Psalm 30:11-12 The Hiddenness of God

/ The Redeker Respite

Saturday, July 6

The Hiddenness of God

  • Psalm 30:11  You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
  •                         you have loosed my sackcloth
  •                         and clothed me with gladness,
  • 12      that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
  •             O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

     King David was delivered from whatever caused him lamentation. He moved from terror to exuberating joy. We need to be careful here, however, not turn this into a “cause and effect” relationship with God. In other words, “If I live more humbly, if I pray more often, if I keep my nose cleaner, then God will heal and deliver me from this mess I’m in.” David doesn’t promote anything like that in this prayer. He doesn’t say, “God delivered me and therefore He will deliver you too. Believe it!” Not everyone’s prayer is answered so dramatically as David’s was.

     This psalm “makes a space in the hearts of the faithful for faith’s imagination and desire to grow. He also preserves a sense of mystery or hiddenness in the ways of Yhwh. As Charles Williams says, how God works is beyond our comprehension, but not our attention (The Forgiveness of Sins, 99).”[1]

     A pastor recounts a visit with one of his members:

She was 98 years old. She was blind. She could hardly walk; her body was crippled with arthritis. She had lost her husband years ago to cancer. When I would visit with her, I would say to her, “How are you today, Margaret?” She would always reply, “I have no complaints.” “Are you sure?” I would ask. “I got a roof over my head; I eat three meals a day; I have people who love me, and I know the Lord Jesus. Believe me, Pastor,” she would say, “I have no complaints!”

There’s a hiddenness about God that we simply cannot fathom and understand, especially during times and seasons of suffering and tragedy. Nevertheless, God makes promises. He’s with you no matter what. The language of lamentation shapes the Christian in a life of trust and hope, living in the reality of the moment yet ever forward-looking in the certain hope of Christ Jesus.

In the meantime, God doesn’t remain hidden. The hiddenness of God is uncovered and found in the manger, the life and ministry of Jesus, the cross, and the empty Easter tomb. The hiddenness of God is uncovered to you in God’s Word, through baptismal waters, through confession and absolution in worship, and in Holy Communion—bread and Christ’s Body, wine and Christ’s blood, broken and shed for you for the express purpose that you are assured God forgives you and loves you. Unbelief causes us to look at God through our circumstances, and this creates hopelessness; but faith enables us to look at our circumstances through the reality of God, and this gives us hope.

[1] Timothy E. Saleska, Psalms 1–50, ed. Christopher W. Mitchell, Concordia Commentary (Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2020), 497. Ftnt 21.

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