How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God;
Enlighten my eyes,
Lest I sleep the sleep of death;
4 Lest my enemy say,
"I have prevailed against him";
Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
5 But I have trusted in Your mercy;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
Because He has dealt bountifully with me.—Psalm 13
Psalm
13 is one of my favorites. It is and has been a “go-to” for me when my
heart gets overwhelmed with the cares and concerns of this world.
I like it because it is a beautiful picture of prayer and the ability it has to change us. I
like it because, for me, it is a testimony that God waits for us to
come to Him, and, when we do, He hears our cry and sustains us with His
grace. I like it because I can relate.
In six short verses, David goes from feeling hopeless and forgotten in verse 1 to rejoicing in verses 5 and 6. I so get this! There is ongoing long term sorrow in my life that only God can fix and that only God can sustain me through. So
often over the course of the past 10 plus years I have run to Him with a
heart filled with grief and sorrow, and I have come away rejoicing.
Like David, God is my strong habitation to which I continually resort. His love never fails. His mercy toward me is great, and I am always helped.
In verse 1 and 2 we find David in a prolonged trial where God seems hidden from him. He is troubled and despondent. In verses 3 and 4 David shares his heart with God and expresses his desires. In Verses 5-6 David’s heart does a complete and utter about face. It is no longer how long O Lord, will You forget me forever. It is now but
I have trusted in Your mercy...my heart will rejoice in Your
salvation...I will sing because He has dealt bountifully with me!
Here is the caveat...the blessing is in the doing. So often I talk about praying and crying out to Him in my distress, but what I do instead is put it off by doing other things. I
avoid my distress and try to carry on in my own strength instead of
going up to my room to spend time with the Lord and His word — which is,
you know, what I truly need. My own pride and maybe fear of losing control in my grief keeps me from Him and His blessings! I might also add here that me spending time with my God when I need to helps everyone in my household. 😀
Our whole attitude can be changed just by crying out to Him in faith...that is how we access His grace. That is when we obtain mercy and help in our time of need. It is in the crying out...It is in the dependence on Him and Him alone. I don't even need to go up in my room...He is always with me.
The
trials in our life are our opportunities to trust Him and as such are
wonderful gifts from God because they drive us to our knees and draw us
to Him in ways that nothing else can. As we draw near and spend time with Him, we leave His presence radiant...having been given that gift that no one can take away.
Beloved, it really is that simple. No
matter how overwhelming the feeling or the situation, we as believers
can pull away for a moment and pray, and our Lord will meet us there.
Today, talk to Him, question Him, pray Scripture...lay it all out before
Him. You will come away changed.
