Psalm 13: Prayer's Reality - There is Only God

For me, I believe only in the love of the Lord. I rejoice in the belief that He will save me. All kinds of blessings have been given to me, so let us praise Yahweh. (13:5-6)

Christians often find it more painful when their prayers go unanswered than when they face hardships. The delay in prayer response creates a sense of anxiety in the heart of the believer, as if they have been cut off from God. In Psalm 13, David expresses his distress due to the delay in prayer response. However, he soon corrects his attitude, believing only in God's love.

Why did David have to prostrate himself before God?

Firstly, it was due to his accumulated experience in prayer. Although he had experienced many delays in prayer response, he had never experienced a complete lack of response to his prayers. This familiar experience, that God was faithful, allowed David to believe in only God's love and to conclude his prayer. This is also David's preemptive prayer method. David often thanked and praised God for his grace and mercy even before receiving an answer to his prayer. Really, Could David hold on to God's faithfulness from his good experiences of God?

David's situation was not a choice between God and anything else. For David, there was only God. Even if God did not respond to David's prayers, there was only God for him. Even if David's preemptive prayer of thanks and praise became a thing of the past, there was only God for him. Whether in good or bad times, there was only God for David. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "God is present in the reality of no God," David's situation was similar to that of Gethsemane and the Cross, where he resembled Jesus. Like the poet, Jesus had no one to turn to but God. In one of the unjust widows in the Gospels, even though the judge was unjust, there was no one else for her to cry out to. David, widow, Jesus, and any Christian looking at them today, there is only God in their prayer reality.