Sunday, June 20, 2010

Awaiting an Answer

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and everyday have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look on me and answer O Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

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.
-Psalm 13

I love this Psalm for the simple fact that the psalmist never receives an answer. These six short verses are filled with pleading and longing for God's intervention into their bleakest hours, with just a glimmer of hope and trust in the faithfulness of the Lord. But when all is said and done, the writer has not heard a reply from the heavens, and we are left with the understanding that he still finds himself in the same desperate situation he began with.

For me, that's where we find the beauty of this Psalm: in the silence from heaven. For in the midst of an unanswered plea, the author retains his faith and trust that the Lord will deliver in accordance with His perfect plan. He responds to the silence by praising God, "for he has been good to me." Although the context of these six verses do not include an answer, they end with worship.

This leads me to the question, how often do I worship in the waiting? I mean, its one thing to worship after receiving an answer (although that is still something I so often fail at), but to praise his name as I am waiting in silence? The thought seems so foreign in my thinking, and in our society's. To thank and praise someone before they have even given a reply to your request? Ridiculous! But that is the reality of our relationship with Christ. He deserves our worship with every moment of our lives, simply for who he is, and even more so for what he has done in our lives, including the times of silence.

"My heart rejoices in your salvation."