Joel M Bradshaw

46How long, O LORD? Will you hide yourself forever?
How long will your wrath burn like fire?
47Remember how short my time is!
For what vanity you have created all the children of man!
48What man can live and never see death?
Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah

49Lord, where is your steadfast love of old,
which by your faithfulness you swore to David?
50Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked,
and how I bear in my heart the insults^f of all the many nations,
51with which your enemies mock, O LORD,
with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed.

52Blessed be the LORD forever!
Amen and Amen.–Psalm 89

The rare psalm from Ethan the Ezrahite. The nation was going through something horrible. Ethan was feeling that horror himself on a personal level. We don’t know much more than that. It would make a lot of sense if Psalm 89 was a song from the Babylonian exile. But yet some place Ethan as a court poet of David and Solomon. So we rest in the lack of specificity.

I think this psalm was written so that we would wrestle with the sovereignty of God. Just look at how Ethan interacted. He fully believed that God was sovereign and in control. He was so committed to this that he longed for God to be faithful now as he was then.

God is sovereign. He rules. He reigns. And to the one suffering, this adds a grumble and a hope. The grumble invites a WHY question. Why are you doing this to me? Why are you not delivering me? Why is this part of your sovereign plan? Why do you not seem to care? Why is this going on so long?

The hope is tied to not why but WHEN. There is certainty with when. There is certainty with hope. When will you deliver me from my pain? When will you bring salvation? When will my prayers be answered?

In the midst of pain and stress, we want to ask a bunch of why questions. But I invite you to ask the when ones. The why questions do affirm God’s sovereignty. But the when questions also affirm God’s goodness and care. They are directed at a certain future hope. As you trust God, ask your why questions. But don’t forget the perspective of the when. And while you are at it, ask a pivotal WHAT question. Possibly the greatest question you will ever ask…

What is God expecting me to learn during this season?

That one is a game-changer. All of a sudden, your suffering has a profound purpose. My MS therefore ultimately is a blessing. God is using it to disciple me, to teach me. Your anxiety, your depression, your disease, your pain, your grief, your suffering now all has a blessed purpose as you trust God. God is expecting you to learn and has sovereignly entered into your story to teach you and draw you closer to him. So ask your WHY. Lean on the WHEN. Ponder that WHAT.–JMB