Scripture: Psalm 77:10 – “And I say, ‘It is my grief that the right hand of the Most High has changed.’” (NRSVue)
I like theology. I like how we as people of faith try to engage with the mysteries of God, to match our reason and traditions with our new experiences. I believe that theology is always born of crisis, when something happens, whether broadly to society or deeply personally, that the old models can no longer explain. And one such crisis is whether God changes.
On the surface, this seems like a very abstract, “how many angels can fit on the head of a pin” kind of question, but it has serious implications for our faith in times of crisis. For example, Psalm 77 is a powerful psalm of lament in which the psalmist sings to God to relieve their suffering. As the psalmist is at a loss for words, they cry out, “It is my grief that the right hand of the Most High has changed.” In other words, God used to be gracious, but now the psalmist feels no divine compassion. Has God changed?
Tradition says that God does not change. This idea is found in some of the most ancient Christian theologians and even further back into Greek philosophers like Plato. It says that God must be radically simple, having no parts or attributes that might make God composite in any way. Anything else would challenge God’s absolute omnipotence. We see this idea in many of our hymns such as “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”, in which we sing, “Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father; / There is no shadow of turning with Thee; / Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not; / As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.” God’s unchanging power is something we can depend upon in times of trouble.
And yet we experience God as changing. The psalmist certainly did. Exodus does as well in the story of the Golden Calf. God is angered and wants to destroy the Israelites and choose a new people, but Moses convinces God otherwise. Exodus says, “And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.” There is a complicated teaching called process theology, which, among other things, sees God as limiting divine power to allow humans free will. Some have even claimed that God changes over time based on the decisions that mortals make.
This, too, can be comforting. It means that God listens to us when we pray and teaches what we do makes a difference to God. An unchanging God is a rock of shelter but can also be cold and seemingly uncaring. The psalmist seems to want a changing God who bends in compassion towards those who are most suffering.
What do you think? Do you experience God as unchanging or as open to free will? Is it true that God’s compassion comes and goes or is that merely our perception of God’s eternal love? There is no right answer; people have been arguing about this for thousands of years. But part of faith is engaging in hard questions, especially when you are going through your own crises. The more you pray, the clearer God will become to you, and the more you will experience the compassion of the Lord.
Prayer: God, help me sense your enduring compassion at the times when everything seems to change. Amen.
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