Psalm 102 is not one of the more recognizable Psalms. It is not in the preaching cycle for the Lectionary, so it’s not often used in sermons. It is labeled as “A prayer of one afflicted, when faint and pleading before the Lord.” Some suggest David wrote it during Absalom’s rebellion or it may have been written by a prophet during the Babylonian captivity. Either way, the writer is suffering and for me, it invokes images from the story of Job.
The Psalmist feels isolated and desolate, so he cries to God. He also suggests God’s wrath is the source of his situation. Verse ten says, “You have lifted me up and thrown me aside.” Not only does he cry out to God, but he does what we often do, he wants a microwave answer. “Answer me speedily in the day I call.” Don’t we do that too? We face adversity. We wonder why God allows us to be in those situations and we cry out to God expecting an immediate resolution.
I recently had my third back surgery in the last three years. I had a ruptured disk plus a synovial cyst which had burst and was leaking sticky synovial fluid on my nerve strand that was causing intense nerve pain in my left leg. For about two weeks prior to surgery, the nerve pain was so severe I could hardly walk or sleep. I was taking pain pills and counting the hours between doses. Then I had surgery and thankfully the nerve pain was gone immediately. But I had another complication, a sleeping bowel. From Tuesday night to Friday afternoon, I had unrelenting nausea and vomiting. On Friday and Saturday nights, I had the opposite effect.
Constantly, both pre and post-surgery, I found myself crying, “Help me Jesus.” I was desperate and I wanted an immediate response. My nerves were pushed to the edge. Pre-surgery, it was agonizing wrestling with the nerve pain. Post-surgery let’s say I lost all sense of dignity. Unlike the Psalmist, I didn’t feel God had cast me aside. For the Psalmist, the affliction itself was bad enough, but made worse by the sense that God did not see or care. When he had the sense of God’s presence, then the affliction could be endured. By the end of the psalm, he was confident God would respond. I was confident God would respond, but I did wonder why he wasn’t answering quickly.
In truth, I found that while I thought God wasn’t responding as speedily as I expected, God was present the whole time.
- I saw God in my loving wife who was not feeling well herself but did whatever she could to comfort and care for me even when I got demanding and whiney. I’m not always a patient patient.
- I saw God in family and friends who sat with me, did things for me and who surrounded me with love and prayers.
- I saw God in doctors who really cared and used the gifts God has blessed them to bring healing.
- I saw God in a caring aide who put warm blankets on me reminding me of my grandmother.
- I saw God in nurses who cared and served with compassion.
- I saw God in colleagues and friends who came to visit and understood I wasn’t at my best.
- I saw God in a nursing supervisor who sat down with us to work through a concern and did so with compassion, knowledge and gentleness.
- I saw God in an aide who cheerfully cleaned up soiled bedding and the bathroom floor as if it was nothing.
Sometimes answers come quickly and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes all we can do is trust and endure. In my distress, God was providing comfort in ways I failed to detect immediately. He heard my prayers just like he heard the prayers of the Psalmist, just like he hears your prayers in moments of desolation and distress. God is there even when we don’t recognize it. God’s presence will reveal itself, maybe at the moment or maybe in hindsight. The lesson is we can make it through whatever you are facing by keeping our trust in the God who doesn’t cast us aside. Your prayers may not be answered quickly, but God’s will help you endure till the answer comes.
Prayer: God, as we face situations in our lives that are not easy, help us trust you even when we can’t see your presence is with us. Reveal yourself to us in the simplest of ways and in the most complex. Help us endure even when we think we can’t go on. Teach us the joy of patience as we live in this microwave world. We thank you that you do answer our prayers and that you are not out to get us. We have that promise through Christ in whose name we pray. Amen.
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