1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, 4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. 6 I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
"How long, O Lord? Have you forgotten me?"
I've found myself praying this line recently. To be honest, God has felt very far from me the last couple weeks. My heart is filled with sorrow.
This Psalm has been called the "How Long Psalm" or the "Howling Psalm" for obvious reasons.
As I read this Psalm, I can't help but wonder what specifically inspired it. There's no clear indication, and you could spend all day conjecturing about the specific context of the Psalmist when he wrote these words.
For example: some think Psalm 13 was written by David after his son, Absalom, conspired against him.
In the end, I don't think it really matters. I think the beauty and the tragedy of this Psalm is that it is immediately contextualized by anyone that reads it.
"How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?"
Maybe these words resonate with you? Maybe you've experienced this kind of sorrow in your heart?
The soul is a lonely place. It's a deceptive place. Its counsel only leads to sorrow. It causes us to turn inward, to forget the steadfast love of God. The salvation He has won for you.
But when we re-orient our focus toward God, he lights up our eyes so that we can see that He does not change. His generosity and goodness do not change. He has dealt with us bountifully.
Amen.