Disappointed and Angry
“Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray.”
Psalm 5:1-2 (ESV)
When a great disappointment cuts deep, it seems as though nothing can console you. It was that way for me after my diving accident. I couldn’t fathom life with total paralysis, and I collapsed into deep depression. After a while, dark resentments began to brew and soon, my depression turned into anger.
My anger festered and spewed out on everyone around me. One brave friend called my nastiness ‘verbal vomit’ and decided to intervene by showing me Psalm 77:7-9. Here the psalmist fires six questions in rapid succession at the Lord. Out of a place of overwhelming hurt and disappointment, the psalmist cries out, “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?” (NLT).
For the first time since my accident, I actually identified with something in the Bible! Psalm 77 didn’t try to tiptoe around my anguish; it gave honest words to my torment. The explosive questions helped me to see how I could turn my anger into something helpful if I would only turn toward God with it. The Psalm shook me awake. It helped me see that God heard my cry. He understood my agony. More than that, when I prayed “God, have you forgotten to be gracious?” I sensed his answer deep within me, whispering: My child, I will never forget you. Open your heart and I will pour into it grace upon grace to help you through.
We reframe our suffering when we hand-pick a psalm to voice our heart-wrenching questions. When we find a psalm and use it as a prayer, we are speaking God’s language, echoing his own words back to him.
So, in whatever ways you feel anguish today, wrap it around a biblical psalm and speak God’s Word back to him. And he will give you the most powerful answer of all—himself.
Lord, I thank you for hearing every groan and all my cries. Pay attention to my prayers for only you intimately know all my inexpressible fears and longings. Lead me in your righteousness and make your way straight before me (see Psalm 5, NLT).
Pressing On: How to Lean on Christ through Suffering
After more than 55 years living with quadriplegia and chronic pain, Joni Eareckson Tada knows what it means to “press on” through suffering. Joni encourages you to join her in living out Philippians 3:14: “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
