How Long, O LORD? (Habakkuk 1:1-4)
For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
“How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long must I wrestle in my soul, with sorrow in my heart each day? How long will my enemy dominate me?
Consider me and respond, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death, lest my enemy say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes rejoice when I fall.
But I have trusted in Your loving devotion; my heart will rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for He has been good to me.”
This short psalm is self-explanatory and the verses speak for themselves. David is crying out to God for relief and encouragement. David’s plight may well be ours as well.
APPLICATION: Live long enough and sooner or later, you will find yourself in a miserable situation with no quick way out. You might have joined an organization with an excellent boss and a positive work environment, only for that boss to leave and for the work environment to become toxic. As your fellow workers continue to migrate to other places with better pay and better working conditions, you wonder if it’s time for you to move also. Sometimes you feel trapped by circumstances; your family might be happily settled in a good community with excellent schools. Should you risk your family’s happiness by changing jobs? And if you change jobs, will the next workplace present similar challenges to those you are facing now?
During my surgical training in the 1970’s, I frequently found myself as the only female or one of a handful of females in a program. In those days, we took call every other night or every third night, spending long periods working in sleep deprivation. Anyone who complained was guilty of wimping out, and we all kept quiet for fear of losing our residencies. Sadly, in one program, one of the biggest obstacles was another female resident who was bound to enhance her own standing by tearing down those below her. Somehow I found myself as one of her targets. The situation was worsened because I was struggling to overcome severe depression occasioned by the breakup of a long-term relationship. All I could do was to continue to work; yet, it was that very pressure that God used to bring me back to Himself.
Why do I tell this story? You need to know that God can redeem the very worst situations possible. When David wrote this psalm, he was in despair. “How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long must I wrestle in my soul, with sorrow in my heart each day? How long will my enemy dominate me?” Sounds wretched, right? But David ends the psalm by refusing to give in to despair. “But I have trusted in Your loving devotion; my heart will rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for He has been good to me.”
When we say, “God is good all the time,” it seems like a cliché. But that simple statement remains true. No matter what kind of pressure you are under and no matter how dark your situation appears, God is still there and He remains good. If you don’t feel able to pray for yourself, recite this psalm to yourself as many times as you need to until the truth sinks into your soul.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, let everyone who reads these words and who is discouraged remind themselves of Your Goodness by repeating this psalm until it becomes part of them. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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