Psalm 13 - The Land between Anxiety and Trust

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me? (Psalm 13:1)
As for me, I trust in your grace, may my heart rejoice in the help You have sent me.
I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me (Psalm 13:5, 6)

Who has not said at one time or another: “How long, O Lord?” Who has not felt utterly abandoned by God?

And generally we are oblivious to the irony – the irony that our very crying out to God to complain that God has forgotten us conveys an innate knowing that He hasn’t!

We are conveying a feeling that is searching for a reality. The feeling is an abandonment; the reality is that God is present, and our very crying out is part of the process of our feelings catching up with the greater reality. That’s what happens by verse 5: trust, rejoicing, Presence.

Oh, I wish it could happen always in five quick verses. It seldom happens that quickly for me. How about you? But it does come. God is faithful – always; always.

My friend in Nigeria had a saying. It goes like this: God is too good to be unkind and too wise to be confused. When I cannot see His hand, I can always trust His heart. Sometimes it just takes time to get there.

Psalm 13 in its entirety:
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God! Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, and my enemy will say, "I have prevailed"; my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.
But I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.