Sermon Tone Analysis
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SLIDE 1 The story is told about a little boy who liked to ask the blessing before his family’s meals.
One day, he asked to say the prayer before the family ate.
His parents and siblings bowed their heads and closed their eyes.
The little boy started the prayer, but then hesitated.
Glancing toward his father, the boy implored, “Daddy, wake up and help me!”
I’m not sure why he thought his father would be sleeping during his prayer.
Is that what he did when his father prayed?
Have you ever wondered if God was sleeping when you prayed?
It appears at least one psalmist did.
We read in Psalm 44: SLIDE 2
Awake, Lord!
Why do you sleep?
Rouse yourself!
Do not reject us forever.
(Psalm 44:25)
It would certainly seem at times that God might be asleep or worse.
SLIDE 3 There’s a story told about the Christian reformer, Martin Luther, who once spent three days in a black depression after something that had gone wrong.
On the third day his wife came downstairs dressed in her funeral clothes.
Seeing the way she was dressed Martin Luther immediately asked her, “Who died?”
His wife replied, “God died.”
Luther rebuked her, saying, “What do you mean, God died?
God cannot die.”
“Well,” she replied, “the way you’ve been acting I was sure he must have!”
When things go wrong or when we experience great loss we might feel like we’ve been abandoned.
Our reactions in those times can reveal in what or whom we are trusting.
SLIDE 4 Turn with me to Psalm 13.
The psalm begins with a note to the director of music and then tells us that it was written by David.
For the director of music.
A psalm of David.
We might outline the psalm this way: SLIDE 5
In the first verses David expresses his felling of being ignored and we see his inward struggles
In verses 3 and 4 David prays, seeking God’s attention as he describes his outward dangers
Then, in the final two verses, David proclaims his trust in God ad he looks upward
In his commentary on the Book of Psalms, Charles Spurgeon wrote:
Whenever you look into David’s Psalms, you will somewhere or other see yourself.
You never get into a corner, but you find David in that corner.
I think that I was never so low that I could not find that David was lower; and I never climbed so high that I could not find that David was up above me.
This insight is relevant to Psalm 13 because the psalm contains both the heights of ecstasy and the depths of despair.
David experienced both as he goes from perplexity to praise and from sinking to singing.
Joseph Parker remarked:
This psalm begins with winter and ends with summer; it begins with low muffled tones of sorrow and ends with a rapture of praise.
What caused this dramatic turnaround?
The answer is found in the midst of the psalm – prayer.
Casting his burdens upon God, David found his heart elevated out of the prison of worry to the paradise of worship.
When discouraged and perplexed, David called upon God for his deliverance and soon found his heart filled with rejoicing.
Let’s start reading with verse 1 as we hear David question God about his problems.
1 How long, Lord?
Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me? (Psalm 13:1-2)
David doesn’t accuse God of being asleep or taking a vacation or just being too busy for him, but David does begin the psalm wondering why God hasn’t answered his prayer.
Four times in the first two verses he asks God, “How long,” and David asks four questions that extend that question.
In the first question, David asks how long will God forget about him.
Has God forgotten him?
No of course not.
God chose David to be king.
When no one but his family knew about him, God sent Samuel to anoint him to succeed Saul as king.
It was God who called David a man after his own heart.
Later, God would promise David that he would have a descendant on the throne forever.
God was talking about the Messiah who would be a descendant of David.
No, God had not forgotten about God, but that’s the way David felt.
David may have realized God hadn’t forgotten him, but it felt that way.
Like David we may sometimes wonder if he has forgotten about us, but God hasn’t forgotten about us either.
Just a few weeks ago when we were looking at Psalm 11 I read the comment Jesus made about sparrows when he said: SLIDE 6
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?
Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.
30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
(Matthew 10:29-31)
If God knows every sparrow and has every hair of our head counted, he has not forgotten about us.
SLIDE 7 Second, David asks why God has hidden his face from him.
Does God really hide his face from people?
Since God is spirit I don’t think he has a face to hide, but the Bible writers use this anthropomorphic description of God to illustrate God’s favor or displeasure.
For example, in the familiar priestly blessing found in Numbers 6 we read: SLIDE 8
24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.
(Numbers 6:24-26)
The Lord’s face looking upon and shinning upon his people was a sign of his pleasure and blessing.
Thus, God hiding his face wasn’t a good thing.
In Deuteronomy 31 God warns what will happen when his people turn to idols.
SLIDE 9
And in that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed.
And what will be the result of God turning his face?
SLIDE 10
Many disasters and calamities will come on them, and in that day they will ask, ‘Have not these disasters come on us because our God is not with us? (Deuteronomy 31:17)
When God turns his face bad things happen and his blessings stop.
Because of the problems he was having David wondered if God had hidden his face from him.
Have you ever wondered if God has turned his back on you?
SLIDE 11 Third, David wonders how long his sorrow will continue.
You remember the old say about how time flies when you’re having fun.
The opposite is also true; time seems to drag by when you’re miserable.
We don’t know how David had been experiencing his difficulty, but it probably wasn’t anywhere near as long as he thought it was.
However, when you don’t feel good you want it over as quickly as possible.
What was taking God so long?
We have to remember that God’s timetable isn’t our timetable and that even when we think he’s late, God is right on time.
And then fourth, David asks how long his enemy will have victory over him.
How long will he have to suffer defeat?
David figured that since God was not longer blessing and protecting him, his enemies were gaining the upper hand.
And really, David wasn’t as concerned by what his enemy was doing as he was about what God wasn’t doing.
We may feel that way too.
However, it’s a dangerous thing to give in to our feelings, because feelings are deceptive.
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