Psalm 13

Today's scripture is Psalm 13. Go here to read it in your preferred version.

How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
² How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?
³ Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
⁴ Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
⁵ But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.
⁶ I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

Verse 1 - Wow. How often we feel like this! A pity party! Do we really think God has forgotten us?

Psalm 10:12 - "Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble." - God won't forget those who humble themselves

Isaiah 44:21 - "Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me."  

We ask God how long He's going to hide from us when in fact, in Jeremiah 33:3 God tells us if we will call out to Him, He will answer us and show us great and mighty things! He is not hidden from us, we are not seeking Him!

Jeremiah 33:3 - "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."

Verse 2 - How long shall I take counsel in my soul? My soul? My sinful, broken soul?? My soul gives no counsel. Exodus 18:19 says if we listen to God, He will give us counsel! He will be with us! Psalm 1:1 tells us not to walk in the counsel of the ungodly and that certainly includes myself.

Exodus 18:19 - "Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee"

Psalm 1:1 - "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." 

Verse 3 - Finally - a cry to God for help. Scripture tells us many times if we will cry out to God He will hear us and consider us. Asking God to open our eyes is significant. We are so blind without Him. In Ephesians 4:18 we read that alienation from God is due to blindness in our hearts. In 2 Corinthians 4:4 we see that blindness is caused by Satan, so blindness is exactly the opposite of what God wants for us.

Ephesians 4:18 - "Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:"

2 Corinthians 4:4 - "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." 

We must continue to trust in God's mercies.

Psalm 136:1 - "O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever."  

Lamentations 3:22-23 - "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."

My heart will rejoice in salvation. Don't ever forget that! I will sing to God and praise Him for all He has done for me!

Bountiful Blessings! Gotta remember that. We have so many things to praise God about.

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I have a story which I think is very cool about this. Back in July, Stephen and I went to a church camp with our youth group called Camp Anchorage. All week long I heard several speakers saying repeatedly, "God's mercies are new every morning!" They never gave a scripture reference but I didn't think much about it. But then during my devotions I kept coming across scriptures of God's mercy. It got me wondering where that scripture in the Bible was about new mercies every day. Well, I looked all through my Bible and couldn't find anything. So I went to the front porch, which was the hangout between sessions. A guy, Anthony, was out there and I was going to ask him, but he was involved in a lengthy conversation with another sponsor. I decided to wait it out. I regretted it when they kept talking and talking! Finally after about ten minutes, they finished up and I jumped at the chance to ask Anthony if he knew where this scripture was. Funny thing was, as soon as I had gotten out the question and he started to say, "I don't kno....." another man was walking up the steps and just as clear as day said, "That's Lamentations chapter 3. I just read that a couple of days ago."

I was super excited! Not just to find the scripture, but because I felt like God had just stepped into my conversation!

Now you might say I was lucky that he was walking by, because I was going crazy trying to find this scripture. I don't think I was lucky. I think God had those two men continue their conversation until Mike was going to be walking up the steps and could hear my question. I'll never forget that because it just showed me how much God loves me - that He is in all the small stuff in my life. That He wants to do small things like that for me to show me how much He cares. If you don't think God cares about things like that in our lives, I truly believe you are sadly mistaken.

Comments? Questions?