How Long

"How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?"

David asks "how long" four times in two verses: "How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?" It is a question about time. It comes from someone who has given up on getting an explanation and would settle for an end date.

That is what long trouble does to our prayers. Early on, people ask why. Later they ask how long. It is the smaller question and the harder one, because asking it admits that the trouble has become part of everyday life, like the weather.

David is asking God to stop forgetting him. Two of his four questions are about God Himself: His memory and His face. In the Psalms, God's face stands for His attention, for being looked at by someone who cares. Forgetting and hiding are things a person chooses to do, and David says God is doing both. Yet this was no private grumble. It became a song Israel sang together, which means God's people were given these very words to bring to Him.

The rest of Scripture leaves the question open. Habakkuk begins his book with it: "O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear!" And near the end of the Bible, the martyrs under the altar are still asking it, though they are already safe with God and have been given white robes: "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" They are told to "rest yet for a little season." That is the answer they get, and it is not a number. Still, it comes from the One they called "holy and true," and it tells them the waiting has an end.

So ask it in David's words. How long has this been going on for you? And have you said so to God, out loud, in those words? He is the only One who can end it, and that is why the question belongs in front of Him.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 43 is Shelter and Tower (Psalm 61:3).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two