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 daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? (Psalm 13:1-2)
In the previous devotion, I spoke of exile and the debilitating effects it has on God’s people. As I mentioned previously, for Israel, exile was synonymous with death while redemption was the equivalent of resurrection from the dead. So as the years of affliction and uncertainty went by, the people who hoped for redemption would wonder if it were ever going to happen. Reflecting that sentiment, David asks “How long?” four different times in just two verses. Jewish commentators believe that these four occurrences correspond to the four exiles Israel was destined to endure; the fourth, known as galut Edom, is considered to be ongoing.
The first time he asks this question, David is concerned that God has forgotten him. The second time, David is wondering if God has hidden His face from him, and if so, for how long? To us, these two inquiries would seem to be saying the same thing but our Jewish friends see it a bit differently. In other words, David is asking two different questions — has God completely abandoned him or is He simply concealing His Presence from him for a season? Knowing which it is would be critical from David’s point of view.
In the first scenario, anyone who God abandoned altogether would be exposed to the hazards of chance, a judgment considered to be the more harsh of the two. In the second, God continues to direct events in the person’s life but His face is hidden from him, meaning that He leaves no trace of His presence in the affair. As a result, when something happens, it could be interpreted as chance and not a message from God. Consequently, it would fall to the person to seek God’s face in the matter to find out whether it is or not — and that is the point.
Exile was always the result of rebellion, sin and a failure to heed the voice of God. On several occasions, God told Israel that if they remained unrepentant He would hide His Face from them, meaning that He would remove His Presence from them. In that unfortunate situation, their enemies would then be allowed to move in and lord over them. On the other hand, He also said that if the people would turn back to Him and seek His face, He would cause His face to shine upon them. As it is written, “You will seek the Lord and will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul…. for the Lord your God is a merciful God, He will not forsake you nor destroy you” (Deuteronomy 4:29, 31).
As for us, the lesson to be gleaned from this is, unfortunately there are times when God must deal with us harshly; that is, when we are determined to do what is in our own heart at the expense of what is in our best interests. In those times, it may feel as if He has abandoned us, or at the very least, hidden His face from us. For the child of God, the remedy seems to be quite simple actually — turn to Him and seek His face with all of our being. We must do as David who wrote, “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ My heart said to You, ‘Your face, Lord, I will seek’ ” (Psalm 27:8).
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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