Over the clanging gong of breaking news, we listen for the first notes from a trumpet that will signal the end of evil (Matt. 24:31). Then, final judgment will be rendered to the butchers of Buchenwald and Berdychiv. No evil word will go unpunished. On that day, every child’s cries will find consolation.

Speak to God

God is not asking for silence. When we suffer and do not understand, he is not demanding the stiff upper lip. He does not object to our groanings, our pleas for help, our desperate whimpers when we can’t even form words. He does not need us to piece ourselves together before we say our Thee’s and Thou’s in formal prayer. He invites us to question him.

God is not threatened by our questions. Neither should we, then, tell the suffering to silence their complaints. But they must take their accusations straight to God—and listen.

Everywhere you look in the Hebrew Bible, you’ll see exchanges between God and the patriarchs, prophets, or kings. God does not shrink before our speech. If anything, as we see amid the calamity of invasion at the outset of the prophet Isaiah’s ministry, God invites this dialogue.

Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool. (Isa. 1:18)

God’s People Cry Out to Him

Consider how the prophets speak of Israel’s exile from the promised land. The prophet Habakkuk opens with a complaint against God for his people’s suffering. How could God be silent in the face of such injustice?

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save? (Hab. 1:2)

God’s answer reminds us that God’s purposes sometimes remain obscure even when we’re looking to understand, even when we hear the reasons.

Look among the nations, and see;
wonder and be astounded.
For I am doing a work in your days
that you would not believe if told. (Hab. 1:5)

Habakkuk can’t understand how God could use the evil of the Chaldeans to accomplish his good plan. In Habakkuk, we see that God is not silent before evil. That’s because he speaks through a prophet made in his image as he demands justice. These words, after all, have been preserved for us in the Scriptures. Moreover, God responds that he’s doing something as Creator that we can’t understand.

Psalm 88 might be considered the paradigm. The psalmist opens with an appeal to God:

O Lord, God of my salvation,
I cry out day and night before you.
Let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry! (Ps. 88:1–2)

He senses that God has gone silent.

But I, O Lord, cry to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
O Lord, why do you cast my soul away?
Why do you hide your face from me? (Ps. 88:13–14)

Unlike so many other Hebrew prayers, including those of Habakkuk and Job, Psalm 88 ends without resolution. It ends, in fact, with night.

You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
my companions have become darkness. (Ps. 88:18)

For anyone who has suffered depression, God’s word here offers comfort. Even the psalmist felt like darkness was his only friend. We are not alone—even when we cannot seem to hear God. This short article can hardly contain all the examples in Scripture, especially in the Psalms, of people crying out to God and hearing nothing in response. Here’s King David:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest. (Ps. 22:1–2)

Now here’s where Scripture really takes a turn. The next time we hear this prayer, it’s from a man whose companions have shunned him. His friends have fled. The world has become shrouded in darkness. From parched lips we hear a loud voice cry out, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” He’s quoting Psalm 22:1: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

It’s the prayerful plea of Jesus as he hangs dying on the cross (Mark 15:34). It’s the final cry of a Son for his Father.

Read More