Psalm 13
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 every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? 3 Look on me and answer, O Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; 4 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 to the Lord, for he has been good to me (NIV).
Every Tuesday evening, my church has a prayer and worship meeting. We begin by worshiping and declaring our King; we then move into prayer. Prayer for the election, the world, our community, the church, people who don't know Christ, our families and ourselves.
During worship, God directed me to Psalm 13 and it was exactly what I needed to read. This has been a tough season not just personally, but because I have been watching the cruelty, dysfunction, hatred, ignorance and violence taking place in the world. The violence and genocide happening in Syria; the separation, discrimination and oppression that is happening here in America and the countless other tragedies throughout the world-- All of which intertwine with our realities, because we are all apart of the human race.
As I was reading Psalm 13, I noticed that it was written in a first person perspective. The author of this Psalm was talking to God and was asking Him how long will he have to live with sorrow and discouragement. This book was a personal prayer to God, but I believe it is also a prayer for a community.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines community as, "A group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common".
A community is formed by a group of individuals. When individual people, who put Jesus Christ on the throne of their hearts, come together in community then that forms the body of Christ.
You may be wondering why I brought up community and this is why: there cannot be a we without a me. In verse two, it is talking about the struggles the individual is going through, "How long will my enemy triumph over me?" (NIV). When we look around at our community, we are all going through this struggle together.
We, as humans, are a part of the same community. When one of our members is being harassed, beaten, mistreated, or even killed; we must come together in prayer and action. Prayer might not sound like much in protecting our community, but when we realize that we are praying to the creator of the universe then the full power of prayer is realized.
What I admire the most about this Psalm is even after he pleaded to God his struggles, he still praised God, "But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me" (NIV). God is so good, just and loving and this verse acknowledges that. God is worthy of our praise no matter what. We must acknowledge the atrocities that are happening in this world, but we must also acknowledge God's unfailing love.
