ABANDONED BY GOD?

Based on Psalm 13, it's a feeling of abandonment which led David to ask, "How long, God?". In the preceding Psalm 12, it is an expression of David feeling he has been abandoned. This is a cry of increasing intensity and apparent desperation. This is with regards to unfaithful people. It is a situation where he is seemingly abandoned by his friends, and even by God. Surely there cannot be a more desperate situation than when you feel abandoned by God. This is a problem that is more common than we think. When we feel abandoned by friends and other people it's a psycho-social problem, but when we move on to a feeling of being abandoned by God, it becomes a spiritual problem and there appears a huge distance between us and God. Are Christians spared this feeling? We feel we are immune to a problem like that, because in the scriptures, God tells us that we have life, life abundant. But when we look into the passage we have read, David was a man after God's own heart, and yet even him, even David made those confessions.  

TRUST IN GOD

Why was David feeling abandoned? David was under prolonged anguish and seeking deliverance from God. If we recall what happened to David, he was a fugitive, even though anointed by God. As he was seeking refuge, he moved and searched for safety in many places, even serving under his enemies. “I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul." he once said. It seemed like God had turned his face away from David, and he started to give up and submit to his troubles, ready to die under Saul's hands. When we understand that kind of plight, we can understand why he wrote Psalm 13, and we can in our own private sense of abandonment, identify ourselves with David. Our intense desire for deliverance sometimes seems so long in coming. It is said that it's not under the sharpest, but the longest trials which we are most in danger of falling. It is under prolonged suffering that we start to question God. If these spiritual giants we read of in the scriptures can wilt, how about us? Our cry will be the same, and it will come with more frequency and greater intensity. May God give us the grace not to indulge in a murmuring spirit. Maybe at home, relationships sour, there is no more love and harmony. At work, circumstances have changed for the worst and blessings have dissipated. The church could be caught in controversy and people could be leaving the church. We should never fear, stay faithful, and trust in God. We must have this conviction.  

A HIGHER PURPOSE

There may be some people who are more easily distressed, depressed than others. Physical health has a part to play in our spirituality too. When we are so down and out and we just cannot worship, it takes a giant step to lift ourselves out of that mire and come back with fervour. It is an uphill task. Satan is more than prepared to capitalise on these afflictions to bring us down. He is like a beast, seeking whom he may devour. Many times instead of keeping our temperament, leaving ourselves in the care and control of God, we surrender and let it have the upper hand over us, letting the situation impair us, destroy us. When we are in that state, the Lord gives us a solution and David exemplifies it in verses 3-4 when he says, "Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved". Here in these two verses, David is in a way, having a sanctified argument with God. He asks God how long he would have to suffer and even goes so far as to question the Lord whether God's name would be glorified and His cause helped if David were to die. He felt unfairly treated but at the end he submitted and let God take control of his life, as he knew that God had a higher purpose.  

HELP IN GOD

In difficult situations, it is not helpful at all to continue sulking, to doubt God, and bemoan all that had come to pass. It is even less helpful to start thinking "Well, others are going through the same thing". Help lies in prayer and trust in God. When all things seem to be against us to drive us to despair, we know one gate is open, one ear will hear our prayer.  

OUR GOD

David makes three requests to God, to look at his situation, to hear and answer him, and a plea for God's presence in his life. This is an example of a wonderful prayer. Believe in God to bless and keep His promises, because our God is faithful, He is able, and He will not desert us. Hebrews 13:5 tells us that, our conversations should be without covetousness, for God has promised that He would never leave us or forsake us. This is the God that we want to share with our unsaved friends, that we have a God who answers prayers, who does not abandon us. He loves us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life”. He calls all of us who labour and are heavy laden, and He will give us rest.  

THE PAST, THE PRESENT, IN FUTURE & FOREVER MORE

When David looked at the situation and reviewed his blessings from God, he prayed in the correct manner, and began to express his faith in God. He knew that his was a God that never changes, and when he added that together, it meant that God would be the same God to him in the past, in the present, in the future, and forever more. Have faith in God, instead of self pity and doubting God. David exercised the gift of faith in God. It is faith that gives us  victory.  

CAN GOD FORGET?

In conclusion, verses 5-6 asks, "God has been bountiful to us in the past, will He be bountiful to us again?" Everybody knows the answer. It is a wonderful thing to have faith in God. There's a quote, "It is faith's work to claim and challenge lovingkindness out of all the roughest strokes of God." Faith in God may not give us all the answers but it does give us the encouragement. God in His own wisdom decides what to give and what to take from us. What we want may not be what is best for us. Help may not come immediately, but help will surely come. How long are we going to tarry on without God, without His knowledge, without His salvation? When we face a seemingly endless spell of emotional oppression, when there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel, we wonder when light will come. We will start to wonder whether God can forget. Can the omniscient God fail in His memory? Will Jehovah forget His beloved child? Isaiah 49:14-16 hold the answer. “But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me”. 

When we are in dire situations, gaze up and look upon God. When we are without God, and we ask how long we have to live on without meaning, living in sin and disobedience, God may turn that question and ask, "How long are you planning to live like that?".

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