Psalm 13

David Nelson   -  

July 7, 2024

LORD,

We thank you that you are the God who knows our frame and remembers we are dust. We thank you that you are the God who, in Christ, felt the same infirmities that we do when you became man. And we thank you, Father, that Jesus, was the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

We are not thankful that Jesus experienced the pain, but rather that He knows the pains we go through and therefore He is not ashamed of us when we throw ourselves in His arms as we endure the pains we find in this world.

Lord, what a shame and pity it is to go through a season where we ask, “How long?” What a pain and agony it is to feel forsaken and forgotten by you — to feel you have hidden yourself from us.

The great blessing of the Levitical priests was that your face would shine on us and you would be gracious to us … so seasons like this – that David talks about in Psalm 13 where your face is hidden – truly feel like the worst of curses.

And yet, Lord, as David here writes and Jesus later truly experiences on the cross, you clearly allow some of us to have this experience of feeling forsaken by you, even though you are the God who says you won’t forsake your own.

We do not understand this mystery, LORD … but the Psalms also tell us our thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not our ways. The Proverbs encourage us to trust and lean not on our own understanding.

And yet, without your abiding presence, Lord, these truths in your word provide little comfort for a child of the light walking in darkness.

We have no light, our prayers feel unheard and unanswered, singing seems foolish, even calling ourselves Christians feels like hypocrisy. After all — “Why believe in a God who doesn’t seem to be there?”

Satan and the powers of hell seem to be winning as we lay in the dirt and soot of a spiritual jail cell.

So, for those here this morning, LORD, going through a season like this, we pray that you – like you did here with David – would give them secret grace to sustain them — to keep believing and to keep pressing into your promises.

We pray they would know that Jesus, their great high priest, felt the same forsaken feelings they do — for Christ was truly forsaken on the cross. That you, Lord, do not reject us in our affliction… you have heard, when we cried to you. And that you sympathize with our weaknesses.

Lord, for those walking in darkness, we pray you’d carry their spiritually paralyzed selves to your throne of grace that they might receive mercy and find help in our time of need.

Help us trust in your steadfast love, help us find joy in your salvation, help us sing even with parched throats, and help us to see and celebrate the bounty we find in Jesus.

And to those of us trying to comfort those in such affliction, may we be like Jesus — who wept with Mary and Martha and yet displayed to them the resurrection that was coming.

Lord, in closing, we pray for those students who experienced your presence at Challenge Conference this week. May that not be a mountain top experience for them, but may your presence abide throughout their lives and may you continually make your face shine on them.

Father, we pray also for those new believers who, for the first time, felt your face shining on them in the gospel — we pray that you would keep them from the evil one and from His schemes.

Hear these prayers, O’ Lord, for we ask them in the name of Jesus — and all God’s people said: Amen.