Day 19: You're Hiding
Read: Psalm 10:1–4
Why, O LORD, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
— Psalm 10:1 (ESV)
Reflect
Psalm 10 does not open with praise. It opens with a complaint. "Why, O LORD, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself?"
The word for "you hide yourself" is ta'lim, and it carries the sense of making yourself hidden. The psalmist is not saying, "I have lost track of God." He is saying, "God, you have pulled back. You are doing this." And he says it "in times of trouble," the very moment he needs God most.
What is remarkable is that the Bible leaves this in. The text preserves the complaint without correcting it. No footnote rushes in to explain that God was really close the whole time. The psalm lets the question stand until its own answer comes in verse 14.
The psalmist says what we are afraid to say: you have gone.
Many believers feel they are not allowed to talk to God like this. They think honest complaint is a lack of faith. But look at what the psalmist is doing. He is talking to God. He is bringing the complaint to the One who can answer it.
Complaint brought to God is not unbelief. Unbelief walks away.
If God feels far from you right now, you have permission to say so.
Across Scripture
Isaiah says, "Truly, you are a God who hides himself" (Isaiah 45:15). The same cry returns in Psalms 13:1, 44:24, and 88:14. Scripture gives you the right to say this in its own words. On the cross, Jesus himself, forsaken in our place, prayed the words of a lament psalm: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46; Psalm 22:1).
Sit With It
If God feels far away in your hard season, tell him so, using the psalm's own words. Keep speaking to him, even if what you say is a complaint.
Pray
Why are you hiding? I am asking because I still believe you can be found.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.