Jason Silver

Friday, July 5th, 2019

In this video, you may notice a discomforting juxtaposition between energetic music, paired with dark images.

I went with this combination because it is a real tension for believers. On one hand, as people of faith, we push ourselves to find comfort in God. We know we should sing, even on the darkest day. We do not want to be brooders, sorrowing and disheartened.

Yet, as this psalmist says, sometimes we refuse to be comforted. Perhaps the comfort is superficial, a distraction from the pain and brokenness we feel. Sometimes we refuse to be comforted because we are afraid to forget, even for a moment, the troubling circumstances which hold us in their grip.

I've said it before: the antidote for suffering is to stop focusing on one's own pain, and to instead focus on the deeds of God. Remember, as the psalmist does: the deeds of the Lord, the wonders of old, his work, his holiness, his greatness displayed among his people!

I try to set up memory mile-markers, as touch-stones for my own life. I can look back at these moments, because I demarcated the times God rescued me. As one person put it, never doubt in the darkness what God has clearly shown in the light. If you fail to note those times of grace, how will you recall them?

Has God shown himself to you? Perhaps you should write down those "mercy moments" in which he made himself known. Use it as a reference every time you cry aloud to God.

Amen.