Psalm 13How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul,Having sorrow in my heart daily?How long will my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O Lord my God;Enlighten my eyes,Lest I sleep the sleep of death; Lest my enemy say,“I have prevailed against him”;Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted in Your mercy;My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord,Because He has dealt bountifully with me
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Our church is studying through the Psalms this summer, this past Sunday our Pastor took us through Psalm 13, a Psalm of Lament. I took notes as I listened and I would like to post them here today. Perhaps you will be encouraged as you consider my notes.
"How long Oh Lord?" we have felt this and asked the Lord this question ourselves.
Psalm 13 is a lament before God, spoken from the depth of pain.
We have felt stuck in the brokenness of this world.
The Psalms are personal prayers - we can use these to come to God with our own difficulties.
Also as a community - we can use the Psalms as prayers of intercession - speaking and praying on behalf of another person.
Be honest before God - tell Him what is going on in your situation, we must not be fake. We must come before the Lord with truth, telling Him exactly what our situation is and how it is affecting us.
Pray to God with your emotions - with no holding back!
Laments teach us to pray from the depth of our hearts.
In Psalm 13, David accuses the Lord of having forgotten him "How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?"
God will never forget us - Has has promised to never leave us or forsake us. It is His #1 promise.
David demands for God to do something, to show up and to move in his life.
God hears our prayers, we need to be convicted and expect Him to act and to answer our prayers.
God remembers His promises to us.
God does respond to our prayers.
When we are completely open with God, we will sometimes ask Him for things that we should not ask for. Do not worry about this - The Lord can handle this. Bring it all to God.
Become real before Him.
He will change us when we are honest with God.
He will teach you to bless and to love that person who is causing you grief.
God can handle us!
We can express our fears, our anxieties, our heartaches to Him - He is touched by our grief.
Be real with God.
Praise is the foundation of our prayers.
David is convinced that God is good! And we also need to be convinced that God is good!
What breaks your heart breaks God's heart as well!
God is emotionally invested in our lives - He cares for us.
God loves us!
Trust in His unfailing love.
His love will hold you!
Dear Sister Northern Sparrow, I thought I would try very early in the morning to see if I could navigate your website smoothly and use the comment app. Well, apparently the early morning is the time for me to visit. I have been wanting to tell you how wonderful this Psalm 13 is for me personally and thank you for your commentary.God Bless You
ReplyDeleteDear Mrs CJB Thank you for your comments. I have found that many of the Psalms speak directly to what is on my heart and Psalm 13 is one of them. We trust in the Lord and wait on the Lord to act in our situations, and as we wait we can praise Him for how He has proven Himself faithful in the past. God bless you always sister!
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