QUESTIONS AND ISSUES IN THE PSALMS
There are about 150 questions posed in the Pslams. There are many more perplexing, troubling issues that are identified. These questions and issues are common to all of us.
They are expressed as prayers that are often dispairing and even complaining about the hardship and seeming abandonment of God's Presence.
The Psalms give us a direction to follow. Sometimes there is a direct answer, but often it is indirect, a hint, a paradox.
Almost always there is a promise of His help, and an affirmation of His power and provision available to us.
The psalmist's faith, faithfulness, and obedience to God's commands serve as examples and encouragements to us as we meditate the psalm into our need.
I think one of the biggest helps is to realize that God put these questions here because He knows the kinds things we are troubled about. As the psalmists expressed these issues to God, God had them recorded/written for us. Here we see that our problems and questions are things that God knows about.
He cares about what we care about. What matters to us, matters to Him.
HOW TO USE THESE QUESTIONS
These questions and God's response to them must be carefully, thoughtfully, slowly, repeatedly considered. The significance of these issues change with our changing age, maturity, and varying experience.
We must think God's responses through many times over the years.
This is
meditation at its best.
Journal your problem, using the psalmist's description of the problem to gain personal insight. Writing out God's multi-varied responses, promises, and His Self-proclamations will focus your thoughts on
Who God Really Is and What He really Does.
Copy to your computer and/or print so you have them available for your future meditations.
Herein you will
Grow in grace and knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 3.18
2.1----Why do the nations
conspire and the peoples plot in vain?
3.1----O Lord, how many are
my foes!
How many rise up against
me!
4.1----Give me relief from
my distress.
4.2----How long will men
turn Your glory into shame?
How long will they
love delusions and seek false gods?
4.6----Many ask, “Who
can/will show us any good?
6.3----My soul is in
anguish:
How long, O Lord, how
long?
6.5----Who praises you from
the grave?
8.4----What is man that You
are mindful of him,
the son of man that You
care for him?
10.1---Why, O Lord, do you
stand far off?
Why do You hide Yourself in
times of trouble?
10.13--Why does the wicked
man revile God?
Why does he say to himself,
“He won't call me to account?”
11.1---In the Lord I take
refuge.
How then can you say to me:
“Flee like a bird to your mountain?”
11.3---When the foundations
are being destroyed,
what can the righteous
do?”
12.3-4-The flattering,
boastful tongue says,
“We will triumph with
our tongues;
we own our lips—who is
our master?”
13.1---How long, O Lord?
Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your
face from me?
13.2---How long must I
wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow
in my heart?
How long will my enemy
triumph over me?
14.4---Will evil-doers never
learn?
15.1---Who may dwell in Your
Sanctuary?
18.31--Who is God besides
the Lord?
Who is the Rock except our
God?
19.12—Who can discern his
errors?
22.1---My God, my God, why
have You forsaken me?
Why are You so far from
saving me,
so far from the words of
my groaning?
24.3---Who may ascend the
hill of the Lord?
Who may stand in His Holy
Place?
24.8, 10—Who is this King
of Glory?
25.12—Who is the man who
fears the Lord?
27.1---Who shall I fear?
Of whom shall I be afraid?
30.9---What gain is there in
my destruction?
In my going down into the
pit?
Will the dust praise You?
Will it proclaim Your
Faithfulness?
35.10—Who is like You, O
Lord?
35.17—O Lord, how long
will You look on?
(ie, watch my suffering)
41.5—My enemies say about
me: When will he die and his name perish?
42.3---Men say to me all day
long, “Where is your God?”
42.5—Why are you downcast,
O my soul?
42.9—Why have You
forgotten me?
Why must I go about
mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?
42.10---My foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
42.11-Why are you downcast,
O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
43.5—Why are you downcast,
O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
44.21—Does not God expose
the secrets of our heart?
44.23—O Lord, why do You
sleep?
44.24—Why do You hide Your
face and forget our misery?
50.13—Do I eat the flesh
of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
50.16—To the wicked, God
says, “What right have you to recite My Laws
or take My Covenant on
your lips?”
52.1—Why do you boast of
evil, you might man?
Why do you boast all day
long,
you who are a disgrace in
the eyes of God?
53.4--Will the evil-doers
never learn-
those who devour My people
as men eat bread and do not call on God?
56.4—In God, whose Word I
praise, in God I trust;
I will not be afraid.
What can mortal man do to
me?
56.10-11—In God I trust; I
will not be afraid.
What can mortal man do to
me?
58.1—Do you rulers indeed
speak justly?
Do you judge uprightly
among men?
60.9—Who will bring me to
the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
60.10—Is it not You, O
God, You Who have rejected us
and no longer go out with
our armies?
62.3---How long will you
assault a man?
Would all of you throw him
down--
this leaning wall, this
tottering fence?
64.5---They encourage each
other in evil plans...hiding their snares;
They say, “Who will see
them?...
We have devised a perfect
plan.”
68.16-”Why gaze in envy, O
rugged mountains...
where God chooses to reign,
where the Lord Himself will dwell forever?”
72.19—Who, O God, is like
You?
73.11—How can God know?
Does the Most High have
knowledge?
73.25—Whom have I in
Heaven but you?
74.1—Why have You rejected
us forever, O God?”
Why does You anger smolder
against the sheep of Your pasture?
74.10—How long will the
enemy mock You, O God?
Will the foe revile Your
Name forever?
Why do You hold back Your
hand, Your right hand?
76.11—Who can stand before
You when You are Angry?
77.7-9--
Will the Lord reject
forever?
Will He never show His
favor again?
Will His unfailing love
vanish forever?
Has His promise failed for
all time?
Has God forgotten to be
merciful?
Has He in anger withheld
His compassion?
77.13—What God is so great
as our God?
78.19-20—They spoke
against the God of Israel:
Can God spread a table in
the desert?
Can He also give us food?
Can He supply meat for His
people?
79.5—How long, O Lord?
Will You be angry forever?
How long will Your jealousy
burn like fire?
79.10—The nations say,
“Where is their God?”
80.4—O Lord God Almighty,
How long will Your anger
smolder against the prayers of Your people?
80-12—Why have You broken
down its walls, so that all who pass by pick its grapes?
82.2—How long will You
defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked?
(This is God's question to
us.)
85.5-6--Will You be angry
with us forever?
Will You prolong Your anger
through all generations?
Will You not revive us
again that You people may rejoice in You?
87.10-12—Do You show Your
wonders to the dead?
Do those who are dead rise
and and praise You?
Is Your love declared in
the grave,
Your faithfulness in
destruction?
Are You wonders known in
the place of darkness,
or Your righteous deeds in
the land of oblivion?
87.14—Why, O Lord, do You
reject me and hide Your face from me?
89.6—Who in the skies
above can compare with the Lord?
Who is like the Lord among
the heavenly beings?
89.8—O Lord God Almighty,
who is like You?
89.46—How long, O Lord?
Will You hide Yourself
forever?
How long will Your wrath
burn like fire?
89.48—O Lord God Almighty,
who is like You?
89.49—O Lord, where is
Your former great love,
which in Your
faithfuloness You swore to David?
90.11—Who know the power
of Your anger?
90.13--Relent, O Lord! How
long will it be?
94.8-10—You fools, when
will you become wise?
Does He Who implanted the
ear not hear?
Does He Who formed the eye
not see?
Does He Who disciplines
nations not punish?
Does He Who teaches man
lack knowledge?
94.16—Who will rise up for
me against the wicked?
Who will take a stand for
me against evildoers?
94.20—Can a corrupt throne
be allied with you--
one that brings misery by
its decrees?
101.1-2—I will sing of
Your love and justice;
to You, O Lord, I will sing
praise.
I will be careful to lead a
blameless life-
When will You come to me?
106.2—Who can proclaim the
mighty acts of the Lord
or fully declare His
praise?
108.10-11—Who will bring
me to the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
Is it not You, O God, You
Who have rejected us
and no longer go out with
our armies?
113.5-6—Who is like the
Lord our God,
the one Who sits enthroned
on high,
Who stoops down to look on
the heavens and earth?
114.5-6—Why was it, O sea,
that you fled,
O Jordan that you turned
back,
You mountains, that you
skipped like rams,
You hills, like lambs?
115.2--Why do the nations
say, “Where is their God?”
116.12—How can I repay the
Lord for all His goodness to me?
118.6—The is with me; I
will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
119.9—How can a young man
keep his way pure?
By living according to
Your Word.
119.82—My eyes fail
looking for Your promise;
I say, “When will You
comfort me?”
119.84—How long must Your
servant wait?
When will You punish my
persecutors?
120.3—What will He do to
you, O deceitful tongue,
and what more besides?
121.1—I lift up my eye to
the hills--
Where does my help come
from?
130.3—If You, O Lord, kept
a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
137.4.--How can we sing the
songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?
139.7—Where can I go from
Your Spirit?
Where can I flee from Your
presence?
139.21—Do I not hate those
who hate you, O Lord,
and abhor those who rise up
against You?
144.3—O Lord, what is man
that you care for him
the son of man that You
think of him?
147.17—Who can withstand
His icy blast?
urn Your glory into shame?
How long will they
love delusions and seek false gods?
