Psalm 10:1 When God Hides

Please read Psalm10.

While we will be studying this Psalm in depth this week, today we will focus purely on the first verse (so you may want to reread that now).

Theologians like to use big words and phrases when describing God (maybe because God is so big that He is indescribable with little words!). One of the big phrases that they use is “the omnipresence of God.” This simply means that God is everywhere present at all times. Since God is a Spirit, we don’t see God all the time. Since we are rebels at heart, we don’t feel God all the time. But nevertheless, God is everywhere present at all times.

This is an important truth for us to remember today. Like the Psalmist, there are times in our life where we desperately feel like God is absent. Our pain has reached a point so great that we don’t think we can bear it any longer. We know that God is all powerful and could take away our pain in a moment if He so desired. So the affliction that we are suffering sometimes feels like God is the cause. Still, we know that God does not tempt His people, and He does not maliciously torment us for fun—that is not in the nature of God. 

So, in our hearts, we settle on a compromise: “if God is not behind the suffering that I am experiencing, surely He must be absent altogether. I wouldn’t feel this way if God’s presence were still with me. But, why has He left me so alone?”

David expresses this thought succinctly by asking why God ‘stands afar off,’ and ‘hides’ while he is in such pain.

But God is not hiding.

God is not afar off.

God is everywhere present at all times. Jesus is right there with you, even when you feel all alone. Jesus walked in the midst of the flames when Daniel’s friends were thrown in to the fiery furnace. Jesus took the form of a servant so that He could be tempted in every way that we are tempted, yet without sin. Jesus knew the wrath of God that should be poured out upon us, and He didn't abandon us to our fate; rather, He went to the cross to bear God's wrath in our place.

Jesus will not abandon you to your troubles, and Jesus is never standing far away or hiding from you. Often, the reason that He feels so distant is because we have turned our backs on Him. If we would but humble ourselves and return to our Father, we could experience His loving embrace.

He may still will that the trials continue. He may still have a purpose for us being thrown in the fiery furnace. But He will not abandon us to our fate. Even when it feels like He is absent, we must remember that Jesus is always with us. After all, haven’t you heard about the omnipresence of God?