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Psalm 88.18 (NIV)
You have taken my companions and loved ones from me;
the darkness is my closest friend.
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| Sometimes you see better in the dark.* |
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One Bible passage stands out as the seal
of approval on friendship. In John 15.15, Jesus says that if we obey his
commands, we will no longer be called servants. “Instead,” he says, “I have
called you friends.” By establishing
the importance of friendship, Jesus validates the psalmist’s lament in this verse.
The psalmist felt so alone – and believed he had
arrived at that state by the hand of God – that he felt comforted by the
darkness. Perhaps, like a person suffering from depression, he would rather
sleep than face his problems. Daylight is not his friend because it glaringly
reveals his problems. But God invades his darkness. Even “in the grip of the
blackest depression”* we see the psalmist’s faith that God is there
with him.
My own experiences with friendship
have been studies in extremes – from the desert (feeling like I had no friends
at all) to the rain forest (showered with many good friends). Truly, “to be
friendless is . . . almost to be comfortless,”* but God has used every point along the
spectrum to teach me something about him and his character. Whether or not God
is to blame for the barren times, he made lemonade out of my lemons!
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| God gives us something in our pain he cannot give us in our ease.* |
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