Serving a Close God, Even When He Seems Far

“Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.” (Psalm 63: 3-8, ESV)

When I was pregnant with Piper, the craziest idea to wrap my head around was that she felt so far away and yet she was literally right with me all the time. It’s hard to reconcile those feelings: that your child, being grown inside your body, feels so far away because it take nine months to grow them. You can’t hold them. You can’t see them. You can’t track their progress outside of your own growing belly and the occasional scheduled sonogram. 

Sure, you feel your baby kick and move around inside you, and you talk to them constantly, but for some reason, in my brain, it always felt like my daughter was a million miles away. Until she was born, then POP! All of a sudden, she was real and there and bigger than I could imagine being stuffed up inside my belly.

So close yet so far away. Seemingly out of reach, yet ever present.

And that is the best analogy I have of how it feels with the Lord sometimes. Because in our humanity, we like something we can touch, visit with, and see. We like something we can acknowledge is right in front of us. But God isn’t visible or tangible in that way, yet He is ever-present and closer than we could ever fathom. 

And just like when your child is born: There is nothing like holding that child. There is no love like meeting them and seeing them and experiencing being with them. For those who desire to be parents, there is absolutely nothing that compares to it. It is better than anything else life has to offer.

In today’s verse, David makes that same correlation. God’s love, to David, is better than life. There is nothing that compares to it or dims its awesomeness. There is nothing else that is worth being the centerpiece of David’s life more than God and His lovingkindness. 

He says there is no food that could be rich enough to satisfy the way the Lord does. There is nothing else worth meditating on during the night hours when sleep evades more than the Lord is. There is nothing and no one that is more deserving of the praises and songs that David has dedicated to the Lord. 

In today’s culture, we are in awe of artists and how they can create so much art in the name of love and passion. Think Dolly Parton and all the songs she’s ever written– over 5,000. Think Emily Dickenson and her 1,800 poems. Think Picasso and his 13,000 paintings. 

And King David? Maybe he wrote secular songs and love letters to his wives, but His psalms to the Lord are what has stood the test of time. His passion for God and his devotion for what God did in his life were what he left behind. And I think that’s the way he would have wanted it. Because when David was in the wilderness, being hunted and scorned, he still found a way to praise the Lord and lean fully on Him. When David was experiencing the victory and the promises of God, he stopped to glorify Him. When David spent the night hours awake while the rest of the world slept, He turned to God.

Because David knew: when he felt alone, God was still there. David knew God’s ever-present nature. He experienced God’s closeness. Now don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of psalms where David asks why it feels that God has left him. David had his moments. But in many of his psalms, you can see that David has a deep awareness of God’s always being there, even when He can’t be seen, heard, or touched.

We should be encouraged to see that way today. God has never left us. We may go through our days wrapped up in our own humanity– caught up in the visceral and sensory experience of it all– but we can also go through life acknowledging and being aware that He is always there. The way a pregnant mother always carries her child with her throughout her day, we always have our God walking beside us.

And that should provide unmatched comfort. It should move us to praise Him with every song we have in our hearts. It should encourage us to think about Him more throughout the day and to turn our minds to Him at night when we are awake and the rest of the world is at rest. Let’s train ourselves to be aware of Him and to recognize that He is our help and we walk in the shadow of His wings. By His grace and salvation, our souls cling to Him, and He sustains us. 

We should sing for joy. We should bless His name and praise Him. His constant, consistent love for us is better than life itself. It’s the very best we could ever experience or know. 

He deserves our devotion to Him every day. He is nearer to you than your closest friend. More attentive than any lover. And He is the very best we could have in this life.