Psalm 35:17

17How long, O Lord, will you look on?
Rescue me from their destruction,
my precious life from the lions!

Verse 17 – “How long O Lord will you look on?” It would be a mistake for us to assume that in David’s day, God always came through and prevented him and others from enduring great difficulty at the hands of others.

We sometimes think that the great heroes of the Bible were seeing miracles everyday and always having all their prayers answered immediately as if they all they had to do to get what they wanted from God was say what they wanted and “poof!!” there it was. Not at all. David here in Psalm 35:17 has been praying for relief for a long time. He has not got the answer he wants and he cries out to God in his agony “How much longer must I endure this hardship?”.

This is not a challenge to the faithfulness of God. God knows what He is doing and we should be very grateful that we are not the ones who say “jump” and God is not the one who replies by saying “how high?”. God loves to give good things to all His children. But He knows best how and when to deliver us. What a comfort this should be to His children.

The fact that David endured his troubles for a long time should be a great encouragement to us. Ask God today for what you need and keep on asking. (He wouldn’t tell you to keep asking if He didn’t intend to make you wait.)And take great consolation in the fact that He is on the throne and knows best how to give you what you really need.