“How long, O LORD?  Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?  Psalm 13:1-2
 
In my NKJV Study Bible Psalm 13 is titled, 
‘The Prayer for God’s Answer--Now’
In another place it has been called “The How Long Psalm” because of the repetition of the ‘how long’ cry.
 
Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s “The Treasury of David, Volume 1” divides this Psalm into three parts:  Vs. 1-2, the question of anxiety; 3-4 the cry of prayer; 5-6 the song of faith.  Read the Psalm and see the divisions.  For this message we will look into Scripture concerning Vs. 1
 
The ‘how long’ repeated, tells us that David’s desire of relief for his distress/anxiety in his present situation is intense!  Does it reveal a bit of impatience, also?
 
How about any of us as well?  Have we ever asked something of God and the answer was not No, not Yes, BUT wait?  After a time does impatience enter into our waiting?  It certainly has been true of me, but thankfully, the Lord comforts and calms my heart as I go to His word.
 
In my anxious moments, my heart has been led to:
Psalm 27:14,
“Wait on the LORD;
Be of good courage,
And He will strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the LORD.”
And,
Isaiah 40:31,
“But those who wait upon the LORD 
Shall renew their strength…”
And,
Psalm 46:10
“Be still and know that I am God…”
To name a few.  
 
David cries out, ‘will You forget me forever’.  Oh David, how can God forget? He is Omniscient.  How can God forget His own child?
 
The LORD in Isaiah 49:15-16 tells us,
“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.
See, I have inscribed you on the psalms of My hand…”  
 
Do we not, in our impatience, wonder if God has forgotten us; His children?  How absurd!  God is the same, yesterday, and today, and forever.
 
David then asks, ‘how long will you hide Your face from me?’  This is a more reasonable question.  There are such times when we can’t see our Lord’s face.  Those are very hard times!  So what are we to do?  Seek Him!
 
Deuteronomy 4:29 says,
“…You will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all  your heart and with all your soul.”
 
Psalm 63:1-2 tells us of David’s thirst for God so he seeks,
“O God, You are my God;
Early will I seek You;
My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land 
Where there is no water.
So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,
To see Your power and Your glory.”
 
Is there a spiritual thirst for those who belong to God?  Yes!  We want to know Him, not just about Him!  Scripture speaks of this thirst:
“As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God…”  Psalm 42:1-2
 
“I spread out my hands to You;
My soul longs for You like a thirsty land.”  Selah  Psalm 143:6
 
Then in Amos 8:11!
“‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord God,
‘That I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread,
Nor a thirst for water,
But a hearing the words of the LORD.’”
 
Hopefully, that is our hearts’ thirst.
Jesus in the Beatitudes in Matthew tells us in 5:6,
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.” 
Jesus: our righteousness.  He is the one for whom we hunger and thirst.
 
Thank you Holy God for our life in You.  All glory is Yours.  Thy will be done!  Amen