I suspect this was an issue for the people of Judah 500 years before the first Christmas. They had been captured and marched to Babylonia to live in exile. To these people who were living in the midst of the worst of times, the poetry we read this morning was declaring that God had not forgotten. God was with them, and God would deliver them from their distress. If we live long enough, sooner or later each of us finds ourselves standing at a place in life not unlike Job.
Bad things do happen to good people.
It is then that we, like Job, fling our questions in the face of God. But often, like Job, the only answer we get is silence. Or perhaps the answer we receive is like the one Job received. But our response to such truth is rarely quiet, humble acceptance. Our pains and frustrations and fears are seldom soothed by God's declaration that we are incapable of understanding the ways of God.