Why?

Why God? We… (I am generously including all humanity in this “we”) We seem to ask God why a lot. We hurt, we suffer, we die, we are confused and we ask why. Today in Psalms we were studying the communal lament psalms. I noticed something; when we are suffering we ask God why. Over and over again, psalm after psalm, WHY?  We want God to answer and we want Him to answer the right way. I don’t think any of us would ask God why we were hurting and want the answer to be “suck it up” or “you deserved it” or even “because I can.” We ask why but we want the right answer. 

I am going to get nerdy here for a moment… but this nerdy moment will lead to a devotional moment. Hang in there with me ok? You see a portion of these lament psalms were post-exilic. This means that they were written after Babylon had come, captured and exiled Judah along with destroying the temple. You see these psalms were written after a pretty important milestone in Israel’s history. But in the midst of studying these post-exilic corporate lament psalms and feeling their “why” I remembered that God already answered them. You see I am also studying Habakkuk and studying Habakkuk makes a lot of stuff click. Habakkuk asked God why the nation was corrupted and God answered him. But God put a disclaimer on the answer, Habakkuk was going to be shocked and the people would be utterly astounded. The answer got down to the fact that Babylon and exile was coming. You see when God answered it just meant more why’s. The “why?” of the post-exilic corporate lament psalms had already been answered. God answered but He knew it wasn’t going to be understood. 

So now I will get devotional. We ask why and we want the right answer. We don’t just want the right answer but we want the right resolution. Sometimes we are frustrated and need God to fix things. Sometimes we are honestly a wreck and need God to pick us up. But when we ask why God might answer. He might not simply put our life back in order, He might not soothe our aching hearts, and He might REALLY ANSWER us. We might be shocked and utterly amazed and there is a good chance we will keep asking why.