How Long?

I participate in a bi-monthly Bible study. We meet at a local coffee shop, and discuss a passage of scripture that the pastor will preach on in the coming weeks. Today's passage for discussion deals with grief, loss and asking God those hard questions.

Psalm 13

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

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.

I know how the Pslamist feels! I have been "away" from God for so long. I feel I may never find my way back again. While I know that it's me that has lost touch, part of me, can't help but feel like God has forgotten me.

It also doesn't help that I am constantly wrestling with a multitude of thoughts and ideas that constantly invade my mind, heart and soul. Some of them I can push aside and deal with another day. Some have become my constant companion these days...and the thing is I don't know that I want to give them up. Other thoughts have been with me for years, and are as much a part of me as my hair or my eyes.

Yet there it is in verse 6 - I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me. God isn't afraid of the hard questions like "How Long?", "When?", "Who?", "Why????". What we need to learn from the Psalmist is to ASK the question!! And even when we ask the hard questions, his love remains constant. He doesn't get his feeling hurt, and walk away. God hasn't hidden his face from us, we've just forgotten where to look.

Instead of keeping those thoughts, and questions to ourselves we need to open them up to God and have an honest dialogue. I'll try to ask the tough questions...at least then I'd be talking to God again.