Why God Doesn’t Make His Presence More Obvious
Welcome to Session 5 of the Discovering Hope in the Psalms online Bible study! In this video, we’ll discover why God doesn’t make his presence more obvious. After all, wouldn’t more people come to him?
Here’s how this will work:
- Watch this week’s video session above.
- Once you watch the video, answer the questions in the discussion section of this page. The questions relate to both the previous week’s study in the book as well as the video content. We hope these interactions will be both challenging and encouraging!
- After the video, we will let you know the personal study assignment for the next week in your Discovering Hope in the Psalms devotional book. That’s it!
Before next week, complete Chapter 5—Psalm 73: Hope When Life Seems Unfair in your creative devotional study book. See you next week!
Subscriber Handouts
Jump to Subscriber Specials for a Christmas poem.
Books Mentioned in the Video
- Why Does God Allow Evil by Clay Jones
- The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
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Discussion Questions
After watching Why God Doesn’t Make His Presence More Obvious, please answer the following questions in the comments below.
- What one thought stuck out to you in this week’s video? Why did it stand out?
- What one thought stuck out to you from this week’s chapter? Why did it stand out?
- Question 19 or 20, page 100: Which of the aspects of the Shepherd’s rod or staff comforts you most today? Why?
- Question 29, page 103: We used many tools to help commit Psalm 23 to memory. Which was the most helpful? Why?
1.) One thought that stuck out to me? WOW – why isn’t anyone else talking about this in such a clear, concise way? As always, I am grateful for your thoughtful explanations, backed by scripture! It stood out to me because you can speak from experience, based on the Bible. We tend to trust our emotions in the “dark”, rather than scripture, but that’s wrong; emotions are not trustworthy, but God is. This study is reminding me of the Lord’s gracious, personal presence.
3.) The Shepherd’s rod and staff truly comfort me. It is difficult to select one tool over the other, but if pressed, I would say that I find tremendous relief picturing the Lord using His staff “to draw His sheep close to Him” The reason this is such a precious truth is because recently I asked the Lord to “pull me in so close to Him that I could feel His heart beat against mine.” With last week’s study of Psalm 23, He did exactly that, particularly with the study of His staff. He showed me through the imagery of this psalm that He is so very close to me. (Like a sheep leaning on his/her shepherd or like the Apostle John leaning – in my mind’s eye – against Jesus at the Last Supper, I have longed to know that that would “feel” like) I think I’ve tasted heaven because of His personal answer to my plea through the study of Psalm 23.
4.) Although I think scripture put to music is probably my number 1 aid, as indicated above, I am finding descriptions in images is also very, very helpful.
I’m also enjoying quieting my brain while coloring in the study book because that is helping me overall in my devotion and prayer times; the activity of the coloring somehow settles my distracted brain so I can concentrate much better on the verses or attributes of God. I am so grateful for this study! (As well as the other one, “Finding Jesus in the Old Testament”).
Hi, Shawna!
1) I’m so happy to hear this! You’re right: we do tend to trust emotions in darkness. You remind me of Isaiah 50:10: “Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.”
3) Oh, I love this imagery. What a blessing the Lord poured on you this week.
4) Yes, music is great for memorizing. Our former youth pastor puts verses to music all the time to help children learn them. Now he’s creating Bible curriculum for Christian schools that comes with his music. (I’m helping!)
I’m finding the same thing with the coloring. I wish I had a way that for everyone to post photos here.
1) What really strikes me is the idea that God is rooting for us. I read Job recently and this one thing stood out the most. I had some difficult news this week, and the thought that God is rooting for me brings joy.
2) I love this psalm and it’s hard to pick one thing. That the Shepherd’s rod is used to protect the sheep from danger is greatly comforting. As I mentioned, I had difficult news this week, and knowing Jesus protects me gives me peace.
3) The Shepherd’s rod protects us from enemies. Satan is like a roaring lion seeking those he may devour, and I don’t want to be tripped up by him. The Shepherd will help me glorify God even through hard times.
4) Drawing pictures helps me the most. Though Shawna is right: if someone put all the passages I want to memorize to music, I’d be thrilled. It’s not something I can do myself!
Learned a lot, really liked the book quotes, and your own story about your experience with this subject. I like the way this video is laid out, it flowed so naturally and had lots of great information. I liked the clear description of the 3 ways that describe how God is not hidden: creation, scripture, and prophecy. The longer I think about it the more amazed at how much God respects our free will, God truly gives us an incredible amount of evidence for His existence, especially with the more recent scientific discoveries that show how incredibly complex our universe and our bodies are, yet God does not force faith on anyone, allowing people to foolishly deny His existence and live their own way, which is foolish because at the Name of Jesus every knee will bow eventually.
That God respects free will amazes me too. You’re right about the complexity of the universe and of life being evidence of God’s existence. Creation, Scripture, and fulfilled prophecy speak to his existence in amazing ways.
I really liked the reminder of the importance of ruminating, letting Gods word sink in deeply, on day 2. Its so important to have a reservoir of Gods word in our minds as this is something that can never be taken from us.
I like the reminder of knowing God protects us, its so important to know in this dark world.
I have always enjoyed writing the words down!
Yes: it can’t be taken away. We experienced further evidence of this over the last few months. My BIL’s spirit went to be with Jesus the day before yesterday. A brain tumor had taken away his ability to walk, understand numbers, or even know what city he lived in, but he remembered Scripture. He remembered he was going to be with the Lord for eternity. He had God’s Word planted within.
Your BIL was an inspiration to all of us who were priviledged to walk with you guys through this valley. Even though you are missing him you have the incredible joy of seeing him live faithfully to the very end and knowing soon you will be together again! Recently I heard a sermon by a guy who said, when he was growing up there was a very Godly lady who, with her family lived near to his house. She eventually had very serious dementia in her older years and he would visit her and even up to her last moments she was clearly reciting bible verses and hymns, it was an amazing story to hear. Reminds me of your BIL.
Clay and I were talking today about how when Jeff could no longer read his Bible (or any book), he asked me to text him a verse every day. I did that until he could no longer manage texts. But it speaks to how important he believed God’s Word was to his life. We called him daily and talked about eternal things. There was much Scripture that was firmly planted in him.
The three reasons, evidence, scripture, and fulfilled prophesy stood out because I hadn’t thought of it that way before. I should have, it’s all right there in our vibe.
When God’s word is in us, we are ready for anything.
They all comfort, but the last one stands out because without it there would be no hope for any of us.
They say a picture paints a thousand words, but a song just sticks with you. I taught my kids in Sunday school all the books of the bible through a song.
Plus I have to say, your ful of charm and truth picturing verse 6, now that paints a picture that will stick with me forever. Loved it!
Hi, Yvonne.
1) That verse is pretty amazing.
2) Yep!
3) The staff to draw us close? Yes, without that we can’t come to him.
4) Song is fabulous. I’m working with someone who puts verses to song regularly for children. Such talent! And so important. (I’m glad you like the description–thank you!)
Hi Jean, I got behind and was trying to catch up on the questions on my tablet, but the post wouldn’t work on it. I will try again on the computer.
I’m so sorry to hear that. I’ll email you for more details. Thanks for letting me know.