for God’s presence
in prayer. Corporate worship becomes a
boredom to avoid. Little by little, we
move away from fellowship with God until He says, “Fine. If that’s what you want, I will let you see
what life will be like without Me.”
Then, God hides—the hand of blessing is withdrawn and the warmth of His
love unfelt. This is intended to bring
us to despair—to drive us to our knees and back to God. Ethan presses through the painful emotion and
casts himself upon the promises of God.
He blesses the Lord as he remembers the Lord’s faithfulness and longs
for the past manifestation of God’s presence He once knew. If we seek God like this, we will find Him. God’s arms will welcome us as the father did
the prodigal son who returned home.
