Walk Of Life – Day 13, November 2022 – Thoughts From The Book Of Psalms
Psalm 90
Return, O Lord! How long? And have compassion on Your servants. Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days! – Psalm 90:13,14
How long? might be the question that you are having in your hearts.
How long should I wait for my recognition?
How long Should I long for affection?
How long I should toil with this pain?
How long should I experience the same defeat?
How long God would be silent?
and so many different attachments along with the term How Long? My dear brother and sister are you wearied? But this psalm teaches us to pray in a way pleasing and acceptable to God.
It is just HOW LONG in the imperative part but the rest that follows is assertive and imperative.
Have compassion on your servants. Satisfy us early with your mercy. Why? That we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
In Psalm 13 the psalmist asks three different questions with How Long?
1. How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
2. How long will you hide your face from me?
3. How long must I take counsel in my soul?
4. and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
5. How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
God knows that He sometimes appears slow to us, which is one merciful reason he gave us the Bible. One of the most profoundly comforting things about Scripture is how it reveals God’s compassion for us impatient waiters. He knows that he can appear slow to us. He knows that at times we are going to feel like he’s forgotten us and is hiding his face from us. He knows that as he patiently works out his purposes, we will experience circumstances so difficult and confusing that we cry out in bewildered pain.
And so he not only gives us stories like Abraham and Sarah to help us see that we are not alone; he also gives us songs like Psalm 13 to sing.
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me? (Psalm 13:1)
But here are two gracious promises God gives to us when we are waiting long:
From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. (Isaiah 64:4)
He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:29–31)
Like Abraham and Sarah, God is working for you as you wait for him, and he will bring renewal to your weary heart.
So “be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord” (Psalm 31:24). He is able to do what he has promised.
Be grateful as we are not the ones who wait in vain but with assurance.
