The Question Everyone Wants to Ask God

Life is not fair. The tension becomes clear when children are taught to play fair, tell the truth, and do things right, yet eventually hear that life itself does not always play by those rules. The Bible does not hide that problem. Adam and Eve could have looked at the one forbidden tree and thought it was not fair. Cain could have looked at Abel’s accepted offering and thought it was not fair. Jesus, the only innocent one, was put on a cross and killed for sins He did not commit.

Psalm 10 gives words to that same struggle: “Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” David’s lament does not pretend that trouble is small or that God’s people should simply stay quiet. God hears these questions. The wicked person in Psalm 10 lives for himself, makes room for greed, rejects God’s law, and seems to prosper anyway. The image is hard: like a lion in cover, the wicked lie in wait, catch the helpless, and drag them away in a net.

The question of why the wicked get away with murder brings up the old question of theodicy. God can handle that question. Scripture also shows that evil does not finally get the last word. Haman built gallows for Mordecai and died on them himself. Egypt chased Israel into what looked like a trap at the Red Sea, only to be swallowed by the waters. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, yet God placed Joseph in Egypt to provide for the very brothers who meant him harm.

Psalm 10 turns from the wicked person’s apparent success to God’s clear sight: God sees the trouble of the afflicted, considers their grief, and takes it in hand. God is the helper of the fatherless. Romans 8 says the same thing in another way: if God is for His people, who can be against them? Christ understands real trouble because Christ was innocent, suffered, was murdered, and was raised from the dead. The suffering Savior knows the pain of a life that does not feel fair.

Grace gives the deepest answer to the complaint that life is not fair. Fairness would leave sinful people under the penalty of death. God instead gives forgiveness, redemption, and eternal life through Christ. God’s love does not promise an easy path, but it promises that nothing, not death, life, demons, powers, height, depth, or anything else in creation, can separate God’s people from the love found in Christ Jesus.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. God welcomes honest lament. Psalm 10 gives faithful people permission to ask where God is when trouble comes. Lament is not unbelief when it brings the hard question to God instead of turning away from Him. God does not need cleaned-up prayers before He listens. God receives the cry of people who cannot yet see what He is doing. [56:20]
• 2. The wicked do not finally win. Evil can look strong, prosperous, and untouchable for a long time. Scripture shows again and again that God can turn the trap back on the one who set it. God’s justice may not move on human schedules, but God sees every act done against the helpless. [60:56]
• 3. Christ knows unfair suffering. Jesus was not distant from pain, betrayal, injustice, or death. Christ entered the deepest place of human suffering as the innocent one who was crucified. His resurrection means suffering is real, but suffering is not ultimate. [63:51]
• 4. Grace is not fair, but love. Sin earns death, and fairness alone would leave every sinner without hope. God provides what human beings cannot deserve: forgiveness, redemption, and eternal life. Grace does not deny justice, but fulfills God’s saving love through Christ. [64:56]
• 5. Nothing separates believers from God’s love. Romans 8 does not minimize death, fear, spiritual opposition, or an unknown future. Christ’s love holds firm through every one of those realities. God’s faithfulness gives suffering people a place to stand when circumstances offer no easy answer.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [51:08] - Bible Trivia and Psalm Challenge
• [52:18] - Life Is Not Fair
• [53:51] - Unfairness Throughout Scripture
• [55:48] - David’s Question in Psalm 10
• [57:12] - Why Do the Wicked Prosper?
• [58:41] - The Wicked as a Lion in Cover
• [60:01] - The Question of Theodicy
• [60:56] - God Turns Evil Traps Around
• [62:17] - God Sees the Afflicted
• [63:18] - Romans 8 and the Suffering Savior
• [64:56] - Grace Is Not Fair
• [65:45] - More Than Conquerors Through Christ

1. Why, O LORD, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? [55:32]
2. In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor; let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.
3. For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the LORD.
4. In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
5. His ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of his sight; as for all his foes, he puffs at them.
6. He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved; throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.”
7. His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.
8. He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;
9. he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket; he lurks that he may seize the poor; he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net. [58:49]
10. The helpless are crushed, sink down, and fall by his might. [59:00]
11. He says in his heart, “God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”
12. Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted.
13. Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
14. But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands; to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless. [01:02:30]
15. Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call his wickedness to account till you find none.
16. The LORD is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land.
17. O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear [01:02:58]
18. to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more. [01:03:01]

1. What questions does Psalm 10 open with, and what do those questions reveal about the kind of trouble the psalmist is facing? [55:32]
2. What words and images does Psalm 10 use to describe the wicked person’s actions toward the poor, innocent, helpless, fatherless, and oppressed? [58:41]
3. According to verses 3–11, what does the wicked person believe about God, accountability, and his own future?
4. What changes in the psalm from verses 12–18? What does the psalmist say that God sees, hears, and does for afflicted people? [01:02:30]

1. Why is it important that Psalm 10 brings the question “Why do you stand far away?” directly to God rather than hiding or ignoring that question? [56:45]
2. The wicked person appears prosperous and secure in Psalm 10. How does the psalm challenge the idea that present success proves that God approves of someone’s life? [57:33]
3. Verse 14 says that God sees trouble and grief and “takes it into [his] hands.” What does that mean for someone who cannot yet see justice happening?
4. Jesus was innocent, suffered, was crucified, and was raised from the dead. How does Christ’s suffering and resurrection shape the way believers understand unfair suffering without pretending that suffering is small? [01:03:57]

1. Where has life recently felt unfair—perhaps at work, in a relationship, in health, or in a situation where someone else received credit or caused harm? What honest words could be brought to God from Psalm 10? [56:17]
2. Is there a prayer that has been prayed repeatedly without seeing a change? How might Psalm 10 give words for continuing to pray honestly instead of giving up? [56:20]
3. When someone who acts selfishly or unjustly seems to prosper, what response is usually strongest: envy, anger, fear, discouragement, or the desire to take matters into one’s own hands? How can the truth that God sees and will call evil to account reshape that response? [59:43]
4. Who in the group’s daily life might feel helpless, overlooked, fatherless, oppressed, or pushed aside? What is one practical way to reflect God’s care for that person this week? [01:03:01]
5. God’s grace is not fair in the sense that sinners receive forgiveness, redemption, and eternal life through Christ rather than the death sin deserves. How does remembering that grace change the way a person responds when demanding fairness from others? [01:05:05]
6. What present fear or hardship most tempts a person to wonder whether God has forgotten them? How can the promise that nothing in creation separates believers from Christ’s love be held onto in that specific situation? [01:06:00]