Psalm 6:2-3, Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing; heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled. My soul also is greatly troubled. But You, O LORD—how long?
Suffering is this world’s greatest question. “Why do bad things happen to good people,” we ask. Because no one is good. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that people can be good. Does this nature of a good person immunise them from bad things? Of course not. That’s absurd. We live in a world corrupt with sin as we also live with sinful people. Bad things happen to everyone, and they’re going to keep happening until our Lord returns. Instead of asking such a question with no satisfactory answer, let us instead turn to the Lord in our languishing. Not with questions demanding answers we can never fathom nor accept, but with pleas of grace and deliverance.
God has not promised to give us all the answers, but He has promised to be our refuge. As our refuge, we take shelter in Him from our troubles as we wait for the Day of the Lord. How long? Another fathomless question with no satisfactory answer.
We might not have all the answers, but even if we did, what then? How would we benefit from it? What would we do with all that information? How would things change? Some things are better kept from us. We may not know everything, but we have the knowledge that God our Father is for us, who invites us to come to Him in times of trouble. Most of all, we have the knowledge that His Son Jesus Christ entered this troubled world to save us from it, our troubles of sin, and the troublemaker the Devil. What knowing—what faith—could be greater than that?
The Lutheran Column 