Afar Off

A woman stands on the courthouse steps in the cold. She has just watched a man walk out free, with nothing against his name. She knows what he did, and so do three other people. It took two years to reach this morning, and now this morning is over.

"Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?"

The psalm has no polite opening, no line first about how good God is, and no assurance that the one praying knows better. Look at the word "standest," because it is the hardest word in the line. A person who is standing somewhere has not left. The psalmist is saying that God is there, at a distance, and is not stepping in.

Then the psalm spends the next ten verses describing a man like the one on the steps. He "boasteth of his heart's desire." He lies in wait for the poor. And the psalm quotes what he tells himself: "He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it."

Notice how close that is to the opening question. The wicked man and the believer are looking at the same facts, and they describe them in almost the same way: God is far off, and God is hiding. And the psalm does not scold the believer for praying it. It puts his question at the very top and leaves it there.

Lord, You are standing far off, and I am not going to pretend otherwise this morning. He walked out, and she is still on the steps. You saw all of it, and nothing has been done, and I cannot make those two facts fit together. But Your psalm answers the man who said You would never see: "Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand." "Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble." I have nowhere else to bring this, and You are the One who sees.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 31 is Not One Failed (Joshua 21:45).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two