Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - When God Feels Far Away | The Writings | Psalm 13

Episode Date: January 17, 2024

If you doubt and question God, does that mean you don't truly love him? Can God forget about us? When David wrote Psalm 13, he had lots of questions for God. In today's episode, Jensen shares how you can use Psalm 13 for comfort when you feel overwhelmed with doubt. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 13

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. And the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. I have faced seasons in my life where I felt like God just wasn't there. No matter what I did, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't feel his presence. I couldn't connect with the word. My mind drifted in prayer. I tried to find him, but there were no signs of him.

I was stuck in the mess of my life. I felt abandoned. And these feelings often led to shame and fear. There were outside voices telling me that if I believed enough, then I would experience the power of God. Voices telling me that doubting and questioning God was a sign that I didn't trust him, that I didn't really love him. They left me questioning, why couldn't I find God? Why did I feel this way? Had he really left me? Was I not really a Christian because I felt this way? Did I not love God enough, believe God enough, trust God enough for him to come through for me? Maybe you've been there too. Maybe you're there now, facing incredible difficulty on the verge of despair, wondering where God is, desperately wanting to experience his presence, and then feeling guilty and ashamed

that you can't seem to find him. And maybe, like me, when you opened your Bible this morning to read Psalm 13, you felt comforted. We are told that this Psalm is a Psalm of David right off the bat. Throughout Scripture, David is called a man after God's own heart, a faithful king, one who still fails, but ultimately points us forward to the true and good King, Jesus. And yet, this man after God's own heart opens his psalm in this way. How long, oh Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 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? Now, there's a chance that these words don't immediately bring you comfort. Is David saying that God hides from us? Is he

confirming our worst fears that God can and will forget us, abandon us? But we have to remember what kind of writing the Psalms are. They're songs. Songs meant to express the emotions and feelings of the author. Words that congregations could sing together to the Lord. They're not attempting to portray a well-thought-out theological argument. They seek to pour out their emotions before the Lord. Rather than take David's words as confirmation that God can and will forget us, we can read these words and find comfort. I am comforted as I read that a man after God's own heart, a man who was anointed by a prophet of God who saw God working mightily in his life,

also had portions of his life where he felt like I felt sometimes. You see, our emotions and our experiences of God do not dictate who God really is, or what He has promised us. Again and again, Scripture reveals to us who this God is that we truly follow. And again and again, it confirms that the God we follow delights and desires to be with his people. From the very beginning, God created a garden that he could dwell with, live together, and walk alongside humanity. And when our sin brought the curse of creation into the world and all seemed lost. When God had every reason to abandon us, to cast us out, to walk away, he clothed us. He cared for us. And he promised to bring us back to himself. He promised salvation.

He revealed himself to Hagar in the desert. He saw her despair, and she named him Elroy, the God who sees me. He revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush, telling him that he is Yahweh. In his very name, he tells us so much about who he is and what he has promised. He is. He always has been there, God. He always would be. He had seen his people's desperation and slavery, and he was with them in it, and he will deliver them out of it. He delivered his people from the darkness of Egypt, and he walked with them in the loneliness of the wilderness, traveling alongside them as a pillar of fire in a great cloud. He provided food for them. He established his dwelling place in the tabernacle so that he could be near them. When he brought them into the promised land, he had them build a temple

so that he could have a dwelling place here on earth with his people. And even after his people failed to uphold the covenant that he made with them, when they failed, when they rejected him, when they questioned him, when they sought after different gods, he came down to live with them as one of them. And he died so that no matter how far they felt from him, no matter where they found themselves, no matter what emotions raged within them, they could have confident hope that their God gave everything so that he could dwell with, live together, and walk alongside you and I for all of eternity. No matter how far off God may feel, Scripture tells us the true story. God created you. God desires to dwell with you. He knit you together in your mother's womb. You are the prize of creation. He knows every hair on your head. You are valuable to him, so valuable that he gave up everything so that we could live with him in his kingdom forever. And when Jesus ascended back to the Father, he left us. He left us.

saying, I am with you always to the very end of the age. And when he physically left this earth, he sent the Holy Spirit, the comforter, the counselor, the one who would dwell within every believer guiding them, comforting them, strengthening them to follow him. As believers, our God, the Holy Spirit dwells within us always. That is the God that we follow. And yet, Despite what is true about God, at times we still find ourselves like David, wondering where he is. And so is it not comforting that David, a man after God's own heart, a man who knew these truths about God, could cry out to God and wonder why he had forgotten him, why he had hid from him? Our emotions do not disqualify us.

David shows us not only that someone who loves and knows God can feel these feelings, but that our loving father wants us to cry out to him when we feel this way. He wants to hear from us. Rather than turn away ashamed, we are called to lean into, to seek after, cast our fears, our worries, our hurt at the feet of God. You see, our emotions and our experience of God do not dictate who God really. is. But that doesn't mean that he doesn't care about our emotions. First Peter 5-7 tells us to cast all our anxiety on him because he cares for us. Doubting God, wondering where he is questioning him.

It doesn't disqualify us from relationship with him. In the midst of those feelings, there's a very real God who loves you deeply, whether you feel it or not, and he wants desperately, for you to bring those feelings before him, to give them over to him because he loves you. David continues on in Psalm 13. Look on me, answer, Lord, my God, give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say I have overcome him, and my foes will rejoice when I fall. No matter how he feels, David knows, he knows that without the Lord, he has no hope. And so he sings to the Lord, but I trust in your unfailing love. My heart rejoices in your salvation.

I will sing the Lord's praise, for he has been good to me. In the midst of his deep emotions, David makes a choice. He makes a choice to trust the promises of God, to trust that he loves him even when he cannot see him. To find joy in the fact that even while David wonders if God has forgotten him, the Lord has secured his salvation. Even while David questions God, the Lord is steadfast. And that is reason for David to sing to him, to praise him, to remember that the Lord has been good to him. You see, Psalm 13 comforts me. It reminds me of valuable truths about God and it calls me to seek after him, to run to him, to pour my heart out to him, no matter what I find myself feeling.

Psalm 13 also challenges me. It challenges me to remember that my emotions about God do not disqualify me, but they also do not dictate what is true about God. Instead of believing the lies, believing the questions, instead of spiraling away from our creator in the midst of desperate emotions, may we be a people who cling to the truth of who our God is. May we remember that God is far greater than we could ever imagine, that he has always existed and that he always will, that from the very beginning, his desire has been to be with me always. He is here. He is good. No matter what we feel, may we cast our anxieties at the feet of our king, knowing that he sees us, he cares for us, and he is with us always.

Thank you.