“How Long? God and Suffering”

The song “40” by the band U2 has long been one of my favorite songs. Before I knew that it was a rendition of Psalm 40, I loved its soothing melody and refrain of “how long?” I remember joining my voice with thousands of other voices at a U2 concert in singing those words.

Little did I know then, but I was participating in a time-honored tradition that goes back at least to the writing of the Psalms, if not before. Individual and community lament are a vital part of the life of faith, and in the Psalms we find some of the most poignant examples of humans crying out to God for relief from pain and sorrow.

As we continue our summer sermon series “A Thinking Person’s Guide to Faith” this Sunday, we will take on the question of how we are to think about God and Suffering. We will do so through the lens of Psalm 13, a classic example of an individual psalm of lament.

It’s not the easiest topic to discuss, for sure, but it’s vitally important. All of us will know sorrow and pain at some point in this life, and each of us may wonder where God is and how God acts in the midst of it. So I hope you will join us on Sunday morning as together we wrestle with one of the fundamental questions of our faith.