If so, we can now properly understand Hashem's desire for our prayers—for Hashem indeed wants the good of His children, Israel, with His compassion. And since He sees that the suffering is for their benefit, He must bring it upon them. Yet it certainly pains Him to see them suffer. And even though our suffering is also His suffering, He still consents to be in pain in order to benefit us through it. For He knows hidden things, and He sees how much good will result for us from this suffering.
It is comparable to a father who feeds his son bitter medicine. He sees that his son cannot bear it and finds it very hard to swallow—but even so, the father does not stop giving it to him, because he knows that his son’s recovery depends on it. So too, Hashem knows that this suffering is a great rectification for us, and therefore He must bring it—but certainly, He suffers with our pain.
Thus, we find that prayer for our suffering is not merely a request to end our pain, for regarding that alone it would not be appropriate to pray—since, as stated, HaKadosh Baruch Hu knows it is for our benefit. Rather, it is a prayer about the pain of the Shechinah, and this explains why Hashem wants us to pray over our troubles—because this is His honor, that His suffering pains us.
This is the essence of the mitzvah to pray in a time of distress. And this is also the power that prayer has to tear up harsh decrees. For since the purpose of such a prayer is for His honor, there can be no accusation against it, chas v’shalom. For anyone who would come to accuse such a prayer is in the category of one who rebels against the King, chas v’shalom. And such a prayer must necessarily be accepted. Then HaKadosh Baruch Hu will act for His sake, and in order to bring redemption to Himself, He will repair the damage that caused our suffering, and we too will merit salvation and relief.
This is what the righteous cloaked in the verse (Tehillim 91:15): 'יקראני ואענהו, עמו אנכי בצרה, אחלצהו ואכבדהו' - “He shall call upon Me and I will answer him; I am with him in distress; I will rescue him and honor him.” And they interpreted it as follows: Hashem says: If a person suffers from his troubles, he will come and plead before Me and "call upon Me" in supplication. Then, since I am near to all who call upon Me, "I will answer him." But this answer is not necessarily complete, because it depends on many conditions. Even though no prayer goes entirely unanswered, still, sometimes a person will not even be able to discern its effect. He may need to offer more prayers or accumulate more merits until the effects of the prayer are recognized.
This can be for several reasons: sometimes because the prayer did not yet come from the depths of the heart, and sometimes due to the abundance of accusers that have not yet been silenced, because the person has not done proper teshuvah.
But this the person must know: his prayer was accepted. And even if this is not apparent now to the senses, he should believe that in time it will be found, once more prayers and merits join together with it.
However, if at the very moment of his pain, a person recognizes that the pain is not only his own, but rather “I am with him in distress”—for “in all their troubles, He too is troubled”—and this recognition leads him to also pray for the suffering of the Holy Shechinah, then the answer will not depend on the quality of his request or on the merit that he possesses. Rather, he will merit that “I will rescue him”—I will rescue him completely from his suffering, and there will no longer remain any trace of pain or anguish. “And I will honor him”—I will fulfill his desire in its entirety, and all his distress will vanish.
