How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.

Psalms 13: 1-6

I love how David, the author of this psalm allows himself the space to pour out his anguish to God! 

“How long oh Lord? How long will you forget me?” 

Sometimes it feels like God has forgotten us; that he doesn’t hear us pounding on his door. That our prayers somehow don’t connect to his heart of mercy. 

If you too feel forgotten this morning, pick up your Bible and read this Psalm as a lament to God! Pour out your “how long’s”, your worries and despair. 

But notice as you come to the end of the psalm how David pivots. 

But —

Even though things didn’t make sense and there was anguish in David‘s soul, he knew that he could trust God because he had a relationship with God. He knew from past experience that God’s love was unfailing and trustworthy. So even though David  couldn’t see his way through, he set aside his feelings and clung instead to the character of God. It’s a beautiful reminder to us as well.

“BUT I TRUST in your unfailing love;

MY HEART REJOICES in your salvation.

I WILL SING THE LORD’S PRAISE for he has been good to me”

Trusting is believing without seeing. It is not blind faith as it might seem, but a faith in the known character of God. 

God has shown himself to be trustworthy in the past and even if I currently don’t see how the puzzle pieces fit together I can trust that He does. 

It is the kind of trust that even when faced with the death of a loved one someone could utter the words,  “God is good all the time, all the time God is good”. It is a faith that brings hope and peace in the midst of life‘s greatest questions.