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Psalm 13 - Unconditional trust in His unconditional love

Psalm 13

 Unconditional trust in His unconditional love

 Introduction
What is unconditional love? Unconditional love is "affection without limits or conditions" (dictionary.com) - how God could love us despite us rejecting Him as Creator and ruler of our lives.
What then, is unconditional trust?
Psalm 13 is a lament Psalm written by David to express this response to God's unconditional love for us

Summary
v1-2 "How long?"
v3-4 "Lest"
v5-6 Unconditional trust
I've titled the first 4 verses this way because this is the repeated word in those verses - expressing David's thoughts.

"How long?"
David opens Psalm 13 asking a series of "how long" questions. He wonders how long God will refrain from helping him, from showing his face.
David fears that God will forget him forever. He tires of wrestling with his thoughts, the sorrow in his heart and the failure to defeat his enemies. He hints that he is failing in his attempts to keep in control his thoughts, his sorrow, and his failure.
A curious point to note is David's enemies. Throughout Psalms, often David refers to Saul, Absalom or some other nation as his enemies. Here his enemy is none of them - it is sin and the devil that David labels his enemy - thus the sorrow in his heart, the wrestling with his thoughts, and later, the rejoicing of his foes.

"Lest"
David prays for God to look on him and answer his prayers; to give light to his eyes, lest he sleeps in death, lest his enemies overcome him, lest his enemies have joy in his downfall. He prays in fear of these things - things no man would want to face, needless to say a man set after God's heart. He acknowledges the need for God to overcome sin and be brought back to life in God.

Unconditional trust
Here lies the key point of the passage. David
1. Trusts in God's unfailing love
2. Rejoices in God's salvation
God has not promised David anything, or made any action, or even made any form of reply - as is usually documented in the previous Psalms. Yet David declares his trust in God's unfailing love and his joy in God's salvation - before it comes. He sings to the Lord, for God has been good to him. Note that David uses the past tense - despite the whole Psalm being written in the present/future tense. Even though David is failing in his battle with sin, he is assured by God's past dealings with him.

Takeaway
What are God's past dealings with God? Has God been good to us?
- Even though most of us (including myself) do not have a direct encounter with God, He has been very good to us. He sent His Son Jesus Christ, the only perfect man to die on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for our sin. This is the ultimate proof of God's unfailing love and salvation to come. Because of this act in history, our future is guaranteed in God, and we should put our trust unconditionally in Him to deliver us from all circumstances.

The only way to respond to unconditional love - is unconditional trust. Nothing less is appropriate.
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