Consider and hear me, O Lord my God; Enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him”; Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved. Psalm 13:3, 4.
Precious Lord and Heavenly Father, thank you for Your tender mercies in times of need! Help us not to lose sight of Your everlasting love, so that we can enjoy Your peace in times of distress!
You have to listen to this psalm with your heart and not your ears, to really hear what David is saying. I am so comforted by the thought that the Holy Spirit, knowing what we want to say, takes our prayers to God in heaven’s language (Romans 8:26)!
In the first two verses David is struggling with God’s timing. How long Lord? At this point in his experience, he is just content to be considered by God. Have you ever been there in your journey through life, where you pass through the different phases of spiritual struggling?
This is really a passive reaction in spiritual warfare. You have not stopped fighting, you are just shadow boxing, because you are too weak to really fight, but not weak enough to give up! Under no circumstances are you going to surrender! All you want to know is that God has considered your situation. . . That Abba cares. That He has heard your groaning and seen your tears.
The psalmist now makes a petition that it behooves all of us to make: Enlighten my eyes. I think the greatest need of Christians in the time of trouble, and in a special way, during the end of time in which we are living, is to have our eyes enlightened. We need to see as God sees. We need to be enabled to see behind the scenes. As we mentioned yesterday, we need to allow God to pull us up to His sphere. We have become content to dwell in the low lands of life.
Just as in the case of the prophet Elisha and his young aide, Elisha prayed that the young man’s yes would be opened. When his eyes were opened he saw things that encouraged him. He saw that those that were with him and the man of God were more than those that were against them!
God will also consider us and give us a glimpse of the hope that is ours in Jesus Christ, lest our hearts should fail us for fear, and we sleep the sleep of death that David feared. Don’t ever forget that God will not leave you to fight any battle by yourself. He is too considerate to do that!
More tomorrow!