2. Lord, How Long? STUDIES IN THE PSALMS

3. Lord, How Long?  Inquirer desires relief  Inquirer is calling for God’s help  Inquirer is questioning God’s timetable  Inquirer is questioning/appealing to God’s character  Inquirer trusts relief will come/God answers that it will They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:4, ESV)

4. How Long? Till God avenges enemies: Psalm 6 Desires relief 6:2, 6-7. Psalm 13:1-2 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? (Psalm 13:1-2, ESV)

5. How Long? Till God avenges enemies: Psalm 6  Desires relief 6:2, 6-7. Psalm 13:1-2  Call for God’s help 6:4a; Psalm 35:11-15, 17

6. Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I do not know. They repay me evil for good; my soul is bereft. But I, when they were sick— I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest. I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning. But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered; they gathered together against me; wretches whom I did not know tore at me without ceasing; (Psalm 35:11-15, ESV) How long, O Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their destruction, my precious life from the lions! (Psalm 35:17, ESV)

7. How Long? Till God avenges enemies: Psalm 6  Desires relief 6:2, 6-7. Psalm 13:1-2  Call for God’s help 6:4a; Psalm 35:11-15, 17  Timetable questioned 6:3  God’s character questioned/appealed to 6:4b  Trust in God/God answers 6:8-10

8. How Long? Till God’s judgment on sinners, Psalm 94 Desires relief 94:4-7, 20-21 Call for God’s help 94:1-2 Timetable questioned 94:3 God’s character questioned/appealed to 94:1-2 God of vengeance 94:17-10- God of peace, help, covenant love Trust in God/God answers 94:8-10 94:22-23; Revelation 6:9-11

9. How long? Till God’s compassion after judgment, Psalm 89 Desires relief 89:38-45 Call for God’s help 89:50-51 Timetable questioned 89:46 God’s character questioned/appealed to (89:3-4, 19-21, 24, 30-33) 89:49 Trust in God/God answers 89:1-2, 54

10. “Seek the L ORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the L ORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the L ORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:6-11, ESV)

11. …knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:3-4, ESV)

12. For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. (2 Peter 3:5-7, ESV)

13. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. (2 Peter 3:8-10, ESV)