David’s Lament (slide 1)
Notes
Transcript
Joke
Joke
Little Jimmy’s mom was serving prunes for dessert, but little Jimmy did not like prunes one bit! He grumbled and complained, and refused to eat them. Little Jimmy’s mom got very cross with him and told him that God would be very angry if he did not eat his prunes. Still Jimmy would not eat them, so in desperation, she sent him to his room. Later in the evening a fierce thunderstorm blew up. There was much thunder and lightning. Feeling somewhat sorry for her son and worried he might be afraid of the storm Jimmy’s mom went to his room to check on him. When she opened the door Jimmy was looking out the window. Then she heard him say, “ Gee whiz, God, all this just for two measly prunes?!”
Open
Open
No Streaming! Lawrence Welk, Murder She Wrote, The A-Team…
HEE HAW
Gloom, despair, and agony on me
Deep, dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all
Gloom, despair, and agony on me
This is supposed to be funny but this is how we feel at least some of the time.
How I decided on Psalm 13
Why
Why David wrote Psalm 13
Why David wrote Psalm 13
(SLIDE 2)
And Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, delighted much in David. And Jonathan told David, “Saul my father seeks to kill you. Therefore be on your guard in the morning. Stay in a secret place and hide yourself.
David was tired and frustrated.
By this point….
He killed Goliath
He had been anointed as the future king
He was a war hero.
“Saul has slain his thousands, but David has slain his 10’s of thousands.”
Yet here David is running from Saul. For doing what God commanded him to do. No more, no less.
David runs and apparently at some point sits down and writes 6 verses. A prayer. David has a conversation with God.
Maybe all at once, maybe over time. Those 6 verses gave us Psalm 13.
Lets look at the first part of David’s discussion with God. The first part of Davids talk with God dealt with his….
Despair
Despair
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?
I gave you a brief overview, but Think about David’s life to this point. HE was a shepherd! He believed in God, you can see that in the way he lead his life, I am sure he had dreams and goals but the Bible shows us that God called David.
When David was anointed king he was the underdog, last on the list, yet God said I want him.
When David fought Goliath he did so because of his immense faith in his God. Everyone else said it was impossible yet David had no doubt because he believed in the power of God to overcome anything that came his way.
David defeated all those armies not because he was Arnold Swartzenager. He did so because the power and the providence of God was on his side and David honored God by his actions.
When you consider all this, this threat by Saul should not even phase someone like David. Someone who has seen and experienced the power of God in ways that most men could only dream of. However, David was still human.
At this moment David wasn’t thinking about what God had done. The power he knew God possesed. The promises God had given him. David was focused on his issues.
Now lets read this again but through David’s eyes.
The Message says
Long enough, God—
you’ve ignored me long enough.
I’ve looked at the back of your head
long enough. Long enough
I’ve carried this ton of trouble,
lived with a stomach full of pain.
Long enough my arrogant enemies
have looked down their noses at me.
David eyes were on the earthly problem instead of the heavenly promises.
Instead of trying to act like everything was ok David talked to God with honesty. He told God exactly how frustrated he was. He told God that he didn’t understand.
David felt like God was hiding from him. Like God didn’t even care what was going on in his life at that moment.
Frustration was winning the war in David’s heart. But David still knew who had the answers.
If anyone thinks David’s response here was bad, that it made him less of a follower of God because he actually shared frustration with God, I have to disagree. David was telling God what God already knew to be true in David’s heart.
If we are honest with ourselves we should acknowledge that we all get there at one point or another in our walks. Life keeps kicking and knocking us down. We still believe in God, beut because of the pain we just loose focus.
Hank Smith said
(SLIDE)
“Being sad, disappointed, angry, or discouraged with life is not a sign that you lack faith in God. Faithfulness doesn't require you to pretend you don't feel human emotion. Faithfulness invites you to turn to the One who understands all human emotion.” - Hank Smith
David then shifts to the second part of this Psalm. He has vented. He released the pressure valve. He goes from a one sided conversation of despair to an attitude of.
Prayer (SLIDE)
Prayer (SLIDE)
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
2 requests. (Slide)
#1 “Consider and Answer me, O Lord my God”
Even in Davids state of mind his heart had to acknowledge the love and respect he had for God.
At this point David knows that God understands how he feels. David is pleading with God for answers. To hear his cries and give him the peace that only God can give.
#2 “Light up my eyes”
David’s eyes were dark because they were clouded with the pain that he was going through. He wanted to see what was happening the way it should. He wanted to see things through God’s eyes.
(SLIDE)
They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light do we see light.
God and only God could give David the clarity he needed.
God could take the darkness that causing David this hurt and show him the light. The truth.
David just lost his cool. He vented. He needed to tell God what he was going through. Now he was asking for comfort and wisdom. He knew that his heavenly father knew him and understood him better than anyone. That His father LOVED him.
Teresa’s Post
Why do you always lift your hands up during worship?
Because that’s what children do when they want to be held by their father.
That is what David wanted and needed. He needed that comfort that only God could provide him.
Now after 4 verses of pouring out his heart, asking for help, asking for wisdom, Davids heart has finally found the peace that it desires. He is finally at the point that he can see the real God. Not the God that he thought forgot about him. Not the God that he thought did not care. The real God that loves his children and who keeps his promises. With this in mind David writes the third part of his prayer.
Hope and Trust (SLIDE)
Hope and Trust (SLIDE)
But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
Even though David is in despair and questioning even if God is paying attention to him, he sees the bigger picture of who God is and who God has been in his his life and he writes down the statement that eludes alot of people in this same spot.
(Slide)
“BUT I TRUST YOU”
Whenever I feel like I cannot wait and I need to take control of the situation which is all the time the same verse comes to mind.
(Slide)
“Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
Most of the time we need to take a step back. Be quiet. and remember who God is.
We need to see the big picture and trust God. That is what David realized. Then David went from an attitude of dismay to one of worship. He was able to let go and allow his faith to take over.
Close
Close
David was promised by God that he would be the next king of Israel. As Pastor Mark reminded me in our meeting on Thursday, that meant that David could not die. If he died that would make God a liar.
I can’t blame David. There are times that I feel that God has forgotten me. That I am alone and fighting by myself. That I am trying to climb a hill and I have skates on!
(Slide)
Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
God promised He would be there during good times and bad. yet we forget. If you are a born again Christian you are living a promise. That God will never leave you.
Satan wants us to feel alone. Satan wants us to doubt God. But he is always there for us.
I am going to let you in on a secret. After I finished talking with God. After the tears stopped flowing down my cheek. After I felt God in the exact way I needed and my soul was lifted my problems didn’t go away. They were still there. David was still pursued by Saul after he wrote this Psalm. If you know David’s story you know that his life didn’t get easier.
This is not a one time fix all type of thing. This is something that we need to remind ourselves of on a daily sometimes hourly basis. There will still be times we feel like David did. But David showed us what to do.
David did three things that we saw here.
(Slide)
#1 He was honest with God.
#2 He asked for what he really needed.
#3 He worshiped no matter what the outcome was going to be.
If you can do those things when you feel like your soul can’t take anymore God will show up. Every time. Maybe not in the way you want but absolutley in the way you need. I needed God that day. David needed God that day. God was there and by God’s own words, always will be.
