INTRODUCTION:
One of the hardest things about our small group study on Justice is that we have to also look at Injustice. We have to face things like poverty, slavery, forced prostitution, and ethnic cleansing. When we hear personal stories and not just statistics, these oppressive tragedies are unbearable. The difficulty is that the more you look at evil, the harder it is to see God.

Our study of Justice has revealed that we as Christians are commanded to seek justice, encourage the oppressed, and defend the helpless. Hebrews 13:3 says, “Remember…those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” However, as we love our hurting neighbor by identifying with their pain, we can be overwhelmed by feelings that God is distant and uncaring.

This may be why we turn away from images and stories that reveal the suffering in the world. One person who refused to look away from the suffering of the world is Mother Teresa. She founded the Missionaries of Charity, whose mission was to care for, in her own words, “the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.” Her first Home for the Dying was to give a beautiful death to people who lived like animals so that they might die like angels—loved and wanted. Instead of isolating herself from the pain of others she embraced it.

In her private writings published in “Come Be My Light” she writes of a vision she had where Jesus calls her to the poorest of the poor. Here is what she says God said to her:

“My little one–come–come–carry Me into the holes of the poor.–Come be My light.–I cannot go alone–they don’t know Me–so they don’t want Me. You come–go amongst them, carry Me with you into them.–How I long to enter their holes–their dark unhappy homes. Come be their victim.–In your immolation–in your love for Me–they will see Me, know Me, want Me….
You will suffer–suffer very much–but remember I am with you.–Even if the whole world rejects you–remember you are My own–and I am yours only. Fear not. It is I.–Only obey–obey very cheerfully and promptly and without any questions–just only obey. I shall never leave you–if you obey.”

Her response was one of simple obedience and humility that reveals a deep intimate relationship with God. However, almost precisely the time she started her mission to care for the poor and dying in Calcutta, she began to feel abandoned by God. His presence which she had known so powerfully disappeared. This is not something you would expect from someone who was so obviously following the will of God. For almost 50 years until her death she lived with a feeling that God had left her. Only for a five week period in all that time did she experience the intimate presence of Christ she used to have.

Why is this? Why do we also go through times where God seems distant? Honestly, I don’t know. But if someone like Mother Teresa lived through it as well as King David, then it must play some role in our spiritual journey.

Now, to our text today. We often turn to the Psalms to hear some of the most honest prayers ever recorded, because we can relate to the raw emotion in them. For whatever emotion you feel, there is probably a psalm expressing it. It is also interesting that the same person who wrote Psalm 23 about the closeness of God as his Shepherd is the same person who wrote Psalm 13 about how distant God is.

DAVID’S QUESTIONS:
David starts out Psalm 13 with four questions:

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
David feels utterly, completely abandoned by God. The feeling of loss and abandonment is so great that he feels it may last forever. In the midst of suffering and trials it always feels like it will last forever. Rarely do we see when they will end our what the outcome will be. For David, the feeling is even more severe because he can still remember a time when God was close. The closer we walk with God, the louder the silence is in his absence.

How long will you hide your face from me?
In the Bible, turning your face to someone is a way to show love and favor. It basically means “blessing”. Conversely hiding your face means “rejection”. David feels that God has rejected him and removed his blessing from him. It is common in times of suffering to feel that God has rejected you. It is the difficulty we face when we can only see God’s gifts not him himself.

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?
In the depths of despair, David’s thoughts eat away at him. His emotions overwhelm him. He may have wondered if he has sinned or offended God in some way. Or perhaps they have progressed to the point of telling him to give up. David knows God’s promise that he will never leave him or forsake him, but his thoughts and emotions are challenging that promise. It has become a daily fight to trust in God’s promises over what he thinks and feels.

How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Who knows whether David’s enemy is the cause of the suffering or merely taking advantage of it, but either way when he sees the injustice of evil man prospering while he suffers; it is too much to bear.

DAVID’S PRAYER:
Look on me and answer, O Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

The first thing David does during this time of feeling abandoned by God is to pray. G.K. Chesterton said, “When belief in God becomes difficult, the tendency is to turn away from Him; but in heaven’s name to what?” Isn’t that true? When we feel abandoned by God, we tend to turn away from him, but there is no where else to go, no one else better to turn to. The best thing to do is pray an honest gut wrenching prayer.

Obviously, David’s prayer is that God would once again turn his face to him, that he would bless him. He longs for God’s felt presence. However, if he can’t receive that, his second request is that he would have light for his eyes. This phrase refers to spiritual knowledge or enlightenment. But even if God stays silent, he trusts God enough to believe that there is a reason for it. Yet, he still wants to know that reason.

To know why there is suffering is a question theologians and philosophers have asked forever. If we only knew why we suffer, we think that it would make it easier to bear. In the book of Job, his friends offered a bunch of reasons, all of which were considered and fell short. Even Job’s explanation wasn’t sufficient. His encounter when God answered the question revealed there was much more going on then he could possibly imagine.

DAVID’S DECLARATION:
Here is where we must have faith. David concludes the Psalm by saying:

But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord
for he has been good to me.

Whether he feels it or not, he believes that God does in fact love him. Even if his suffering and abandonment leads to death, it will eventually lead to salvation which is only found in the Lord.

And that is the triumph of this Psalm. Whether we ever feel the presence of God again, we can still declare his unfailing love and his salvation. It takes immense faith to trust that in the midst of suffering that God is still being good to us. David could claim it and declare it. Mother Teresa never stopped believing nor abandoned her work. She simply said, “If this brings You glory–if souls are brought to you–with joy I accept all to the end of my life.” She accepted the darkness as the privilege of sharing in the Christ’s suffering on the cross.

Can you believe that God is being good to you even when you don’t feel his nearness? It may be the hardest steps of faith you take as you seem to walk all alone through the valley of death that keeps stretching on and on. But if you trust that God loves you and that he never leaves you, salvation is yours.

CONCLUSION:
On of the darkest times in modern history is Nazi Germany. Evil was out in the open and spreading through Europe like a cancer. God’s people suffered severely. It is amazing though how many still trusted God. On a cellar wall in Cologne, Germany where Jews had hidden are ascribed these words. Words of faith, hope, and love.

I believe in the sun
even when it isn’t shining.
I believe in love
even when I am alone.
I believe in God
even when he is silent.

Bono, at the National Prayer Breakfast last year.

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Much talk has revolved around the issue of global warming and it is almost taken for a fact that industrialization affects our planet (and thereby our neighbors) in drastic ways. I have just finished Michael Crichton’s book, State of Fear, in which he dramatically deals with environmental fundamentalism, political posturing, and pseudo-science. He raises questions concerning the conclusions made around the whole global warming issue and believes we know surprisingly little to make such bold claims. In the last chapter, his characters present some thoughts on how to get some hard facts from the science in a field which is astonishingly complex. So, how does this relate to how we live out our Christian lives?

“The biggest cause of environmental destruction is poverty. Starving people can’t worry about pollution. They worry about food. Half a billion people are starving in the world right now. More than half a billion without clean water.”

As a Christian it is our responsibility to show love to our neighbor by offering food to the hungry. Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day. What can you give? I would suggest a simple start. Sponsor a child with Compassion International for $32/month. By working to end poverty you may also save the planet.

“…the restoration of the church will surely come only from a new type of monasticism which has nothing in common with the old but a complete lack of compromise in life lived in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount in the discipleship of Christ. I think it is time to gather people together to do this…” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.”