First Thursday in Great Lent
Kathisma 2 (Psalms 9-16)
“How long, O Lord, wilt Thou utterly forget me? How long wilt Thou turn Thy face away from me?” (Psalm 12)
While talking with some atheist friends, they brought up this “slam dunk” argument against God’s existence/involvement: Why is there so much evil in the world? It sure looks like the evil prosper and the good suffer and that’s that.
What amused me was their smug attitude while suggesting such a thing… as if I were only a Christian because this particular fact of life had never occurred to me. “Are you kidding me?” I asked. “The Psalter – the hymnbook of the Church – is absolutely FILLED with that very problem!” Christians who read/chant/pray the Psalter basically sing this very complaint several times during the course of a week. Hey, God! Where are You? I look around me and all I see are wicked people prospering, their bellies are filled, they are comfortable, confident, secure, and unafraid of anything as they trample the people around them. What is going on?
If you are immersed in the Psalter, you can up the ante on folks like my atheist friends. The problem isn’t only that these wicked people are stealing, killing, and destroying ‘people;’ the problem is compounded when you see that the ‘people’ being downtrodden are more specifically God’s people! So why isn’t He doing anything about it?
That is the question asked again and again in the Psalter, and that means it is a good question. It is an acceptable question. If you are a Christian asking this question, don’t let anyone make you feel guilty or tell you to ‘turn that frown upside down.’ You’re in better company with all the saints of the ages asking the question than you’d be pretending you didn’t feel the way you do.
It is a good question, but the Christian Faith expressed in the Psalter isn’t only faith for the present day; it has an element of hope for the future. Faith that is seen is no faith, says St. Paul. Faith waits, anticipates, and trusts. God has promised that the problem we have identified, while a legitimate problem, is only a temporary one.
If you pay close attention to the movement of prayer in this Kathisma (Psalms 9-16), you’ll see that especially from Psalm 12 to the end of 16 this question is addressed. Read through it. Pray through it. You’ll finish with these words: ‘They have satisfied themselves with swine and have left the remnants for their babes. But as for me, in righteousness shall I appear before Thy face; I shall be filled when Thy glory is made manifest in me.’