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 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.

This weekend I have listened several times a sermon on Monergism by Dale Ralph Davis based on this Psalm. The sermon is entitled Faith: From Crying to Confidence. Friends, I cannot stress how much this sermon has blessed me; I encourage you to listen to it.

And based on this Psalm (and the sermon) I pray today…

O God, how much longer, how much longer?  Many friends of mine whom I love dearly, women who love you, who love your Word and are walking on your ways have recently lost their babies before they opened their eyes, even in their mother’s womb. LORD, we don’t understand, we just cry and at times try to hold our words back. At times we feel as if you had abandoned us. Father, O God, how long? What do you want to teach us, the body of Christ, when we see this and feel so helpless and alone?

O LORD, how much longer?   Don’t hide your face from us, don’t hide your face from my sisters’ faces who cry in the darkness. LORD, O LORD! Hear our cry! You alone can bring comfort to us. Please, Lord; please God, hear us and let your face shine upon us.

There are times when grief cannot find comfort in words, when we don’t know what to utter, what to say. There are times when the only question that springs forth from our troubled heart is, the same that David asked, “How long, O LORD?”

“How long? Ah!  how long do days appear when our soul is cast down within us!…Time flies with full-fledged wing in our summer days, but in our winters he flutters painfully.”(1)

How long? God, how long will we have sorrow in our heart all the day as we mourn the death of these babies who were to be born in Christian homes, in the Covenant? We need you to come Father, and look at us in our distress. We are in desperate need of you. We have cried many tears in the night, on our pillow, and swallowed hard… we have waited and waited, and waited and still do not understand your ways. We go to your Word and at times You seem far from us. How much longer until my friends, my sisters will find comfort in their sorrow?

How long will our enemies will see us having miscarriages while they go and put their babies to death? How long LORD? Remember that we are poor and needy, Oh LORD, take thought for us. You are our help and our deliverer; do not delay, O my God!

Do not delay, O God!

Teach us to pray when our heart feels devastated; consider and answer us O LORD our God, light up our eyes, lest we sleep the sleep of death, lest our enemy say, “I have prevailed over them,” lest our foes rejoice because we are shaken. Don’t delay, O God, my LORD!

Father, where can we go for answers? To whom shall we cry? We have nowhere else to go but to You. Remind us that “the mercy-seat is the life of hope and the death of despair.” (2) O God, I come boldly before you today, because I have trusted in your steadfast love. My sisters and I will keep coming to you, day and night we will keep on knocking and knocking at the doors of Heaven. LORD only in You, in your steadfast love, in whom You are is where we will find rest and our heart will rejoice only in your salvation.

This day we thank you because You are our Father, a Father who has promised not to forsake us but to have compassion on us. You have promised not to leave us in the pit of desperation. We have trusted in Your covenant, in your perfect love, O God, and run to hide under your wings. You have given us hope and your Word to sustain us. Thank you, O LORD!

In the night dark of the soul, I thank you because even though we don’t always see clearly, we are not blind. You have made your light shine on us and You have given us your Word and the Holy Spirit to comfort us and help us in our weaknesses. Thank you, LORD because we are not placing our faith on vain things but on who You are; and You are God, a merciful and faithful God who remembers His own, who is Sovereign and Omniscient. You are our Father and your promises are Yes and Amen. Father just as a shipwrecked mariner clings to the mast (3), so we do now, we cling to our faith, we cling to You in whom our soul has believed.

God, my Lord, put a song in our mouth, clear our throats from this crying so that we may be able to sing your praises. O Father, our Father thank you because you have dealt bountifully with us.

Our Hope is in You and we look forward for the coming of our Lord Jesus, for the day in which all our tears will be wiped away.

AMEN!

Becky

(1), (2), (3) The Treasury of David by C.H. Spurgeon

Praying the Psalms