Trust in the Salvation of the Lord; To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

PSALM 13: How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death; 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 mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.

 Have you ever felt like God has forgotten about you?  Like the very person that told you, “You are special; you are my prized possession; you’re my child; I will never leave you or forsake you;” has completely turned His back on you.  So maybe it’s just me, well me and David at least.   If you have ever felt this way, then David and I are here to tell you that it is time to Trust God Again.  

You see David was lamenting; this was a psalm of lament, which means that the style of the psalm was to express deep sorry for the individual and for the nation; it is a plea to God to intervene.  David wrote this psalm to express his deep sorrow of the pain he was in and the attacks he was under; while at the same time begging for God to step in and do something.  After all, He was God; the God that David had faithfully served and who had been on his side so many times in the past.  David felt God had to step in because he did not deserve the situation that he was in and this just wasn’t what God told him would happen.  

I think that you can hear this clearly when reading in the Passion Translation of this Psalm: vs 1 I’m hurting, Lord—will you forget me forever? How much longer, Lord? Will you look the other way when I’m in need? 2 How much longer must I cling to this constant grief? I’ve endured this shaking of my soul. So how much longer will my enemy have the upper hand?

David acknowledges that he’s in pain and that he feels betrayed by God.  I can attest, to feeling this way a few times.  It always seemed to me that just when God started to use me in ministry our church, my family, and I would be uprooted and moved to my next duty station (I’m retired military).  Just when it looked like His promise for me was about to move toward fruition, the rug would be pulled from under my feet.  We would move, spend months trying to find a church, attempt to get plugged in, and right when things started moving in the direction that I thought it was supposed to happen, boom!!  It was time to move on. 

I did not realize how much that bothered me; you know I was a Christian so I could not possibly accost God about His injustice for my situation.  That would be disrespectful and not Godly.  Right??  Wrong, David cried out to God, “How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?”  What an indignant accusation!!  Who was David to do such a thing?  And who was I to feel that way and say it to Him?  I have a son and I am a Son; I recall the times when my parents would scold me or tell me to do something I did not like or make a decision that impacted me in what I felt was negative.  My son will also get mad with me but will not say anything directly, he will walk around the house upset, not talking (not that he talks a great deal when he’s not upset), showing frustrations in his actions but all while never saying a word to me or anyone about it.  I’ve done that!!! I’ve done it with God, with my wife, with my parents even with my kids.  This is what I’ve found, they all seem to go on with their lives and I’m the only one upset.  If you’re deciding to be upset and you’re the only one mad then there is a flaw in, your decision-making.  

David was upset so he expressed it to God, he did not humbly come before the throne of Grace, body bowed and on his knees.  No, he came with an attitude, with disgust, and with aggression.  If you ask me it was with great disrespect, and yet God did not smite him.  As a matter of fact, God had him write this down and allowed it to become a part of the Bible that many hundreds of millions of people would one day read.  

God is not like us; if my Son had come to me that way, rest assured it would not be very positive from my end (aren’t you glad God is not like me).  God already knows what we are going thru and how we are feeling (Ps 139:1-3); so we cannot hide it from him.  We only hurt ourselves by being angry with Him.  Even when we don’t realize it’s him, we are angry with him.     

Just like David, we can turn it around.  God hears our hurts and pains then we remember who God is, what He has done, and how much He loves us.  David did that and then He trusted in the Lord and in His Grace.  But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. When we trust in the Lord, He gives us direction (Pro 3:5-6); and He keeps us in perfect peace (Isa 26:3).