The Voice of the Lord

Psalm 29

January 29

Have you had silent times from the Lord? I have. There are times when God seemingly cannot be found. See Job: “I cry to you for help and you do ...not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me.” (Job 30:20).

 

Just a few chapters earlier than today's reading of Psalm 29, Psalm 22 shows David crying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.”

Interestingly, Jesus also had times of “silences from God,” even though He was God in the flesh. Certainly when John the Baptist was beheaded, Jesus felt the thunderous silence of God. When he was alone in the desert and being tempted of the devil, there is no evidence that God was speaking. When He was on the cross, we even read that He quoted Psalm 22, questioning why God would have forsaken Him.

Yet, there were also times when He also heard the Voice of the Lord. At His baptism, as well as on the mount of transfiguration. Even when the Greeks came to Him, the voice of the Lord thundered. There also were times when He heard His Father's voice but not with physical ears, but the ears of the spirit. Both the silence of the Lord and the voice of the Lord are needed for our spiritual growth. Both should be expected. And both should be welcomed.

Is God near? Listen to His voice! 

 

Does seem distant? He promises that He is not (Ps 37:28, Heb. 13:5).

His silences quiet us so we can then hear the voice of the Lord.

It's enough to drive a man crazy; it'll break a man's faith
It's enough to make him wonder if he's ever been sane
When he's bleating for comfort from Thy staff and Thy rod
And the heaven's only answer is the silence of God

It'll shake a man's timbers when he loses his heart
When he has to remember what broke him apart
This yoke may be easy, but this burden is not
When the crying fields are frozen by the silence of God

And if a man has got to listen to the voices of the mob
Who are reeling in the throes of all the happiness they've got
When they tell you all their troubles have been nailed up to that cross
Then what about the times when even followers get lost?
Cause we all get lost sometimes...

There's a statue of Jesus on a monastery knoll
In the hills of Kentucky, all quiet and cold
And He's kneeling in the garden, as silent as a Stone
All His friends are sleeping and He's weeping all alone

 

And the man of all sorrows, he never forgot
What sorrow is carried by the hearts that he bought
So when the questions dissolve into the silence of God
The aching may remain but the breaking does not
The aching may remain but the breaking does not
In the holy, lonesome echo of the silence of God

--Andrew Peterson

https://youtu.be/cvytewIxll0