I had a wonderful thought occur to me yesterday regarding God’s silence. In various passages of Scripture God's silence is seen as something undesirable. For example, in Psalm 83:1 the Psalmist writes, “O God, do not remain quiet; Do not be silent and, O God, do not be still.” Also, Psalm 109:1, “O God of my praise, Do not be silent!”
No doubt we can all sympathize with such prayers. For my own part, I experience a lot of silence between moments of what I would consider to be a direct communication from the Spirit of God to my spirit.
However, reflect on this thought by the notable theologian Paul Tillich. He writes that “The first duty of love is to listen.”
Now if we put that together with the truth that God is love, what do we get? We have a God whose first commitment to us is to listen to us. Could it be that what we humans can so easily be unsettled with — God’s silence — is rooted in a huge misunderstanding on our part? It may very well be that what we think is some form of indifference or disinterest in God when he is silent is precisely the opposite. He is actually listening. And since he is love, he is listening with his whole being — he is perfectly silent, giving us his undivided attention.
If we truly take that to heart we may discover that that stands to be more disconcerting than attributing his silence to some degree of disinterest. We have never had and never will have someone listen that carefully to us. What are we to say? How are we to handle a love for us that’s that intense, that attentive to our every thought?
