Psalm 13

Introduction

There’s a saying I love that is first traced back to a theologian from the 1600’s that goes like this:

“The night is always darkest just before the dawn.”

Scientifically, I’m pretty sure that is a wildly inaccurate statement and not at all how the night sky works. But the reason I love the saying is because it’s not trying to describe nature, but instead is trying to put into words that feeling we have all experienced when going through something really difficult. That is to say, being trapped in misery feels most desperate just before relief comes, especially when you don’t see it coming.

This is the state of the Psalmist when we wrote Psalm 13. One of the reasons I love the Psalms is because they really capture the entirety of the human experience; if you’ve felt something, its been written about in the Psalms. The emotion is often totally raw and offers us a window into the very heart of the writer. More importantly, it offers us a window into our own hearts and souls as we can find our own experiences put into words by someone else.

I am sure that many of you can empathize with the Psalmist here. He is experiencing the depths of human misery and is at his breaking point. In his pain, he cries out to God and questions him.

But this then leads to another reason why I love the Psalms: because they show us the entire range of the human experience in a godly context. The author is not left to despair, grieving as the world grieves. Rather, he recalls the steadfast love of the Lord and throws himself upon that love. As we read this Psalm, we are led by the Psalmist to open up our hearts to God and learn to trust him deeper, which will finally bring us to a place that sings His praises.

So that’s how I’ve constructed my sermon this morning, into three main points:

First, The human experience includes deep misery.

Second, That our faithful God provides for our every need.

Third and Finally, That we should sing to God because of his steadfast love.

The human experience includes deep misery

State: First: the human experience includes deep misery. This isn’t something that you need to be taught. This is something that, given enough time on this Earth, everybody comes to know all too well. This is something that has been true in all cultures, at all times, in every age.

The Psalmist starts by repeating the same phrase four times in two verses, and maybe this is a phrase you’ve found yourself asking God as well: “How long?” There’s angst in the voice of the writer here. We don’t know exactly the circumstances he is faced with, but some things are immediately clear:

The psalmist has been left in a season of misery for quite some time.

“Will you forget me forever?”

Its clear that the Psalmist isn’t just dealing with that old preacher’s trope of someone cutting him off in traffic or something. He’s dealing with very real, seemingly prolonged misery in his life. To make matters worse, the prolonged misery has led him to wonder if God even cares about him at all. The loneliness of his situation has become crushing to him.

The Psalmist feels that God has been distant from him.

“How long will you hide your face from me?”

It is clear that the Psalmist here doesn’t feel that intimacy with God that he once felt. He doesn’t feel as though God is right beside him, walking with him, speaking to him. He feels cold, and he isn’t experiencing that spiritual high that we so often chase after.

The Psalmist has been left to internalize his angst while cycling through his issues in his own head

“How long must I take counsel in my own soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?”

His loneliness has led him to retreat into his own mind. Anybody who has experienced a season of misery and loneliness knows that this type of retreating into your own mind is a scary and dangerous thing where worries and anxieties only fester and grow. In the solitude of your own mind, all of those things that cause you grief seem to be aa-consuming.

The Psalmist is dealing with an enemy that is threatening to destroy him

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Lest my enemy say, “I have exalted over him,” lest my foes rejoice

We don’t know if this is a physical enemy, like the king of another nation waging war, or if this is a spiritual enemy, like the devil himself seeking to undo the Psalmist spiritually.

Illustrate:

Apply: Are you able to relate to the writer of Psalm 13? Have you ever asked God, “how long, O Lord?”

Have you ever been in a lengthy season of life where you felt left to your own misery? Where you couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, and you started to think maybe there wasn’t a light there at all? Are you in that season right now?

If you are, then chances are you also feel like that makes you a bad Christian. Brother, Sister, it doesn’t. This is a normal part of the human experience and God knows it better than you do. One of the beautiful aspects of the Psalms is that they help us to see that we aren’t alone and we aren’t unqualified because of the emotions we feel. God doesn’t fault you for feeling them. In fact, God invites you to pour your heart and soul out before him, just like the Psalmist is doing in our passage here.

God invites you to be honest with him, and God wants to share with you too. He wants to help you remember his love for you, even in those seasons when you begin to forget it. That’s what he does for the Psalmist here as well.

God provides for our every need

State:

After pouring out his heart and soul that was overflowing with misery and angst, the Psalmist then remembers something incredibly important, and utters what is maybe the single most important word in the entire Old Testament. I’m not a big believer in always throwing around Hebrew and Greek words, but in some cases I think they are helpful, and if you were to know just one Hebrew word I would make it the word we encounter in verse 5 of Psalm 13: Hesed. This word shows up 239 times in the Hebrew Old Testament and gets a few different English translations like steadfast love, unfailing love, faithfulness, unfailing kindness. The word is connected to the promises that God has made to his people and is used to describe how God has never failed to remain faithful to his word. in fact, if we had to pick one word to describe God, Hesed would be at the top of the list.

Hesed, God’s stedfast love, is a word packed with meaning in the Scriptures. It isn’t just a concept thats disconnected from the workings of our world; to talk of God’s steadfast love is to recall all of the wonderful things he has done for his people over time.

When David, out of the pit of his own misery, trusts in God’s steadfast love, he isn’t trusting without reason. To be sure, if David was shortsighted and only looked at the present misery, it may seem like God wasn’t good. But in this case, he’s looking beyond his own immediate circumstances and remembering the history of God’s faithfulness to his people. David remembers

The promise to Abraham fulfilled when his wife was barren

The promise Jacob’s sons fulfilled when there was draught and God used Joseph to provide for them

The salvation from Egypt as God split the Red Sea when the people had been driven into harsh slavery

The manna in the wilderness when the people had no food

The water from the rock when there was no water

The possession of the promised land when the people had no home

The raising up of the judges when the people deserted God and found themselves enslaved

You’re starting to see the picture here? Though David’s misery was very real, he was able to see past it and remember that God has always been faithful to his people when they were facing difficult circumstances, and David trusts that the same will be true for him. He’s confident that he will rejoice in God’s salvation, just as all those who came before got to rejoice as well.

Illustrate:

Apply: What about you? When you find yourself in the depths of misery, how can this Psalm help you to move forward? When darkness causes you to question God, how can you be sure of his faithfulness?

Much the same way as the Psalmist does. Without running from the reality of our pain, we can call into memory the steadfast love of God throughout history. Along with King David writing this Psalm, we can think back to all of those wonderful stories we read in the Old Testament where our faithful God took care of his people when they were trapped in misery.

But we can actually go further than even King David was able to go. While David was able to see types and shadows of the gospel God had given through the Old Testament, we have the full picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ to look upon. In Jesus, every single promise God has every made becomes fully realized and guaranteed to all who have faith in him.

When you find yourself in the depths of misery, in pain, when you being to wonder if God has forgotten about you, when you don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel, don’t just brush it off as nothing, but don’t let it consume you, either. Rather, look through all of your suffering, straight through to the suffering of Jesus Christ.

When we feel like God doesn’t care, the cross reminds us that he does. When we feel like God doesn’t know our pain, the suffering of Jesus reminds us he has felt it even more than we know. When we look to the cross of Jesus Christ, we may not get the answer for why we are being allowed to experience all of this pain, but there can’t be any question about whether or not God loves us.

When we begin to question if all of this can really turn out for good, or if God actually has a plan to turn this darkness into light, let’s remember that glorious day when Jesus resurrected from the dead. When we remember that Jesus was slain by darkness but came out of the ground with power, we might not get the answers for how and when our specific story is going to turn to glory, but there can’t be any question that God can bring light from even the darkest of situations.

What im trying to say is that when life gets hard, when we feel like we’re being choked by darkness, what we need more than anything is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is the answer to all of those dark whisperings, all of those intrusive thoughts, all of those feelings of despair and wondering about whether God actually loves us and has a plan for us.

We should sing to God because of his steadfast love

And as we reflect on God’s steadfast love for us, where does this lead us? It doesn’t necessarily promise you that you’re never going to feel pain or misery again, but here’s what it will do: it will cause you to sing even in the depths of your pain.

Look at King David here: within a 6 verse psalm he’s able to pour out the contents of his miserable heart while at the same time singing to the Lord because of his bountiful provision. This is an amazing thing for us to behold, and its truly a great testimony of faith.

What does it mean for someone to be singing to the Lord even as he calls to the Lord, “how long, oh God?” Simply put, this is a picture of godly grief. This is how the faithfulness of God transforms our grieving and our suffering. It doesn’t mean that God removes all suffering from our lives, but it does mean that he gives us cause to sing even in the midst of the suffering.

This is what the gospel does for us. This is a thoroughly Biblical concept that we see all over the Scriptures, and its what God is leading us to do as well.

We can think about Job, the man who lost everything and found it in his heart to sing to God, “though you slay me, yet I will praise you.” and “the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

We can think about Paul and Silas sitting in a Philippian prison, in mortal danger for preaching the gospel, and staying up late into the night while singing hymns to God.

We can think about Paul later writing to the church in Rome that we ought to rejoice in our sufferings because suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit

Application:

So as you consider the gospel of God, and how bountiful his provision for you has been, allow those thoughts to bring you to a place that causes your soul to sing praises to God even in those darker seasons of your life. As the Holy Spirit pours the love of God into your hearts through the gospel of Jesus Christ, live in gratitude for God’s faithfulness to you.

Practically speaking, think about what this looks like in your life. It doesn’t mean that you always have to tell everyone that you’re doing awesome. It means that you can be honest with others about the pain you feel, and even more importantly, it means you can be honest with God about the pain you feel. So don’t feel guilty about sharing with others when you’re hurting. But beyond simply sharing the pain, continue to share the hope that you’ve been given through Jesus Christ. And as you do that, continue to share that hope with those who take notice. In your own godly grief, as you sing God’s praises because he has been faithful to you through highs and lows, you will be helping others to sing that same wonderful song.

Have you ever felt like God has forgotten you?

Even though he hasn’t, it sure can feel like it sometimes. This is a lie the enemy tells us.

He doesn’t let what he doesn’t know destroy him, but he trusts in what he does know.

Some questions just don’t get answers: “How long?”

Introduction: Questions that we can relate with, this Psalm takes us to the depths of human misery all the way to the mountaintops of the gospel

Point 1: The depths of human misery

Point 2: The bountiful gospel

Point 3: Sing to the Lord

My responsibilities for Sunday:

Welcome

So glad to see all of you here this morning, what a wonderful day it is to worship our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Please make sure you grabbed a worship folder on your way in. If you’re new here, you will quickly realize that this worship folder is super important for following along with the service. We don’t have screens, so all of the songs and even the call and response is all listed in there. We believe worship is a conversation between us and God, and so there will be multiple times that you are asked to respond out loud, and those parts will always be in bold in your folder.

What we really hope you see through how we worship here is the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Everything we do is with the purpose of displaying the love of God through the gospel of his Son, and we hope you walk away this morning with a better understanding of that love.

So To all who are spiritually weary and seek rest; to all who mourn and long for comfort; to all who struggle and desire victory; to all who sin and need a savior; to all who are strangers and want fellowship; to all who hunger and thirst for righteousness; and to whoever will come — this church opens wide her doors and offers her welcome in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our God greets us this morning: grace and peace be to you from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Confession

(Steve P does prayer of people)

Announce offering

Preach

Benediction

Romans 15:5–6 ESV

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(Maybe announcements?)