Looking Right

There is such a good lesson to learn in Psalm 13. David is miserable. He is feeling alone; feeling forgotten, defeated, depressed and seeing no light at the end of the tunnel. Through the years I have had so many people sit in my office feeling those same emotions. Truthfully, I have been there myself.

It happens due to struggling relationships, challenging family situations, illness, loss, financial crisis. And sometimes they all come crashing down on you so hard that you feel like you will never get up again. But, David shares with us what we need. “Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death.”

Sometimes darkness overtakes us when life throws us a curve ball and a variety of things happen. Sometimes we look for someone to punch/blame/attack. We feel pain and someone has to take the fall for it. Or maybe we look inward and begin to blame ourselves and lament all the mistakes that we have made that have us saturated us in guilt and remorse. Sometimes we look to food or retail therapy or substances that temporarily help us forget the pain of life. But, David tells us exactly where we need to look. It may sound cliché, but David knew to look to the LIGHT that gives life.

Without the Light that comes from looking upward rather than inward or outward, we lose hope. We read books, we talk to a counselor, we spend time with our friends, we do a lot of good things to help us through the storms of life, but the best thing we can ever do is to look at God. He has the message that we need. He has the answer we need. He will open our eyes to see it, but we have to look in the right direction.

Once we get our focus on Him, our trust is restored. Sometimes it takes a while for His light to penetrate into our deepest pain, because we are human and enmeshed in our agony. But the hope will come if we keep looking to His light. It is then that we remember that He is always there and His love is everlasting. No matter what our situation, when we look to God, He will direct us to the path that will lead us to healing and redemption; to peace and joy. When our focus is on Him, we see that He is worthy of our praise and that is something that will never change.

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
² How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
    How long will my enemy triumph over me?

³ Look on me and answer, Lord my God.

    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
⁴ and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love;
    my heart rejoices in your salvation.
⁶ I will sing the Lord’s praise,
    for he has been good to me.

Psalm 13