Whenever there are times of great difficulty, pain or suffering, we naturally ask God questions. I once heard someone remark that in a certain instance people were “asking God the wrong questions.” The notion of asking God the “wrong question” struck me, so I made a quick breeze through the Psalms exploring what the God-inspired Scripture indicates are the “right questions” to ask God. The “right questions” might shock the refined sensibilities of affluent Western (i.e., quasi-gnostic, quasi-Victorian) spirituality. I’ve often heard that when going through a difficulty the right question to ask God is “what are you teaching me through this trial?” Strangely, I did not find that one in the Psalms. The Psalmists are rather uninhibited in their gritty and unvarnished processing of pain before God. Granted, these questions are not the entirety of this process. But they are where the process must start. Giving an answer is a meaningless abstraction apart from the concrete and often disconcerting question to which it corresponds. Comfort that denies the problem is merely delusion. The Psalmist does not simply “surrender to the sovereignty of God” or “discern what God is trying to teach.” The right question is the question that allows the full release of lamentation which is lodged in the soul whether it is expressed or not. Failure to express such reality only brings our relationship with God into the placid oblivion of unreality. The honesty modeled in the Psalms is the gateway into a deeper relationship with God and true Biblical spirituality.

My soul also is struck with terror, while you, O LORD—how long?

For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who can give you praise?

Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

Why do the wicked renounce God, and say in their hearts, “You will not call us to account”?

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?

“What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?

How long, O LORD, will you look on? Rescue me from their ravages, my life from the lions!

I say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?”

For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you cast me off? Why must I walk about mournfully because of the oppression of the enemy?

Have you not rejected us, O God?

O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?

How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
Why do you hold back your hand; why do you keep your hand in your bosom?

“Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable?
Has his steadfast love ceased forever? Are his promises at an end for all time?
Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah

How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?

Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes.

O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?

Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations?
Will you not revive us again, so that your people may rejoice in you?

Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise up to praise you? Selah
Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness?

O LORD, why do you cast me off? Why do you hide your face from me?

How long, O LORD? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire?

Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David?

Have you not rejected us, O God?

My eyes fail with watching for your promise; I ask, “When will you comfort me?”

How long must your servant endure? When will you judge those who persecute me?

(Psalm 6:3, 5; 10:1, 13; 13:1; 22:1; 30:9; 35:17; 42:9; 43:2; 60:10; 74:1; 74:10, 11; 77:7-9; 79:5, 10; 80:4; 85:5-6; 88:10-12, 14; 89:46, 49; 108:11; 119:82, 84)

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I had a peculiar, yet remarkable experience the other day performing the most simple of actions – shifting my body weight from resting on my heels to the balls of my feet. Modern culture tells us the way to stand is stomach (and rear) in, chest out, shoulders back. This normally happens with locked knees and the weight resting on the heels of the feet. One notable observation of this posture is that while seeming dignified it is absolutely rigid and quite lifeless. That is because when one stands like that the body actually naturally slumps and a tense rigidity is required to hold the body upright. Spontaneous action and true gracefulness are near impossible with stiffness. It’s inherent inflexibility may do well at achieving marked out goals, but at what cost?

Oddly enough, the with the opposite posture (stomach out, pelvis back, knees slightly bent, weight on balls of feet), one stands up straight naturally, without tensing the body. The other day, as I was doing a couple of stretching exercises, getting my weight to rest on the balls of my feet, I suddenly had a strange stronger-than-usual sense that my feet were firmly on the ground. I began to sob as the following quote from C.S. Lewis’ Perelandra ran through my head: “Be comforted…It is no doing of yours…Be comforted small one, in your smallness. He [God] lays no merit on you. Receive and be glad. Have no fear, lest your shoulders be bearing the weight of the world. Look! It is beneath your head and carries you.”

The first posture of rigidity is that of holding one’s self up, of bearing the weight of the world on one’s own shoulders. The latter posture is that of being grounded, standing securely on terra firma, allowing it to hold you. Being a historical over-achiever (which is by no means undiluted joy I assure you) I know the pressure of bearing the weight of the world on my shoulders. This self-sufficiency, rooted in a lack of trust (of God and others), draws enormous affirmation and acclaim from others because of the apparent achievements. Yet at what cost are these achievements made? Can one ever feel secure when holding themselves up? Can one ever give and receive love while burdened with the weight of the world? Remember that the posture of self-sufficiency naturally slumps without a counter-active stringent stiffness to hold the body up. One reason why the self-sufficient person is full of anxiety is because they are intuitively aware that if they fail to hold firm, they will slump and their true (natural) state of indignity will be revealed, in other words, if they fail to maintain an unyielding high level of performance continually, all will crash: the internal barrenness, fear, loneliness and uncertainty will be revealed. The slump that their posture naturally produces will be seen as it is.

Scripture seems at least metaphorically to refer to this “grounding:”

Ps. 27:5 – For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.

Ps. 40:2 – He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.

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