Psalms 13:1 “How long Oh Lord will thou forget me forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?”
We added two brand new buses to our disability bus fleet. I asked one of the lucky drivers who was assigned to one of these brand new vehicles how he liked it. He said he did not like it at all. The seat was not soft like his former bus. After a couple hours in the new bus, he found he was so uncomfortable and sore that he longed for his old bus where he could sit all day and not feel any discomfort. He said you can sit in a comfortable seat all day and not even be aware of the comfort until you no longer have it. He further stated that he would never take a bus seat for granted again.
I immediately thought, “Yeah, I treat my own faith the same way. I just rest on the cushion of my faith day after day and never even think about it. It is not until I find myself in rebellion against God that I begin to appreciate that cushion of my faith. I don’t mean an outright civil war, punch ya in the nose type rebellion, just a simple wanting my own way in something that I have a strong impression is not really God’s way. It is the type of thing that you say, “Well, come now, we shan’t be so legalistic, this is no big thing, no one is getting hurt, no one knows, no one would even care if they did know. God will overlook it, boys will be boys and all that. Surely, He will let it slide.” I’m talking about little things like that strong impression you get that you should share a passage of Scripture with someone or share the message of God’s salvation with someone that God has laid upon your heart. You put it off, ignore it, I mean after all you don’t want that person to think you are crazy, you might embarrass yourself.
So you let that little prompting of God slide, you luxuriate in a little rebellion. All of a sudden you feel very uncomfortable, you feel stressed, you are a bit more irritable and you are just not happy. For some reason, you just cannot enjoy that Robin’s song or that little squirrel’s antics. You wonder what it is and so you start to pray and you feel a little wall between you and God, you feel alienated from God. It is then you realize how you have taken that cushion of faith for granted. This new cushion you’re sitting on is very uncomfortable and in fact, is making you sore. I don’t believe David is facing a life and death situation in this case. I believe he has let a little rebellion enter his life and he is feeling out of sorts in his relationship with God. Something just doesn’t feel right, he just isn’t as comfortable in his walk with God. That old comfortable shoe seems to have a pebble in it. You can’t look at the sunset and say, “Good job God, you really pulled another beaut off this time.” It’s just another sunset.
This may be what David is talking about in Psalms 13. It is not that he feels totally abandoned by God. Most of our English translations will say that he feels forgotten by God. The word forget in Hebrew is shakach which does mean to forget but in its Semitic root, it has more of the idea of ignoring and disappointing. In fact, the Aramaic word means to ignore. He almost feels like God is disappointed in him and is, therefore, ignoring him.
David knows God has not forgotten him, it is just that he is feeling ignored by God. When I get into that state of rebellion, no matter how mild, it does feel like God is ignoring me. I pray and I just don’t seem to be making that old connection with Him. That is why the enemy wants us to sin or be in rebellion, he knows God is so holy that one little sin will disconnect us from that holiness. Sometimes our sins are so subtle that we really do not know why God is shakach(ing) us. We like to think that we rarely sin but when we feel that separation from God, we find ourselves removed from that cushion of our faith, we can’t figure it out and we begin to think the problem is with God. Instead, we should begin doing some self-examination and trying to figure out just what it is that we are doing wrong.
Show me a husband who has not come home one day and felt a cool response from his wife. He asks her what’s wrong and she says, “Nothing.” But he knows something is wrong, something is not right. She may give him a little kiss, but it is not the same. She may smile at him, but it is not her real smile, she may talk about the things they usually talk about, but the husband is feeling something in the pit of his stomach, something just is not right. He begins to wonder how long she will shakach him. How long before that kiss is like the old kisses, that smile is like the old smile, those words she speaks sound like the old words she used to speak. The more this husband loves his wife, the more he will be tormented by this subtle difference in her behavior until she finally tells him what is wrong, they work through it and she gives him that kiss that is the kiss he knows and loves.
So too in our relationship with God. God is still there, we still pray, we still worship, we may even feel that little thrill during worship, but somehow something is not right and the more you love Him the more you are tormented by that alienation you feel.
Note David continues by asking, “How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?” The word face in Hebrew is pani which is often rendered as presence. You know you get used to the presence of God. The word hide in Hebrew is sathar and has the idea of being absent or not present. There is something called an empty nest syndrome. When the children move away from home the parents feel a void. The kids are still out there somewhere they may even live across the street and if they have a problem all they have to do is whistle and you would come a runnin. Still, when they are absent from the home, especially at night, you feel an emptiness. David felt an emptiness. God was still there, God was ready to protect him. If David was in trouble all he would have to do is whistle and God would come a runnin. But that does not mean the feelings of shakach are not there.
The presence of God is really the foam rubber of your cushion of faith. It is so comfortable and so restful that it feels completely natural such that you do not even think about or appreciate it as you go about your daily routine. That is until it is suddenly gone and like David, you panic and cry out, “Lord, how long are you going to ignore me, it feels like forever, how long will your presence be absent from me?” God will simply reply, ”As long as it takes for you get on your knees and admit to your rebellious heart. Once you do that the blood of my Son Jesus Christ will cover it so that my holiness will be able to make that connection with you once again.”
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