Psalm 13 is not one of those feel-good-Psalms that you read when you’re having a great day and are loving life. It’s one of those psalms you read when you’re in a valley. A desert. A storm. This Psalm that David wrote is really calling out God and saying, “Where did you go!? What happened!? Why have you left me naked to fend for myself when my enemies are all around me!? Why have you let me feel this pain that I’m feeling!? Why…”
This is a feeling that I’m pretty sure that everyone has felt in their relationship with Christ, and if you haven’t felt this way yet, there’s a good chance that you will. I’ve felt this way for the last couple days and I’ve really been questioning why God would do something to, in a sense, take something away from me that I needed and not provide something else to fill that need. Last night it came down to me just venting to God and listing out what I’m feeling and why I feel that way. I went to the Psalms to find something that would resonate with what I’m feeling and came to Psalms 13 and 22. (Psalm 22 is the one that starts out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). And as I was reading these Psalms through the tears, the thing I noticed was how quick of a change the Psalm goes from a broken heart that is crying out, to a heart that is full of hope and trusting in who God is. Here’s Psalm 13:
1 How long, O 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 every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;4 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 to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.
Did you see that? There were four verses of David crying out in a very raw and real way, and then in verse 5 he turns around and says, “But I trust in your unfailing love…” It’s so hard for me to comprehend how much it takes to be able to say that and truly mean it. To be in the midst of a violent storm and still have your eyes fixed on God instead of the chaos around you is much easier said than done. But I think that if we’re able to do that, if I’m able to do that, we’d see that our ginormous troubles are microscopic compared to who God is. That’s not to say that our troubles and needs aren’t real; it’s saying that God is big enough to cast our cares on and he’s big enough to provide for them. Now, saying that you still trust in God when you’re going through a storm does not negate the pain that you’re going through. What it does though, is say that in the midst of the pain that God is still God.
Jesus said in Luke 12:
Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
Our needs our real. God knows this. And just like it says in the passage from Luke, God provides for the birds, and we are so much more important to Him than birds! In a storm, I think it’s important to still have our eyes on God and trust that he will provide for us like He promised.
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