How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? Netsach is the word for forever here. Listen to this. Literally it means the bright object at a distance travelled toward; the most distant point of view. It is often used in scripture to ask if God has forgotten His people. And to show that He has not! In 1 Samuel 15: 29 God is described as the netash of Israel....it's glory, splendor, the brightest object in the universe, the One farthest out.
He is the forever. He is the One out there to Whom we travel toward. Our most distant point. Light years away and more. So how do we ever reach Him? How does He even know we exist? David is asking, "Will I keep travelling toward You while You keep moving away?" God addresses this question about His seeming aloofness in Isaiah 45:
For thus says the Lord Who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it. He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited). "I am the Lord, and there is no one else. I have not spoken in secret...in some dark land. I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, 'Seek me in a waste place.' I, the Lord, speak righteousness declaring things that are right."
This declaration is in direct response to the accusation in verse 15 that God is a God who hides Himself. Hmm. The gist of it is, I did not create a wasted thing. I speak openly. I am not teasing you, saying, "Seek me where I am not."
So, why then does He feel so far away sometimes. Our prayers go unanswered. We stress and worry. If we were God, we would have already taken this situation in hand and made an end to our misery. Another poignant Facebook quote of the day: Don't believe everything you think! God's ways are not our ways, so if we go thinking He's thinking what we're thinking...well...that can go down a rat hole pretty quickly.
Daniel (a prophet with a book in the Bible named after him) prayed desperately for three weeks. He could not eat, did not drink wine or properly clean himself, but sought a word from God. Twenty-four days into the month, Daniel was standing beside the Tigris River when he looked up and saw a man dressed in fine linen with a belt of gold wrapped around his waist. The man's body shone like yellow quartz, his face was as bright as lightning and his eyes were like fire. His arms and legs were shining like polished bronze and his voice sounded like the roar of a crowd.
What did Daniel do? Fell face down..passed out! The shining being raised Daniel to his hands and knees. Daniel was so afraid, he was shaking all over. And what was the first thing this angel said to Daniel? "Daniel, God loves you very much." His unanswered prayers were not about God's forgetting about Him. God was not hiding His face. The angel continued: "Some time ago you decided to get understanding and humble yourself before God. Since that time, God has listened to you and I have come because of your prayers. But the prince of Persia has been fighting against me for twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the most important angels, came to help me."
So you think God thinks you are unimportant. He listens to your prayers. He doesn't only hear them, saying: "Yeah, yeah. I heard you." Your prayers are so important that there is war over them! They are sacrificial incense to our God.
Why does He make us wait. I do not know. But He does. And it is not that He does not love us.
He is the forever. He is the One out there to Whom we travel toward. Our most distant point. Light years away and more. So how do we ever reach Him? How does He even know we exist? David is asking, "Will I keep travelling toward You while You keep moving away?" God addresses this question about His seeming aloofness in Isaiah 45:
For thus says the Lord Who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it. He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited). "I am the Lord, and there is no one else. I have not spoken in secret...in some dark land. I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, 'Seek me in a waste place.' I, the Lord, speak righteousness declaring things that are right."
This declaration is in direct response to the accusation in verse 15 that God is a God who hides Himself. Hmm. The gist of it is, I did not create a wasted thing. I speak openly. I am not teasing you, saying, "Seek me where I am not."
So, why then does He feel so far away sometimes. Our prayers go unanswered. We stress and worry. If we were God, we would have already taken this situation in hand and made an end to our misery. Another poignant Facebook quote of the day: Don't believe everything you think! God's ways are not our ways, so if we go thinking He's thinking what we're thinking...well...that can go down a rat hole pretty quickly.
Daniel (a prophet with a book in the Bible named after him) prayed desperately for three weeks. He could not eat, did not drink wine or properly clean himself, but sought a word from God. Twenty-four days into the month, Daniel was standing beside the Tigris River when he looked up and saw a man dressed in fine linen with a belt of gold wrapped around his waist. The man's body shone like yellow quartz, his face was as bright as lightning and his eyes were like fire. His arms and legs were shining like polished bronze and his voice sounded like the roar of a crowd.
What did Daniel do? Fell face down..passed out! The shining being raised Daniel to his hands and knees. Daniel was so afraid, he was shaking all over. And what was the first thing this angel said to Daniel? "Daniel, God loves you very much." His unanswered prayers were not about God's forgetting about Him. God was not hiding His face. The angel continued: "Some time ago you decided to get understanding and humble yourself before God. Since that time, God has listened to you and I have come because of your prayers. But the prince of Persia has been fighting against me for twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the most important angels, came to help me."
So you think God thinks you are unimportant. He listens to your prayers. He doesn't only hear them, saying: "Yeah, yeah. I heard you." Your prayers are so important that there is war over them! They are sacrificial incense to our God.
Why does He make us wait. I do not know. But He does. And it is not that He does not love us.
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