Read Psalm 77:5-9. 5I consider the days of old, the years long ago. 6I said, “Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.” Then my spirit made a diligent search: 7“Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? 8Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? 9Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?”
In the midst of all his cries and questions (v. 1-4), Asaph is not deconstructing his faith, he is reconstructing it. The meditations of his heart have led him into a diligent search. A fact finding mission. Are his own feelings about God actually true? Is what he observes in the world around him the only truth that exists? Could there be more to what God is doing than what he sees with his eyes?
Ultimately the reconstructing of his faith hinges on the questions he asks. Asaph is way past asking questions about his circumstance. He needs to question the very nature of God himself. Can God change? Can his favor come to an end? Can his love cease? Do his promises have an expiration date? Can God forget how to be gracious? Will his anger overrule his compassion?
An affirmative answer to these questions invites a whole new theology, one that the written word and the living Word would deny. God is love. Love is his nature. It is unchanging. It has no beginning and no end. No increase and no decrease. The Lord’s spurning, his anger, his silence, these flow out of his love. For sure they are his work, but they are not his final work. Love is his final work. Love is his forever work.
How do we know? Asaph will look backwards to the Exodus from Egypt. But we who are in Christ look back to our exodus from sin and death and into his life. The gospel alone offers the final answer to our spirit’s diligent search. The gospel alone can reconstruct our faith. To live is Christ alone answers the deepest questions of the heart.
You: Have you ever questioned God’s love for you? How did you begin to answer that question?
You in Christ: Why must we look beyond our circumstances to our union with Christ in order to find answers to life’s deepest questions?
Christ in you: How might you keep your gaze fixed upon your exodus from sin through the cross?
Pray: Jesus, you’re the answer to my spirit’s diligent search for truth, for the nature of God, for hope in life and in death. Thank you that all my questions lead me back to you and your life in me. Amen.
To Live is Christ 