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 take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all 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. I have skipped Psalm 11 and 12 for two reasons. First, I wanted to say something a bit more positive today and they didn't. Second, David can get a bit caustic from time to time. He was not well liked in his early years. He was the runt of the family. His brothers were all tall and the warrior type. He was the youngest and a shepherd and a musician/poet. I am sure he got picked on a lot. Then when God chose him to be the king of Israel, he had no end of trouble with Saul who was the king and losing his grip on things. Again, David spent a lot of time wandering around the hills of Judea trying to hide from the armies pursuing him and his motley group of supporters. He was often calling on God to bring destruction upon his enemies and convinced that God would be happy to destroy anyone that David didn't like. I don't believe God works the way David expected. God so loves the whole world. He might step in and help people we think don't deserve His help. But we have to ask, "why do we think we deserve God's help any more than the next person?" Is it because we think we are better? Anyway, let me look at Psalm 13 today and not get further into 11 and 12. David feels like God has forgotten him. This is a common response in people's lives when they perceive that the situation of their lives is not going in their favor. After all, most of us think that the world should revolve around us and our needs; that is the nature of the human personality, to be a bit selfish. Love teaches us the blessings of caring for another person and slowly encourages us to begin to think less selfish, i.e. selfless. David wants to know how long it will take for God to step in and change his situation. He wants to be happy. He wants to have no disruption in his life. He wants to have things go smoothly. Don't we all feel that way most of the time. We are all feeling a bit of disruption as we "shelter in place." This is not the life we want. We like the freedom to go out and visit our friends. We don't like the kind of life David enjoyed, sitting by the sheep, playing his music, and enjoying the passing of the hours. Most of the people I have talked to, after a few days of sheltering are going stir crazy. One person said, "the walls are closing in on me." Today is a day to turn away from the news, the fear, the anxiety, and the frustration that we are not in control. Today is the day to remind ourselves that we, like David, put our trust in the steadfast love of God. He has been faithful and will continue to be faithful to us. My heart rejoices in the salvation of God. What does salvation mean? It means healing for one thing. It means being set free from my enemies; the things that oppress me. And it means letting go of my anxieties and trusting that God knows best, and He is involved in bringing about what this world needs, even in the midst of this virus and virtual shutdown of life. We still have a place to turn. We can open the Bible and listen to the soothing words of the story of God's love. We can turn on the radio, that dates me doesn't it, I should have said 8-track tapes. We can turn on the music, rise and dance, in the comfort of our homes. We can sit in the silence of prayer and take all of the thoughts that come rushing through our minds and give them to God. Tell Him how we feel about what is going on; get it off our chest. And when we are done, we can let Him wrap His arms around us and pull us in close and let us know that things will be good again. Be patient, the world will not be destroyed. Disrupted for a few months, but not destroyed. People, with God's help have risen from the ashes more than once in this life and we will do it again, together, and with His help. David speaks to us at the end of this Psalm, "I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me." I will sing, maybe now, maybe in a few days or weeks, but I will sing again. Because I will remember, soon I hope, how God has dealt bountifully with me in the past. And He will do so once more.
- Pastor Edd | 
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