He has dealt bountifully with me.

Psalm 13

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

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long shall I take counsel in my soul,

Having sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;

Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,

and my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"

And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken.

But I have trusted in Your loving kindness;

My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord,

Because He has dealt bountifully with me."

        We don’t often pray like this.  David is begging God to hear him, as if God has been ignoring him for quite some time.  But haven’t we all felt like this before at some point or another?  Like Satan just won’t cut us any slack? And no matter how often we pray, or how fervently we beg God there just seems to be no end in sight?  We definitely have those bad days…or even those bad weeks.  But check out what David says here in Psalm 13.

        First – “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?”  Ok, that is a cry of desperation if I’ve ever heard one.  David seems to be in some serious trouble here but feels like God has not giving him the time of day.  But more over, look how he ends this first stanza, “How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart all the day?  How long will my enemies be exalted over me?” Not only does David feel like God is ignoring him, he sees the enemy gaining a foot hold.  His enemy has the advantage and defeat seems like it is inevitable.

        Second – David recognizes his own weakness and lack of ability to personally fight off the enemy.  He needs God or he will die.  Plain and simple.  And if he dies like this, he says, the enemy will win and mock him and his faith.  And this just doesn’t work for David.

         Third – and here is the cool part.  What is David’s solution to God’s “silence”?  Praise Him!  That’s right.  God does seemingly nothing and He still gets the attention and respect of David.  Why is that?  It seems so foreign to us.  We ask “Why do bad things happen to good people?”  We may ask. “Why do good things happen to bad people?”  Whatever our circumstance is, it is easy to blame God for our problems and for our enemy’s success.  But David has a totally different perspective.  David says, “I will sing to the Lord, because He has bountifully with me.”  What a great thought!  Allow me to paraphrase this, “I will praise the name of God, and I will trust in His grace. Not because I see Him working right now, but because I have seen Him work in the past, and I trust Him to work it all out for good in His own time.  I am alive.  He has gotten me this far and its more than I deserve as it is.  Blessed be the Lord!”

        

         We have failed on our own again and again.  We know that it is only through God that we can even begin true change, but temptation is yet again rearing its ugly head, and we have to trust that God will deliver us in His way and in His time.  It is up to us to trust Him, and praise His name for the blessings He has already given us.