Conversation with a silent listener

Psalm 42 (paraphrased)

I will say to God, why have you forgotten me?
I will say to God, I am oppressed by destructive forces and spend a lot of time mourning, why have you let this happen?

And there is no answer.

This man speaks to God from his heart. He says things that a ‘good’ preacher might rebuke him for saying, why have you forgotten me? Why am I sad all the time?

Church people often get upset when we are not praising God and saying nice things about him. It really worries them. The people whose songs and prayers are recorded in the book of Psalms would not reproach us. They believed that God knows our thoughts. If God already knows we are struggling with bewilderment, doubt and confusion then surely it is alright to express our thoughts to him in conversation. Truth is valued by God and so it is safer to speak the truth to him than to hide it, and confuse ourselves.

Did God answer?

The man who is writing this praise song suddenly begins to speak to himself, in the middle of his prayer to God. (We call this speaking to oneself in the presence of God – and for very lonely people this might be the only healing conversation they can find) He asks himself, “Why are you downhearted?” “Why are you disturbed? Then he speaks to himself again. “Put your hope in God, because the time will come again when you praise and thank him. He is your God and he is your help.”

How did he know that? Because he had remembered how often God had been good to him in the past. Perhaps because he had remembered the sacred record of the acts of God (the scriptures) and knew that God always does good to those who rely on him.

Did all that thinking come from his own mind? Or was he prompted? Did some silent listener help him turn from sorrowful thoughts to hopeful thoughts? If that happened, then we would say that the Holy Spirit spoke to him in his thoughts and helped him regain hope and courage.
Who hears your words? When pain and bewilderment spill out of your mind and into your speech, who is listening? Of course it depends who you are talking to. But if you are spilling it all out in a conversation with God, then you can be sure he won’t rebuke you for not saying nice things to him. What might happen is that God might just nudge your thoughts a little, so that faith in him and hope about your future begin to happen in your mind. Then like the rest of us, you can get up off your knees and begin to live again, knowing that God is determined to bless you and that you are quite willing for him to do that.