Sovereignty and Suffering

The sermon posted on our site this week, based on Psalm 138, touches on the relationship between God’s sovereignty and human suffering. (See sermon "The Purposes of God, 08/24/08) How can God be sovereign while so many tragic things happen in life? Do these things happen against his will? If so, God must not truly be in control of the world. Yet if he is in control, why does he let these things happen? Much of the suffering we face is caused by decisions people make. Did God ordain their decisions? If so, what happens to the idea of free will? Are we just robots blindly functioning as we have been programmed to do? Are we no more than puppets dancing on a string? If so, why does God take our choices seriously and hold us responsible for the things we do (as the Bible says he does)? ...

One of the first prayers I learned as a child was, “God is great; God is good; and we thank him for this food.” Someone has said, “If God is great, he must not be good. And if God is good, he must not be great.” In other words, if God really does control everything that happens in the universe, then he must not be very loving, since he allows so much suffering and pain. And if he truly is loving and compassionate, he must not really be in control. Otherwise, he would never allow all these heartbreaks to happen.

Well, I still agree with my childhood prayer. I believe that God really is sovereign – that nothing happens anywhere in the universe except according to his eternal decree. I am also convinced that he is good – that he cares deeply for his creation, that he works all things for his people’s good, that he genuinely grieves with us when we suffer, and that he ordains the choices people make while (mysteriously) still allowing them actually to make genuine decisions in life. God is great, and God is good. The reason I believe this is because I read it in the Bible.

Two books that I would recommend, if you are interested in this subject are: John Flavel’s The Mystery of Providence (Banner of Truth Trust) and When God Weeps – Why Our Suffering Matter to the Almighty (Zondervan) by Joni Eareckson Tada and Steven Estes. Neither of these books fully answers the thousands of questions that arise when we try to mesh the ideas of God’s sovereignty and his love. I doubt if those questions can ever be fully explained to finite human brains. However, both of these books are deeply comforting. They show us how the doctrine of God’s sovereignty can be the source of great solace to us when we face painful times.