“But Paul,” you may counter, “you don’t know the depths of the suffering I’ve been through. If you had suffered as I have, you wouldn’t be so quick to say that God’s love has remained intact.” Well, let’s see just what Paul knew of suffering. He offers a résumé of his misfortunes in 2 Corinthians 11. He endured tribulations, various kinds of dire needs, five beatings with thirty-nine lashes (three with rods), frequent imprisonment, tumult, hard labor, sleeplessness, fasting, dishonor, lies, deceit, chastening, sorrow, poverty, stoning, three shipwrecks, twenty-four hours adrift in the sea, travel dangers, robbers, persecution by Jews, persecution by Gentiles, trials in the cities, trials in the wilderness, hunger, thirst, cold, and nakedness—all of this on top of the daily stress of guiding and directing new churches across the Roman Empire.

Paul’s final suffering, which naturally he could not list, was his martyrdom at the hands of the Roman emperor around AD 67–68.

I believe we can safely say that Paul knew something about suffering. And all it did was increase his appreciation for the extent of God’s tenacious grip of love. He believed himself to be profoundly blessed.

Paul’s point in Romans 8 is that our difficult or painful circumstances are no reflection on the love of God. In verse 36, he appeals to a passage from the Old Testament to emphasize the point: “Yet for Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Psalm 44:22). He is simply telling us that bad things happen to people, and it’s nothing new. Bad things also happened to the ancient Jews. Sin brought evil into the world, and death comes with the territory.

Paul’s quote from Psalm 44 reflects a historical period when Israel’s enemies were cruelly dominating the nation, inflicting tribulation, distress, persecution, peril, and death by the sword. The people saw themselves as sheep lined up for slaughter.

How did they feel about God during their oppression? We can answer this question by looking at the part of the psalm that Paul didn’t quote:

Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord?

Arise! Do not cast us off forever.

Why do You hide Your face,

And forget our affliction and our oppression?

For our soul is bowed down to the dust;

Our body clings to the ground.

Arise for our help,

And redeem us for Your mercies’ sake.

—PSALM 44:23–26

I love the honesty of the Scriptures. Here we see that those ancient Israelites thought just the way we do now. The troubles people face may vary in different epochs, but the people never change. They always seem to believe they are entitled to smooth sailing. When high winds and waves lash at them, they look to the heavens and cry, “God, why won’t You remove this tribulation?” Yet God understands our emotions and allows our complaints and misunderstandings to be part of our honest prayers to Him.