By Pastor Steve Nickodemus

Will It Never Stop?

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“How long, Lord?  Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me?”
Psalm 13:1 New International Version

In the winter of 1805-1806, Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery spent the entire winter in a wooden stockade on the coast of Oregon.  Fort Clatsop turned into one of the dreariest, wettest experiences of the men’s lives with Lewis reporting that all winter there were only 12 days where it did not rain.  The corps struggled to keep their spirits up under the constantly overcast skies and in very damp conditions.

Have you been through a dreary, depressing time in your life?  A time that you felt would never end, with one dreary day ponderously following after another?  Perhaps it was a time of grief or sickness or pain or poverty.  Perhaps you felt that you were completely alone, that even God had forgotten you.

David in Psalm 13 cries out to God in just such a sorrowful and depressing place.  “How long, Lord?  Will you forget me forever?   How long will you hide your face from me?”  David’s words echo his feelings that God’s very face was hidden from him, that God had forgotten him.  As Lewis and Clark felt during that long, rainy winter when they never saw the sun nor felt its warm embrace, so David longs to see the face of God, to feel the warmth of His love.

But in the midst of that pain and depression and aloneness, David says to the Lord, “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.”  Even in the darkest place, David trusts in God’s love and salvation.  David does not forget that the Lord’s word and promises are always true, that though there is great suffering in life, the Lord has not forgotten him.

And the Lord has not forgotten you.  Even in the dreariest places, God’s promises to you in Christ Jesus are still true.  For our Lord Jesus suffered darkness and pain and abandonment on the cross so that we will never be truly left alone.  The Lord has not left you alone and the face of His Son will shine upon you!  Do not give up hope, trust in His unfailing love!

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church Colorado Springs, Colorado