Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” Do not hide Your face from me; do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me. — Psalm 27:7-10

Have you ever felt like God wasn’t hearing your prayer? You’ve done all that you know how to do—you’ve cried out to the Lord, claimed His promises, repeated them back to Him—and yet you still feel as though He doesn’t hear your cries. Well, take heart. You’re in good company! David appears here to be experiencing a similar situation. He cries out to the Lord, pleading with Him to answer him. He reminds God of His own words to “Seek My face,” but he is still experiencing what feels like rejection. What does David do?

He recalls what he knows about the Lord. In verse 9, he says, “You have been my help.” He knows that God has always been faithful to help him in the past. Let’s reason through this: Does God sometimes permit us to endure hard things? Do people ever forsake us? Psalm 34:17-19 says: “The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” We must always remember that we belong to God. No matter what we face, we have every reason to trust Him and to not be afraid, based on God’s promises in His Word and even as we look back on our own lives, having seen Him work wonderful things during hard times in the past. He deals differently with His children than we deal with one another, or than the way He deals with those who do evil. The face, countenance, character, and nature of God is against evildoers, but the
righteous can expect deliverance, salvation, and the nearness of the Lord when life is heartbreaking.

Our Father’s love for us makes human love look like hatred by comparison. Circumstances don’t change His love. No matter how it may appear, His love never fails. He hears our cries, and even though His answer might be “Wait a little while,” we know that we are never alone, and that His eyes are always upon us, watching, testing, protecting us, every moment until that glorious day when we find ourselves safe forever with Him in our eternal home.

Excerpt from “Beside Still Waters” now available on Amazon.

BARRY STAGNER