Lessons
from the Wilderness, Volume 47: The Story of…
©2022,
David E. Robinson: At the Gates of Yerushalayim Ministries
Lessons
from the Wilderness, Volume 47
PSALM 103
A Psalm Of David.
1 Bless athe
Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name!
2 Bless the Lord, O
my soul, and forget not all His benefits:
3 bWho
forgives all your iniquities, who cheals all your diseases,
4 Who redeems your
life from destruction, dwho crowns you with lovingkindness
and tender mercies,
5 Who satisfies
your mouth with good things, so that eyour youth is renewed
like the eagle’s.
6 The Lord executes
righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.
7 fHe
made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.
8 gThe
Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
9 hHe
will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger
forever.
10 iHe
has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our
iniquities.
11 For as the
heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who
fear Him;
12 As far as the
east is from the west, so far has He jremoved our
transgressions from us.
13 kAs
a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear
Him.
14 For He 1knows
our frame; He remembers that we are dust.
15 As for
man, lhis
days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
16 mFor
the wind passes over it, and it is 2gone, and nits
place remembers it no more.
17 But the mercy of
the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
On those who fear Him, and
His righteousness to children’s children,
18 oTo
such as keep His covenant, and to those who remember His commandments to do
them.
19 The Lord has
established His throne in heaven, and pHis kingdom rules
over all.
20 qBless
the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who rdo His word, heeding
the voice of His word.
21 Bless the Lord,
all you His hosts, syou 3ministers of
His, who do His pleasure.
22 Bless the Lord,
all His works, in all places of His dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul! [v]
Heaven got a new angel yesterday,
10 January 2022. Sandárina was called home yesterday, too
soon. She is survived by 4 daughters, her husband, grandchildren, 2 brothers
and sister (my wife), and so many others that love her and will miss her. I do
not make many of these blogs personal, but this one is. We lost her to the
pestilence that has come upon the earth, and we wonder why. Why her? A tough
yet gentle soul, one who gave all she had to those she loved and is now gone
from us on this side of eternity.
How many of us have asked the
questions, “Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do the bad prosper,
and the just suffer?”
While I pondered this, I still in my pain had to cry out to God and give Him praise. Then He led me to this. What follows is an article found at Chabad.org – I will leave the link in the endnotes. I thought about it, how I could repackage it, but to be honest? My words would pale in light of the original. Maybe you are hurting tonight. Maybe you are still hurting from wounds long ago. Nothing can fully give us the answers that we seek, but Rabbi Shmuel Pollen, the author, comes as close as any others that I have read. Therefore, I give it to you in it’s entirety, and I hope it blesses you as much as it did to me, to ease my pain and help me to understand my place in “The Story”. Shalom to all.
Why Does G-d Allow
Suffering?
Everyone reading this has
experienced suffering. So has the one writing it. Sometimes the most pious
among us seem to suffer the most. And sometimes the ones who hurt others the
most live best. So, it’s only human to ask, “Why does a good G‑d allow
bad things to happen to good people?”
Rabbis do not like answering this
question. Not because they cannot. Because of the risk. If your brother’s pain
makes sense, it might not bother you the same way. In that case, it would be
better to have no answer at all. So, if you want to understand “why,” you must
promise me one thing. That in the face of others’ pain, you will forget every
explanation and just be silent. Just look into their eyes. Into the pain. And do
not stop until they know for certain that you share in it. Until they know they
are not alone.
Also know, the true answer to any
suffering can only come from the One who gave it, which is G‑d. He will reveal the true answers Himself one day in the
Messianic era. Today, all we can do is learn the Torah He gave us, to
gain a glimpse into His view of the world, as opposed to only seeing our own.
Because when we start to dissolve those differences between ourselves and our
Father in Heaven, we will surely find comfort.
Let us begin.
A group of boys decide to play a
game of basketball. One boy does not hear so well. A ball is handed to him, so
he puts it on the floor and kicks it hard to the other side of the court. The
other kids turn to him angrily and say, “What the heck are you doing?”
He says, “What do you mean? I just scored a goal.”
They say, “No, you didn’t. You scored nothing, got us a
penalty, and gave the other team control of the ball.”
The boy is confused and dejected.
The issue? He was playing soccer. They were playing basketball. I call this
problem “playing the wrong game.” And “playing the wrong game” is the biggest
mistake you can make in life.
Whatever you face now, whether it
be debt, hunger, addiction, or disabilities, that’s how G‑d “kicked the ball.”
You get angry and think something must be wrong with Him. Or with you. In
truth, the only problem is the two of you are playing different games. Let us
introduce them.
You are playing a game called “My
Perfect Life.” Every day, you strive to have perfect health, perfect finances,
and the perfect marriage. Or as close as you can get to them. When suffering
occurs, you are angry because that means your game is being ruined.
What game is G‑d playing? It is
called “The Perfect Story.” G‑d wants to tell the greatest
story ever told. He unfolds His story (history) like acts in a play. The story
is full of drama. Heroes and villains. Victory and catastrophe. Sadness and
joy. And we are told that it is all being recorded “above” like one big
7,000-year-long movie.
So where are you in this game? You
are on camera! You are an actor, and He is the director. You have been in this
movie the whole time. The problem is you do not realize you are in it. You are
playing the other game, so the director’s instructions do not seem relevant.
Meanwhile, there is no one who can play your role, and that is ruining this game.
Until one day, you decide to listen. The words you hear affect you to the very
core of your being. You begin to feel like you have awakened from a bad dream.
You are not who you thought you were. And your life is not what you thought it
was. Things begin to come into focus.
This is what the Director said: “My
child, I chose you for this specific role for a reason. I waited a long time
for you to turn to Me and find out what it was. So, I will tell you what it is.
Your role was never to have the perfect life for yourself. Your role is to find
a way to be a hero for someone else. What is a hero? Anyone who is willing to
go beyond himself for the greater good. Anyone who is willing to put his
personal desires aside, to fulfill My wishes for him.
“What do I wish? I wish you would
uplift others who have fallen, with a kind word or a small act of charity. I
wish you would feel grateful for all of the good that surrounds you, and that
you would humbly accept the challenge to overcome the rest. I wish you would fight
every day to defeat the demons I gave you, be they greed, lust, laziness, or
anything else.
“Because I want you to know buried
underneath the jagged rocks, I have put in front of you is hidden gold. It is
in those darkest moments, when you see no way out, that all the souls who have
passed, ‘the great audience in heaven,’ will be glued to the screen, crying for
you, praying for you, waiting to see what you will do and who you will become.
“And where will I be? Not behind
the camera like any other director. I will be with you in that moment of pain.
Experiencing it just as you do. Because we are not separate. We are one. And
you will never be alone. I want you to hear My instructions, and listen to
them, because I know that is what is best for you. I know because I created
you. But even if you ignore everything I say, the love I have for you will be
the same. You are my daughter. You are my son. Always.”
Upon hearing these words, you look
back at everything you have been through. And say, “Yes, I’ve been cut. Yes, I
have been bruised. Yes, actors I loved have had their roles cut short far too
soon. Unfair? Imperfect? Yes. But maybe the goal never was perfection. Maybe
the goal was the story itself. And stories never die. I feel inner joy behind
all that pain. Because I know that no matter what happens, every day I am being
chosen to have a small part in the Great Production. And I get to work with,
and for, the Almighty Creative Director.”
The challenges will be there. They are not torture. They are
the Director’s way of saying, “I believe in you. I have a lesson that I need to
teach the audience, and I think you can do it like no one else in the world.”
When a challenge seems too big to handle, that just means the Director sees a
power in you that you did not know you had. He wants you to see it too.
Distress is not a cause for anger or despair. No. That is your moment. Do
something with it that’s worth watching. Something that makes the Director
smile.
The best part about this game? You can never lose. Because
the failures are worth just as many points as the successes. The story needs
those failures. If you cannot see how, just wait. In time, He will show you how
the whole production would have fallen apart without them.
What is your role now, right now? Here it is: You are in a
scene in which the world has been encompassed by darkness for thousands of
years. Everyone has forgotten what light even is. Everyone has a single match,
but they do not know what to do with it. You strike your match on a rock, and
others are amazed at what they see. They start to do the same. Soon thereafter,
candles all over the globe light up the world.
The Director’s instructions are the Torah and its mitzvahs [commandments]. Your match is
your actions. Your soul is your fire. And when you hit a rock, instead of
losing faith, strike the match. It can change everything. The day is coming
when only good things will happen to good people, and justice will be served to
the rest. And together with Moshiach[vi],
we will create “Our Perfect Life.” I bless you all to be
heroes who do not need any challenges to become great.
Now go and play.
We are in darkness right now. Our
beloved sister, Sandárina, is gone, but not, not ever, forgotten.
Her smile, her ways of correcting us, her heart, has now become a part of our
story. We cannot be in the role God gave to us without the heartache; for in it,
we learn to be a bit kinder, slower to anger, slower to hurt another. Remember
this pain o beloved. Remember that ache deep in your soul and go and try to
help another breakthrough their pain. Weep together, laugh together, rejoice in
the memories shared. Write another page to your story, as you help them write
one for themselves. The age of the Messiah is coming closer. What story is it
you want Him to read of you? A story of anger, hurt, harming others with words
and deeds? Or will it be a story of compassion, of selflessness, of lifting up
the bruised, and healing the broken, even if it costs you everything? O I am
not perfect. I fall so short in my own story, full of half written pages, some
with just a word, some stained with tears… But I know I must try again, to
write the story He wants to see, the one He wants to read. I do not know all of
Sandárina’s
story; yet she left behind those that loved her and those that will never
forget her. That is a story worth reading, O Lord. All who knew her, add to
your story a tale of love, for out of every story we see, we had a part to
play, and we are richer for it.
Good night, dear
sister; rest well in Abraham’s bosom.
May He richly
bless you all, my beloved,
Amein.
[i]NOTICE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
RIGHTS: Unless
otherwise cited, all material found on this blogsite (original text, opinions,
conclusions, and other material not related to cited sources remains the
collected intellectual property of the author of this site, David E. Robinson,
Elder, Teacher, and are owned and controlled by myself and are protected by
copyright and trademark laws and various other intellectual property rights and
unfair competition laws of the United States, foreign jurisdictions, and
international conventions. Any errors found within, rest solely upon me; please
do not blame the Father for my mistakes. I am teachable and correctable, not
infallible. 😊
b
Ps. 130:8; Is. 33:24
c
[Ex. 15:26]; Ps. 147:3; [Is. 53:5]; Jer.
17:14
d
[Ps. 5:12]
e
[Is. 40:31]
f
Ex. 33:12–17; Ps. 147:19
g
[Ex. 34:6, 7; Num. 14:18]; Deut. 5:10;
Neh. 9:17; Ps. 86:15; Jer. 32:18; Jon. 4:2; James 5:11
h
[Ps. 30:5; Is. 57:16]; Jer. 3:5; [Mic.
7:18]
i
[Ezra 9:13; Lam. 3:22]
j
[2 Sam. 12:13; Is. 38:17; 43:25; Zech.
3:9; Heb. 9:26]
k
Mal. 3:17
1
Understands our constitution
l
Is. 40:6–8; James 1:10, 11; 1 Pet. 1:24
m
[Is. 40:7]
2
not
n
Job 7:10
o
[Deut. 7:9]; Ps. 25:10
p
[Ps. 47:2; Dan. 4:17, 25]
q
Ps. 148:2
r
[Matt. 6:10]
s
[Heb. 1:14]
3
servants
[v]The New King James Version.
1982 (Ps 103:1-22). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
[vi] Messiah
[vii] https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3114201/jewish/Why-Does-G-d-Allow-Suffering.htm
[Small grammatical edits are mine-DER]
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