The Book of Psalms

Word Study

"standest afar off," Hebrew ta'amod berachoq (תַּעֲמֹד בְּרָחוֹק), stand at a distance. The psalm opens not with praise but with a raw, honest question: "Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?" It feels to David as though God has withdrawn to a distance precisely when help is most needed. The felt distance of God is real and painful, but it is not the whole truth, as the rest of the psalm will show.

"hidest," ta'lim (תַּעְלִים), conceal, cover over. It seems to him, too, that God is hiding just when the wicked triumph. Scripture does not censor such honesty; it includes this cry in the inspired prayer book of the church. There is holy permission here to bring our bewildered "why?" to God. Note, crucially, that David asks the question to God, not away from Him. He does not abandon God; he wrestles with God. This is the difference between the complaint of faith and the grumbling of unbelief: faith brings its anguished questions to God Himself, still addressing Him as "O LORD."

"times of trouble," le'ittoth batzarah (לְעִתּוֹת בַּצָּרָה), at times of distress. This is the felt experience of many believers: the sense that God is far off and silent in the very hour of greatest need. When God seems far off in your time of trouble, do as David did: do not turn away in bitterness, but turn to God with your honest question, "Why, O LORD?", and keep holding on to Him.

Explanation

The complaint is not really that God is far, but that He is far at the wrong moment. David does not say God stands afar off in general; he says He hides "in times of trouble", absent, it seems, at precisely the hour His presence would matter most. That is the particular sting of the question, and it is honest. Notice, too, what the psalm never does: it never answers the "why." David is given no explanation for the delay; by the end he is simply trusting again (vv16-18), the question left standing but no longer in charge. This is worth learning. Faith is not the state of having all its "why" questions answered; it is the decision to keep addressing them to God, "O LORD," rather than turning them into reasons to walk away.

Gospel Focus

"Why standest thou afar off, O LORD?", this cry of felt abandonment was taken up in its fullest depth by the Lord Jesus Christ, who on the cross prayed a kindred psalm: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me?" (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:46). The sinless Son knew the true distance of God, not merely felt but real, bearing our sin, so that we who deserve to be forsaken never will be. Because Christ endured God standing afar off in our place, we have the promise, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). And so, even when God feels far off, the believer knows by faith that He is near: "the LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him" (Psalm 145:18); "he be not far from every one of us" (Acts 17:27). The felt distance of God is not the reality for those in Christ, for Jesus has brought us near, "ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13). So bring your "why art thou so far?" to God, as David and even Christ did, but know that the cross has settled the deeper question forever: God will never truly forsake His own. He may seem to stand afar off for a time and for wise purposes, but He is nearer than we know, and in Christ He has bound Himself to us with a love that no distance can break.

Word Study

"seen," Hebrew ra'ithah (רָאִיתָה). The wicked had boasted, "God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it" (v11). This is the great lie by which sinners embolden themselves, the delusion that God does not see. David answers it head-on: "Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand." The wicked's confidence that God does not see is fatal folly, for God sees all.

"beholdest," tabbit (תַּבִּיט), look attentively. Far from being blind, God attentively beholds every act of mischief and cruelty. The word is not a passing glance but a fixed and attentive looking; nothing done to the helpless escapes the eye of God.

"requite," latet be'yadekha (לָתֵת בְּיָדֶךָ), to repay by thy hand. And what God beholds, He will repay. His seeing is not idle observation; the mischief and spite He watches He will requite with His own hand.

"committeth himself," ya'azov aleikha (יַעֲזֹב עָלֶיךָ), leaves it upon thee, entrusts. And there is deep comfort here for the oppressed: "the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless." The poor man, unable to defend himself, entrusts his cause to God and finds that God is "the helper of the fatherless."

"helper," ozer (עוֹזֵר). Those with no earthly defender have the best of all defenders in heaven. God has a tender, special care for the helpless, the orphan, the oppressed, "a father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation" (Psalm 68:5). So the psalm turns the tables: the wicked think God does not see, but He sees everything; and the helpless who commit themselves to God find Him to be their sure and mighty helper.

Explanation

There is a quiet wordplay in "the poor committeth himself unto thee." The Hebrew is literally "he leaves it upon thee," and the verb is azav, the same root as "forsake." The wicked man's whole confidence was that God had forsaken and forgotten the world (v11); the poor man's whole confidence is that he can forsake himself, let go, drop the entire weight of his cause into the hands of God. It is the one word turned inside out: the fear was of being abandoned, and the remedy is a chosen self-abandonment onto God. And who does this best? The "fatherless," the orphan with no other arm to lean on. His very helplessness is his qualification, for the one with no earthly protector is free to leave himself wholly upon the "helper of the fatherless."

Gospel Focus

"Thou hast seen it... thou art the helper of the fatherless", the all-seeing God who helps the helpless has come near to us in Jesus Christ, the friend of the poor and the defender of the weak. Nothing escapes His sight, "all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13); the cruelty done to His people is seen, recorded, and will be repaid, for "the Lord... will bring to light the hidden things of darkness" (1 Corinthians 4:5). And God is truly the helper of the fatherless: in Christ, He does not leave His people orphans, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you" (John 14:18), and He adopts the fatherless into His family, "ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15). "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction" (James 1:27), for it reflects the heart of God Himself. So the oppressed and the helpless need not fear that their suffering is unseen or their cause forgotten. The God who sees all has become our helper in Christ; He beholds every wrong, will requite it with His hand, and takes the fatherless as His own children. Commit yourself to Him, as the poor man did, and you will find that the God who seems to stand afar off is in truth the ever- watchful Helper who never fails the helpless who trust in Him.

Word Study

"heard," Hebrew shamata (שָׁמַעְתָּ). The psalm that began in the anguish of God's felt absence ends in the confidence of God's certain hearing: "LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble." Just before, David had declared, "The LORD is King for ever and ever" (v16), the reigning King is not indifferent to the cries of His lowly people. So the whole movement of the psalm is from "why standest thou afar off?" to "thou hast heard the desire of the humble."

"desire," ta'avath (תַּאֲוַת), longing. He hears "the desire of the humble", even before it is fully formed into words, God hears the deep longing of the afflicted heart. This is the mystery of grace in prayer: God stirs the longing, and God answers it.

"humble," anavim (עֲנָוִים), the afflicted, lowly. The humble do not pray in vain, for the King who reigns for ever bends His ear to their cry. God was never truly absent; He was hearing all along, preparing the hearts of His people and inclining His ear to their prayer.

"prepare," takhin (תָּכִין), establish, make ready. And there is a beautiful additional truth: "thou wilt prepare their heart." God not only hears the prayers of the humble; He prepares their hearts to pray.

"heart," libbam (לִבָּם). The very desire that rises to God is itself worked in us by God, who "prepares the heart" and then inclines His ear to hear it. The lowly who feel unheard are, in truth, heard by the King of all the earth.

Explanation

Two hearts stand at opposite ends of this psalm. Early on, the wicked man is fortified in a heart of his own making, "he hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved" (v6), self-assured and self-secured. At the close, the humble have a heart of God's making, "thou wilt prepare their heart." The proud heart braces itself; the humble heart is braced by God. And notice the double preparation in the verse: God prepares the heart to pray, and He "wilt cause thine ear to hear." He readies both ends of the transaction, tuning the asker to ask and His own ear to listen. Even the "desire" He hears runs deeper than speech, the longing before it finds words. So the psalm that opened fearing a God too far off to notice ends confessing a God so near that He shapes the very prayer and bends His ear to catch it.

Gospel Focus

"LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart", this is the assurance of the Gospel, that God hears His humble people and works in them the very prayers He answers. God gives grace to the humble (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5), and Jesus taught that the humble, poor in spirit, and mourning are blessed, for theirs is the kingdom and the comfort (Matthew 5:3-4). The humble publican who could only cry, "God be merciful to me a sinner," went home justified (Luke 18:13-14). And God prepares the very hearts He hears: "it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13); "the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered" (Romans 8:26). Our desires toward God are themselves His gift, worked in us by the Spirit, and He inclines His ear to the cries He Himself has stirred. So the believer who feels his prayers are weak, his longings feeble, his heart hardly able to pray, may take heart: God prepares the heart and hears the desire of the humble. Through Christ our great High Priest, who "ever liveth to make intercession" (Hebrews 7:25), the faintest cry of the lowliest saint reaches the throne and is heard. The King who reigns for ever bends His ear to the humble; humble yourself before Him, and know that your desire, prepared and heard by God, will not be despised, for "a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Psalm 51:17).