MELT MY ♥ Daily Dose - Psalm 13 - Lord How long?

MELT MY ♥ Daily Dose Psalm 13 (NIV)

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.

A Psalm by David, when he felt abandoned by God. Sometimes we may give people the impression that they will never feel this way once they become a born-again Christian. But this is clearly not the case. As noted in this Psalm, there are times when God feels distant from us, and David felt those times and voiced it. I like David, because he was very honest in his relationship with God.  A lot of times we feel as if we are NOT faithful Christians if we feel distant from God, this is not true!  If a faithful man of God such as David felt depressed, alone, overwhelmed, abandoned, what about us?  In this Psalm the battle is clearly too much for David as he cries out 'How long'Lord,' when will this stop?  You ever been in that situation?  We have all been in such times of despair when it is difficult to even remember when better times existed in our lives. The feelings of loss and abandonment are so great that one is unable to see when the end will come. It is important that we recognize that this is the nature of trials.  

  Remember, When we consider the life of David, being a man after God’s own heart, it is easy for us to only recall the positive things that happened in David’s life. Yet we cannot forget the suffering, trials, and traumas that David endured. He lost a son because of his sins. He was chased for his life by Saul and by his own son Absalom. Things were not all “good times” in the life of David. He became a man after God’s own heart, in part, because of how he handled the suffering and trials he encountered. Let us see the agony David is in when he cries out, “Will you forget me forever?”  David does not want the enemies to be able to think that they can overcome a servant of the Lord. David makes his appeal based upon the name of the Lord, as many in the scriptures have done in the past. 

 So what can we do when we feel abandoned by God?  Trust in God’s unfailing love.  Despite all that we have noticed in this psalm concerning David’s despair, David still has hope.  David says that he trusts in the Lord’s unfailing love.  Further, since God’s love is unfailing, He never lets us down. He is always there and meets every need perfectly. Even in our sins, God continues to love us. How do we know this? We know this because God has already proven His love for us by sending His Son to die while we were in our sins (Romans 5:8). God will not let you down when you put your full trust in Him.  When we feel abandoned, let us turn to God in prayer. Then let us know that God’s love is unfailing toward us. He will not turn away from us. Let us rejoice in the salvation we have in the Lord because no matter what happens to us, our salvation cannot be taken away. Finally, let us sing to the Lord for He has been good to you and me.  This shall surely pass... ♥