Psalm 13 From Despair to Trust

Vs 1-2 How long will you forget me, Lord? How long will You hide from me? Forever? How long must I worry? How long must I take counsel in my heart? How long will my enemy win over me? It's not hard to identify the theme David has going here! How long? When we are suffering, or going through some kind of trial, sometimes it's not the intensity of the trials that get the best of us, it's the length. David also felt like there was no hope. It felt like forever. Any trial and struggle can seem like forever. A bad marriage can seem like forever! Or your children may hurt you, disappoint you, and discourage you. The grief of children who are unfaithful to Lord may seem like forever. Lots of situations may seem like forever. But for David the hardest thing of all is that at times it seemed as though God had abandoned him. For the person who wants to be right with God, wants to be close to him, wants more than anything else to know that he has God's approval, the most painful thing in these crisis's is thinking God is no longer there.

David's asks, how long he must take counsel in his soul? Is this the internal struggle? There are certainly inward emotional effects associated with trials and suffering. Is it the doubts and confusion? Is it the struggle of feeling discouraged, or wondering if God has given up on you, or wondering if you can endure the trial to its end? The more we think about our problems the more depressed we can get. Trouble is often like a pill God would like us just to swallow, but we make it far worse by keeping it in our mouths and chewing on it. And there is always the enemy. David didn't want to lose in any area he was attacked and see his enemy exalted over him - and even worse, to gain a victory against the Lord.

Vs 3-4 Consider and hear me, 0 LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death; Interesting that David feels as though God was not listening and had abandoned him, yet even in that state of hopelessness we hear him desperately crying out to the Lord. He believes that if God does not intervene, the only thing he can anticipate is defeat and death. Some people respond to God's hiddenness by denying His existence. Others cry out continually and relentlessly to God in prayer and wait on Him because we know we are powerless and utterly dependent on Him to deliver us.

A good lesson here is that the experience of feeling God has abandoned us is real even for godly people like David or Job. Secondly, God does not seem offended by our honest questions and complaints. They confirm our desire for a relationship with him. Paul prayed that our eyes would be enlightened that (1) you may know what is the hope of His calling, (2) what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and (3) what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power. (Ephesians 1:1719). Is it this enlightenment we should seek in our trials?

Vs 5-6 Lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed against him"; Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted in Your unfailing love; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.

This may seem a surprising and unexpected turn after such a despairing lament, but really it is not. David has a good understanding of the character of God. He is one who is always faithful, He always keeps his promises. He has an "unfailing love." David looks back at how faithful God has been to him over his life. He can look further back at how God has faithfully kept his covenant to Israel even when she was unfaithful to Him. God kept promises that He had made ages before to David's forefathers. We can trust .r God because He is trustworthy. People will disappoint you, even Christians will disappoint you, but God will NEVER disappoint, It is why we need to know our Bibles, it is there that we find our confidence, it is there we find our hope in desperate moments, it is there that we find God! And therefore we can endure our trials no matter what their length, or intensity, because God is faithful!

Mike