Psalms 13

Our God is in heaven, and He does all that pleases Him. We are on earth, and we have our own ideas about our needs and about the desires and troubles of people we love who are suffering. As those who cast our cares upon the Lord, we wonder whether God is listening.

Discouragement and unbelief can settle into the soul after years of prayer. Wrestling with God is tiring and confusing. The true worshiper of the Lord must not walk away from communion with the Lord. He continues to cry out for help. He does not give up his petition, especially when it is something that flows from a promise that God Himself has made.

Yet he may wonder, and it is not rude to ask, “How long, O Lord?” Has God forgotten His beloved child? It may feel that way to those who ask, seek, and knock persistently, and are still left with the feeling that God will not answer.

The meaning of these trials may be very difficult or even impossible to discern. Why would God seem to hide His face from one who loves Him who calls out to Him day and night? No doubt he is being trained for eternity, but today's struggle may feel like more than he can bear. Through it all he remembers God.

The righteous man may have enemies at the door. They may threaten to take away his property by force. They may even seek to harm his family and friends. If he stands in the way it is at the risk of his life. Some enemies will not be satisfied until they have murdered those who oppose them.

To face a trial of this intensity is a very serious burden on even the most faithful worshiper of God. He thinks about it all the time. He talks to his own soul. He addresses the depths of his heart. He wonders what it is all about. When will this burden be lifted?

What do these enemies want? Proud men and angels will never be happy being subservient to anyone. They must be exalted over others. The worshiper, particularly under trial, learns how to be a servant of God. To be quietly humble and happy is a gift from the Lord to those who are being sanctified through difficulty. That blessing should not be despised. Yet the worshiper cannot bear to have an evil foe exalted over him. He will learn to value subservience before God and obedience to lawful authority, but do not ask him to be happy about abusive thugs who abuse the innocent and insist that everyone else in the world worship them.
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So he prays to God. He learns meekness and boldness before the Lord. He continues to bring his petitions to God and to ask for help. He does not renounce God, or fight against the sovereign lordship of the Almighty.

He asks for help not only for his body, but also for his soul. So much of his battle is fought within his own spirit. Will he give in to unbelief, or will he rest in and follow the God who has claimed him? This is today's battle for the suffering worshiper until his mortal life is over. He needs to live. He has a post on this suffering earth, and he wants to be faithful to his calling.

His enemies want him to fail. They may seek to kill him, but they certainly want to see him curse God to His face. This is the desire of the enemies of the Lord, that the elect would abandon a life of holy waiting and trusting in the Lord of heaven. The Lord's servant needs to maintain his position as one who is resting on the Rock revealed to him in the Word of the Lord. His firm foundation is not in the experience of his spiritual feelings but in the revelation of God's Word granted to the community of those who call upon the Lord's Name. This is the only way that he will stand on the truth and not be shaken.

As the worshiper hears the Word of truth, He remembers the tender mercies of God, and he believes. He hears the voice of others in covenant assembly who also remember and believe.

He knows the salvation of God. The Lord has worked deliverance for His people for many centuries. Even now, the Lord has not abandoned His people, but is at work training them up for this life and the next. Especially he considers that the salvation of the Lord is not restricted to the past or the present, but is also a matter of faith in what has not yet been seen. The Lord will save. He will save us in this life, but beyond this life we will enter into a world of salvation. As he remembers the steadfast love of the Lord, he rejoices with all the people of God.

In these gatherings of worship those who love the Lord are kept by the power of the Almighty. They sing to God, and they reflect on the bounty of the Lord's provision, even at a time when they felt abandoned by God.

We who gather now in New Covenant assemblies have the great privilege of the prophetic Word made sure through the events of salvation that have already take place. We know the tender mercies of God through Christ as historical fact. The King who died on a cross for His people has come. He has risen and ascended to the heights of heaven. He is God and Man, and He still does whatever pleases Him.

We take our place together in humble adoration of the Triune God. We know that the Lord has not actually forgotten us. We continue to rely on His covenant faithfulness, and we call to mind His bountiful gifts to us of heavenly love.