Psalm 13
1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;my heart rejoices in your salvation.6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,for He has been good to me.
PSALM 13 TRUSTING IN GOD’S UNFAILING LOVE
Springford Baptist Church: February 6, 2022.
Throughout this month of February, we will be considering how David knew God. The Psalms provide for us a very honest picture of David’s relationship with God. David did not hesitate to tell God how he really felt and what he really thought about things. In David’s times of absolute despair and in his moments of great joy, always there is a persistence to his conviction that God’s love for him is unfailing.
We will follow this assurance of God’s unfailing love through the experiences of David. As you and I learn, like David, to be very honest with God about what we really think and feel, we can also learn, like David, to know God and to trust God as the One who offers us His unfailing love.
What has gone wrong in your life this week? Each of us will have had disappointments or circumstances that have not been easy or what we would have chosen. Does this mean that God does not love us or that God has forgotten us? Of course not! God’s love for us is constant and unfailing no matter what is happening. When we have to wait, as David waited, we long for evidence of God’s unfailing love. In essence, David is saying, “God can I trust You when I am in the midst of trouble and upset”? Let’s discover the answer to that question together in our desire for “KNOWING GOD.”
1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? (Psalm 13:1,2)
David keeps repeating, “How long”? David is feeling ignored and forgotten by God and this is a very difficult place to be. When, he wonders, will God answer? Notice that he does expect God to answer, but the waiting has been a time of wrestling with his thoughts and he has been carrying sorrow in his heart. Can David trust God when he is waiting for answers? Can we trust God when we are waiting for answers?
When have you been asking, “How long”? With the effects of the pandemic dragging on many of us have been voicing these words, “How long”? How much longer”?
In several of our Long Term Care Homes, including the one where I work, because of outbreaks of COVID positive cases, residents have been isolated in their rooms. You can understand how confined they have felt. Many have been asking repeatedly, “How long”? “How much longer”?
3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, (Psalm 13:3)
David is longing for God to answer! He is longing for the light of hope. He calls on the Lord to rescue him from his situation or he feels it will be the end.
Then comes this expression of confidence in God and God’s unfailing love. David is convinced that God’s love for Him is unfailing. When circumstances around him are failing and things seem to be falling apart, still God’s love for him will not fail.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
David’s enemies were challenging the certainty of God’s love for David, but David knows God differently. Even though David has not yet seen God’s deliverance and how God will answer, he is convinced that God’s love is unfailing and will be expressed.
When there has been a long time of waiting and answers finally come there is significant relief and joy. I saw that this week when residents in two of the home areas in our Nursing Home were able to finally able come out of their rooms and return to the dining room to eat together. Their liberation brought wide smiles to their faces.
It is a deeper dimension of faith to trust God and his unfailing love even before the answers come. To trust God and to know God’s unfailing love while we are still waiting is to know God as David did.
In the final verse of Psalm 13, we can recognize that David has the assurance that His prayer has been heard and that he will live to see further evidence of God’s unfailing love:
6 I will sing the Lord’s praise, for He has been good to me.
David decides to sing God’s praise and to focus on God’s unfailing love. He can sing the LORD’s praise because God has been good to Him. God has answered His cries for help before and he is convinced that God will show His goodness to him again.
We can have this same approach as David in knowing God and trusting God’s unfailing love:
We can be honest about how hard it is to wait.
We can tell God all about our troubles and fears.
We can be confident of God’s unfailing love.
We can think of all the ways that God has already been good to us and praise Him.
And then as we bring each of these ways of “KNOWING GOD” together, we can anticipate, as David did, that God will answer in His way and in His time.
Will we trust God’s unfailing love as we wait and ask, “How long”?