Holding On To God - Having Faith In Difficulties

Prayer in Affliction

Read Psalm 13: 1-2, “

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?

Some may think that David would be bi-polar. Others may think that many people experience extremes in life, and that is part of the Christian experience, of suffering, and joy, sorrow and blessedness that is found in Matthew 5. But we know that, if a doctor would diagnose David with such a case, that it is not the problem. There are inward spiritual struggles that unbelievers know nothing about. An unbeliever would not begin to understand the thought of the possible loss of God’s presence, which to a true believer would cause deep despair of existence. A secular doctor would believe and be able to name a psychological condition that would fall categorically to name David’s struggle, because we see only a few verses later, of exuberant worship and joy. Anyhow, there are struggles that only believers know of. There is knowledge of the Holy One, that has never been tapped by secular science.

David takes counsel in his soul, which outweighs, in comfort, the surrounding modern science. And comforts that he is learning through his affliction and difficulties as a disciple of the King. He has sorrow all day, he feels that God has departed from him in many aspects and he feels that his has lost his ability to glorify God and feels the enemy has done him in. One commentator, thinks this is during his time of fleeing from his son, Absalom.

David exercises faith, as asks God to recognize his long-sufferings in hope that God would relieve.

What is it that causes death to encroach upon David? What we do know, is that David is calling, and God sees. We know that David is suffering, and God sees. We know that when David sinned in the past, that God said, his sin was set aside, but that he would face disciplines. So, David calls out, and tells God his sorrows.

God’s Sovereign Preservation

Read Psalm 13:3-4, “

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.

David approaches the presence of God humbly and beseeches. He needs the kindness of God to not let his eye sleep finally into spiritual ruin and death. He cries out that God would preserve him from failing, from fading.

The Holy Spirit must ignite and cause the flicker of the flame of his immediate presence in the life of the soul of David, to be continued. The spring of the flicker is caused by the purpose of God to preserve his people who are faithful and remain faithful and alive. Psalm 33 and 37 allude to the fact that God keeps his people able to enjoy his provisions even in the times of outward famine. How much this relates to the the material in balance with spiritual meanings, is always something to study. But we have here a testimony that can apply to both. God will keep, when others die, by not taking in what saves them, the word of God, that David is continuously sustained and abundant, in both material and in spiritual in that time of need and famine.

David attends his prayer in view of the enemies that he has. He wants that God would be glorified in his life, through the fact that his deliverance would be a victory for both David and for God. God, as we have seen in the last number of weeks and David, we see in the Psalms have a united cause, due to the fact of David wanting to be with God.

This places David in a place where God, true to himself, will act, and cannot deny himself. He will preserve David and ignite his eyes. The only damnable place where God will not work like this, is when someone deliberately turns out of God’s purpose, and continues to sin, with a prevalent attitude, and through unbelief. But in David, we do not see this. We see his struggles, and his deliverance. Some will say this is a time of fleeing Absalom his son, but there isn’t a clear directive on this Psalm as to the context of his life situation here.

Trust and Full Bounty

Read Psalm 13:5-6, “

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.

David, in the context of this Psalm found himself, having a ray of light from heaven, which signaled from God, an answer to his prayer of faith. We see this all throughout the Psalms. Since David has trusted in the love of God, it results in a rejoicing spirit! A spirit of worship, and of praise. An abiding song in the heart and mind of David, and an experience of God’s purpose to overcome David’s enemies, and also to bless him aboundingly and abundantly. In one sense, similar to receiving the promises. Many die while having faith, but some do experience the promised land in this life, in some sense, but the complete fulfillment is heaven. Some have likened it to a term called Beulah land.