Psalm 13 New American Standard Bible 1995
Prayer for Help in Trouble.
For the choir director. A Psalm of David.
13 How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
4 And my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken.
5 But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
6 I will sing to the Lord,
Because He has dealt bountifully with me.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
People say time flies when you’re having fun.
But when things shift into a minor key, life seems to move in slow motion.
We find ourselves thinking, “Where is God now? I don’t know if I’m ever going to get out of these circumstances. And I don’t know how I can endure them.”
Our reading today, Psalm 13, contains a recurring question: “How long? How long?” David’s circumstances aren’t described, but he clearly feels forgotten and forsaken—a feeling we all can relate to.
It’s circumstance akin to what we feel when we lose a loved one or when we feel we are stuck in life drudgery, that we must walk through a valley of trial alone.
To be isolated from human relationships is, without question, crushing.
But what David writes and sings of here in Psalm 13 is even more significant.
He’s expressing a bottomless feeling of isolation from God Himself.
This sentiment is shared by many of God’s people throughout Scripture.
In Isaiah, God’s exiled people cry out, “The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me” (Isaiah 49:14).
Christian pilgrims—genuine followers and servants of Jesus—do sometimes feel like saying, “I believe the Lord has actually forgotten us.
If He has not forgotten us, if He was still with us, how would we be in this predicament?
If He truly was watching over us, surely we would not have to endure these ceaseless, unyielding trials.
Yet in David’s emerging depression, we discover that his perception (as is often the case with our own) does not reflect reality.
And David has the spiritual maturity and humility to acknowledge that what he feels is true does not align with what he knows is actually true.
So he reminds himself of God’s steadfast love, His salvation, and His generosity—and David resolves to rejoice in those things instead even as he struggles and suffers (Psalm 13:5-6).
This is the hope-filled tension of the Christian life.
As we get stuck, as we stare long and hard into the drudgery of life and ministry and mission and church in the 21st century, and wonder of God, do we see hope?
We keep asking, “How long, Lord? Where are you, God?” even as we remind our own hearts that God has not stopped loving us, delivering us, or working in us?
Where is Your Hope?
Proverbs 11:4-8 New American Standard Bible 1995
4 Riches do not profit in the day of wrath,
But righteousness delivers from death.
5 The righteousness of the blameless will smooth his way,
But the wicked will fall by his own wickedness.
6 The righteousness of the upright will deliver them,
But the treacherous will be caught by their own greed.
7 When a wicked man dies, his expectation will perish,
And the hope of strong men perishes.
8 The righteous is delivered from trouble,
But the wicked [a]takes his place.
In a worship song from the early 2000s, singer/songwriter Brian Doerksen sings, “Jesus, hope of the nations/ Jesus, comfort for all who mourn/ You are the source of heaven’s hope on earth.”
As believers in Christ, we recognize and worship Jesus as the true hope of the world, and yet it’s astounding how often we pin our hopes on human beings.
In all of our history books, it is clear that people are inclined to find more hope in their leaders, politicians, and celebrities rather than in the one true God.
Why do we do this?
These timely timeless words from Proverbs warns that placing hope in humans is infinitely worse than futile because any human power will come to nothing.
As the apostle Paul tells us, “There is no authority except that which God has established” (Romans 13:1).
By saying this, Paul is assuring believers that in all situations, even in the midst of national turmoil’s and global crises, God is the # One who holds all authority.
Any human who has “power” has it only because God allows it to be so.
In other words, our hopes and desires must lie with the One who is on the throne of the universe.
Our prayers must be exclusively oriented toward Jesus Christ, for he is truly the only hope—the only resurrected one, the one who can change minds, transform hearts, disperse principalities and powers, can bring restoration and revival.
Do not believe the lie of abandonment that your emotions can feed you.
Please just make an honest and concerted effort to rest in God’s comforting response to His forgetful people:
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me” (Isaiah 49:15-16).
God’s care for His children is like the sun: it’s constant.
Even when the clouds obscure it, it’s still there.
It’s always going to be “still there.”
Will you trust in God’s constancy today?
When you are next feeling forsaken, know that God looks at His hands, engraved with each and every one of His children’s names, and He says,
“There you are. Do you see now that I have not forgotten you?” (John 19:30)
30 Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 24 New American Standard Bible 1995
The King of Glory Entering Zion.
A Psalm of David.
24 The earth is the Lord’s, and [a]all it contains,
The world, and those who dwell in it.
2 For He has founded it upon the seas
And established it upon the rivers.
3 Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
And who may stand in His holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul [b]to falsehood
And has not sworn deceitfully.
5 He shall receive a blessing from the Lord
And [c]righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6 [d]This is the generation of those who seek Him,
Who seek Your face—even Jacob. [e]Selah.
7 Lift up your heads, O gates,
And be lifted up, O [f]ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in!
8 Who is the King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
The Lord mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, O gates,
And lift them up, O [g]ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in!
10 Who is this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
He is the King of glory. Selah.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 