“I cry out to God; yes, I shout. Oh, that God would listen to me! When I was in deep trouble, I searched for the Lord. All night long I prayed, with hands lifted toward heaven, but my soul was not comforted. I think of God, and I moan, overwhelmed with longing for his help. Interlude You don’t let me sleep. I am too distressed even to pray! I think of the good old days, long since ended, when my nights were filled with joyful songs. I search my soul and ponder the difference now. Has the Lord rejected me forever? Will he never again be kind to me? Is his unfailing love gone forever? Have his promises permanently failed? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he slammed the door on his compassion? Interlude And I said, “This is my fate; the Most High has turned his hand against me.” But then I recall all you have done, O Lord; I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago. They are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works. O God, your ways are holy. Is there any god as mighty as you? You are the God of great wonders! You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations. By your strong arm, you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Interlude When the Red Sea saw you, O God, its waters looked and trembled! The sea quaked to its very depths. The clouds poured down rain; the thunder rumbled in the sky. Your arrows of lightning flashed. Your thunder roared from the whirlwind; the lightning lit up the world! The earth trembled and shook. Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters— a pathway no one knew was there! You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep, with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.”
Psalms 77:1-20 NLT
Humanity has a problem. It is a finite creature standing before an infinite god. The scope of his reach is small. The depth of his understanding is limited. He always, and will always, need perspective. This perspective will always be unintuitive to him. He will have to work past himself and his constraints to be a meaningful part of infinity. But we are not without tools to aid us. God, in his infinite longing for relationship, has given us the tools of logic and memory by which we can navigate the past and the future while only living in the present. He has made things orderly acrossed time so that we are not forgotten to it. And he places markers in nature and in direct interactions and events that help us navigate our finiteness with an infinite perspective. We are commanded to remember him when we feel overwhelmed. When we lose sight of him in our finiteness, we can look to our memory to find him in the past. We can to our logic to find him in the future. And we can live with hope that he truly is who he claims to be. By remembering who he is, we can access the infinite well of his character and the blessings therein, and find peace in times that do not lend to it. To remember God when you cannot see him is the crux of faith.
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