Psalm 102 - Does God Care?

Hear my prayer, Lord;

   let my cry for help come to you.

Do not hide your face from me

   when I am in distress.

Turn your ear to me;

   when I call, answer me quickly.

- Psalm 102:1-2

How often have you and I prayed a prayer similar to this:

God, are you listening to me? Are you there? If you are, then please answer me! Oh, and while you are at it, why don’t you go ahead and give me what I want? It would make my life a whole lot easier.

The questions I get asked more than any others are along these lines: “Why does God let bad things happen to good people? Why did God not heal my loved one when I asked? Why does God not heal me? Why does God not fix this? Does He even care?”

The subtitle or description of the 102nd Psalm is: “A prayer of an afflicted person who has grown weak and pours out a lament before the Lord.”

That’s us at times… afflicted people who have grown weak and tired and wonder if God is there or if He cares.

So, how do we answer these questions, or maybe the real question is this: “Does God grant our requests?”

And the answer… Yes, No, and Not Yet!

Sometimes God chooses to answer our prayer and give us what we ask. It doesn’t necessarily mean we, or someone else, is closer to God, or a better Christian. It simply means God chose to grant that request – yes, because we prayed for it, but more importantly, because God, in His Sovereignty, saw fit to grant it.

Other times, God does not grant our requests, regardless of our relationship with Him. He may determine that our prayer is selfish and not what is best for us. As James writes in James 4:3,

When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

- James 4:3

In other words, our request does not fit in His Sovereign plan, so He chooses to not give us what we ask.

Or, God may choose to say, “Wait” or “Not yet.” Maybe getting what we ask in that moment is not what is best for us, or maybe God is testing us to see if we will remain faithful even when our requests are not granted.

The important thing to remember is that God does not say yes, no, or maybe because of our goodness, but because of His. While we may not understand why we have to suffer and not get what we want, we can be assured that regardless of His answer to our prayers, our God is a good God who has a good plan for us.

So, we can lament. In fact, we have permission to cry out to God and even wonder if He hears and cares.

But when it comes right down to it, He does, and He asks that we trust Him even when the answer does not make sense to us, for we can know, with absolute certainty, that it makes perfect sense to Him.

Pastor Ken

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