How Long, O Lord?

Have you ever felt alone? Have you ever felt abandoned? We often hide those feelings…especially if they are spiritual. I mean, we hide it if we think God has abandoned us. Spurgeon spoke of the Psalms and he said, when you dive into David’s psalms, you will somewhere or other see yourself. You never get into a corner, but you find David in that corner. He said, I’ve never been so low that David wasn’t lower, and I’ve never been so high that I couldn’t find David still higher. That’s what I love about David…we can see him at the top and we can see him at the bottom. Today’s psalm is one of those bottom times, but while it begins with winter it ends with summer! Let’s spend the rest of the week in Psalm 13.

The psalm only has six verses and Derek Kidner said the three pairs of verses in this psalm climb up from the depths to a fine vantage point of confidence and hope. Each set of two verses takes us up from David’s sorrow to David’s song. Let’s walk through these six verses by looking at one rung of the ladder each day.

First, we find David’s Desolation,

“How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?”

Four times we see the question, “How long?” This shows us David’s problem wasn’t a bad day…this is prolonged…he is struggling.

“Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemies be exalted over me?”

David is a man who continually seeks the face of God and yet the face seems to be hidden…this is a lack of apparent blessing. He is struggling with dark days and dark thoughts…he is restless and feeling ignored.

Have you been there? What do you do when you face what the saints called the Dark Night of the Soul? David isn’t confessing sin…this isn’t a matter of sin and repentance…God’s fellowship has been withdrawn and David is suffering. But he doesn’t stay there. Tomorrow we will see the next rung of this psalm’s ladder.