"God's 'Tender Mercies' and the World's (Our) Pain"

Ps. 116:5, NIRV

     In our last post we discussed the beautiful “tender mercies” of God, as spelled out with surprising frequency in scripture.^[1]  Today we ask: “Does a celebration of God’s ‘tender mercies’ (and deep resting in those ‘tender mercies’) hold up as solid reality—even in light of all the pain and troubles in our world today?  Does it hold up in light of such troubles in our own lives?”  Many great authors have tackled this puzzling, enigmatic question.  We look at some of their wisdom and answers in this post—before moving on to our own personal reflections.

     At the end of the nineteenth century the timeless Bible commentators Robert Jamieson, Andrew Fausset, and David Brown wrote words that seem surprisingly apt today (especially when we consider current difficulties, added in brackets).  They addressed the above questions about God’s “tender mercy” and the world’s manifold troubles and pain: admittedly, one of the thorniest questions that arises in the walk of faith.

     These authors first offer one of the many lovely psalm passages that focus upon God’s “tender mercies”: “The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works” (Ps. 145:9).  Then they comment:

. . . Kindness is a law of God's universe, the world was planned for happiness; even now that sin [terrorism, prejudice, war, increasingly severe storms connected with climate change, etc.] has so sadly marred God's handiwork, and introduced elements which were not from the beginning. ...  Even in this sin-stricken world, under its disordered economy, there are abundant traces of a hand skilful to soothe distress and heal disease.  That which makes life bearable is the tenderness of the great Father ... (emphasis added).^[2]

     These authors suggest that we do not live in a world that is entirely as our Creator intended it to be, yet God’s "everlasting lovingkindness" and “tender mercy” steadfastly remain and are ready to make abundant difference for those who reach for it.^[3]

     Something similar was said by the noted commentator G. K. Chesterton (beloved by C. S. Lewis).  Chesterton suggested that it is humankind that has “made a great mess” of an original design:

According to most [of the ancient] philosophers, God in making the world enslaved it.  According to Christianity [however], in making it, He set it free.  God had written, not so much a poem, but rather a play; a play he had planned as perfect, but which had necessarily been left to human actors and stage-managers, who had since made a great mess of it.^[4]  

     More recently, seminary professor Dr. Robert Cathey said: God does not rule the world by brute control but runs the risk of creative, suffering love.^[5]

     Or consider the thought of Hildegard of Bingen, who has recently been made a Doctor of the Church in Catholic tradition.  In a vision Hildegard heard the very “complaint of the [earth’s] elements.”  They said, “We can no longer operate and accomplish our tasks, as we were appointed to do by our Master.  For men [and women] have upset us by their wicked actions, [have] churned us as in a mill.”^[6]

     Continuing with this same theme of disruption of an original 

design, the noted theologian Helmut Thielicke spoke in a 

segment of a bombed out church in a devastated Germany 

near the end of WWII.  Looking at the tragic scenes all around 

him, he said that in “the Bible again and again ... [we see] the 

powers of sin and suffering and [even] death....  They are 

disorderly and unnatural powers which broke into God’s plan 

of creation....  None of this did God will, none of it did God 

send” (emphasis added).^[7]

     In Thielicke’s understanding there is now a “rift that runs through the midst of creation.”^[8]  Yet, in spite of this rift, God is utterly and everlastingly faithful.  God never deserts us—God provides many antidotes and abundant healing, restorative, revivifying measures.

     “There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole” the old African-American spiritual promises (note Jer. 8:22).  These words were conceived and sung by those who knew struggle, pain, and suffering all too well.  

     This haunting spiritual continues: “Sometimes I feel discouraged / And think my work’s in vain / But then the Holy Spirit / Revives my soul again.”  These are the words of those who knew (know): “There is a [healing, restoring, revivifying] balm in Gilead . . . !”

     Or, in our own small offering of this type:

We do not have the “why” of suffering . . .

we only have the “Who”: 

“Who” can help us?

“Who” has known it?

“Who” has triumphed? *

“Who” can guide us?

The “Who” will tenderly take our hand . . .

and somehow walk us through!

* See Lk. 24:1-10.

     Thielicke would have understood both sets of thought above.  

Even in the wreckage of a bombed church (even having recently 

survived the threats of Nazi surveillance), he could speak of 

nearly miraculous hope and the “heart of a Father” that continues 

to beat tenderly for us:

Every one of his [Jesus’] sayings is a pastoral, brotherly address.  And this is what he says….  “[I]n a world of wounds and sickness and war . . . I hear you complaining. . . .

     “But look, don’t you see that everything that torments you and makes you complain grieves my Father and your Father?  Your sorrows are his sorrows; otherwise would I be standing here among you?  He has sent me into the midst of your sorrow. 

“Every wound I lay my healing hand upon has ached a

thousand times in me … I died the death that I myself defeated; 

I let my own body be torn and buried in the earth.  Who among

you suffers and I do not suffer with you? …  I am your comrade

and brother in every pain, whatever your lot may be…. 

[And] who[ever] sees me … suffering with you sees the Father suffering [Jn. 14:9].  God suffers pain for you and with you; do

you understand this?”[9]

          Again, addressing the idea that “Your sorrows are his sorrows,” Thielicke says:

. . . Jesus’ struggle against them [“disorderly . . . unnatural powers which broke into God’s plan of creation”] often took on dramatic form.  At the grave of his friend Lazarus, Jesus wept tears of mingled anger and sorrow [Jn. 11].  His spirit was angered by the dark powers that snatched away his friend and was grieved that these powers should be able to break into God’s world. . . .  And in the healing of the paralytic [Mk. 9], Jesus again makes it very plain [regarding] . . . the sickness which he healed. . . .  All of these things are signs of the disorder, the rift that runs through the midst of creation.^[10]

     Yet, in spite of this rift, for Thielicke that healing restorative balm that the old spiritual proclaims is amply available, even in the darkest of times: “[We] are given the news, no, not only the ‘news,” it is actually demonstrated to us in the fact of ‘Jesus,’ that . . . hope nevertheless is there, miraculously and incomprehensibly there—and that the heart of a Father is beating for us.”^[11]

      And how can we know this?  Thielicke again turns to scripture:

I shall try . . . to trace the lines of Scripture that give an answer to the question [of the “disorderly and unnatural”].  And I begin [first] with a statement which is familiar to all of us [especially in devastating times].     

There is prevalent among us Christians a manner of speech that

manifests itself every time something terrible happens to us; it occurs,

for example in many death notices.  “God, the Almighty, has taken away

our son….  God has sent loneliness upon me [etc.].”  The idea back of all

these expressions is that it is God who sends all these terrible things upon us….  This is an utterly and completely unbiblical idea. [12] 

(And then Thielicke continues with our first quotation of him above, regarding what is seen in “the Bible again and again. . . .  None of this did God will, none of it did God send.”)

      At the same time, Thielicke would be well aware that we ourselves must reach to receive and know the healing balm and the tender love of the “Father’s heart” that always waits.  In the want and deprivation of the early post-war years in Germany he wrote regarding our reaching in prayer.

[H]e who immediately and daily transforms every care into a prayer will still have to face the riddles of life and its mysterious leadings.  But the riddles will no longer torment him, because he has contact with the Father's heart, the heart he sees in his brother Jesus Christ. . . .  “Nevertheless I am continually with thee” [Ps. 73:23]. . . .

     . . . [As I grow in faith] I know that the dark future . . . cannot faze or daunt me, that in all the storms of life I have a place of peace where I can lay my head and relax and sleep, just as Jesus slept in the plunging ship while the faithless disciples were driven half mad by fear [Mk. 4:35-41].^[13]

                                             

     Thielicke offers a beautiful illustration in this regard:      

If we want a simple illustration—and the nearer we come to ultimate things the simpler everything becomes—we may think of a child, walking through a forest at night, holding on to its father's hand.  The moonlight casts a ghostly shimmer. . . .  [There are] ominous sounds—the creaking of branches and the croaking call of night birds. . . .  It is all there and it can produce fear.  But the child walks on calmly and bravely, holding on to the father's strong and knowing hand, and is mysteriously withdrawn from it all (emphasis added).”^[14]

     Similarly, Evelyn Underhill writes: “In . . . high moments we get past the puzzles and conflicts of existence.  We don’t solve them, but we transcend them.”^[15]

     This is what Thielicke is speaking about also—transcending with God’s help.  In another striking illustration, thinking of experiences at some of the worst moments during the war, Thielicke writes:       

How many a person during the air raids steadied a whole bunker in which fear was beginning to simmer and boil, because he himself was at peace and therefore radiated peace; because he knew him who [WHO] is present in the host of the frightened, who slept in the ship, and who stands at the end of every road that may lead through the dark valley [Lk. 8:23, 

Ps. 23:4].^[16]

     There is indeed SOMEONE WHO tenderly waits and wants to give us the healing balm and the peace beyond understanding that helps us transcend and know that wherever the road may lead, the Shepherd of our souls is there: You are with me.  Your rod and staff comfort me.  (See Phil. 4:7, Ps. 23:4, 1 Pet. 2:25.)

     And again, of the ONE WHO tenderly waits, Thielicke says: “The very greatness of God lies in the fact that he condescends so low.  His omnipotence is surpassed only by one attribute: his love.  And that love comes down to those who cry out for it, and his love is also there to listen to everything for which they pray” (emphasis added).^[17]

     Or, in the words of Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, a person of faith and trust, who walks with the Shepherd, has learned the reality that:

The Creator is never rough, the Provider is never forgetful . . . never cruel.  Nothing is done to create disease, no organs are arranged to promote misery; the incoming of sickness and pain [war, etc.] is not according to the original design, but a result of our disordered state.  Man’s [woman’s] body as it left the Maker’s hand was neither framed for disease, decay, nor death, neither was the purpose of it discomfort and anguish; far otherwise, it was framed for a joyful activity, and a peaceful enjoyment of God (emphasis added).^[18]

     And, in spite of the “disordered state” of our world, Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown write:

Jehovah [our God and Shepherd] has in great consideration laid up in the world cures [balms] for our ailments, and helps for our feebleness. ...  We may be sure of this, that Jehovah [our Shepherd] has never taken delight in the ills of his creatures, but has sought their good, and laid himself out [think again of Jesus’ healing, sacrificial ministry] to alleviate the distresses into which they [humans in the human condition] have . . . plunged themselves. ^[19]

     Each of the authors above suggests that there is a rift that 

runs thru creation (something that the Bible tells us in its own 

way in Gen. 3).  But this in no sense effects God’s 

faithfulness, “everlasting lovingkindness,” and “tender 

mercies,” which can pour as a balm into our lives--healing 

us, uplifting us, and inspiring us with the graces of faith, 

hope and love (the Apostle Paul’s great trio).  

     Or, as we put it in a previous post, God is ever ready 

to bring us surprising, utterly unexpected Easter-hope, 

Christmas-hope, transfigured-hope! ^[20]  However, we do 

need to ask!  Thus, we are aware that all of the above 

will be as mere words until, as Martin Luther knew, one 

begins to have some experiential knowledge of God’s 

Grace and comfort and uplifting “tender mercies.”  As 

one of Luther’s favorite spiritual classics instructed: 

[W]e shall not be able to carry burdens unless we ask 

to be carried. ^[21]

     In our training in spiritual direction we learned that one should ask/pray for various graces—consolations given by the Holy Spirit.  When we face the burdensome or tragic or the “puzzles and conflicts of existence” that our small human minds will never solve on this side of the veil, we need SOMEONE to be there—to LOVE, comfort, heal, and carry us.  We are encouraged to ask for such graces.  There is no substitute for our own awkward (even hesitant or angry*) effort of reaching toward God: Ask, seek, knock and the door will! be opened (Lk. 11:19).

     *Scripture shows that God can handle our honest anger!^[22]  Job addresses God with candid anger (9:14-10:3), and our 

God of “tender mercy” understands—responding to Job in 

profound personal encounter (Job 38).  God also lets Job know 

that he is both right and wrong (42:7-8; 38:2^[23]).  He is right 

in his genuine honestly (even expressing his pain-filled anger 

at God) but wrong because on this side of the veil, he--in his mortality--cannot grasp the full picture.  (See additional posts 

that discuss the world's darkness and God's love.^[24])

* * *

    

     Thus far in this post, we have allowed great authors and 

theologians to speak of that which is almost too mysterious to 

express or explain.  (Addressing such questions is what 

theologians call theodicy: How shall we balance the existence 

of a loving heavenly Father with the existence of pain and evil?)  

     We now turn to a more personal style of reflection upon our 

topic.  (Note: for thoughts about processing and surviving a 

personal time of struggle see our March post: "Good Friday 

and Easter--In God's Embrace." ^[25])

* * *

“In the End: TLC (a Prayer)” 

                                                          

     (With reflection upon Eccl. 5:15.  Also see our previous post in which we

began to discuss God’s TLC in the form of “Tender mercies.”^[26]  Future

posts will add "Lovingkindness" and "Care."^[27])

* * *

A prayer of meaning spun out of meaninglessness:

All of my life I have spun meaning

out of meaninglessness

by being a child in Your arms:

EVERLASTING ARMS.

And by watching for Your hidden design—

the design found in a life that “CLEAVES”                      

silently to Your care.

There’s no design in a world without You!

Nor should we expect one!

(No, the meaning is in God’s artistry—    

God’s artistry and passion

for creatures like you and like me.)

For beneath are 

    EVERLASTING . . .

        healing . . .  
            ARMS.                                             

     (With reflection upon Deut. 33:27, Josh. 23:8 (ASV), 

and Julian of Norwich’s: “[O]ur [Divine] Lover desireth 

that our soul CLEAVE to Him with all its might, and ... 

[to] His Goodness.  For of all things that heart may think, 

this pleaseth most God, and soonest speedeth [advances 

the soul].”^[28])

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will 

have the final word in reality.  This is why right, temporarily 

defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant." -- Dr. Martin 

Luther King, Jr., Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, 1964

* * *

An opening to prayer/meditation: 

                                                 

* * *

“The Shepherd--in my Distress (a meditation upon Mk. 5:41)”                                       

He takes me--a weary, shivering lamb,

wraps the folds of His cloak about me,

tucks my head under his chin,

whispers: Shh!  Be still!

I have you.  I hold you.

I claim you as my child.

I am ever with you. 

Shiver no more, my “Talitha cumi.”

I hold you to

and in . . . My heart.

(With meditation upon Ps. 23 and Mk. 5:41, where [in a crisis] Jesus 

fondly addresses a “young woman” as “Talitha cumi” in Arabic.^[29]  

In prayer and meditation we can enter the scene and place 

ourselves in her shoes.)

* * *

“There’s No Mistake You’re Here!”

     (Before taking the advice found in Mt. 6:26.)

                                                                             * * *

I don’t know the way, Lord.

I don’t know the hows.

I don’t know the complex whys.     

Oh, I’d like too, but I don’t!       

But I know You, Lord,

for You have willed it so.                    

Maybe I only grasp the hem of Your garment,  

but that is enough!  

It’s always enough

if I grasp some fringe . . . of YOU!                                                           

                                              

(With reflection upon Mt. 9:20, 14:36.) 

* * *

Prayer to the Author of Whispers:

Elusive presence of God . . . forever

waiting for welcome,

daily—no: moment by moment!—     

too gentle, too tender to force.                  

Knocking—constantly, softly,

waiting forever for welcome.   

Author of whispers,

Still Voice of murmurs,

balm of the everlasting ages,

elusive presence of God. ^[30]  

   (With reflection upon 1 Kgs. 19:12; Rev. 3:20; Lk. 11:9; Jer. 8:22.)

* * *

“Small Deeds”

“Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice.”

  --Robert Frost 

 

An Orange, Speckled Butterfly comes to flex its wings in my presence.

I’ve heard that the Ordinary Butterfly is endangered.

“Endangered, Little Fellow!

 How do such things come to be?”

A CHILD bounces by, cherubic and playful.

Shall the CHILD soon be endangered?

Poisoned by its environment as the Butterfly is poisoned?

Some say this world Will go out in fire;

others Watch for ice!  

My concern: Are we heading toward . . . Withering Away--

endangered by our Own

small deeds?     

 

(These thoughts, which seemingly take us in another direction,

correlate with Hildegard of Bingen's words above.^[31]  Surely God 

is sorrowful about what "we" are doing to our world!  See another 

post for discussion of God's own sorrow.^[32])

* * *

And finally, simply in celebration of the season and its lessons:

“Chatter with INFINITY”

“[Some] live on the brink of mysteries and harmonies into which yet 

they never enter, and with their hand on the door-latch they die outside.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The late October woods are quiet.      

I wait and watch the falling leaves.   

In soft array upon the ground,   

They spread their colors, touch and weave.

Strange wood perfumes race through the air     

To mingle with a sun-struck world,   

While tiny dancers leave the trees--  

Float down on tiptoe, skirts a-twirl.      

  

I lie back on a bed of leaves,    

Drink up the BLUE world of the sky,     

And chatter with Infinity--

Loath to wait . . . till I must die! 

(Note: while this selection celebrates the season, it also tells us

to WHOM we should take our questions--much like Job did [see

Job 7]: he takes his questions [or "chatter"] directly to the

SOURCE. And he even receives an unusual answer: see the

above footnote [in red] that accompanies No. 22-24 [also above].)

              

(See additional blog posts after the “Notes” in Newer/Older Posts.)

……………………..

Notes:

1. See “God’s Generous ‘Tender Mercies’ (Which We Withhold??)”;
http://sacred-tenderness-christian-tradition.blogspot.com/2016_07_01_archive.html.

2. Robert Jamieson, D.D., Andrew Fausset, A.M., David Brown, Commentary

Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); (Ps. 145:9, KJV):

http://biblehub.com/commentaries/psalms/145-8.htm

3. See “everlasting lovingkindness”; Isa. 54:8, NASB. For multiple references

to God’s “tender mercy,” see Note 1.

4. “15 Chesterton Quotes That Will Shape Your Faith,”

(On his 142th Birthday) Relevant Magazine;

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/15-chesterton-quotes-will-shape-your-faith

(from Orthodoxy).

5. Notes from a lecture by Dr. Robert A. Cathey of McCormick Theological

Seminary: “Who are the Post-Liberals and their Agenda for Theology and

Church Today?,” 9/25/05, First Presbyterian Church, Deerfield IL.

6. Quoted in Emilie Zum Brunn and Georgette Epiney-Burgard, Women

Mystics in Medieval Europe, trans. Sheila Hughes (St. Paul, MN: Paragon

House, 1989), p. 16 (from Liber vitae meritorum).

7. Helmut Thielicke, Our Heavenly Father: Sermons on the Lord’s

Prayer, trans. John W. Doberstein (New York: Harper & Row, 1960), p. 25.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid., p. 23.

10. Ibid., p. 25 (emphasis ours).

11. Ibid., p. 23

12. Ibid., pp. 24-25.

13. Helmut Thielicke, Life Can Begin Again: Sermons on the Sermon

on the Mount, trans. John W. Dobertein (Philadelphia: Fortress Press,

1963), p. 145.

14. Helmut Thielicke, Nihilism, trans. John W. Dobertein (New York:

Harper and Row, 1961), p. 146.

15. Evelyn Underhill, The Ways of the Spirit, ed. Grace Adolphsen

Brame (New York: Crossroad, 1994), p. 197.

16. Thielicke, Nihilism, p. 147.

17. Thielicke, Our Heavenly Father, pp. 86-87.

18. Jamieson, Fausset, Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory

on the Whole Bible (Ps. 145:9).

19. Ibid.

20. See “Good Friday and Easter—In God’s Embrace”;
http://sacred-tenderness-christian-tradition.blogspot.com/2016_03_01_archive.html

21. Bengt Hoffman, “Introduction,” The Theologia Germanica of

Martin Luther (New York: Paulist Press, 1980), p. 39 (Hoffman’s

paraphrase of instruction in this classic).

22. See sincere, honest expression of anger at God: Ps. 39, 60: 1-3, 10;

Jer. 20:7-9, Num. 11:13-15; Hab. 1:2; Job 9:14-10:3.

23. "Right": because catharsis and honesty are necessary, and

scripture gives plenty of precedent for both (see Note 22).  

Catharsis is sometimes the only way to move beyond—climb up out

of—the pit of emotion in which we find ourselves. Wrong because

Job’s picture/view wasn’t great enough to comprehend

the entirety of God’s ways (Isa. 55:8-9) nor the true intimacy of

God’s love (Isa. 49:15-16).

24. "The World's Darkness, God's Love & Julian of Norwich";
http://sacred-tenderness-christian-tradition.blogspot.com/2015/11/  

Also see: "The 'Divine Romance,' God's Suffering, and God's

'Pathos' (or Wrath?)";
http://sacred-tenderness-christian-tradition.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-divine-romance-gods-suffering-and.html

25. See http://sacred-tenderness-christian-tradition.blogspot.com/2016/03/  (Also see Note 24 above.)

26. We copy a quotation from a previous post: "God’s Tender 

Loving Care (TLC) is described, for example, in Psalm 25, 

which speaks clearly of God’s TLC in the form of 'tender 

mercies,' 'lovingkindness,' and care throughout (ASV, KJV, 

AMP, WEB)." (Also see Note 1--for our previous post--and Note 27.)

27. See completion of our series on God's TLC:

"'TLC': God's Tender Loving CARE"; https://sacred-tenderness-christian-tradition.blogspot.com/2019/01/tlc-gods-tender-loving-care.html

and "God's 'Extra-ordinary' LOVE WORD 'Lovingkindness' ('Chesed') 

& TLC";

https://sacred-tenderness-christian-tradition.blogspot.com/2019/06/ps.html

28. Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love,ed. Grace Warrack (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.,
1901, 1949), p. 14, Chap. 6 (emphasis and capitals for “CLEAVE” added).

29. See Mk. 5:41; KJV, ASV, WEB.

30. Meditations, prayer/poetry/proverbs throughout by Lorraine B.

Eshleman.

31. See the quotation that accompanies Note 6.

32. "The 'Divine Romance, God's Suffering, and God's 'Pathos'

(or 'Wrath'?)";

http://sacred-tenderness-christian-tradition.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-divine-romance-gods-suffering-and.html