This Psalm is a good reminder that the Christian faith isn’t all easy breezy all the time. Following God doesn’t mean we are immune to loss, hardships, and suffering. What it does mean though is that “The Lord is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked” (Verse 4). The Message version puts it this way, “But God wouldn’t put up with it, he sticks with us.”
As I’m sitting here today, I’m feeling extra thankful that God sticks with me. He has been so faithful to me, and he continues to be faithful, even when I can’t see him. Even in the suffering.
During this Lenten season, I can’t help but think of all the ways Christ suffered while here on earth, and in the midst of one of the most painful human experiences, he cried out "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34). God sticks with us.
Eugene Peterson says it really well in his book A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. “That ‘he sticks with us’ is the reason Christians can look back over a long life crisscrossed with cruelties, unannounced tragedies, unexpected setbacks, sufferings, disappointments, depressions—look back across all that and see it as a road of blessing, and make a song out of what we see.”
Christ City, I know we’ve gone through (and are currently going through) lots of ups and downs, individually and as a collective. But my prayer for us today is that we would “see it as a road of blessing”.
- Bethany P.