Notes on Psalm13

I love the Psalms. I have found voice there for every emotion I have experienced and they always lead me back to God. There is a tendency among evangelicals, or maybe just people in general, to move away from someone who is hurting, someone who has (in the words of a preacher) "been struck by lightening, lest they also be hurt by the fire". When someone is doubting, when someone has been struck to the quick with the painful jabs that life offers, we so often try to soothe the hurt with the ointment of pat theological answers... maybe even good theology, rather than letting them complain of the pain and simply listening.

1 How long, O 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 every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

This is faithful complaining. David is doubting and offering his heart to God in brokenness and sorrow. He is turning to the Lord to ask the questions that haunt him.

3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
4 my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

From complaining he turns to arguing. His arguing is not based on his own merit and deserving, but on the NAME of God... on God's reputation. (I am hit over and over again by how important the name of God figures in the Bible. "He leads us in paths of righteousness for HIS NAME'S SAKE.") David argues with God faithfully, based on God's own character and reputation. He attaches his reputation to God's.

5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.

And finally, David remembers. He remembers God's faithfulness in the past. It is far easier to trust God in the shadows when we have walked with Him in the light. No change of circumstances is mentioned here. We don't know how God answered. But David's heart turned, just as mine has. I remember His goodness to me. And when I'm in the darkness, when God seems absent, I remember that Jesus experienced the Father's absence in a way I can never know. He walked in the shadows, too.