I can relate to the ups and downs that David so clearly expressed in the Psalms. He was utterly dependent on God for everything: guidance, provision, protection . . . even his frame of mind.
I noticed this years ago in a line he wrote; “And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved. LORD, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.”
When you are as utterly dependent on God for everything, as David was, it can be very troubling when He hides His face. It is like being lost. You don’t know what to do or how to think. Nothing makes sense.
I have found when I am troubled, it is because I am trying to figure things out and can’t. I pray for Him to help me but He doesn’t. Eventually it occurs to me, He doesn’t want me to figure it out; He wants me to be still and experience the benefit of His being my God.
It is then, when I still my efforts, that I hear the whisper that sooths my troubled frame of mind. His way, as simple as it often is, comes into focus. It is the answer that I had wrestled to find.
When God hides His face, I think it is His way of saying, ‘I don’t want you to figure it out. I want to show you what you’re looking for. I want to show you that I am God’.
Hunger and Thirst 