Day 27

Psalm 13 part 2

Thinking about our troubles is hard work. Trouble is often like a pill God wants us to just swallow, but we make it worse by keeping it in our mouths and chewing it. How swiftly our joys can pass and how long our sorrows seem to last. The 2 stanzas of this psalm show us that prayer does not need to be long to be powerful.

In v3 David asked for an answer before he ‘slept the sleep of death.’ Paul may have had this verse in mind when he wrote: Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. (Ephesians 5:14.) Sleep is a common euphemism for both spiritual and physical death, though far more common for the state of man after death. Consider Job14:12-15: “people are laid to rest and do not rise again. Until the heavens are no more, they will not wake up   nor be roused from their sleep.¹³ “I wish you would hide me in the grave ^(Sheol).”  There are a multitude of verse where death is described as a sleep. Here is a sample: 1 Cor 15:52-55, 1 Thess 4:14, Rev 20:12, Eccl9:5,6, Acts 2:29,34 etc etc.

Awareness of God and the enemy (v4) is virtually the hallmark of every psalm of David; the positive and negative charges which produced the driving force of our best years.

BY the end of his prayer, David came to a place of confidence and trust. He cleared away the fog from his sleepy eyes as God enlightened him. At this place of discouragement, David could not trust in God’s justice, His law, or holiness. Those things might condemn him because his feelings had made him not see clearly. But he could always trust in God’s steadfast love (v5 Chesed!) When you can’t trust anything else, trust in that. Then mists will scatter, and your faith will break out like the sun in its strength. We know that God still loves us and will be faithful to us, regardless of our feelings. Say to yourself: Be my feelings what they will, Jesus is my saviour still.

I have 6 free copies of Philip Yancy’s book on prayer for the first takers. (Yancy is one of my favourite authors.)