#691 Egg Tooth

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long must I take counsel in my soul

and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted 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 enemy 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. Psalm 13 ESV

How long - It is always long enough or too long to us, our trials, but faith stands that the Lord knows better. When you're hungry the oven is forever, thirsty, the well is so far away. God, haven't I learned enough? There is not much on this earth worthy of sweating blood, but once the soul knows of the Father, has heard the promise, the worst is to turn and not see the Father, to call and not hear Him respond. It is the sense of having His back turned to our sin, that was the dread of Calvary, the anxiety of Christ. 

Counsel in my soul - I search the promises that I put away in the store house of my memory. Did God say this? yes, I think, I remember the places I should have been and those I went to instead. I comfort myself that He forgave before, that it was never my own strength that brought me out before, yet I wander the library of my mind hoping against hope that there is an answer. Why won't You answer me? My enemy is laughing as though he is in the right, that he is victorious, and now Your servant looks the fool. What have I done that I may correct it, that the devil's servants will be shut up? 

Light up my eyes - Restore my countenance, make me presentable once again, for Your sake oh God, Your glory, let me catch a glimpse of hope, lest my heart fail inside of me. Don't let this turn into the happiness of my enemies, that I be the jester like poor Samson, remember me Oh Lord, let this cup please pass from me. Give me strength one last time to serve You. 

But I have trusted - Once we leave off those things for which we despair, that our burdens are brought to God in prayer and our conscience has been thoroughly emptied by confession, there is nothing left but to rejoice. Whether in this life, that relief where we are justified before men, or better than that will ever taste, to be justified before God, it is to Christ we must throw all crowns. 

Resist him, standing firm in your faith and in the knowledge that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. 10And after you have suffered for a little while,the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory inChrist, will Himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you. 11To Him be the power forever and ever. Amen.…1 Peter 5:9-11