How Long?
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[SLIDE 1] Introduction
If you have your Bible, please turn to Psalm 13:1-6.
We’ll look at a Psalm this morning just to ease back into church ministry.
So, I pray and hope that you would see and savour this Psalm as we go through it this morning.
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.
Illustration
When was the last time you asked this question, “How long, O LORD?”
You may have asked that question in a various context.
We asked that question because we want to know how much time remains in our trial.
Sometimes, in life, we could know “how long.”
But, in reality, most of the time, we don’t always know “how long.”
How long do I have to suffer this pain?
How long do I have to put up with my coworkers and boss at work?
How long do I have to wait until this situation is resolved?
Therefore, most of the time, as we walk through the unknowns of life, we have to wait and endure patiently.
The book of Psalm was the songbook or hymnal for the Jewish people.
It’s written in poetry with beautiful literary devices.
The Psalms were meant to be sung by the people of God.
We don’t know how the melody and the musical sounds in the Psalms.
If you know anything about music, generally speaking, there are songs that are distinguished between major keys and the minor keys.
Majors keys are often happy, and joyful.
Minor keys, however, are often sad.
There are many Psalms in the book of Psalm that praise and exalt God.
There are Psalms that are testimonies of joy and excitement in the Lord.
This Psalm, however, is known as one of the many Psalms of Lament.
It speaks about the depth of pain, grief, heartbreak, and sorrow.
As we go through this Psalm, you can sort of hear the minor keys in this song.
Psalm 13 captures the aches in our heart.
Even after reading this Psalm, I would assume that many of us can relate to the Psalmist.
You can probably feel the pain and question in this Psalm.
This Psalm is attributed to King David, the King of Israel.
We know that because it begins with this superscription: “To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.”
King David was not afraid to reveal to use his honest and raw prayers to God.
This is an encouragement for us as well.
We can come to God in our honesty.
We can ask God the questions that we have.
Majority of the time, the Psalms of Lament are not all doom and gloom.
They are sprinkled with encouragement and hope in the Lord.
The journey goes from complaints and cries to God to confidence and faith in God.
Context
What was the situation that prompted David to pray this prayer?
The historical backdrop is not clear and explicit in David’s prayer, but we know that David was being oppressed by his enemy.
There were many occasions when David was surrounded by enemies and experienced suffering.
For example, David was hunted down by king Saul.
He experienced a revolt from his son, Absalom.
Whatever the historical context may have been, the content of this Psalm happened in the life of David.
However, even though it happened to David, this Psalm is also meant to encourage you who feel like God has abandoned you and you feel like you’re at the end of your wits.
This brings us to the main idea that I want you to remember for this message:
[SLIDE 2] When God seems absent amid danger, appeal to God and trust in His love.
This Psalm can be easily divided up into three stanzas.
We’ll walk through the each standza verse by verse.
Exposition
[SLIDE 3] First stanza: We see “The Abandonment Of The Afflicted” in verses 1-2.
Just to clarify.
It’s not like God has truly abandoned David.
Rather, David FEELS like God has abandoned him.
1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
We notice immediately that this phrase, “How Long,” is repeated four times in this Psalm.
Each line begins with a question, “How long.”
The fourfold repetition highlights that David may have been enduring suffering from his enemy for a long time.
The one whom David is speaking to is the LORD.
This is his honest and raw prayer.
David was feeling that the LORD has abandoned him for a long time.
He feels that God was ignoring his cries and pain.
In the first line, the first thing David prays is, “How long, O LORD?”
One Bible commentator says that David doesn’t finish his thought or sentence.
It is broken off before finishing the idea of how long until God delivers him.
This sudden breaking off of a sentence is a way of expressing extreme emotions because David is lamenting that God has not delivered him.
It is as if David is choking up in his words and couldn’t finish his sentence.
However, David continues and clarifies his question, “How Long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever (or continually)?”
This is an honest feeling that David has.
He feels like God has forgotten about him forever.
If you know your Christian theology, God cannot forget anything because He’s all-knowing.
So, when David says, “will you forget me forever,” it has more to do with not answering his prayer rather than losing memories.
Specifically, the LORD has not come to his aid.
Perhaps, most of us (if not all of us) have felt this way at one point in our life, right?
Or, some of you are currently going through what David is experiencing.
God feels absent.
He’s silent.
He doesn’t seem to be doing anything.
He seems to have forgotten about us.
He has not answered our prayers that we’ve been praying for over a year.
He has not intervened.
To escalate the feeling of abandonment even further, David says in the second line: How long will you hide your face from me?
In poetry, there is a literary device known as “parallelism.”
This second line parallels with the first line.
Forgetting parallels with hiding.
For God to hide His face or to turn His face away is to remove His blessing.
In Numbers 6:24-26, the benediction from Aaron illustrates this connection between God’s face and His blessing.
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.
God’s face shining upon His people parallels with His divine blessing and favour for His people.
However, when God hides His face, He is withholding His blessing.
Allow me to read Deuteronomy 31:16-18 where God speaks to Moses just before he dies.
God tells Moses what the Israelites will do in the future after they enter into the Promised Land.
The Israelites will break their covenant with the LORD.
And the LORD will respond to them by hiding His face from them.
16 And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them. 17 Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’ 18 And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.
For David, not only does he feel that the LORD isn’t answering his prayers, he also feels that God was withholding His favour and blessing from David.
Perhaps for you, you may feel like you’re not experiencing the blessing of God in your life.
I would say that if you’re not faithfully following and obeying Jesus, then you shouldn’t expect His blessing in your life.
Now, in verse 2, David continues with his questions except he’s going to tell God his personal frustration and grief.
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?
In the 3rd line, we see another parallelism: in my soul and in my heart.
David has been taking counsel in his soul.
I think another translation might capture the meaning better.
“How long must I struggle or wrestle with anguish in my soul?”
David has been attempting to get out of the difficult situation through numerous attempts by his own strength.
He’s been wrestling and struggling to resolve the situation that he’s in.
He’s trying to look to himself for answers.
However, he’s at the ends of his wits.
His plans have proven to be unsuccessful.
And because he has been unsuccessful in resolving his situation, he’s experiencing sorrow in his heart all the day.
He’s lamenting daily.
He’s depressed because of the oppression of his enemy.
Have you ever tried planning to resolve an issue and yet it continued to fail?
And I find this to be true in my own life.
The more I think about the problems, the more depressed I get.
(I’m not chronically depressed, but just sad in general.)
Sometimes, the more I try to fix the problems or find solutions by my own wisdom within myself, I make matters worse for myself and for others.
We tried get out of the situation again and again...but the more we fail, the more we’re grieved.
We get depressed and sad because we feel stuck.
But, the affliction that David was facing wasn’t merely that God seemed to be silent and absent...
It wasn’t a personal health issue per se.
More specifically, the fourth line (or the end of verse 2) explains the cause of David’s affliction.
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
David doesn’t tell us specifically who the enemy is.
He doesn’t name him or her.
It could be King Saul or his son Absalom.
Perhaps, the enemy is in the singular collective noun, which represents a group of individuals.
We do know that the enemy was wicked.
The enemy of David was also an enemy of God.
The enemy wants to rule over David.
The assumption is that if the LORD continued to ignore David, then the enemy would eventually have domination or exalt over him.
They would overpower David.
Thus, this would eventually lead to his death and disaster.
If the enemy exalts over David, then the enemy can boast in their victory over him and the people of God.
Here is a reflection: Who is the enemy in your life?
I hope it’s not someone in this church.
If there is someone, then you need to reconcile with that individual as soon as possible.
There must not be an enmity among believers or else we grieve the Holy Spirit and undermine our Christian witness to the world.
You may not have serious enemies in your life who is antagonistic towards you and wants to exalt over you.
However, as a Christian, you do have a spiritual enemy, which is the devil (1 Peter 5:8).
He prowls around like a roaring lion.
He is seeking to devour you.
Therefore, you are to be soberminded.
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: as Christians, you should have enemies.
What I mean is that you are not being unnecessarily offensive and obnoxious to everyone around you to the point that they hate you.
You are not trying to make enemies for the sake of making enemies.
What I mean is that since you belong to Christ, you will have enemies of the Christian faith.
You don’t need to look for trouble because trouble will come to you.
We’ll learn more about this when we continue in John’s gospel, but Jesus did say this...
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
The world will not like you because of your conviction on the word of God and your faith in Jesus.
Furthermore, the Apostle Paul says this 2 Tim 3:12
12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
Now, Jesus calls you to love your enemies and to pray for those who persecute you.
[SLIDE 4] In the second stanza, we see “The Appeal Of The Afflicted” in verses 3-4.
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.
Because the enemy of God seems to be winning and exalting over believers, the people of God are called to pray.
So, David is appealing to God. There are three imperatives given here:
First, David appeals to God to CONSIDER or to LOOK.
Since David felt that God has forgotten him and hid His face, He is appealing to God to look and consider his circumstances.
Second, David appeals to the LORD to ANSWER ME.
He is calling God to act swiftly or immediately.
This situation is urgent.
Now, some of you may feel like this seems rather inappropriate to be praying to God like that.
We need to be reverent and careful with our words when we speak to God.
And I would say, “Amen,” to that.
We shouldn’t be flippant and irrevent in our prayers.
On what basis can David speak to God this way?
He is speaking to God on the basis of His covenant relationship with Him.
Notice he says, “O LORD MY God.”
To make it more personal, you can speak the LORD honestly from your heart because He is YOUR God.
If you’re in Christ, you have a covenant relationship with the LORD.
You’re not an outsider trying to get God’s attention.
You can come with confidence to throne of grace that you may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
You have Christ and the Holy Spirit who intercedes for you.
God wants us to pray and speak to Him honestly from our heart.
There is a distinction to be made between irreverence and honesty.
We should come to God with reverence and holiness, but it also doesn’t mean we come to Him with pretense.
Perhaps, that may be one of the reasons why some of you struggle to pray to God because you think your prayers have to be polished.
You think you should have all the right words and Christian jargons to talk to God.
But, the book of Psalm is filled with examples of people coming to God with their true thoughts and feelings.
Even...if it means bringing Him our doubts, fears, and complaints.
So, moving forward, David gave two imperaties: Consider and answer me. He has a third imperative: Light up my eyes...
What does David mean when He pleads with God to light up his eyes? There are several interpretations to consider:
First, to light up often means to give instruction by illuminating someone.
Second, it can mean reviving the physical strength and moral energy, which is how the NLT and NET render this verse.
Third, most likely in this context of Psalm 13, it means to ask God to shine His face upon David.
It means to show him favour and blessing and answer his prayer specifically by delivering and saving him from his enemy.
If God doesn’t respond, then David will experience severe consequences.
This is supported by the conjunction, “lest,” which appears three times in the English Standard Version.
However, it actually appears two times in Hebrew, which are the first two consequences, so we’ll go with what the original language says.
First consequence: lest I sleep the sleep of death...
In other words, this is talking about death, not any ordinary sleep.
David is indeed facing a real danger of his life without divine intervention.
One commentator said, “The psalmist represents himself as a dying man, as one already half gone, who soon will be wholly overwhelmed with the darkness of death, if the LORD does not give him new power of life.” (Hengstenberg)
Second consequence: lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him and (lest) my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
The enemy is about to have victory over David.
However, it’s more than defeating David.
The enemy could also boast that God couldn’t even save His anointed one.
Additionally, the enemy also have those who are working alongside him, who are known as “the foes.”
Everyone rejoices over David’s death because he’s shaken or have been overthrown.
David’s death would be a cause of celebration for the enemy and foes of God.
David’s prayer is indeed an appeal to God because of His covenant relationship with Him.
One commentator says that if God doesn’t want the enemies and foes to rejoice over David’s downfall, then perhaps God would eventually have to answer his prayers based on God’s character and promises to His covenant people.
Up to this point, the Psalmist has been urgent, anxious, and afflicted.
Now, the tone is going to completely shift to one of faith and trust in who God is.
[SLIDE 5] In the third stanza: we see that “The Assurance Of The Afflicted” in verses 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.
I wonder how many of you can actually come to this point in your life experience.
Many may be stuck in verses 1-4, but struggle to arrive at verses 5-6.
For David, despite his situation, he says to God he has trusted in His steadfast love.
David knows something about God that many often forget.
He knows and trusts in God’s steadfast love.
This phrase, “steadfast love,” is critical to the character of God.
In Hebrew, it’s pronounced as “Hesed.”
It describes God’s loyal, covenant, and unfailing love for His chosen people who are in a covenant relationship with Him.
What is it about God’s steadfast love that David trusts?
His trust isn’t contingent on present relief or visible evidence of God’s intervention.
His trust is anchored to what he knows to be true about God’s character and past faithfulness.
The LORD has always been faithful to His people in the past...just read the Bible!
And David trusts that the LORD will continue to be faithful to him in the future.
That’s where David’s confidence and conviction lies upon.
Because of God’s steadfast love, David can rejoice and praise God in God’s salvation (verse 5b)
The foes would rejoice in David’s downfall at the end of verse 4.
In contrast, David would rejoice in God’s salvation/deliverance from his downfall and his enemy even though David hasn’t experienced deliverance yet.
David does not accuse the Lord.
He’s not doubting God’s goodness and ability.
David is indeed confident in God’s faithfulness.
Because David can rejoice in God’s salvation, he WILL sing to the LORD because of His goodness and vindication: God has dealt bountifully with me.
What makes David’s trust particularly striking is its countercultural nature.
He rested confidently on the Lord’s steadfast and loyal love even though he found no immediate deliverance from oppression.
So, the application comes in a form of a question: “Do you know your God?”
Do you know who He is and what He has done for us as revealed in God’s word?
If not, then maybe that you won’t arrive to the point of assurance in God found in verses 5-6.
The more you know God personally, your trust in Him should grow and deepen.
The more you study the character of God, it should fuel and heighten your worship of God.
So, my challenge for you is this: How can you get to the point in your life where you can trust in God’s steadfast love and worship Him?
I would also like to ask another question for us to reflect on: How does this Psalm speak to the person and work of Jesus Christ?
Jesus certainly had a lot of enemies.
His foes rejoiced over His death.
Christ was forsaken by His Father as He bore the sins of His people on the cross.
Our God vindicated our Lord Jesus by raising Him from the dead.
Our Lord trusted in His Father in delivering Him from death (Psalm 16:9-10).
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. 10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.
For us as Christians, we too can ask, “How long, O LORD?”
We live in a world of trouble.
The enemy of God seems to be winning and trampling on God’s people.
We too long for the return of Jesus Christ who will bring about the final deliverance.
However God answers our appeal or our prayers, we also want the will of the LORD to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
He may not always deliver you from the enemy, but if you’re in Christ, you will be delivered from the last enemy: death.
You will ushered into His presence on the basis of what Christ has done for you on the cross.
By faith in Christ, you will rejoice in God’s salvation.
And you will sing to the LORD for all eternity because He has been good to you.
Application/Conclusion
[SLIDE 6] So, as I conclude, let me remind you of the main point:
When God seems absent amid danger, appeal to God and trust in His love.
Benediction
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.
