Psalm 38: God’s love and care for us is amazing
The person described here is in physical and mental anguish. He is a sick man, deserted by all, and he fears that he has also been deserted by God. What is he to do, but to pray? He may or may not have been a believer, and he describes what he has done to get himself into the trouble he’s in as “folly”. But now, in trouble, he remembers God, and yells out for help.
Doesn’t that sound like something you’ve heard before? Isn’t this sort of a thing repeated daily by countless people in trouble, all over the world? They’ve been doing great, thinking they don’t need God, until they find themselves alone and in sickness. Then, they remember God. Oh yes, God, the One who will not leave you when everyone else has left you, the One who loves you when others wish you “ill” and hate you “unprovoked”. THAT GOD!
There’s an old saying: “There are no atheists in a foxhole.” I think it relates to this psalm very well. War or no war, the subject of it is in deep trouble and under fire. It may not be bullets, but it hurts just as bad: “my sin has left no health in my bones… I groan in distress of heart.” He has no one else to turn to, so, he turns to God. And God must listen, and “must come quickly” to his help, right? Why? Because God cares, doesn’t He?
Isn’t that perverse? So we all know there’s a God, otherwise we wouldn’t pray to Him, and we know, deep down, that He loves us, or else we wouldn’t pray to Him when we have no alternative. But when we’re doing fine, we don’t need God, and we don’t need to pray to Him, do we? “There is no God,” some of us say. But when they’re in mortal danger, they’re praying to the God that “doesn’t exist”. Isn’t that hypocritical?
Make no mistake about it. All of us are hypocrites in one way or another - some more that others - but that’s beside the point. Yet God loves us all, even when we say He doesn’t exist. He loves us even though we only come to Him when we’re about to die, or we’re sick, or hungry, or without a home. And He does help us, even when we don’t know it. That’s REAL love! Doesn’t He deserve more of OUR respect and love for all He does for us? Doesn’t He deserve at least an acknowledgment that He exists?
