God hears our cries, understands our needs and is with us

Our readings this morning (Psalm 102, Exodus 6.2-13 and Hebrews 10.26-end) provide three different responses to trouble and difficulty. In the reading from Exodus we hear of people so broken in their spirits by the cruelty of slavery that they cannot hear the message of redemption. In the Psalm we hear a prayer of complaint about the trouble and difficulty that the Psalmist is experiencing and in the Letter to the Hebrews we hear of people who show compassion towards others in the midst of enduring their own suffering.

It would be easy to turn these into a hierarchy of responses; a kind of version of good, better, best that may be closer to bad, better and best. Yet, these are all stories of responses from God’s people; and in the stories all experience God’s presence alongside them. The people of Israel are rescued from slavery regardless of whether they can believe it is to happen or not. The Psalmist who anxiously prays, ‘O my God, do not take me in the midst of my days’ ends that same prayer with the statement that ‘The children of your servants shall continue, and their descendants shall be established in your sight.’ Those receiving the Letter to the Hebrews read that after they have endured their suffering, they will receive what was promised.

In differing ways God meets each in their troubles suggesting that we are not dealing with a case of bad, better and best but instead relating to a God who truly understands who we are and the differing ways in which we respond to trouble and difficulty. Years of slavery would break many, if not most of us, in our spirits. God understands that reality and hears the groans of those who are broken by abuse and oppression. All of us are likely to have been in same place as the Psalmist; of railing at God for the unfairness of life. I read a post the other night from a friend expressing the heartbreak of all the ways in which our current constraints were impacting their family. It was absolutely right that that person expressed their feelings and God is big enough to take it. As the Psalmist experienced, God doesn’t criticise complaint. Complaint means we are in conversation and relationship with God. In situations, like that of the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews and its readers, where we can have that kind of confidence in God then endurance in ourselves and compassion towards others also becomes possible.

We may each empathise with a different reading and response this morning in our own response to the trouble and difficulty that we all face at this time. Whatever our response these readings assure us that God hears our cries, understands our needs and is with us however we react and respond.

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Mark Heard - Strong Hand Of Love.