Obedience Beyond Fear (Psalm 22)
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
. . . Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
~ Psalm 22:1, 3-5
Nearly every Christian has heard the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” There are many worldly answers to this question. The most popular is stoicism, the idea that all things happen according to nature and we can do nothing about it. Don’t even ask the question because you shouldn’t care about the answer. Another option is pessimism, the idea that the world is fundamentally against us and we can do nothing about it. Don’t even ask the question because you won’t like the answer. Finally, there’s cynicism, the idea that the world is self-interested and we can do nothing about it. Don’t even ask the question; mind your own business. There may be more to list, but the Bible posits a unique disposition to the world that rejects at least these three.
Abraham was not a stoic, pessimist, or cynicist. Instead, he proactively answered the call to follow God’s will. He obeyed God, enough to nearly sacrifice his own son, and so earned his special relationship with Him as the first patriarch of his people. Abraham’s obedience wasn’t a stoic obedience to the natural world around him, nor did he balk at leaving his country because he only had so much hope. Abraham believed in the Lord, trusting that he wasn’t just playing a game for his entertainment. No, he trusted in God’s benevolence to “make of him a great nation.” There was something positively transformational about this promise.
Likewise, the Bible reminds us that the saints of old “trusted and you delivered them.” God is not a passive craftsman off to the side, watching us fend for ourselves. He delivers us; he intervenes. We must answer His call, follow him, and most importantly, accept his impact on our lives. The Christian message is not one of the bystander. Rather, it is a motivating call which gives a response to the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Trust in God, and he will deliver you from adversity. This is not a promise of pleasure or the absence of suffering. Rather, it is an invitation to follow Christ and find a higher happiness and contentment. This begins with a strong trust motivated by neither fear nor hatred nor resignation. It’s motivated by an active love coupled with an unceasing desire for communion with God. Perhaps this was why the words of the psalm were spoken by Christ on the cross, to be actively answered by his redemptive, transformation death for our salvation.
Gustavo Alcantar is a senior in Columbia College majoring in Economics with a concentration in History. As someone who loves to cook, he is always ready to share and make his family recipes or help others prepare theirs. You can usually find him waiting in line Sunday mornings for an Absolute Bagel and coffee, or most weekday afternoons in Avery Library. Gustavo is an active member of Columbia Catholic Ministry, Model UN, and the Columbia Undergraduate Law Review.