Have you ever felt like God has let you down?

Perhaps illness has come into your life. Perhaps you wanted a baby and it never happened. Perhaps you experienced a personal and brutal attack. Perhaps you have been so stressed or anxious that you wondered if it wouldn’t just be better if you weren’t on the earth.

Psalm 88 is unique. Unlike some of the other psalms of sorrow, it doesn’t end on an uptick. It ends with this lonely statement: “You have taken from me friend and neighbor—darkness is my closest friend” (verse 18).

Perhaps you’ve been there.

Charles Crabtree has an insightful way of looking at things: “don’t put a period where God puts a comma.”*

In other words, don’t think difficulty is the end of the story. Don’t assume that things are settled when they’re not. God works in his own time and in his own way.

For example, consider this sentence. “I feel alone.” Period. But the period is premature. Let’s try it again with a comma and more information. “I feel alone, but my feelings can’t always be trusted because God is sustaining me.” The comma replaces the period meaning that what we see isn’t all there is to see.

I really appreciate Psalm 88. It’s brutally honest and desperate. But if you look closely enough, you realize that there is more happening than hopeless separation from God. Heman continues to pray (the whole text is a prayer), he believes in a God of salvation (verse 1), his hardship is making him wise (see 1 Kings 4:31), and he encourages us to keep worshiping (the prayer has been recorded specifically to be used by God’s people in worship).

Hardship is hard. Maybe you feel like God has let you down. But don’t stop there.

Don’t put a period where God puts a comma.

---

Notes:

–“When you feel like God has let you down.” Sermon. May 28, 2023. Click here.

–New blog and podcast: “45 Quotes by Tim Keller.” Click here. You can also listen at ‘The Pulse Podcast with Matthew Ruttan’ wherever you subscribe: Apple, Google, Spotify, Amazon, Audible, Stitcher and TuneIn.

—On Air! – Did you know you can help support The Up Devotional on morning radio as it reaches thousands of people at 8:15 a.m. on Ontario’s LIFE FM Christian Radio Network? Visit this link to learn more, hear a sample, or make a tax deductible donation.

–*As quoted in: Mark Batterson, The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2014), 243.

–Bible quotes are from the NIV.