For this lent season, I am doing a forty-day study in the Psalms looking for aspects of the atonement that will end around Easter. My hope is to generate a newfound awe of what Christ did on the cross.
Psalm 86:11-13
[11] Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. [12] I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. [13] For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.
As I have been doing my Atonement study looking for the cross in the Psalms I am starting to realize something. When David feels alone, or he feels like God is not speaking, or not present then David starts to speak to God. David seems to remind himself of the steadfast love and faithfulness of God; David clings onto the promises of God when God seems to be silent.
I have been in a season, where God seems to be silent. Several months back I prayed that I wanted to be closer to God; I wanted more and just days after that prayer my life turned upside down. Then God seemed to go silent. Have you ever experienced what it feels like when God is silent? What is your response? Mine is, “where are you God?” Or “did I make you mad?” Things like that; I go inward. I want to know what direction God's taking me or what next steps are. I usually look for information not God.
What I'm learning is the times that God seems silent are the times that God is teaching me how to cling on to His promises. He is growing me in faith. What I'm starting to realize, is closer to God is more faithfulness; a greater confidence of who God is. I thought when I said closer to God I'd be a happier cloud nine’ish thing. I thought I would feel different. What I believe now is the closer I get to God the more I make it about God and the less I make it about me. This happens through faith. So you ask faith in what? God is a promise keeper.
Psalm 89:34-37
[34] I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips. [35] Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. [36] His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me. [37] Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.”
What has God promised? That He would fulfill His law in us. The new covenant is that He would fulfill our side of the covenant. God has always been a covenant keeping God; we have always been a covenant breaking people. So God declares, I am going to make a new covenant. That is God dwelling in us through the crucified Savior and keeping our side of the covenant by writing his law on our hearts by the forgiveness of sins.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
[31] “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, [32] not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. [33] For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. [34] And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
So when God feels silent; He’s not. His covenant with us will forever speak; will forever be satisfying; will forever be enough. So you can glorify God by speaking to Him because; God you won’t forget your covenant and neither will I.
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