I am pondering Ps 88.14 this morning and the fact that it is often in our deepest difficulties that God appears to be no where in sight. I am reminded of C. S. Lewis' comment in A Grief Observed:
“Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him…you will be—or so it feels—welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become.”
John Calvin points out that this kind of question is proof that the writer has not given up on God, that: The Psalmist does not proudly enter into debate with God, but mournfully desires some remedy to his calamities.
I agree with Calvin's thinking on this passage, although it does not make the experience any easier. In all of the tests and trials of a believer, this is probably the most difficult, persevering when God is silent.
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