Suffering

Readings for today: Psalms 108-109

I have walked into great suffering. The people of the land into which I have come are suffering under a brutal drought. Famine has robbed them of their food supply. Plagues of locusts have stolen what little was left over the years. They are in danger of mass starvation. Compounding this terrible and tragic condition is prevalence of khat. A powerful drug that is a major cash crop in eastern Ethiopia. Plane loads of the stuff are shipped all over the Horn of Africa. But much of it stays right here. So many of the locals suffer from addiction to this drug. They chew the leaves and then lay blasted out of their minds on the sidewalks and streets of the city. It’s heartbreaking. Layer in the widespread poverty. The ongoing and historic tensions between tribes. And the violence that breaks out occasionally and it makes for an utterly hopeless condition.

I imagine David was familiar with such suffering. Anyone who can write these words knows suffering intimately. “For I am poor and needy, and my heart is stricken within me. I am gone like a shadow at evening; I am shaken off like a locust. My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt, with no fat. I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they wag their heads.” David has experienced much suffering over the course of his life. Despite being called a “man after God’s own heart”, his life was not always up and to the right. He didn’t jump from spiritual mountaintop to spiritual mountaintop. Quite the opposite. He suffered early in his reign. He suffered in the middle of his reign. And here he is at the end of his reign…suffering. He lived on the run when he first was anointed. Fleeing the wrath of Saul. He was betrayed by one of his own sons who launched a rebellion to try to take the kingdom from him. His own sinful pride and lust for power cost him dearly on more than one occasion. David suffers from external forces outside his control and he suffers from internal forces - also outside his control - that exist inside his own heart.

Does any of this sound or feel familiar? It should. This is the story of our lives as well. We are all subject to the principalities and powers of this world. Political forces that pass laws and public policy that impact us on a daily basis. Cultural and social forces that push against all forms of godliness. Economic forces that rise and fall according to the whims of the free market. Global forces that affect supply chains and deny us access to some of the basic staples of life. Not only that, we all suffer from a sinful human nature. The passions and desires that fill our hearts are naturally oriented away from God. It’s why we seem so susceptible to violence, deceit, greed, and selfishness. We are a broken people in desperate need of grace.

David agrees. “Help me, O Lord my God! Save me according to your steadfast love! Let them know that deliverance comes from your hand; you, O Lord, have done it!…With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord; I will praise Him in the midst of the throng. For He stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save him from those who condemn his soul to death.” This is my prayer this week for my brothers and sisters over here in eastern Ethiopia. May it be our prayer as well! May we look to God in the midst of our suffering and trust Him to stand at our right hand in our hour of need.

Readings for tomorrow: 1 Chronicles 23-26