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"Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,"

~ Psalm 13:3

 

If only we knew our God better.  I long to know my God better.  Do you long to know your God better?  Due to our limited knowledge and our limited human perspective, we can have experiences like what David describes in these opening verses. 

David’s description is anthropomorphic.  This means he is using human characteristics to make a description of God from his human perspective.  Sometimes when we do so, we come very close (are very accurate) to describing the divine reality, other times it is a struggle to accurately describe the spiritual reality. 

David here is expressing his felt experience.  As I often tell my children, “It’s not about your feelings, they are fickle and faulty and can’t be trusted.”  I don’t mean to say that feelings are of no worth/value and should never be considered.  Not at all!  God created our emotions (feelings) and he intends for us to be informed by them, but not as a primary source.  We are to think…to use our minds…to turn to truth…to our knowledge of the truth as found in the Bible, known through Christ and illuminated by the Holy Spirit.  Our feelings are tainted by the Fall (sin), but God’s Word is pure and undefiled; it is eternal unchanging truth.

God is not actually hiding his face or forgetting us in our times of trouble (v.1).  He does not leave us to sorrow alone or take counsel in ourselves (v.2).  These are but a part of the many and varied means by which God is drawing us into a deeper knowledge of him.  God is always considering and answering his children; he is concerned about our life and death (v.3).  God will not let his enemies triumph (v.4).

As David did, may you and I remember and remain in God’s trustworthy steadfast love (v.5), rejoicing in our salvation (v.5) and singing of his abundant grace (v.6). These truths never change; God never has nor ever will fail.