Daily Devotional

Asaph is not writing poetry from a comfortable chair. He is awake at night, hands stretched out, soul refusing comfort (vv. 2-4). Out of that sleepless anguish come the hardest questions a believer can ask: Has God's unfailing love vanished? Has his promise failed? Has God forgotten to be merciful? Notice what Scripture does not do here. It never scolds him for asking. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God preserved these raw words in his own Word, and that tells us something glorious about his character. The God of the Bible is not fragile. He invites honest lament, because he already knows the answers, and every one of them is no. His steadfast love has not ceased. His promises have not failed. Calvary settled the question of his mercy forever, for "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Doubt usually arrives disguised as a verdict: God has abandoned me. Asaph takes his verdict and turns it back into a question, and questions can be carried to God. That is the whole difference between despair and prayer. Despair talks about God; prayer talks to him. So do not bury what you are afraid to say. Say it to him. The One who absorbed the cry "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" is not unsettled by yours.