A paraphrase of Psalm 10:1 asks, “Where are you, Lord when we need you? Why do you hide?”

A more literal translation asks, “Why, O Lord, do you stand afar off?  Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”

Jesus asked much the same question when from the cross he quoted Psalm 22, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?  Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?”

For the Tenebrae service this evening at Bunker Hill, I selected a portion from Lamentations for the First Lesson,

Lam. 3:1-6, 19-24

I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; surely against me he turns his hand and again and again the whole day long.  He has made my flesh and my skin waste away; he has broken my bones; he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago.

Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall!  My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.

But this I call to mind, and therefore have hope:  the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”

Psalm 121 asks, “From where does my help come?”  However, the writer has already identified where he has been looking, “I life my eyes to the hills.”

On Good Friday we look to a particular hill, Calvary.  There we see the Lord in our time of trouble.  Where is the Lord?  On a cross between two robbers.

Prayer of the Day:

Almighty God, graciously behold this Your family for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and delivered into the hands of sin men to suffer death upon the cross; through the same Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.