January 2
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PSALM 13- HOW LONG O LORD?
How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? 3 Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, 4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed
over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.6 I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me. – Psalm 13:1-6
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Spurgeon comments “If the reader has never yet found occasion to use the language of this brief ode, he will do so ere long, if he be a man after the Lord’s own heart. Whenever you look into David’s Psalms, you may somewhere or another see yourselves. You never get into a corner but you find David in that corner.”
In verse 1, we hear David’s loneliness and exhaustion from the circumstances surrounding him. He is in anguish from the Lord’s absence. We know that David had fought so many battles and there are some victories he had won and that is probably because he felt the Lord’s presence then. But in the beginning of this psalm, we clearly hear despair. In verse 2, he felt very tired of being my himself and relying on his own strength. He sounded very much depleted from the constant battles he faced. I could very much identify with David in this ode “How long, O Lord?” Sometimes I feel shattered to pieces from being on guard against the enemy’s schemes. If I slacken off, I find myself being crushed. In verse 3, David cries out and pleads for God to make his presence felt. He feared sleeping because when he does, he might end up lifeless. When we are so exhausted, we are very vulnerable to feelings of abandonment and depression. He cries out to God to bring him light as he was in a very dark place. He pleads the Lord to rescue him as his strength diminishes.
I am amazed at the sudden surge of hope in verse 5 and 6. It is as if the Lord literally heard his plea while he was still crying out in verse 4. We see a sudden shift from depression to a desire to focus on God’s steadfast love. Then In verse 6, the decision to worship the Lord with gratitude seemed like God changed his perspective from despair to hope. Sometimes we fail to hear God’s reply because we are so immersed and consumed by our circumstances, but God is faithful and steadfast in his love.
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REFLECTION
• How do you identify with David’s crying out to God during times of exhaustion?