My soul refused to be comforted

"In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed." Psalm 77:2-3

"My soul refused to be comforted." There is a sentence none of us would dare put in a public prayer. It is in Israel's prayer book.

And the next is worse: I remembered God, and was troubled. Not "I remembered God and was comforted". Here, the memory of God increases the pain. The man writing this is a believer, he prays at night with his hands stretched out, and thinking about God makes him groan.

Let those two verses say what they say. The Bible did not censor this man. It did not correct his prayer to make it edifying. It kept it as it was, in the collection they sang in the temple.

That is an enormous permission for anyone going through a season in which faith brings no comfort at all. You are not outside the people of God when you are there. You are in Psalm 77.

Note the first clause even so: I sought the Lord. He has not stopped. It is the only thread holding, and it holds. He feels nothing good, he refuses to be comforted, and he goes on seeking. All three at once.

The psalm will turn later — it will start recounting the exodus, the waters that saw God and were afraid. But it turns at verse 11, after ten verses of night. Nobody asked it to be quicker, and you should not ask it of yourself.

Today. If you are in that season, stop adding guilt to the pain. You do not have to feel something to have the right to pray. Stretch out your hands in the night, as he did, and let the rest come when it comes.

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