Memory Text: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. Psalm 22:1-2
The Psalmists wrote for bad times as well as good times, and the bad times were pretty bad. Consider Psalm 88:3-12:
I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death. I am counted among those who go down to the grave; I am like one without strength. I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care. You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. Your wrath lies heavily on me; you have overwhelmed me with all your waves. You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape; my eyes are dim with grief. I call to you, Lord, every day; I spread out my hands to you. Do you show your wonders to the dead? Do their spirits rise up and praise you? Is your love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction? Are your wonders known in the place of darkness, or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion?
And people say I am pessimistic!
Ellen White has this to say about David in his dark moments:
The psalmist David in his experience had many changes of mind. At times, as he obtained views of God's will and ways, he was highly exalted. Then as he caught sight of the reverse of God's mercy and changeless love, everything seemed to be shrouded in a cloud of darkness. But through the darkness he obtained a view of the attributes of God, which gave him confidence and strengthened his faith. But when he meditated upon the difficulties and danger of life, they looked so forbidding that he thought himself abandoned by God because of his sins. He viewed his sin in such a strong light that he exclaimed, “Will the Lord cast off for ever? will he be favorable no more?”
But as he wept and prayed, he obtained a clearer view of the character and attributes of God, being educated by heavenly agencies, and he decided that his ideas of God's justice and severity were exaggerated. He rejected his impressions as being the result of his weakness, ignorance, and physical infirmities, and as dishonoring to God, and with renewed faith he exclaimed, “This is my infirmity; but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.” 3 Bible Commentary, p. 1149.
The Psalmists also get impatient with God for not coming down hard on the evil-doers and the enemies of Israel:
“How long, Lord? . . . Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the kingdoms that do not call on your name; for they have devoured Jacob and devastated his homeland. . . . Help us, God our Savior, for the glory of your name; deliver us and forgive our sins for your name’s sake. Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Before our eyes, make known among the nations that you avenge the spilled blood of your servants. . . . Pay back into the laps of our neighbors seven times the contempt they have hurled at you, Lord. Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will praise you forever; from generation to generation we will proclaim your praise. Psalm 79:5-13.
In other words, stop punishing us for our sins and start punishing them for theirs. Seems reasonable, but that attitude forgets that the punishment of God’s people can be redemptive, whereas the godless are likely going to the bad place regardless, so why should God bother.
The problem of evil leads us to distrust God, when in fact we should be embracing God as the ultimate source of goodness and justice, who one day will put everything to right and cause justice to triumph throughout the universe. The great controversy between Christ and Satan has been prolonged precisely because God is dealing with the problem of evil in such a manner that, even though we are autonomous beings with free will, sin will never arise again. We have to be patient and have faith.
“To many minds, the origin of sin and the reason for its existence are a source of great perplexity. They see the work of evil, with its terrible results of woe and desolation, and they question how all this can exist under the sovereignty of One who is infinite in wisdom, in power, and in love. Here is a mystery of which they find no explanation. . . . It is impossible to explain the origin of sin so as to give a reason for its existence. Yet enough may be understood concerning both the origin and the final disposition of sin to make fully manifest the justice and benevolence of God in all His dealings with evil.” Great Controversy, p. 492.