How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? – Psalm 13:1

Today's Scripture Reading (August 5, 2025): Psalm 13 & 14

I have often thought that I am a lot like Peter. When I read the Gospels, I can see myself in some of the actions and decisions of this Apostle. Like Peter, I often find that my mouth is in drive while my brain is still in neutral. I tend to rush into places where I should have considered my actions a little more before allowing my feet to take me there. Would I deny Jesus? I'm not sure, but there have been times when I've been tempted to deny the Church. Sometimes, we struggle mightily in being the Bride or Body of Christ. However, I hope my faith also echoes the Apostle.

But the reality is that while I think I am like Peter, I can also often find myself in the story of David. I love Charles Spurgeon's (1834-1892) comment on this passage. 

Whenever you look into David's Psalms, you may somewhere or another see yourselves. You never get into a corner but you find David in that corner. I think that I was never so low that I could not find that David was lower; and I never climbed so high that I could not find that David was up above me, ready to sing his song upon his stringed instrument, even as I could sing mine (Charles Spurgeon).

It is a reminder that David doesn't voice an unattainable level of faith. He might have been the King of Israel and someone God called "a man after his own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14), but David also knew the reality of the dark nights of the soul —nights and times when God seemed so far away. Even David asked, "How long will this be my reality? How long until you remember me again?" Of course, the truth was that God had never forgotten him. And even though the night was dark, God's face was not hidden from him.

But I know how David felt because it has been my reality. And maybe it is yours, as well. If that is where you are, taking comfort in the fact that it is a common experience of our race, and even when it feels that God is far away, he remains closer than your next breath. And Jesus has left us with this promise: "Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:20b).

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Psalm 17