How Long, O LORD? (Pt 2)

Psalm 13: 1 How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? 2  How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?

We continue today with our short series of blogs on the 13^th Psalm, How Long, O LORD? Yesterday we discussed, How long will you forget me, O LORD?  All Christians have asked a similar question along with the following questions….

2. Why have you hidden your face Oh Lord?

Here, the psalmist indicates that he knows God is somewhere, just not evident. And which of us haven't been here also? Sometimes, everything is sunshine and roses. God's presence surrounds you like the warm sunshine of a spring day. The blessings are flowing, the windows of heaven are open, and things could not be any better.

But have you noticed, there is no Christian growth during those mountaintop seasons of your life? For you see, It's down in the valleys where we learn our lessons: lessons of faith and trust, doing our duty when we don't feel like it, our character is being built in the valleys when God's presence is not so evident and his face is not readily seen.

3.  How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?

And now, the poor psalmist finds that he is talking to himself, reasoning out of a wounded soul, a place that he knows the answers are corrupted, skewed. He is seeking answers from heaven, but heaven is silent. Heaven is withholding wisdom.

Now we know that brother James tells us, If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally and upbraids not. I can tell you that God will always eventually give wisdom. But most often, it is on his schedule and not on ours. His schedule fosters growth, trust, and patience. If we always received wisdom whenever we snapped her fingers, God would appear to be a genie popping out of the bottle and saying,  “your wish is my command.”  Do you really want a God like that? If that were the case, really, you would be the god, and He would be your servant. I am glad it doesn't work that way.

There are those times where God wants us to commune with our own heart, listen to our selves talk, and wisdom will begin to grow out of these conversations with self.

It is when we begin asking ourselves questions like, Why me? What am I going through this for? Am I doing something wrong? What do I need to do? Is there a lesson I need to learn? that God can say, “now you're asking the right questions and the answers will begin to come...eventually.”

Open your eyes, open your heart.