Symbols of American strength and security have been destroyed and severely damaged. This has been a shock beyond words. But, as we have seen in the past few days, America's resolve and patriotism have been kindled anew. And yes, millions of our citizens have turned to God for divine comfort and for hope and deliverance. Thousands have prayed for God to perform a miracle and rescue their loved ones who are trapped: pleading with an almighty providence to graciously intervene, even though hope dims with each passing hour.

I must frankly confess that I have found this entire catastrophe incomprehensible. Like most of you, I have shed tears. How can one not weep at the sight of husbands and wives, of fathers and mothers, of brothers and sisters and friends, recounting the cell phone conversations with those who mattered the most to them on this earth -- some saying their last good-byes, professing their undying love in their dying hour? It has been a sadness impossible to identify with.

We come together as a church family -- as brothers and sisters in Christ -- to encourage and comfort one another. To give thanks for the safety of our families. To mourn those who have been lost. And to pray for those whose grief is too much to bear. We come also to remember our leaders, and to lift them up to God's throne of grace and to say a prayer for our beloved nation, for never before has she had to endure a calamity of such devastating magnitude.

We come here also to seek answers to the unanswerable, to make some sense of this senseless national tragedy. Our hearts are heavy. Our minds are startled and even confused. Again, as in tragic times before, we ask "Where is God?" Has He no power to stop evil? Why does He, if He is truly a God of love and justice, permit such horrible things to happen to good and innocent people? If He is a God of infinite power, why does He do nothing when bad people, filled with evil and hate, successfully execute an elaborate and well-planned attack that kills thousands and seriously wounds the world's beacon of democracy and freedom? Why is it that we are so often forced to look upon, in the words of James Russell Lowell, "Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne..."?

How can a just and all powerful and holy God allow the triumph of evil? We are saddened and hurt when bad things happened to good people. But we are troubled, mystified and yes, angry, when good things happen to bad people; when we see our fellow citizens crying for their families buried alive last Tuesday, while the supporters of those who did this to us celebrate in the streets, handing out candy.

Doubts. Yes, let's admit it: this incomprehensible tragedy has created doubts. And questions. Many questions.

A long time ago, a man named Asaph had similar doubts. He could not understand why God permitted the wicked to do so well, to accomplish so much. The triumph of the wicked flew directly into the face of God's supposed omnipotence and justice. Asaph couldn't figure it out. It simply didn't add up.