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Psalm 13

This song is for for people who are very deeply distressed, people who've prayed and prayed again, but who haven't seen God's hand of mercy yet. To them it seems as though God has hid His eyes from their problem.  And of course such thoughts just make the distress even worse. 

David had experiences like that.  He'd often been in dangerous situations brought on by enemies who sought to defeat and be rid of him. And the situation had indeed been made much worse by God's seeming indifference to his prayers.  But then, after even more distress - and more prayer, God had blessed him, and then, with the problem in the past, David was able to write this psalm and introduce it to all God's people via the songs of Israel.

He knew that all God's people have problems to which God sometimes seems indifferent, and he wanted them to enter with Him into the realization of God's continuing care for them at ALL times.  Of course the problem David faced in particular was a foreign enemy.  But even if the problems were not from that source, yet there was always their – and our - common enemy the Devil.

David's example here makes it clear to every singer of this psalm that it's important at the outset to be extremely honest with Jehovah about his feelings.  He needs to admit that he feels like God has ignored him, that He has ceased to protect him, and, apparently, has cast him off.

Our prayers, too, should be honest like that with our Father.  After all, He knows our hearts anyway, so we may as well express them to Him.

Next, in his petition for relief, what the worshipper needs has to be expressed with extreme simplicity.  He needs to say with David, "Consider and hear me, O Lord my God; enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death!"  In other words, "Oh Lord, give me understanding to overcome this problem - or I might as well die!"

And then the song ends in a very unique way – It closes with an expression of the worshipper's determination to trust in God's mercy and to rejoice in His salvation, even though he hasn't seen that salvation yet.  From every saints' past experience with a faithful God, he can be quite confident that he will finally receive His mercy, so he deliberately and decisively tells God that He will trust Him for it - and he begins rejoicing as if he's already got it!  He can do so because he's casting himself upon the Character and love of his covenant God – a God Who never changes.

We can do the same.  Sometimes we just need to cease from our moaning long enough to shift our focus from our troubles to the faithfulness of our God.

QuoteThen the song ends in a unique way ? It closes with an expression of the worshipper's will to trust in God's mercy and to rejoice in His salvation. Even though he hasn't seen that salvation yet, still, knowing God, he's quite confident that he will receive it, so he deliberately and decisively tells God that He will trust Him for it, and he begins rejoicing as if he's already got it!  He can do so because he's casting himself upon the Character and love of his covenant God.

For myself, to call those thing that are not as if they are is an everyday thing when I pray for the salvation of my children. I just rejoice  that in the spirit my prayer has already been answered.[/b]

We don't know how He will answer, but we know that He will answer and that the answer will be His best for us.