Week 13: Day 5

Intro: What’s up everyone, welcome to Orbit, a short reflection to help you put God at the centre of your life from the team behind Satellites. My name is Josh Green from 24-7 Prayer. Every weekday, the guys from Satellites have got some amazing people in to share a little bit of the Bible with you, give you a chance to pray and think about it, and provide you with one practical way to put it into practice today. Today is my final session on Orbit, I’ve had a great time so thank you for having me. Today we’re looking at Psalm 13.

Bible: It’s only a short psalm so let’s read it together.

How long, Lord? Will you forget me for ever? How long will you hide your face from me? 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?

Look on me and 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.

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.

Thoughts: This psalm goes through quite a transition in just a few verses. It’s starts off somber and slowly transforms into praise.

One time I was cycling home from the gym. I stopped to text a friend. We were texting about recent struggles and how we were trying to hold on to our faith through it. I looked up and realized on my left was a church and on my right was a memorial of someone who had died in a car crash in that exact spot. You could say, much like my text conversation, I was caught between truth (represented by the church) and tragedy (the memorial).

Knowing the truth doesn’t take us away from the tragedy. However, tragedy doesn’t change the truth, although the pain sometimes makes it feel that way. This collision of truth and tragedy is what we see in Psalm 13.

The psalmist opens up with the blatant and honest pain of his life. But as he’s speaking, and as you read the Psalm you can almost see a change in the tone and feeling.

The first two verses are all out pain. The second two verses start to go deeper into the heart of what this psalmist really wants to happen; “Look on me and answer, Lord my God.” Sometimes, we just need God to speak to us and know we’re not alone more than anything else!

The final two verses the psalmist seems to rest in a deep-rooted trust in God. Elsewhere in the Bible Jesus says, “in me you will have peace,” and also, “take heart for I have overcome the world.” In other words, in Jesus, the peace of God helps us to hold together truth and tragedy through trusting God.

I often hear people say, “how can God be real when bad things happen?” I understand where they’re coming from. But I often think about the difficulties I’ve been through since I became a Christian and I always wonder, “how did I used to get through this kind of thing without God?”

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather go through tragedy with God than be alone! God’s presence gives me a gentle reassurance that everything will be ok and he gives me the power to trust Him in the trial. As you take your honesty to God in the midst of your tragedy, turn to His truth and focus on His word and watch how God will give you strength to trust Him through it all.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you that you promise to never leave me or forsake me. Thank you that with you I’m never alone. Help me to hold on to truth in the midst of tragedy by fully trusting you. Amen.

Action: One thing that helps me in the midst of tragedy is to focus on some of the good things in my life. Today’s challenge is to get a piece of paper and start listing every good thing that’s going on in your life – because the Bible says that every good and perfect gift comes from God and I believe (just like the psalmist) that as we start to rejoice in all the good things God has done, it will aid us in our strength to trust God in the hard times.

Outro: My name’s Josh Green from 24-7 Prayer, thank you for so much Satellites for having me on and I hope you guys continue to enjoy and engage with Orbit!