Psalm 13

Last week we talked about the magnificence of God. How crazy it is that the creator of the universe cares about us. And not only does he care about us, but he also desires a relationship with us. He sent his Son Jesus to make a way for us to be united with Him.

This week we are continuing our series throughout the Psalms and we will be going through Psalm 13.

Psalm 13 is a psalm of David, in this psalm, David is mourning God’s absence and the triumph of his enemies, he prays for relief before he is totally destroyed, and is encouraged to hope his trust will not be in vain.

David feels like he is alone. He feels like God has abandoned him, forgotten about him.

I think if we were all going to be honest, many of us feel this way sometimes. We feel like God is so distant in our life and in the situations that we find ourselves. We know that just because you choose to follow Jesus that it doesn’t mean that your life will be easy. Like what Pastor Dave talked about last Sunday, in reality it can make your life more difficult because it forces you to choose a different path than what your flesh desires.

Let’s read this Psalm and then we will jump into some thoughts on this passage.

The theme of this outline is simple. I want us to look at David’s journey from his inward struggle, his upward prayer, and his outward confidence.

David’s inward struggle.

David begins this psalm with multiple questions to God. How long will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long will I store up anxious concerns within me? How long will my enemy dominate me?

Again, the awesome thing about the book of Psalms is that it is so real. If I put these questions to everyday words that we use it might sound like:

”How long will I feel like I’m totally invisible to you right now.”

“How long will you hide from me? I can't feel your presence at all anymore.”

“I'm so tired of waking up every morning feeling this weight in my chest.”

“How long will I feel like everyone else is living their best life while I’m just failing.”

These questions feel way more real now. It feels heavy. Maybe you find yourself asking yourself these questions or maybe you find yourself praying and asking God these questions.

Before we move on I do think that it is important to note the consistency of David going to God for these requests. When you are anxious , who or what do you go to? We all have that thing that we go to, maybe it is your phone, social media, youtube, pornography, video games, a substance, I don’t know what it is for you.

If I had to ask a brutally honest question, how well do those things help you cope with your anxieity? Does it help you? Does it make you feel better after you spend 6 hours on Instagram?

I think if we were all honest we would say no. We feel even more stressed when we turn off our phone than we did prior to opening it up.

Again, David made the conscious choice to take his request to God. He chose to put his hope, attention, salvation, and confidence in God. Even though he did not know how this situation would end, David chose to follow after God. David’s faith is something that we all can learn from.

An important truth to understand is that God’s silence is not the same as His absence.

Sometimes God uses silence to "grow our ears." If He answered every prayer instantly, we would treat Him like a vending machine. Silence forces us to seek His face rather than just His hand.

David asked "How long?" four times. That repetition shows that the silence is the hardest part of the trial.

David shows us a pathway that takes us to God.

1 Corinthians 14:33 “God is not a God of disorder but of peace.”

Romans 15:33 “May the God of peace be with all of you.”

When we come to God in our stress and anxieity we are able to give him our thoughts and feelings. Jesus said this, Matthew 11:28–29 ““Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

We can give our burdens to God you don’t have to carry your guilt, shame, anxieity, stress, hate. You can give it to God.

2. David switches his view from inward to upward.

The focus shifts from David's feelings to God's power. Instead of just thinking about his pain, he turns it into a prayer for help, asking God to "light up his eyes" and intervene.

David continues to write that in verse 5 he has trusted in God’s faithful love. Now notice the important part here. At this point, David is just trusting that God will hear and answer his prayer. David does not know if God will answer those questions that he asked, but David chose to trust God, and he was able to do that because he knew God’s character.

David was able to look back at his life and see God’s faithfulness time and time again. David knew that God is good and that He is faithful. We too can trust that God is faithful to those who love God and who are called according to his purpose.

"Are you asking God to change your situation, or are you asking Him to change the way you see your situation?" Sometimes the "light" like David referred to isn't a solution; it’s the realization that He is in the room with you in the dark.

And to close

3. We see David’s journey of his inward perspective, upward, and not his outward expression.

Notice the pivot in verse 5: "But I..." This is David taking control of the narrative.

We often "listen" to ourselves (our anxiety, our fears) more than we "talk" to ourselves. Encourage your listeners to do what David does: interrupt their own anxious thoughts with the truth of what they know about God’s past faithfulness.

David closes with the words “I will sing to the LORD because he has treated me generously.”

Again, David had no idea if he would actually be delievered from his enemies or not, but he had faith that God would be true to His promise.

To close, I want to ask you three questions

Who or what do you find relief in when you are stressed.

Again it may be your phone, instagram, snapchat, youtube, a boyfriend or girlfriend, video games, or maybe you go to God in those times. I don’t know what it is for you, but I want you to take an inward look at your life and think about. The reality is that it was probably the first thing that came to your mind.

2. What do you know about God?

If you are here tonight, I trust and hope that your goal is to make God that person you go to anytime during the day whether you are full of anxieity or if you are having the best day of your life. But what do you know about God?

The pastor A.W. Tozer once said, What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

So what comes to mind? Is it His grace, mercy, judgement? What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about God?

3. How do you show Christ to others around you?

Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.””

Some of you may go to school and there may be no difference between how you act here at church and how you act in the halls, locker room, or at home. But maybe for others there may be a massive difference.

Do you lead others to think that there is something different about the way that you talk, act, and think, or is there no difference between you and the person who knows nothing about Jesus.

As Followers of Jesus we are called to be different. We are called to become like Christ, so let these questions settle in your mind as we go through small group and as we leave tonight and go to school this week.