As those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, many of us know that there have been times in our lives when we have felt alone in the middle of our difficulties and in our afflictions, even while we were struggling under the crushing attacks of the enemy. These were times when those who were closest to us, even those whom we trusted, appeared to have abandoned us.

At times like these we might feel like we have been cut off from God and left on our own. And on our own we are no match for the enemy. The psalmist expressed this very thought four times in Psalm 13, when he cried out to the Lord for help, and he questioned God’s silence.

The psalmist was in anguish. Time stood still as he struggled under the weight of his oppression. He felt like a tree that had been uprooted by the wind of a storm. He realized that the Lord must calm the storm, yet there was only silence from Him. He felt the Lord was hiding His face from him. His nightmare seemed to have no end in sight while his prayers seemed to go unanswered. The enemies of the psalmist were grinding him into the dust.

This all may sound familiar to some of us. As we well know, sometimes the Lord does not act in the way that we think He should act towards us. Sometimes we wonder where He is in our life. Well, He hasn’t forgotten us. We are near and dear to His heart. He was alone on the cross as He paid for our sin, so that we would never be left alone again. We’re reminded of this in Isaiah Chapter 49 where the Lord says, “I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” We should hang on to that!

Sometimes He uses those incomprehensible experiences in our lives to purge us of our sins and our impurities. Sometimes He uses them to deepen our faith, and to help us become more and more like Him. Isn’t our spiritual maturity what He desires to accomplish in us after all? So, we must never stop looking to Him for help.

The psalmist asked the Lord to consider his cries, to look in his direction and answer him. He asked the Lord for enlightenment to see things clearly, the way that they really were. But sometimes it is difficult for us to see things clearly in our own life.

Without the Lord’s help, the psalmist’s enemies would overtake him and brag about their victory, openly mocking God. They might even say it was because of his sin, and he is reaping what he has sown in his life. So, he put his trust in God alone, knowing that he would die if left on his own. He rested in His mercy and in His unchanging love towards him.

After weeping and mourning without ceasing day and night, the psalmist noticed a change in his heart. The wind began to blow in a different direction. He believed that the outcome was sure. His sighs turned into songs. His heart began to rejoice in the Lord’s salvation and in his deliverance, so he sang to the Lord because He had dealt fully and abundantly with him, even beyond his expectations. That is the same way He deals with us.

Things were difficult for the psalmist. Extremely difficult. God had not given any answers to his problems yet, but the psalmist chose to put his trust in the Lord. He chose to celebrate his triumph in anticipation of his deliverance and in anticipation of a change in the direction of the wind in his life. A change in the wind is what many of us need today. A change that leads us to an eternity with Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.