O God, Why Are You Silent? (Evangelical Lutheran Worship 703)
1 O God, why are you silent? I cannot hear your voice;
the proud and strong and violent all claim you and rejoice;
you promised you would hold me with tenderness and care.
Draw near, O Love, enfold me, and ease the pain I bear.
2 My hope lies bruised and battered, my wounded heart is torn;
my spirit spent and shattered by life’s relentless storm;
will you not bend to hear me, my cries from deep within?
Have you no word to cheer me when night is closing in?
3 Through endless nights of weeping, through weary days of grief,
my heart is in your keeping, my comfort, my relief.
Come, share my tears and sadness, come, suffer in my pain,
oh, bring me home to gladness, restore my hope again.
4 May pain draw forth compassion, let wisdom rise from loss;
oh, take my heart and fashion the image of your cross;
then may I know your healing through healing that I share,
your grace and love revealing, your tenderness and care.
Text: Marty Haugen; Music: Hans Leo Hassler
Devotion
This hymn has everything that should make it popular—lyrics crafted by Marty Haugen; a familiar tune by J.S. Bach. So why do we seem to sing it so rarely?
Oh, it’s a Lament! Despite our desperate need to be able to voice lament these days, we do not like to think of God as silent. We do not like to think of ourselves as “bruised and battered in any way.” If there is one thing that as Americans we seem to rue it is any acknowledgement of weakness, loss, or defeat. We don’t do shows of weakness or contrition. We are schooled that the thing to always be is “winners.”
Most difficult is the fourth verse, where we sing “May pain draw forth compassion, let wisdom rise from loss; oh, take my heart and fashion the image of your Cross.” That verse admonishes us to be transformed in heart, and that is hard work. And so also comes the risk that we avoid this hymn and its potential for healing.
Prayer
Oh God, why are you silent? Is it because I am so in love with my own voice that I can no longer hear yours? Draw near, I pray, and silence me, that I may listen for you. Amen.