Psalm 13

Getting Through A Crisis

Bible Passage: Psalm 13

Intro

Good morning church family – I’m so used to being up here to sing. <personal introduction>

The good news is that I’m up here with a song again this morning this song, Psalm 13, but instead of singing it we’re going to take a close look at what the Lord has to say to us this morning through His word.   

Introduce background and History

The book of Psalms is the songbook of ancient Israel — 150 inspired songs.

We love to sing when life is good, don't we? The Psalms are filled with songs of joy and triumph - if you’ve never seen Wayne English walking down the hallway singing you’re missing out. I’m sure there’s a video somewhere….

But have you ever noticed what happens when life gets hard? We get a little more quiet, more reserved.

2 kinds of musical keys: Major and Minor.

Songs in major keys are typically pleasant, joyful, and happy. Songs in minor keys are often sad, somber, or serious. Psalms work the same way. We do not know the original musical arrangement of the Psalms. Their contents betray their tone. Many psalms are songs of praise, worship, and thanksgiving. Other psalms are in the minor keys of life. They are called Psalms of Lament.

“A lament is when the Psalmist sings the blues” - HB Charles

• Roughly one-third of the Psalms are laments — honest, raw cries to God in the middle of suffering. Let that sink in: God dedicated a third of His songbook to the language of pain.

• BUT - Laments are not the kind of God-talk we are accustomed to we’re used to . In our worship, songs, prayers are often triumphant.

We often have spiritual and - happy, triumphant,

sometimes we need something different when wrestling with pain, sorrow, grief, and suffering. These are realities of living in a fallen world - What do you do when you’re in this season? What do you do when the lyrics of the worship music don’t seem to fit the condition of your heart?

You get queit. Pull back a bit. maybe sing a little softer.

"And it's not just in the singing. Somewhere along the way…we learned not to have “too much” emotion

to happy —— charasmatic

too anxious, depressed —— don’t trust God

too angry —— rage issues

We learn to PERFORM We SUPPRESS —— empty answers: “Great, Better than I deserve”

we don’t just do that with each other. We do that with God.

We pray polite prayers and have that mask with Him too…

But let me remind you of God we actually serve.

Our God is jealous — He calls Himself a jealous God (Exodus 34:14).

Our God is happy — He rejoices over His people with singing (Zephaniah 3:17).

Our God cries — Jesus wept at the tomb of His friend (John 11:35).

Our God gets angry — He overturned tables in His own house when His Father’s name was being used as a marketplace (John 2).

Our God loves — ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8).

We serve a God that has feelings and emotions and shows them! And we are made in His image. So the fact that you feel jealous, and happy, and sad, and angry, and loving — that is not a defect. That is evidence that you bear the image of the God who made you.

We are God’s children and when we have big emotions, he doesn’t want to cover them up. Those of you who have kids know this all to well - something is bothering one of your children (whether an adult or not) and you want to get in there with them and help sort it out. I don’t want them to hide them from me. I don’t want them to pretend to be okay. God doesn’t want that from us either.

God wants us to come to him in a crisis. That’s what I’ve titled this sermon this morning - “What do to in a Crisis”

This is where laments come in.

LAMENTS SHOW US WHAT TO DO WHEN WE ARE IN A CRISIS

Please stand for the reading of God’s word

Psalm 13 ESV

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.

PRAYER: “Father, thank you for Your Word. We do not need to hear from a man this morning — we need to hear from You. Help us hear what you have to say through this Psalm this morning so that it that magnifies You. Comfort the hurting. Convict the comfortable. Show the lost the way to your Son Jesus. In His name I pray, Amen.”

This Psalm has a nickname: The Howling Psalm

This Psalm has a nickname. Charles Spurgeon called it “The Howling Psalm” — because that cry, “How long?”, repeats so many times in the opening verses that it stops sounding like a question and starts sounding like a howl.

But here’s the beautiful thing: the Psalm doesn’t stay a howl does it? It moves through three clean movements. Here’s what you need to see here this morning:

How do you get through a crisis?

• Movement 1: Bring your questions to God (tell God what you’re feeling)

• Movement 2: Bring your requests to God (tell God your fears)

• Movement 3: Bring your worship to God (Give God your Trust)

David gave this to everyone - this was written to the Choirmaster, as a song that God’s people need to learn to sing!

POINT 1: Bring your Questions to God

Psalm 13:1–2 ESV

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?

Four times in two verses, David asks God “How long?” That is not a polite, sanitized prayer. That is the prayer of a man at the end of his rope.

SURPRISE

Exalting Jesus in Psalms 1–50 Accusing God: Expressing How You Really Feel (Psalm 13:1–2)

We are not surprised that David feels that way (because we have all felt that way). We are surprised that David told God he felt that way. We are surprised by David’s honesty. Something about it feels sacrilegious.

“Don’t question God” is well-intended advice that is not biblically sound. The faithful ask God questions throughout scripture.

Jesus did this very thing and asked, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Psalm 13 begins with David asking God questions. It is the cornerstone of lament: “How long?”

“How long” is not a request for information about God’s timing. It is a protest against God’s activity (or lack of).

David brings three complaints to God.

Four “How longs?” — each one slightly different: How long will you forget me? How long will you hide your face? How long must I wrestle inside? How long will my enemy win? It’s the same kind of pain hit from four angles.

Feeling Forgotten by God: Forget me Forever — David knows theologically God can’t forget him. But it FEELS that way. “Forget” is not a failure of mental recollection. It is intentional neglect. The Lord’s care for his people is described as Him remembering them. David accused God of withholding practical help. It can be heartbreaking to be forgotten by someone who should remember you. It is worse to feel forgotten by God. David knows God can’t really forget him — and yet David says it anyway. He brings that feeling to God.

Feeling Forsaken by God: HIDE YOUR FACE — in the Old Testament, God’s face shining on someone meant blessing and presence (“may his face shine upon you and be gracious to you”). For God to “hide His face” was to feel cut off from Him. God hiding his face is divine rejection. It is often a punishment for sin. But there is no indication here that David had done anything wrong. That’s what makes this rejection so painful. What do you do when it seems God is hiding from you?

English Standard Version Chapter 6

the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you

“Take counsel in my soul” — wrestling inside, running plans on repeat. The Hebrew suggests scheming and re-scheming in your head, trying to figure a way out, and never finding one. David had no one to counsel him. He had to take counsel in his soul. His soul was consumed with making plans to overcome his struggle. No plan prevailed. No strategy succeeded. No remedy relieved. David grew weary of devising plans that were doomed to fail.

David asked how long I must “have sorrow in my heart all the day?” SOMETIMES YOU WAKE UP AND ARE IN A BAD MOOD, SOMEWHERE BETWEEN SORROW AND SADNESS - BUT THEN YOU HAVE YOUR QUIET TIME AND PRAYER WITH A CUP OF COFFEE. SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE CAFFEINE AND THE HOLY SPIRIT YOU START TO FEEL A BIT BETTER.

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU HAVE IT ALL THE DAY? it goes to work with you, it sits next to you, is on your ride home, sits at the dinner table and climbs into bed with you? This is depression…spiritual depression

Verse 2b asks, “How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?” We do not know who this enemy was. The singular could be individual or collective. What is clear is that David had people problems. He was in a conflict against opposition. His enemy had the upper hand. There was nothing he could do to turn the tide.

David knew that the Lord could save him from his circumstances but for some reason he will not and has not. David did not give these complaints to his best friend or his buddies - he went to the source - the one who could actually change things, the one who had been with him all along the way.

“Anybody will tell you the real problem with suffering isn’t the actual suffering. It’s the psychological fatigue, because you don’t know how long.” – that’s why David asks “how long” 4 times here. He could endure the pain. What he couldn’t endure was not knowing when it would end.

You get old and things just break. Listen ya’ll, I tore my calf muscle a few years ago. I wish it was a good story, ya know – a bear came out of nowhere and I needed to tackle him. Naw - I was out walking — not running, not playing basketball — walking — and I tore my calf muscle. So I'm in physical therapy, and the trainer has me hold this position. Brutal. And then someone comes over to ask him a question. He walks away. Never tells me to stop. So I just sit there. Holding. Dying. Because he never said when to stop, I didn't stop. When he came back he apologized and set a timer for the next one. Same exercise, and it hurt just as bad, but knowing when it would end made it bearable.

◦ That's the problem with suffering, isn't it? It's not the pain itself — it's not knowing how long…

That’s one version of suffering but it is a surface-level preaching example. It’s real but a better one is to tell you how I suffered as a 30-something who lost his Mom to cancer. Round 1 went to Mom - cancer went into remission, but it was a long battle. The diagnosis, the fight, the treatments, the unknowns....suffering. For her and the family. Then it came back and she lost - we all lost someone so very special to us. That’s the suffering David is talking about here. How did I handle it? I hid what I felt, covered it with a smile, and did my best to pray and thank God for the time I had with her. I gave everybody the narthex answer.

But then I also had a moment when I had to pull over on the side of the road and cry and scream why, God, why??? It was a good moment with me and the Lord. That’s when I stopped performing for Him and let him share my anguish.

And I know I'm not the only one. Some of you are there right now...

• ...you’ve lost someone you weren’t ready to lose.

• … you just got a diagnosis.

• … you’re struggling with your spouse.

• … you’ve got a child far away. They’re not living for Jesus, and you don’t know how to bring them back. Way more questions than answers.

• … you’re in financial crisis. Month after month. Way more questions than answers.

• … you’re carrying something nobody in this room knows about. And you’ve been suppressing it for so long you’ve forgotten how to put it into words.

God, you know what I’m going through but you’re acting like you don’t care! HOW LONG WILL YOU FORGET ME??

Hear me, friend: You can be honest when life hurts - someone asks you how are you and you reply “better than I deserve, highly favored…” NO YOURE NOT - YOU”RE FALLING APART

He’s asking you to bring it to him right now in all it’s emotions - bring your questions to God. Honestly. Just like David did.

Transition to Point 2

Boy am I glad the Lament doesn’t stop there!

otherwise ... we’d just have a Psalm of complaint – but this is a Psalm of lament and doesn’t end with the complaining.

Notice in the text there is a break there between verse 2 and 3 – extra space there on the page – this is where I imagine David taking a deep breath and taking a minute. Now we look at verse 3 and something shifts. David moves from accusing God to asking God. Which brings us to the second thing we do in a crisis: we bring our requests to God.”

Point 2: Bring your Requests to God

Psalm 13:3–4 ESV

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.

Explanation — Here’s our pattern again.

• Verses 1-2 ask, why?

• Verses 3-4 cry, help! Here, David makes three specific requests. He turns from accusation to petition.

• Notice three elements of David’s Cry for help

◦ The Invocation

◦ The Petitions

◦ The Motivations

Request 1: “Consider and answer me” — God, LOOK at me

In the Hebrew, “consider” and “answer” are imperatives — not gentle requests. He’s grabbing God and saying, “I need some answers, and I need them now.”

Verse 1 complains that David felt forgotten and forsaken by God. Now he asks the Lord to pay attention. think of a child grabbing your chin and turning your face. “Look at me, Dad.” That’s what David is doing with God.

This is what faith looks like in the middle of darkness knowing God can be moved.

And notice how he addresses him next. Before the requests come, David addresses God: “O LORD my God.” Names matter. “LORD” — all capitals in your Bible — that’s the covenant name of God, the name He revealed to Moses at the burning bush: “I AM WHO I AM.” The self-existent One. The God who is in complete control. But then David adds, “my God.” That’s the language of personal relationship. Think about that combination. He is the LORD — the God of the universe who does as He pleases. And He is my God — the God who knows me and will take care of me. David’s complaints in verses 1 and 2 might make you wonder where he stands with God. Verse 3 tells you: even at his lowest, David knows exactly whose he is.

Request 2: “Light up my eyes” — God, RESTORE me

This metaphor can refer to instruction or encouragement. It is more than that here. David felt he was at the point of death. He asks God to revive him. When your eyes are dark, weak, or heavy, God can put the light in your eyes again.

David is saying: “I’m exhausted, Lord. I’m running on empty. Refresh me. Wake me up.”

Beautiful image. “Light up my eyes” = put the spark back. Wake my soul up. Bring me back to life.

Illustration —Depression and “Light Up My Eyes”

You may be sitting in that wave after wave of bad news and stress. Tons of masks to wear and swap around – a brave one for my kids, a happy one for my wife, a dutiful one as a brother and son, co-worker who has it all together at the office -- and all the while I was hurting and broken and completely stressed out and depressed.

A friend told me that I needed to pray more and I wanted to punch him in the mouth. But he was right...Jesus was the way out for me. He was always there - he said it himself I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Centuries after David wrote this Psalm, Jesus declares Himself “the Light of the World” (John 8:12) the ultimate one who can light up your eyes.

The very thing David prayed for, Jesus came to give us. The One David prayed TO is the One who came FOR us.

Request 3: “Lest my enemy say ‘I have prevailed’”

• Key word here in this section is “LEST” - three times

Had to look that up, it means: “for fear that” or “in order to prevent”

• Verse 3 says, “Lest I sleep the sleep of death.” This is a metaphor for death. David felt his struggle would kill him. He asked God to keep him from the long sleep. Faith desires life. Prayer preserves life.

Spiritual application: our enemy isn’t flesh and blood (Eph 6:12). The real enemy wants you to give up on God. To say “It’s too hard. God doesn’t care.” David refuses to give him the satisfaction.

The third “lest”: lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

• WE SING THAT WORD REJOICE - IT IS A WORSHIP TERM - someone is going to worship when you fall.

The enemy was waiting to gloat over his ultimate demise. “Rejoice” is a worship term. The enemy will find a twisted joy in seeing you shaken. “Shaken” means to fall to the ground and not be able to get up again.

Psalm 16:8 says, “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” God is able to keep your feet!

This is the middle of the Song - we see that David believes God will help him and is bringing him requests to get him back on his feet! We have moved deeper into the agony of the suffering but have found trust in the one who can change things.

DAVID knows that God can do something about it and his petitions are ringing out - help me Lord, save me.

Illustration — The Communication Pyramid

• Five levels of communication — a useful grid for the health of any relationship, including with God:

◦ Level 1 — Cliché. “How are you?” “Good.” Communication, but not really.

◦ Level 2 — Facts. Sports center talk. Who won the game.

◦ Level 3 — Opinions. What I think. Jordan over LeBron, all day.

◦ Level 4 — Emotion. How I feel. This is where intimacy starts.

◦ Level 5 — Transparency. Who I really am. You walk away from someone at level 5 and you say, “I experienced them.”

• Here’s the trouble: most of us live with God at level 1 and 2. We give Him clichés. We give Him facts about ourselves. We give Him our prayer list. Sometimes we get to level 4 but may never get to level 4.

• But David? David is operating at level 4 in this Psalm. He’s telling God how he feels, asking honest questions and making requests - David wants God to move for him!

Transition to Point 3

“Watch this. There’s another pause between verse 4 and verse 5 — you can almost feel it. David has poured out his feelings. He has made his requests. And now… there’s another shift. Look at the first word of verse 5. ‘But.’

- The key words of verses 1-2 are “How Long?”

- The key words for verses 3-4 is “lest”

- The key word here is verses 5-6 is “but”

One of the most beautiful pivots in all of Scripture. That ‘but’ is where this Psalm — and where our lives — turn. Which brings us to the third thing.”

Point 3: Bring your Worship to God

Psalm 13:5–6 ESV

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.

Plant your praise in His steadfast love (Psalm 13:5–6)  |  Target: ~13–14 min (carries the gospel weight)

Psalms that begin as laments rarely end that way. Psalm 13 exemplifies this. It starts with complaint but ends with confidence.

The tone here is so very different we’ve had a key change - what changed? But there is no indication that David’s circumstances have changed.

David’s circumstances didn’t change - The Lord changed David as he sang and prayed.

That’s the point of the psalm: Prayer can turn your pain into praise!

Explanation — The pivot of the whole Psalm

• “But I have trusted in your steadfast love.” “But”

in spite of how I feel. In spite of what it looks like. In spite of how long it’s been. In spite of everything in verses 1–4 — I have trusted in your steadfast love.

• Notice David’s circumstances haven’t changed. He’s still in the crisis. The enemy is still there. The “How long?” hasn’t been answered yet. What changed is what he’s looking AT.

Your feelings, troubles, and enemies are real. They do not get the last word. Stubborn trust overcomes stubborn troubles. The only way through, out, or over is to trust God.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord will all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

“Feelings make wonderful passengers, horrible drivers. Your feelings are like a two- or three-year-old kid. They need to be in the car seat. They need to be strapped in. We don’t put them in the trunk — and we, for sure, don’t put them behind the wheel.”

• Where is your trust?

• What are you leaning on?

• Who’s pushing your swing?

Faith is only as good as its object – what is your faith in??. Verse 5 says, “But I have trusted in your steadfast love.” This is a testimony, this has already happened. David can talk the way he does because he trusted God’s steadfast love. “Steadfast love” is the covenant-keeping love of God. It is loyal love that is faithful, not forced. If the Psalms are God’s playlist of songs then this Steadfast Love is the chorus repeated throughout.

◦ Hesed – Hebrew for this steadfast love – appears 250 times in the OT and 127 of those are in the Psalms. Hesed is almost impossible to translate into one English word. It has TWO parts that have to be held together:

PART ONE: It is COVENANT love. Loyal love. Love that has obligated itself. The Hebrew lexicons describe it as ‘duteous love’ — the kind of love that upholds a promise, that binds itself by oath, that says ‘I will not let you go because I gave you My Word.’ So it includes obligation.

PART TWO: But it is also more than obligation. The Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament says hesed “is only insufficiently rendered by the English term ‘kindness.’” It is benevolent, not merely contractual. It goes BEYOND the contract. It pours out more than was promised.

Put those together: hesed is the love that bound itself to you by promise AND keeps pouring out more than the promise required. It is dutiful AND extravagant.

Hesed is the love of someone from whom you have no right to expect anything… who gives you everything anyway.

“my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.” In verse 2, there was sorrow in David’s heart all day. But David’s trust in God’s steadfast love made him confident that his sorrows would not have the last word.

second time rejoice came up

God would save, rescue, and deliver him. The emphasis is on his response, not his rescue: “My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.”

• David is praising the Lord here: He sees a reality that is more than what he is feeling in the moment:

A reality where Moses is called up to the Mountain, the people worship a golden calf and instead of wiping them out, God shows his steadfast love and mercy by forgiving their sin.

A reality where God’s people consistently worship other gods, fail to trust him and meet with destruction, and are restored each and every time

A reality where a prodigal son wastes his entire inheritance and he comes back home and is given everything, way more than he deserves.

A reality where a woman is caught in adultery, dragged into the street, and almost stoned but is set free at the last moment.

• And every one of those stories — every single one — is pointing to a hill outside Jerusalem on a Friday afternoon, where the One we had no right to expect anything from gave us EVERYTHING.

• THAT is what David is anchoring himself in. He is anchoring himself in the steadfast love promised to the people of God for all who trust in Him!

• Brothers and Sisters, we live in a reality where the God of everything sent His son to die on a cross for you and me so that we could be with him forever – with a faith grounded in His steadfast love that will never fail!

What happened? David is back in tune into the steadfast love of God!

Illustration — Sympathetic Resonation

Now, I told you I’m a music guy, so let me give you one last musical picture. There’s a phenomenon in physics called sympathetic resonance. If you take a tuning fork tuned to C and strike it, and hold it next to a guitar string that’s already tuned to C — the string will start to vibrate. You never touched it. The presence of the tuning fork alone causes the string to respond. It can’t help itself.

just the PRESENCE of the tuning fork will cause that string to vibrate. The string responds. It can’t help itself.

• That’s what is happening to David in verse 5. He has pulled out the tuning fork of God’s steadfast love and holding it next to his soul. And his soul, which has been tuned to that frequency, starts to vibrate. The heart that was howling now starts to sing.

Singing in the middle of a crisis is not white-knuckling your way to fake joy. It’s the natural response of a soul that has been tuned to the steadfast love of the Father. David’s circumstances didn’t change. The tuning fork showed up. And he couldn’t help but sing.

LAND THE PLANE

And that’s the invitation for every single one of us this morning.

So how do you get through a crisis? Three things David did in his, and three things you and I are invited to do in ours:

• “Bring your Questions to God — He can handle your feelings.”

• “Bring your REQUESTS to God — He wants to hear what you need from Him.”

• “Bring your WORSHIP to God — trust in him because His steadfast love endures forever.”

If my life tells a story, let it be, for you only, everything for the honor of your name.

The Cross as the Answer to Every “How Long?”

• “How long, O Lord?” — the deepest “How long?” in human history was answered when Jesus cried out “It is finished.”

• “How long will you hide your face from me?” — the Father hid His face from Jesus so He would never have to hide it from us.

• “How long will my enemy be exalted over me?” — the great enemy of our souls was disarmed and publicly shamed at the cross (Colossians 2:15 “15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” ).

• Every “How long?” in your life gets answered at Calvary. Not always in the way you wanted, not always on the timeline you wanted — but answered in the deepest sense: by a love that will not let you go.

The grave could not hold Him. And the grave will not hold you if you put your trust in Him. We have no right to expect anything from Him and he offers us everything.

To the unbeliever / seeker

• You may be here this morning and you’ve never trusted Christ. Hear me: Jesus is offering you what David sang about — a love that is steadfast, that will not let go, that you did not earn and cannot lose.

• You have no right to expect anything from God. And He is offering you everything. Will you come?

• If you’re ready: come find me after the service. Tell us you want to know this love. We would love nothing more than to walk you through that.

To the believer in crisis

And if you’re a believer in crisis this morning — your circumstances may not change this week or next month.

Your circumstances may not change this week. The diagnosis may still come back. The marriage may still be hard. The child may still be far from God.

Whatever you walked in here carrying this morning — you don’t have to carry it alone, and you don’t have to carry it silently. Bring it all to the One whose love is steadfast.

Let me pray and we’ll sing before we dismiss.

Closing Prayer

“Father, thank You for the honesty of Psalm 13. Thank You that You do not require us to perform our way into Your presence. Thank You for the cross — the proof of Your steadfast love - your goodness that is always running after us. For the one here this morning who has never trusted Jesus, draw them in by the same love that drew David. For the believer in crisis, anchor them deep in Your steadfast love. For all of us, let us leave this room singing — not because everything is fixed, but because You are good, and Your love endures forever. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

The Lord said to Moses, ‘How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?’

R. Kent Hughes