Confessions from Psalm 13

“Do I have to?”

Yes.

“Now?”

Right now.

“But I don’t wan-na.”

It could be a conversation between a mom and her teenage daughter, about just about anything: dishes, homework, curfew.

Or it could be a conversation between me and God. “Put down the book, Melissa, turn off the TV show.” “Just one more chapter, God.” “Why? You know where it’s leading, and it is bad for you.” “Just a little bit won’t hurt me.”

But once you start down that road, it’s never just a little bit. And we’re not talking those chips in a can: once you pop, you can’t stop! We’re talking words or images or mere suggestions that lead your mind in a downward spiral, like the slick rides at the water park. Try as you might, once you leave the landing at the top, you can’t stop until splashdown.

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What does that have to do with Psalm 13? If we’re talking about sin, Psalm 51 would be more apropos.

With Psalm 13, it’s the tone.

“How long, O LORD?”

Can’t you just hear the whiny teenager? “How long? Ugh!” Maybe with a stamp of the foot for emphasis. I want what I want, and I want it now, like Verruca Salt, the bad egg. (Not the squirrel version.) It doesn’t matter that God has promised me goodness and blessing if I follow Him. The promise of delayed gratification is never as enticing as what's right in front of me.

“How long shall I take counsel in my soul?” That’s not what God wants, but that’s what I do. Each man does what is right in his own eyes. Or each woman does.

But hope is not lost. Verses 3-4 of Psalm 13 ask for help: open my eyes that I may see. “Open my eyes or I will sleep the sleep of death.” I’ll die a little more every day, a little more every time I seek those words and images and mere suggestions that will take me on the slick ride until I am drowning at the bottom. Splash down.

“But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.”

With all the turmoil in this world that sends us running to quick fixes and numbing past times, the one thing we can truly count on is the lovingkindness and grace of God through the salvation of Christ Jesus!

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“Put it down, Melissa. Come sit with Me.”

“Yes, Abba! I’m coming!”