Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone (Deuteronomy 34:7). The Vision Council of America claims that about 75 percent of the adult population worldwide uses vision correction products, and 64 percent wear glasses. It means that 75 percent of the adult population worldwide realized that they need correction for their vision. How many of us realize that we need to enhance our spiritual eye-sight, to know God and His ways. How many of us have taken corrective measures to our spiritual sight. The scripture tells us that the god of this age has blinded the eyes that people should not see the light of the Gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4). Psalm reveals that the Word of God is a lamp to our feet and light to our path (Psalms 119:105). Reading the Word of God gives light to our eyes and vision to our minds (Psalms 119:130).

How Long, Lord?

How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

Psalms 13:1

With our modern technologies, we google and try to find out how long will the duration of our journey be? The ETA to our destination depends on the weather condition, traffic density, infrastructure of the roads, and most importantly the mode of transport we use. Though we love to travel, we do not want to spend long hours on travel, and ask ourselves how much time it would take to reach the destination. When we deviate from our routine life because of an official tour or an adventurous journey, we are curious to know about the duration to retrieve our day-to-day life. Though we love to take a break, we want that to be a short one.

We think that we will live forever, not realizing that our lifespan is too short (Psalm 90:12). We walk in the ways of the world and do not want to come back to God because we do not want to take shelter under His wings (Psalm 91:1). When we do not know our destination, we wander and torment ourselves as well as others (Ecclesiastes 10:15). Yet, we assume that our ultimate target is wealth and comfort in this world. Though we are aware of eternity, we are often satisfied with our earthly life and do not want to look beyond that. A traveler expects light at the end of the tunnel only when he realizes that he is inside the tunnel. We also will look forward to light only when we understand that we are in darkness.

God never hides His face from anyone. As we go astray from Him, we are unable to see Him. He always makes His face shine upon us. We have seen that the faces of people who abide in Him shine (Psalm 34:5) (Exodus 34:29). We have to stop assuming things and resume our journey with God, relying on His words.

How Long will My Enemy Triumph Over 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?

Psalms 13:2

We wrestle with our thoughts and fear that our enemies will triumph over us. The more we think about our problems, the more we fear and become sad. Is it possible for people to stop lamenting about their ill-state of affairs? Or, is it wise to act like we do not have any problem at all? Is it right to say that when we have cancer, we do not have anything of that kind and bluff ourselves, thinking that not acknowledging the practical truth would bring miraculous results in our lives? Jesus never asks us to deny the facts and to frame false pieces of evidence to magnify His name. Jesus asks us to live the present life by forgetting the hurts of the past and leaving aside our anxieties about the future (Matthew 6:34).

All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Matthew 5:37

God never allows our enemies to triumph over us, but we imagine many things and invite fear into our lives. The scripture teaches us to believe in God even during our unfavorable situations. Unfortunately, we visualize our problems more than the power of God. But God wants to show us that He is in complete control of our life (1 John 4:4). The greater our difficulties, the greater will be His power. Hence, we should happily go through unfavorable conditions to prove that our God is above everything. When we learn to do this, we will not speculate on our trivial problems but magnify His name. The present condition might appear like a giant to us till we understand His power.

Look On Me and Answer, LORD My God.

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.

Psalms 13:3-4

David understood God’s non-stop surveillance of people and His steadfast love for them. He had also understood that only his sins were preventing him from looking at God. Hence, David prayed to God for removing all his sins and look on him. We ask God why, why me, why despite my all good deeds, our prayers remain unanswered. By doing so, unknowingly, we keep our deeds and righteousness above God. We seldom ask God to remove the barriers between God and us because we are unaware of the dire consequences. Here, Psalmist understood that if he did not ask God to forgive his sins and remove the barriers between him and God, he would face eternal death. If we realize this truth, we will ask God to forgive our sins and remove the hindrance standing in our way.

David lived a life of a fugitive most of his lifetime, hence while writing this Psalm, he would have had his earthly enemies in his mind. We might speculate to find who all would be those enemies that David had mentioned in his Psalms. In this world, we have only one enemy waiting to have us with him in hell. Satan might use many people to misdirect our ways, even our closest associates. In such cases, we should avoid responding to our human friends who are in the hands of the devil and learn to resist the devil. We should not leave any footstool for him to enter our lives, maneuvering the passion we have for our kith and kin. Notwithstanding that, we have to pray for the people whom the devil has motivated to misdirect us that they should be delivered from his clutches and inherit enteral life.

I trust in your unfailing love

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.

Psalms 13:5-6

Whether we deserve it or not, God does not stop loving us. When we do not deserve His love, God adds grace to it. We underestimate His grace and assume that God does not love us during our difficult period. These assumptions prevent us from understanding His plans in our lives, and we also forget that God had saved us from eternal death. We trust people who show love and kindness to us. Likewise, when we understand God’s incredible love, we will trust Him. When we love God, new songs of praise will come from our hearts. When we do not love God, we will be lamenting from our hearts over our lives and sing praises to Him. Without liturgy, it might be difficult for us to find accurate words. Even persons who cannot speak or cannot read can express their gratitude flowing from their hearts through their gestures, then why do people need written phrases for praising God? Praising does not necessarily need any word but a gesture of our hearts by allowing the tears to flow from our eyes.

The Psalmist expressed his experience of singing praises and rejoicing in his salvation as he gained light to His eyes to see the wonders of His words.

Loving God, help us to understand your steadfast love in our lives.