1. How long, O Lord?
Will You forget me forever?
how long will You hide Your face from me?
2. How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and everyday have sorrow in my heart?
how long will my enemies triumph over me?
3. Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4. lest my enemies say, "I have prevailed over him,"
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
5. But I have trusted in Your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation
6. I will sing to the Lord,
because He has dealt bountifully with me.
Part 1: A Lament
"How long, O Lord?
Will You forget me forever?
how long will You hide Your face from me?"
The first part of the Psalm opens up with David's frustration and awareness towards God's apparent abandonment. He feels the absence of God, and an overwhelming fear that God has removed His presence & favor from his life. What circumstances have led to this prayer?
"How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and everyday have sorrow in my heart?
how long will my enemies triumph over me?"
In the absence of God, we are left to our sinful nature, and the war that wages on the inside of man. David's thoughts were too much to bare, whether lust, pride, fear, insecurity, money, armies plotting against him, or any other thing that fights for our allegiance. David was feeling the weight of it, and the sorrow we feel when we have encountered God and the purity that flows from life with Him. David knows the power of God, but the war within us fights the war around us. He's losing his sight of God. In the absence of God we find no relief; "How long must my enemies be exalted over me?" Maybe it was literal enemies, or maybe he was referring to his battle over sin. Either way, he was feeling the weight of the constant barrage of his "thoughts," and the sorrow we feel when our souls long for God and His holiness, but everything in and around us appose Him. When He is not alive in us, our "enemies" consume & devour us.
Part 2: A Command
3. Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4. lest my enemies say, "I have prevailed over him,"
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
David turns his prayer from a cry and lament, to a command. "Consider and answer me God!" How often are our prayers more like commands? He had known God well enough that he knew what he could command from Him. David, from the depth of darkness knows that only God can relieve him from this deep darkness that is our human reality absent of the presents of God.
And if God doesn't answer him, and if God doesn't "light up his eyes," he will surely "sleep the sleep of death," and his enemies will not only devour him, but they will rejoice in his shaking. There is no hope or trace of life outside of God's majestic, earth shaking, knee bending, intimate, and gracious presence. And if His face is not towards us, then...
Part 3: Alters of Remembrance
5. But I have trusted in Your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation
6. I will sing to the Lord,
because He has dealt bountifully with me
From the beginning, to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses & the Israelites, to David, to us. God consistently commands us to "remember" the Goodness and Faithfulness of God. He tells us to "wrap them around our necks," and "engrave them on our hearts," lest we forget what God has done. We are so quick to forget. When any opposition, heartbreak or loss comes, or even when we seem to be extremely abundant, we are too quick to forget where we came from, and the goodness of God that brought us here, and that He chose not to kill us in the process.
Though overwhelmed by utter darkness, he remembered.
5. But I have trusted in Your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation
6. I will sing to the Lord,
because He has dealt bountifully with me
David, of all people had no reason to doubt that God was with him. But when we become distant, or God tests our obedience & devotion to Him by lifting the weighted presence for a time that we might pursue Him, we forget, and we fear that God has abandoned us, and each "alter of remembrance" becomes dim.
Light up our eyes Lord! May we continue to ascend the mountain and climb even when surrounded by darkness, or adversities. And may we remember the Goodness & Faithfulness of God, and continue to set up "alters of remembrance." For You have dealt bountifully with us.
