QT 7/4/2022 Ps 13:1-6, Am I seeking him?

Psalm 13:1–6 (ESV) — 1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? 3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, 4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. 5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. 6 I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

 

NOTE: Spurgeon comments that no one has successfully pinpointed this to a particular event in David's life. It does sound a lot like the period where he was running around the desert--constantly under threat, nearly cornered on more than one occasion. That period lasted a long time. At some point, David cried out for relief. Where was Samuel's prophecy of the kingship? Samuel had died and nothing had changed.

 

It is normal and healthy to do a spiritual checkup during those times. We live under grace, but we also live under a loving Father who will discipline us in order for us to better reflect his name. Is it discipline or is it learning perseverance, patience, longsuffering? … Does it matter? Can I ever not repent of battles of the flesh? Can I ever not learn perseverance? Are the two areas incompatible?

 

There is a third area that is often forgotten during hard times, and that is our relationship with God. Moses wrote,

 

Deuteronomy 8:3 (ESV) — 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

 

God wants us to seek him more than anything else. In my mind, almost all suffering should result in a renewed need for God above everything else. We, like Jacob, need to wrestle with God, refusing to let go of him. We need his blessing, not the world's blessing, and that blessing will only come in a relationship with him.

 

PONDER:

1. Do I see God with all my heart? If not, start there in your pain.

 

PRAYER: Father, if there is anything I have learned over and over again through the years -- it is that I need you. There is no greater thing! Everything pales in comparison, and everything shines in that relationship. Life is worth living if it is lived for you.