13th. July. 2020. Daily Devotion
Psalm 13
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me for ever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4 and my enemy will say, ‘I have overcome him,’
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.
This is one of David’s musical psalms. He begins it by bewailing God’s absence in his life, and the sense of wrestling with his thoughts and grief. This is something many people feel at some point in their lives, especially after a time of great earthly loss. Then he turns to a prayer of supplication, for God to stop hiding from him and give him relief. He ends by rejoicing in God’s gifts and reaffirms his devotion and thanks. The feelings he expresses move from desperation to hope and then to thanks, something that many of us have experienced in our prayer.
Who of us has not felt that God has hidden His face from him? We might even blame God when things are going badly. It is a common temptation, when trouble lasts a long time, to think that it will last always.
But God allows us to suffer no more than He himself, for Christ was beaten and tortured to death. What will we ever suffer that is worse? Afterwards God’s most faithful children suffered in the same way, and all the apostles except John were beaten, stoned, imprisoned, or murdered. Some lived lives of borderline poverty; they were the equivalent of modern minimum wage earners.
We let life and society raise our expectations, and then we blame God when they are not met. And yet, this is the very time to strengthen our faith. “Those who have long been without joy,” said Matthew Henry, “begin to be without hope.” While we know that life could deal us terrible blows; our faith is not that we will avoid sorrow, but that we will overcome it. Life is a trial. It is a test of our resolve to find God and eternal life.
So, the Psalmist says, “I will trust in God and rejoice at my salvation” — for it is faith that will sustain us through any trouble we may face, if we only hold on to God. Life itself is a gift from God, and nothing that is taken was not first given.
Prayers
I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will;
put me to doing, put me to suffering;
let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you,
exalted for you, or brought low for you;
let me be full,
let me be empty,
let me have all things,
let me have nothing:
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours. So be it.
And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
~ John Wesley (1755)
Heavenly Father, I have spent my life constantly wanting more. Let me be content. If I am having trouble paying my bills, let me look to those who live in cardboard shacks without clean water; if my vision is poor, let me help the blind; if my mobility is impaired, let me visit a prison filled with those who can walk and run; if I envy the young, let me pray for those whose lives are blighted in childhood.
I too often look to those who have something I do not, or more of something I want; let me give thanks for the great bounty you have showered upon me, oh Lord, remembering in my envy and pain that all I have is a gift from you.
In the name of Christ, I pray, Amen.
Loving, ever living and compassionate God,
You understand the pain of loss, the heartache of bereavement,
May we hold in our hearts all those whose families or friends have died.
You are a light that shines in the darkest times,
Guide us and heal us in our sickness and sorrow.
You comfort us in times of fear,
May we comfort each other, even as we keep apart.
You console and lead us in times of doubt and confusion,
May we follow the light of your love and spread hope.
You move our hearts to acts of generosity,
May we be led to share what we have with those in need.
God of life,
We thank you for the signs of your light amid our darkness,
May we be signs of your compassion in the heart of your world.
Amen.
~ Linda Jones.
