In Psalms, chapter thirteen, verse five, the answer to God’s apparent delay is to trust in His lovingkindness and to remember that in the past He has delivered us and blessed us. The Lord’s lovingkindness will appear in His own time and way.
This passage greatly encourages the children of God when we must endure suffering in this life. God will bring the good out of all affliction, trials, persecution, and suffering. The good that God works is conforming us to the image of Christ and ultimately bringing about our glorification, as in Romans eight, verse twenty-nine. The promise is limited to those who love God and have submitted to Him through faith in Christ, as in Exodus twenty, verse six, Deuteronomy seven, verse nine, Psalms thirty-seven, verse seventeen, Isiah fifty-six, verses four through seven, and First Corinthians two, verse nine, respectively.
The theme verse is under The Deserted Soul section. The first two verses begin with five questions, four with how long. Then ask for reassurance that God is listening and ask that the enemy will not prevail during this situation before reaching the theme verse. God sometimes hides his face, and leaves his children in the dark concerning their interest in him: and this they lay to heart more than any outward trouble whatever. But anxious cares are heavy burdens with which believers often load themselves more than they need. The bread of sorrows is sometimes the saint’s daily bread; our Master was a man of sorrows.
It is a common temptation, when trouble lasts long, to think that it will last always. Those who have long been without joy, begin to be without hope. We should never allow ourselves to make any complaints but what drives us to our knees? Nothing is more killing to a soul than desiring God’s favor. Nothing is more reviving than the return of it. The sudden, delightful changes in the book of Psalms, are often very remarkable. We pass from despair to the height of religious confidence and joy.