Day 15
Psalm 13:1-6
How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long will I store up anxious concerns within me,
agony in my mind every day?
How long will my enemy dominate me?
Consider me and answer, LORD my God.
Restore brightness to my eyes;
otherwise, I will sleep in death.
My enemy will say, “I have triumphed over him,”
and my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.
But I have trusted in your faithful love;
my heart will rejoice in your deliverance.
I will sing to the LORD
because he has treated me generously.
Here in this Psalm David is depressed, discouraged and in desperate trouble. God seems far way and unwilling to help him, just as we sometimes feel God is far way and unwilling to help us. But we as the people of God need to keep in mind two very important lessons: (1) The prayers of Godly people may not be answered quickly, but God does hear their prayers. This feeling of being abandoned by God may occur in times of sickness, financial need or severe problems involving family, work, school or church. At such times, we should pray for the Holy Spirit to give us peace and patience. The Bible teaches us that we still have reason to rejoice in the fact that we are spiritually saved and have a perusal relationship with God—one that is not based on feeling or circumstances.
(2) If we are depending on God through faith in Jesus Christ, then God’s delay does not mean that he has abandoned us. He may instead be planning to accomplish some unknown purpose in our lives.
The depression and discouragement that we just talked about in verses 1 and 2 turned to anger in verses 3 and 4. Which say, “Consider me and answer, LORD my God. Restore brightness to my eyes; otherwise, I will sleep in death. My enemy will say, ‘I have triumphed over him’, and my foe will rejoice because I am shaken.” The first thing you should notice is the change from questions to statements. David is no longer questioning God he is now demanding from God. And the last thing you should notice is the change in the words that David is using. The “brightness” in the “eyes” that David is asking God to restore represents vitality and is the opposite of one’s eyes growing dim during times of grief and suffering. David here contrasted this with “death”, which is what he claims will happen if God does not step in and do something. And the thing that prompted David’s change in attitude was his enemies or enemy proclaiming or declaring triumph or victory over him. And all of this led to David’s faith and trust in God being temporarily shaken, but this psalm does not end there because the last two verse of this psalm are the most important verses of it.
David’s questioning of God and his anger towards God led him to reflect back on all the things that God had done for him in the past, which led him to write these words. “But I have trusted in your faithful love; my heart will rejoice in your deliverance. I will sing to the LORD because he has treated me generously.” Even though David still had questions about the timing of God’s intervention he reaffirmed his trust in the Lord’s “faithful love”. This is the Hebrew word “chesed”, which is rooted in Yahweh’s covenant with his people, and is sometimes even synonymous with the term covenant. David’s trust was not in himself but in the God of the covenant who promised that he would show faithful love to those who love and obey him. But what does that mean for us today?
It means that God’s delay must stir up our trust in his faithful love. Each of us as believers has the testimony of the past as a witness of this truth—God has blessed and rescued us and others many times. In his own way and time, God will show his great love for his people, and all we have to do is trust him.
Tomorrow’s Bible Readings:
Genesis 32:13-34:31, Matthew 11:7-30, Psalm 14:1-7 and Proverbs 3:19-20