PSALM 13
How
long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me? —Psalm 13:1 NIV
At 53, I was diagnosed with a chronic lung
disease called Bronchiectasis, complicated by Mycobacterium avium
complex (MAC Lung Disease). I was told, “You won’t die from this, but you
will die with it.” Fifteen years later, I’ve managed to continue life ordinarily—at
least to those outside my household. Only my husband sees how much I sleep and hears
how much I cough. Only God knows how often I release similar prayers to the one
David prayed in this psalm. We don’t know what sort of infirmity David suffered,
but all of us can relate to his conviction that God has abandoned him. When
we’re suffering from pain and fatigue, when we’ve prayed for healing but not
received it, when we’re waiting for answers that do not come—it’s easy for our
frail human emotions to fall into despair. And why shouldn’t we? If God ever
truly did turn his back on us, despair would be the only appropriate response.
I’m so glad David, by his example, lets us know it’s okay to pour all this out to God when we’re feeling it. To deny those emotions would only drive us further from Him, because to challenge Him with “why” and “when” means that deep down, we know He’s still listening, regardless of how we feel. That’s how David can conclude this gut-wrenching psalm in victory, declaring that he will trust in God’s unfailing love and rejoice in His salvation.
Faith
Step: When you feel forgotten or abandoned by God, tell him exactly how you
feel. He can handle all our sincere questions and challenges.
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