8 You have caused my companions to shun me;
you have made me a horror to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
9 my eye grows dim through sorrow. – Summary: Yesterday I ended up here in the Psalm with these words. ‘- God is Sovereign, but has He caused this enmity between companions? Or has the Psalmist brought it upon himself? Or is the companion being spiteful and unreasonable and plain nasty? I can understand why the poor guy can’t fathom out what is going on! ‘My eye grows dim through sorrow.’ Let’s hope that the second half of the Psalm gives us an answer tomorrow!’
Every day I call upon you, O LORD;
I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah – another call to think deeply! Does God work with the dead? Is there life after death? Many deny it these days but still seem to hope there is! At least so I think when I hear people talk at funerals, or see them raise their eyes upwards when they think of beloved lost ones!
11 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12 Are your wonders known in the darkness,
or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? – The psalmist is not asking you or me for our thoughts, he is speaking to God. Does God answer his question with a bolt from heaven on the spot? The answer simply is ‘no, God doesn’t answer right here!’ My wife and I have recently for our devotions been reading through the book of Job. Job asked for 37 chapters before God answered Job! But we do have a pretty conclusive answer given with explosive evidence on the day which we celebrate as Easter!
13 But I, O LORD, cry to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?
Why do you hide your face from me?
15 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
16 Your wrath has swept over me;
your dreadful assaults destroy me.
17 They surround me like a flood all day long;
they close in on me together.
18 You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
my companions have become darkness. – It ends with a dispirited soul nowhere nearer to the answer. Do you feel sorry for him or are you callous? Such experiences are character building and experienced in all our lives. But we don’t always have to remain querulous for God’s love and His demonstration of that Grace, Mercy and Love are blazoned on almost every page of the library that He has sent to us by many human authors and over several thousands of years, but with Him in control of the message!
Job 38: 1 – Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man;
I will question you, and you make it known to me. – In other words God says the answers are there for us to discover!
Prayer: Truly, Father, we would like sometimes to have more understanding, but thank You for walking with us as we walk by faith and not with sight!