Be Joyful

Sunday morning’s quiet time reading was from Psalm 13. In case this old friend is unfamiliar, here it is:

1 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

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

4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

6 I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

We Eeyore types love to hang around verse one. It makes good company for us, whether our sorrow and struggle is real, or only imagined. So, when I read this, I breathed deeply of that verse. It gave me good cause to snarl at a God who does not produce himself when I demand.

But then I realized that it is self-pity that leads me to linger there. The psalmist, honest man that he is, doesn’t stay there. He leaves verse one behind and only uses that confession to set in relief his real home: verses 5 and 6.

It is clear that I and verse 5 and 6 need to become much better friends. But that is only going to happen when I wrench my eyes away from my love affair with verse 1.

This realization came fresh on the heels of a gentle and loving slap across the face from a dear friend who has seen his share of real sorrow. Newly widowed, he took the time to send me a note to ask about me. I shared with him some personal frustration. He would not let me stay there. I marvel at the simplicity and profundity of his response:

Frustration occurs when we forget that God is in charge. We are to strive to do His will; that means that when we fail, as we will, we need to rush to Him, as He is the only one with the strength we need, rather than muddling along in our weakness.

I see that you haven’t changed is some respects. I pray that you will spend more time being joyful, and none being frustrated.

That’s what I must do – spend more time being joyful. David and my friend are telling me this. Those are two witnesses to whom I must listen.

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