When God seems Silent

Waiting is never easy, and waiting on God can be one of the hardest things to do. We always want quick fixes, but God does not work within our timeline. And often in our waiting season we feel God is silent. And that silence, or the uncertainty of how things would pan out can make us want to jump ahead and take some course of action, but it is often in times of waiting that God calls us to ‘Be still and know that he is God.’

In Psalm 13, we see David pour out his anguish to God.  

“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
²How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
    How long will my enemy triumph over me?

³ Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
⁴ and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love;
    my heart rejoices in your salvation.
⁶ I will sing the Lord’s praise,
    for he has been good to me.”

David cries out ‘How Long, O Lord’, these words from David reveal that he has been waiting on God to relieve him of his anguish. From commentaries we learn that David had a prolonged illness and was seeking relief, but God seemed to be quiet. David felt forgotten, he was filled with sorrow, he felt defeated and he battled with his thoughts.

Self-Reflection: David takes his raw emotions and frustrations to God. We often skip over the distress we might be feeling by being quick to tell ourselves that God has a plan and it is all in his timing. Although that is all true, skimming over our emotions does not give us the opportunity to lament and allow God to minister to our emotional needs. Our emotions are real, but they are not the truth upon which we are to base what we believe. Hence acknowledging our emotions is vital, but we are not to allow our emotions to define the truth of who God is and His goodness.

David began with laying out his emotions to God (verses 1 and 2). He then moves on to placing his plea before him (verse 3 and 4). He asks God to answer him and show him mercy because if God does not help him, he fears that he will fail, fall and be overcome by his circumstances. But along with his plea for resolution to his anguish, he prays ‘Give light to my eyes’, David asks for God to open his spiritual eyes for guidance, direction, hope and some perspective.   

Self-Reflection: David so beautifully teaches us the importance of not just placing our plea before God, but also seeking wisdom and guidance to look beyond our circumstances to the big picture God is painting in and through our lives. As Paul writes in Ephesians 1:17-18, may we too in every situation seek to have our eyes enlightened by the Lord “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”

We saw that David began with laying out his emotions to God (verses 1and 2). He then places his plea before him (verse 3 and 4) and he ends this Psalm ( verses 5 and 6) by fixing his gaze back on God.

David teaches us three things in verses 5 and 6 on how he fixed his gaze back on God – Trusting, Rejoicing and Praising. Even though his circumstances were telling him differently, he chose to trust in God’s unfailing love and may we remember the truth we learn in Psalm 32:10 “the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him.” David rejoices in his salvation, his temporary trials will not rob him of his greatest joy – eternity with God. And he looks back on how good God has been to him and this bolsters his faith and hope to wait on God and look ahead with hope.  

These six verses of this Psalm serve as a wonderful template to pray. Taking what is on our hearts as is to God, to place our plea before him, to pray for spiritual understanding and enlightenment and to end with fixing our gaze back on God. The way David ended his prayer is a powerful weapon against despondency and the tendency to overtly fix our focus on our troubles. And most importantly, just because God may seem silent for a while in our lives, it does not mean we should stop talking to him.

If you are waiting on God for something and if you are yet to hear from him, keep talking to him, none of your prayers to him ever go amiss. Every word, every cry and every tear is seen and heard by our Lord.

God Bless.