Sermon Tone Analysis

March 3, 2012

By John Barnett

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Psalm 13 may be the very deepest of all the pits of life David endured.

In this Psalm David is all alone and momentarily felt that even God had left him.

Note the exact spot these events take place in the text of I Samuel 21:15-22:2:

1 Samuel 21:15-22:2 /"Have I need of madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence?

Shall this fellow come into my house?”

22:1a David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam."/

[Here is a space of an unknown duration of time; David is completely alone except for his fears and troubles which followed him into the cave; Psalm 13 is describing his experiences here]

22:1b /"So when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 And everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him.

So he became captain over them.

And there were about four hundred men with him."/

*The Cave of Emotional Darkness*

David left Gath and was so alone that he despairs.

And now David feels abandoned as moves to a new location that is very foreign to him.

David wrote Psalm 13—how to overcome the feelings of despair, abandonment and loneliness when we are in a very dark situation that seems hopeless.

The tone of this whole period of “cave times” is described by David in the first verse of Psalm 13.

Look there with me and note the very first verse:

/"How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?"/ —Psalm 13:1

As a believer, regardless of the extent of our spiritual maturity, it’s possible to reach a point so low we actually feel that everyone—even God—has abandoned us.

That was David’s desperate condition when he wrote Psalm 13 .

Psalm 13 reveals that Christ can’t be our Refuge if we don’t hear His invitation to flee to Him, or remember He’s there.

Sometimes we have to hit bottom, go through dark waters, or face incredible convulsions in our lives to really see Him even though He’s been there all the time.

I deeply learned that lesson at 27,000 feet while flying home from a Shepherds Conference in Los Angeles.

Through that harrowing experience I gained an unforgettable insight.

Having heard the preflight safety lecture dozens of times, I started to read and ignored it, never thinking about anything other than what I needed to do before landing in Tulsa.

Initially, this particular flight seemed uneventful.

An empty seat beside me became my desk, and as the world slowly drifted by outside my window, I worked.

After a bit, clouds began to darken the sky, so I turned on the light and kept studying.

An announcement to fasten seatbelts appeared ordinary, not at all uncommon.

Suddenly, the plane did its first roller coaster move; it quickly dropped and then immediately went straight up like an elevator.

When a very hard jolt knocked open a few overhead compartments and belongings fell out, scattered cries of fear could be heard from all over the cabin.

From that moment on this unexpected twist captured my rapt attention and all I thought about was this: Who, exactly, is up front flying this plane?

How much experience do they have?

How skilled are they in thunderstorm management?

*Who’s Flying The Plane?*

What tremendous lesson did I learn on that flight?

It’s perfectly normal to not pay much attention to stuff in general as long as our lives are going along smoothly!

Who even thinks about the pilot until the weather gets rough?

But when the plane jolts, jumps, rocks, and swerves—that’s ALL we can think about.

And then we want to know: Who is steering this careening machine?

The pilot instantly becomes very important because our safety is in his hands!

The same is true in life.

But let the rough family times, the roller coaster ride of our emotions, the crash of our finances, or the plummet of our health come—THEN the Pilot captures our rapt attention.

God was about to capture David’s full attention after fleeing to the wilderness to live in the cave of Adullam.

This launched David’s “cave times” period, which would soon prove to be one of his deepest trials.

Psalm 13 appears to reveal what was happening to David after he fled Gath but before all his friends arrived at the cave, which is 1 Samuel 22:2.

As he ran for his life, he felt abandoned by everyone—including God.

As a pastor, biblical counselor, and a follower of Christ for over forty years, I am convinced abandonment feelings are very common among believers.

*Cave Times can Happen to Anyone*

What are some causes of such cave times?

Here are just a few to help us identify with being in David’s shoes:

• Cave times may start through a lengthy illness when strength never comes, future plans fade, and so does hope.

• Cave times often begin with an unanticipated job loss and subsequent tangled, growing, and seemingly hopeless financial needs.

• Cave times commonly occur in prolonged marriage and family difficulties.

Wayward children can cause immeasurable pain to believing parents.

• Cave times can occur through a demanding and unreasonable boss, a grueling and monotonous work schedule, or a jealous, spiteful, and injurious co-worker.

Cave times usually make us feel depressed and all alone.

Because others no longer seem as supportive or as friendly, an abandoned feeling leads into the downward spiral of thinking: No one cares for me!

Like David, we may then conclude: God has also abandoned me!

After reading every commentary I have on the Psalms and the life of David, especially the time surrounding the 13th Psalm, I was amazed to find that there’s little said or written in Christian literature about helping believers who feel abandoned by God.

Even D. Martin Lloyd Jones’s classic, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure, doesn’t cover this topic.

Why do you suppose this is?

I think it is because we have been taught that Christians are not to experience such things, that we are only to have “life more abundantly” or to “live victoriously.”

Wasn’t it the dying French atheist Voltaire said, “I am abandoned by God and man?”

We are not surprised to hear an unbeliever say that.

But if any of us should admit to such feelings, many of our friends would look askance at us, shake their heads, and wonder whether we are Christians.

Isn’t that true?

Isn’t that the chief reason why you do not talk to other Christians about this or about many other problems?”

*Christians aren’t Always Happy*

Thankfully, David talked about his painful loneliness.

Aren’t you glad he didn’t cover up his struggles or hide his bad feelings?

David didn’t mind being thought of as weak, failing, or troubled; he simply cried out to the Lord all the more.

Now let’s look at how David survived his deepest, darkest hour of loneliness which took place in that little junction of time between 1 Samuel 21:15 and 22:1.

Please read with me the song about some of David’s darkest hours, Psalm 13:

Psalm 13

To the Chief Musician.

A Psalm of David.

1 How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?

How long will You hide Your face from me?

2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul,

Having sorrow in my heart daily?

How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God;

Enlighten my eyes,

Lest I sleep the sleep of death;

4 Lest my enemy say,

“I have prevailed against him”;

Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

5 But I have trusted in Your mercy;

My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.

6 I will sing to the LORD,

Because He has dealt bountifully with me.

In the first two verses David expressed the depths of his soul in four cries of anguish.

Each cry reflects something from his background, and is a figure of speech called *erotesis*—asking questions without waiting for or even expecting an answer.

This is often a sign of deep emotional stress.

His four cries also represented a second form of speech called *anaphora*—when the same word is repeated at the beginning of successive sentences.

David cried in anguish as he asked God four times: “How long?”

He never paused because he was overcome with sorrow and grief.