From Despair to Declaration
On the anniversary of what is arguably the darkest day in our country’s history, twenty years after that dreadful day, the culture in which we live continues to be a steady stream of negative, tending to suck the life right out of us. Any good news is often like the sun as it rises in the morning, hidden behind the trees and its beauty lessened in the mist.
Does your soul feel dry? If you are like me, when I find myself parched, it is sometimes hard for me to experience the closeness of God. Are you having a hard time feeling the presence of God? Has it been weeks, months, maybe even years, since you experienced God’s sweet intimacy?
Psalm 13 is a short six verse lament in which the psalmist (David) feels forgotten.
v.1 – How long, 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 day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 – Look on me and answer, LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4 – and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 – But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 – I will sing the LORD’s praise, for he has been good to me.
The first two verses reveal what David sees as the problem. Do you see the depth of David’s despair? Four times in these two verses he cries out “How long?” Maybe right now you find yourself crying out, “How long God must this go on!”
In v.3, David petitions God. Look what he says – “look on me and answer” and “give light to my eyes.” Can you hear the urgency in David’s voice? Maybe you have that same urgency today.
V.4 has David praying for victory. If losing wasn’t bad enough, the sting of hearing the victor boast after the victory was almost too much to bear. One of the hallmarks of David’s psalms is his awareness of both God and the enemy.
We see in v.5, despite his agony, David declares God’s mercy. Even if he can rejoice in nothing else, here we see David rejoicing in God’s salvation, just possibly in that moment the only solid ground David is standing on. What are you rejoicing in today?
David began this psalm by pleading and in v.6 we see a huge transition. David’s pleading changes to praise! In the midst of David crying out to God, David’s eyes were enlightened, and he moved from a place of woe is me to a place of praise, from a place of despair to a place of declaration!
So, today, amid whatever it is that you are facing (and we all are facing something!), will you allow yourself to sing Yahweh’s praise because He has been good to you?
I will end with these words from the hymn “Approach, My Soul, the Mercy Seat” (written by John Newton). Allow God to speak to you in these words – “Poor tempest-tossed soul, be still, my promised grace receive; ’tis Jesus speaks; I must, I will, I can, I do believe.”
If you are encouraged by this or any of my writings, you can subscribe to be notified by email when I post something new. To subscribe, click here. Once you put in your email address you will then get an email confirming that you wish to subscribe. Thank you.