The following is from “How Long, Lord?”, available on Amazon.

 

“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?”
Psalm 13:1

David knew God was real and powerful.

He had experienced God’s all-knowing wisdom through Samuel’s prophecy of kingship, and God’s incarnational strength with the defeat of Goliath.  There was no question in David’s mind about what God knew and could do; his question was why God seemed absent and unmoving.

David, a “man after God’s heart”, was serving God authentically, sacrificially, and entirely, and in response felt like God rewarded him with abandonment.  “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?”  Sit with that reality: being an all-in servant of God could lead to what feels like His neglect.

Yes, Psalm 13 ends on a positive note, as does David’s story, but some of you reading this don’t have the strength to rush there; I know I don’t.  I feel this verse of David’s deeply, and though I know theologically that God is Love, right now I struggle to believe it.

It is okay if you feel that way too.  God allowed two-thirds of this Psalm to be negative because the bulk of our struggles feel that way.  David’s anguish was such that he wondered if He would ever experience God’s goodness again; even worse, he knew God was capable of ending his anguish immediately and yet chose to let it get worse.  God was okay with David asking these blunt, negative questions, because He knows the weight of such a season.

He is okay with you asking Him too.

Find the week-long devotional here.