Psalm 13 | How Long, O Lord?

Announcement: Wednesday Connect

On September 11, 2024, we will launch our first Wednesday Connect, a multi-generational and multi-ethnic church-wide gathering. The format is simple: everyone gathers for a meal at 5 p.m. Then, at 6 p.m., we all gather for a time of bilingual worship for 10-15 minutes. We will then dismiss everyone to go to their groups (AWANA, Youth Group, and adult classes). Something important to keep in mind is that there is going to be a charge for the meal to cover the cost of the food. The cost will be as follows: adults ($6), students ($4), and children four and under are free. Also, families will be capped at $30.

*You don’t have to come for the meal in order to be part of the worship time and the group time.

Transition: This morning we will launch a four-part sermon series on the Psalms.

In 2022, Pastor Tom Loyola, covered Psalms 1-2.

In 2023, I preached from Psalm 3-12.

Today, we will pick up in Psalm 13.

Psalm 13 “To the choirmaster. 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 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? 3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, 4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. 5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. 6 I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

Psalm 13 takes less than a minute to read but a lifetime to master it.

Pray!

Receptive hearts

Weary hearts

Deeper trust

The book of Psalms contains 150 songs where you will find songs about joy, thanksgiving and celebration, but it also contains songs called songs of lament which address the pain and sorrow of God’s people.

Fact: 1/3 of these songs are psalms of lament.

These songs of lament are a gift from God to us. They are an invitation to process uncomfortable emotions: grief, sorrow, anxiety, depression, confusion, disappointment, and anger.

The psalms of lament address two questions:

Where are you, God?

Do you care about me?

In a psalm of lament, the writer presents three things before God:

He presents his hurt

He presents a request

He presents a declaration of trust.

Psalm 13 is for all of us. You and I will need this prayer at some point in our life. Here’s why: It has been said that those who follow Jesus will fall into one of these three categories:

Going through a trial

Coming out of a trial

About to go through a trial

We know that King David wrote Psalm 13, but we don’t know what events were taking place when he wrote it.

Let’s look at three things we learn about God based on Psalm 13.

God welcomes honest prayers, God welcomes humble requests, and God welcomes hope-filled declarations.

(1) God welcomes honest prayers

David pours out his heart before God. He is brutally honest about his feelings. He brings his hurt before God in prayer.

Emotions: Ignore it, stuff it (suppress), or act out by exploding and let everyone have it.

David engages his emotions by engaging the God who made those emotions. He brings those emotions to God in prayer.

Not once, not twice, not even three times, but four times he asks God the question, “How long?”

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?

David feels forgotten.

This is not a theological statement. Of course God doesn’t forget anyone. He is omniscient. That is, he is all-knowing. He knows everything - past, present, and future.

In the Bible when God “remembers” something or someone, it doesn’t mean “forgetfulness.” (Did you remember to pick up the milk? Or, Did you remember to call your mom for her birthday? When the Bible says that God remembers someone, it means that he is going to take action on their behalf.

Genesis 8:1 “But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.”

Exodus 2:24 “And God heard [the people of Israel’s] groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.”

1 Samuel 1:19 “…and the LORD remembered Hannah. And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son…”

When God forgets someone, it means that he is not going to take any action on their behalf. David is expressing deep sorrow to the point where it feels as if God has abandoned him and nothing is ever going to change.

How long, will you hide your face from me?

When God shines his face over his people it means that his favor is upon them:

Numbers 6:24–26 “24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”

This is a language of a close, intimate relationship.

On the other hand, when God hides his face from his people that means that they no longer experience God’s favor, his blessing, and his peace.

Not only does David claim that God has forgotten him, but that he has also withheld his favor from him.

David is expressing a deep fear that God has forsaken him and no longer cares for him. “When darkness seems to hide his face.”

Where are you, God?

Do you care about me?

From David’s point of view, God has forgotten him and no longer cares about him. Darkness seems to be his new friend (c.f. Ps 88:12)

This leads David to ask a third time:

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

David’s thoughts are restless which leads him to experience anguish in his heart all the time.

David is basically praying, “Lord, I’m tired. It’s the same thing every day, all day long. Sorrow and tears for breakfast, sorrow and tears for lunch, and sorrow and tears for supper.”

David’s last question is:

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

We don’t know who the enemy is.

Perhaps is Saul who seeks to take his life

Perhaps is his own Absalom who seeks to take his throne

Perhaps is physical sickness

Perhaps is a mental health condition

Perhaps he is on the brink of death

What we know is that the first two verses of Psalm 13 are like a downward spiral where David is tempted to think that he might not see God’s victory.

Application. David is not making theological statements in these two verses. We know he knows that God’s presence is always there and that he is knows everything (Ps 139:7)

Instead, David comes before the Lord in complete honesty because he knows that God welcomes honest prayers.

“Honestly praying this way recognizes that pain and suffering often create difficult emotions that are not based upon truth but feels true, nonetheless.” (Mark Vroegop, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament)

“Prayerful lament is better than silence. However, I've found that many people are afraid of lament. They find it too honest, too open, or too risky. But there's something far worse: silent despair. Giving God the silent treatment is the ultimate manifestation of unbelief. Despair lives under the hopeless resignation that God doesn't care, he doesn't hear, and nothing is ever going to change. People who believe this stop praying, they give up. This silence is a soul killer.” (Mark Vroegop, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament)

God welcomes honest prayers.

(2) God welcomes humble requests

David makes a request to see God’s victory in his life.

David feels ignored so he asks God to consider and answer him. The verb “to consider” means “to gaze intently” at or into something. David is making a humble, yet bold request, he is calling for God to look closely at his situation and give him the answer to his prayer. Chad Bird argues that the most important word in v.3 is the word “my.” Consider and answer me, O LORD my God.

“My God” is a language of faith in a personal God who deeply cares about us.

Is not a prayer to the universe or some unknown God. He uses God’s personal name: LORD/YHWH

Light up my eyes. David is simply asking for God to restore and refresh him. Whatever David is going through, it has taken an emotional and physical toll on his life. He is asking the Lord to give him energy and strength to continue to fighting the good fight of faith. David is asking the Lord to fill his heart with hope again lest he sleeps the sleep of death.

David wants to see God’s victory in his life. “4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.” We too have an enemy who delights in our pain and suffering. We have an enemy who wants our faith in God shaken and destroyed.

The enemy rejoices when you say, “Why pray, what is the point?” Those are words of defeat.

Here’s the third thing I learned from Psalm 13.

(3) God welcomes hope-filled declarations

The final two verses have a completely tone of voice. It seems as if two different people wrote the Psalm.

Psalm 13:5–6 “5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. 6 I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

Everything is out David’s control in vv.1-4. There is only one thing he can control: who am I going to trust? David’s answer is very simple: I choose to trust in you Lord.

It’s the same thing for us. You and I cannot control the circumstances nor the people around us. But there is one thing you and I can choose to do: trust God even when I can’t what he is up to.

David trusts in God’s steadfast love. Here is the untranslatable Hebrew word hesed.

ESV, steadfast love.

KJV, mercy

NIV & NLT, unfailing love

CSB, faithful love

NASB, lovingkindness

GNB, constant love

Psalm 136 is a song about God’s steadfast love, God’s hesed.

It is 26 verses long and each verse ends with the phrase, “for his steadfast love (hesed) endures forever.”

God created the universe because of his hesed.

God redeemed the Israelites out of Egypt because of his hesed.

God led them through the Red Sea and the wilderness into the Promised Land because of his hesed.

God defeated great kings and armies on behalf of his people because of his hesed.

Even when God’s people fail to show hesed back to him, he continues to show hesed to them. After the fall and destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, the prophet Jeremiah writes a book called Lamentations. In chapter 3 of Lamentations, Jeremiah writes about the dark experience by saying, “I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.” But then there is a shift.

Lamentations 3:21–23 “21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Lamentations 3:24–26 “24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” 25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”

Back to the Psalms.

In Psalm 23:6 David writes“Surely goodness and hesed shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

What kind of love is this? A love that is relentless in its pursuit of us. God’s hesed is relentless. How can we know this?

We see God’s hesed in full display at the cross. At the cross, Jesus was treated as the covenant breaker and took the curse that you and I deserve in order to experience God’s love, God’s hesed.

“Hesed: When the person from whom I have a right to expect nothing gives me everything” - Michael Card

In light of the cross, we can say with confidence with the Apostle Paul:

Romans 8:31–39 “31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”