One of my favorite comedians from back in the day told a joke about one of the worst beatings he ever got. He started by sharing that "sick" seems to always go with "and tired." It seems his mom was unhappy with behavior in the household when she said, "I am so sick!" and the young comedian finished her statement with "And tired!" He kinda deserved whatever came next. One of the pillars upon which comic genius is built is timing and he learned that day that there are consequences for doing comedy at the right time but in the wrong place.
David starts Psalm 13 with five questions in two verses.
Psalm 13:1-2,New King James Version
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? 2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
At first, David's prayer here to me is like the comedian's learning experience. If God is saying he is sick of something, David adding "and tired" seems a bit risky. Maybe you're not in for a beating, but, David, is this how we start off a song? You do know this is going to be in the Bible, right? Which part of faith, hope and love does this cover?
But, as with all Scripture, with meditation, things come into better focus... David's conversation with God, this prayer, really represents all of our prayers: "How long?" may not be THE question in our mind as we pray, but WHEN is central to the conversation: we speak to God from space-time and He is eternal. WHEN is always part of the package. God has the answer "before" we have the question. "Before" is in quotes because "before" is not a thing in eternity. So WHEN is part of the packaging we send to God when we pray, but it's generally not the contents. For ultimately we know that "FAITH is the substance." Hebrews 11, New King James Version Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
So in our prayer conversation, we've got a postmark of WHEN on the package with FAITH contents; we hope God is sending back an ETERNAL package with REALITY of LOVE as its contents. Well, He did say "love is patient," so... when we take our prayers to Him and ship them off, the "how long" question is really implied every time, we just need to keep from going postal in the mean time. We will see in Psalm 13 that David shifts his focus away from the issues He is facing in space-time back on The Eternal One. Psalm 13 New King James Version
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? 2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and hear me, O Lord my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death; 4 Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him”; Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
5 But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. 6 I will sing to the Lord, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.
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