7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice,
And be gracious to me and answer me.
8 When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You,
“Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.”
9 Do not hide Your face from me,
Do not turn Your servant away in anger;
You have been my help;
Do not abandon me nor forsake me,
O God of my salvation!
10 [g]For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
But the Lord will take me up.11 Teach me Your way, O Lord,
And lead me in a level path
Because of [h]my foes.
12 Do not deliver me over to the [i]desire of my adversaries,
For false witnesses have risen against me,
And such as breathe out violence.
13 [j]I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.
14 Wait for the Lord;
Be strong and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for the Lord.
When life gets tough, our minds often leap into action, trying to figure out how to escape, or how to solve the problem(s) we face. And far too often, we ignore the fact that God is right there with a plan to see us through to the other side. As David notes in verse 8, God is often saying “Hey, I’m right here, I didn’t go anywhere. Just seek my face!”
Do we continue on with our plan, or do we stop, and ask God what He has planned? Do we wait on the Lord, like David encourages us to do? He says “I would have despaired, except that I believed I would see God show up.” Twice in verse 14 we are told to wait for the Lord, and when something is repeated in God’s Word, we would do well to pay attention.
So again, when trouble comes your way, do you look to your own devices? We all need to do better, and look to God. Find His plan in the mess of life, and move forward holding His hand–to steady us along the way, and to make sure we stay on the path. “Be strong and let your heart take courage” for God is our salvation, always.