The Heart's Cry: Psalm 83

Psalm 83

O God, do not remain silent;
    do not turn a deaf ear,
    do not stand aloof, O God. [verse 1, NIV]

I read this Psalm and I sat back and thought about what it was saying to me, then I went to Amazon and looked at a few books and records. After a few minutes I began to read the Psalm again, though I didn't get very far into it, I read the first few verses and then read verse 1 again and again. I began to think about how many times God spoke to Israel in the First Testament, whether through God's voice, the angels, the prophets, their leaders, kings and judges and I began to wonder about how often God was silent. Since the First Testament takes place over thousands of years I am guessing that their was a great deal of 'silence', but then I begin to think, 'there is a great gulf between saying God is being silent and saying that God is turning a deaf ear or that God is being aloof,' but then I begin to contemplate if I am judging them and if I am would I like to be judged by the same standard, and in truth I would not.

There have been times where I have grappled with the so-called silence of God, times where I have written about it, sung about it, complained about it, and mainly wondered when it would end. But I sometimes wonder whether God is being silent or I am simply not listening, or at times if I simply don't want to hear what God has to say. In yesterday's post I wrote about how God desires God's people, both then and now, to listen and follow so that their lives would be better. But the fact of the matter is that we all too often choose to follow our path instead of God's path, we decide to choose our actions instead of God's actions, we decide to choose our words instead of God's words. We do all of that and then we question how God let us get to the place we are in, when we are the ones who let us get to the place we are in. God is over to the side whispering, "Listen to me, listen to me, listen to me," and we are over here saying, "Why won't you speak?"

+ Have you been listening, truly listening for God's voice?