HOW LONG, O LORD, WILL YOU FORGET ME?

Psalm 13 was one of my favorites at those times when I was struggling in a huge way with depression. Depression to that extent does not happen too much anymore for me. But grief gets me down today, making me feel sorrow for the many terrible things I see happening in the world today. I’m sure you, my readers, know it too. And the genocide is the worst.

The compassion I’ve come to feel for people like the Rohingya makes me suffer at times, to think what a bad spot they’re in. They want to—and need to—return to their home in Myanmar, to start rebuilding a real life for themselves. But the civil war that rages there makes returning unthinkable at the present time.

How very terrible it must be not to have any place to live in safety. Not to find acceptance in any part of the world. Not to have a country of your own!

Although Psalm 13, a prayer written by Prophet Dawud/David), helped me seek God in years gone by in my personal suffering, I now seek God on behalf of the world I see suffering:

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
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.

I hope this prayer will comfort all people in the world—especially refugees. I hope they too will be able to trust in the love that comes from whom they worship.

And I hope that we, the fortunate ones in the world, living in comfortable homes, will also reach out to our God and pray these words:

“How long, O Lord, will you allow the world to suffer as it does today?”

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.

marja