“Silence of God or Silent Treatment”

BIBLE READING: Psalm 25-30

                Have you ever just poured out your heart to God in prayer, only to feel that God isn’t listening to you?  Although that may be a common feeling among us, I do not for one minute believe it is true.  Nevertheless, sometimes our feelings deceive us and we mistake the silence of God for the silent treatment.  That may have been the emotions that David is describing in today’s reading “To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.” (Psalms 28:1-2).  David was human just like the rest of us and there were times when his emotions got the best of him.  I could not imagine the guilt and shame that David must have endured during his lifetime.  Although he was a tremendous servant of God, emotionally there are times he must have been a wreck.  Afterall, he had taken another man’s wife, tried to cover it up by having her husband killed, then he had to deal with the loss of a child due to his own sin.  Then we also know how his own son drove him away from his home seeking to kill him.  All of this after he had to run away into caves because his best friend’s father was seeking to kill him.  Whew!  Even after I typed it all out, I don’t see how he was even able to find the where with all to function…much less maintain any composure to write this psalm.  Like all of us, David had his week moments and he seems to express them within this psalm.  The good news is that although David expresses these feelings, he knows full well that God has heard his cries. We know this because in just a few short verses he says so, “Blessed be the LORD! For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy. The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.” (Psalms 28:6-7).  The Bible is full of examples of God always being willing and able to listen to our cries.  He heard the cries of the Israelites in Egypt, but He waited centuries before He brought deliverance.  He also heard their cries of repentance in the wilderness, yet He waited forty years.  Even during the time between the testaments, secular history reveals that God’s people cried out for deliverance, yet for 400 years God was silent.  Why is it that God chooses silence in His response to our cries? In the previous examples, I cannot say that I know why He was silent.  Yet, I can say that in our current situations…God never responds with silence.  Oh…He may not verbally answer your prayers and He may not respond in some miraculous way, but He will always answer.  How then can we hear an answer from the Lord when He appears silent?  We hear His answer within His Word.  Since we have the complete will of God recorded for us within Scripture, God is never silent!  Anytime we need to hear for our Lord, whether in times of distress or praise, all we have to do is open up the pages within our Bibles and read.  The more you read, the more answers you will receive.  Yet it isn’t just about the answers, it is about the comfort in knowing that God knows, He hears and He is always listening.