This message is Week One of our Summer of Psalms study. No materials are needed for your participation other than your device, your Bible, and a prayer before reading.
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How long?
Have you ever asked that? Of course you have. I'd be willing to bet that you started asking "how long?" as a child. Kids ask this all the time: when they really want to go somewhere or do something or have something, when their mama won't stop talking at church and they're ready to go. "Just a minute," we say. "How long is that?" they ask.
Our kids grow into preteens and then teens and young adults, and they're still asking, "How long?"
How long until I get my driver's license? How long until he notices me?
How long do I have to stay in this town? (Sorry, Mom & Dad- I did come back, though!)
And then we become adults, and we're still asking. How long will I wait to get a job? What about a job that I actually want? Get married? Have kids?
I even ask it in the small, everyday mundane, "How long is this going to take?"...in line at the grocery store, getting an oil change, when my husband has something he needs to do and I need help with the baby.
I've also asked "How long?" in the hardest, darkest seasons of my life.
How long will this precious one suffer this illness?
How long until my loved one comes back to You, God?
How long until we find our new normal?
How long will it be until I see some light again?
How long are You going to let me walk through this?
How long?
"How long?" is the question our psalmist, David, asks God in Psalm 13. David, a man after God's own heart, asks Him. David actually asks God, "How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?" (Psalm 13:1, ESV)
Have you ever felt forgotten by God? Or like He's far away? David did. I have.
What do you do then? David was a man after God's own heart, and if I want to be a woman after His own heart (how I pray that is said of me!), then I should take a page out of David's book- that page is Psalm 13 (side note: it's not just a page out of David's book, it's a psalm out of God's book).
So let's look at this section by section, verse by verse:
Verses 1 and 2: David is really hurting, and he asks God the questions. He asks five questions in the first two verses: four of them start with "how long" and the other starts with "will you...". If you've asked God questions that start with "how long" and "will you", you're in good company, friend.
Verses 3 and 4: David implores God again for an answer, and basically tells God how he (David) sees this all going down if God doesn't come through, and it isn't good.
Verses 5 and 6 are two of my favorite verses in all of scripture.
Read them here:
"But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me." (ESV)
Did you catch it? Y'all, I have loved these verses for years, and I can't tell you how many times I've read them in the past three years especially, and I never caught it until I was reading Matthew Henry's commentary on it. Then I had to re-read again to fact check Matthew Henry (ha!), and sure enough. Don't miss what I missed.
Here's what I missed and what I pray you don't: David is looking at God's track record, looking forward in expectation, and then back at His track record again. When I was learning to drive, and pulling out of our neighborhood, my dad taught me to "look left, look right, then left again". That's essentially what David is doing with God here: look back, look ahead, look back again.
He looks back in verse 5: "But I have trusted in your steadfast love..." David has trusted God, and God's love has never failed him. We can put our faith in Jesus, knowing He is faithful.
David looks ahead (still in verse 5): "...my heart shall rejoice in your salvation." David knows the rescue is coming, whether in this life or the next. We can be confident of that, too. When we place our faith in Jesus, we have been rescued and brought into the kingdom (Colossians 1:13-14). David continues to look ahead, "I will sing to the Lord..." and then...
David's reason for singing has him looking back again, "...because he has dealt bountifully with me." "Has dealt" is past tense, friends- it's what God had already done. The NIV translates that piece as, "because he has been good to me." This isn't as expressly written, but I think David has to reflect again on what has already been done because we humans are forgetful creatures.
And this is so important: David is looking back at what God has already done, not what he (David) has done. The only thing David mentions he has done is trusted in God (verse 5); the rest is God's work. The best predictor for future behavior is relevant past behavior. I believe all of creation points us back to God, and that includes this bit of psychology as well- the best predictor of what God is going to do is what God has already done. His character does not depend on your behavior or your circumstances.
So when you're asking Him, "how long?", look back at what He's already done, look ahead in expectation of His answer, look back again at His completed work. He who promised really is faithful (Hebrews 10:23). Those aren't just pretty platitudes- they're gospel truth. Look back, look ahead, look back again, as long as you're looking at Him.
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