Ps. 13:1-6 GOD’S DELAY IS NOT HIS DENIAL

Psalm 13:1–6 “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O Lord my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death; Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him”; Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.”

This psalm records David’s cry for help to God for deliverance from his enemies. It is a cry that seems to go unheard. In fact, in verses 1-2, David pleads with God four times, asking Him, “How long?” David is distressed and discouraged because he feels as though God is absent and unwilling to help him in his present need. I wonder if I am talking to someone this morning. Many of us have felt like David and have asked God How long? How long do I have go through distress over my health? How long do I have cope with the grief of the loss of a love one? How long do I have continue to feel unwanted and love? How long do I have come to work not knowing if I have a job? You’ve been going through a tough period in your life, and it seems like everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. And you have cried out to God, “How long?” It seems you have not gotten an answer. Well, I am here to tell you that God’s delay is not his denial.

Psalm 13:1 “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?”

David’s problems were so bad that he believed that since God had not reacted quickly enough, he thought that God had forgotten him and had hidden His face from him.

· When you are going through some troubles in your life, whether it be a financial need, sickness, trouble in your marriage, worrying about your child, your job, or mistreatment by friends, you feel broken emotionally and spiritually, and pain has engulfed you to the point where you cannot find joy. Your normal response is to cry out to God. But when God is silent and has not responded quickly to your time clock, you will begin to think that God has forgotten you, and His delay in answering your prayers seems as if they have been denied.  But God is Omniscience, His is all knowing. God once declared to the people of Israel that He hadn’t forgotten them. And He assures them of these words found in…

Isaiah 49:15–16 ““Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.”

God can never forget. And He has never forgotten you for He has inscribed you on the palms of His hands.

· When David asks God how long He will hide His face from him, he is asking how long God will withhold His favor from him.

David states in Psalm 30:7 “Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong; You hid Your face, and I was troubled.”

David knew with God’s favor he was protected, safe and secure, but without His was he was in trouble.

David was troubled and under great pressure, and he wondered whether God had withheld His favor because God had not moved during his time of trouble. Whenever you go through long periods of pain and sorrow, the enemy will mess with your thoughts and cause you to think that God has withheld His favor from you.

· What caused God’s delay? We are not told. But one thing that Scripture has informed us that sin will cause God’s delay in your life.

Unconfessed sin will cause God’s delay.

Psalm 66:18 “If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear.”

Continuing in sin will cause God’s delay. In the book of Isaiah 59:1-2, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: [2] But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. God hadn’t lost His power to save His people; rather, He purposely withheld an answer to their prayers because of their sins.

· God’s delay could be caused by a lack of devotion. Jeremiah 29:13 “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” Halfhearted devotion to God will delay your blessings! “I’ll praise him when I want, I will read and study the word when I get around to it. I’ll come to church when I feel like it. Oh, but when you need HIM!!!

· God’s delay could be that He is trying to grow you spiritually. Hebrews 12:11 “Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

· God wants to bring about spiritual growth through reliance on him.

Back to Psalm 13:2 “How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?”

Since David felt that God would not answer in the time of his greatest need, it led him to devise his own counsel, meaning advice. There are those who needed God because of a difficult situation they were facing, and when He did not answer in their greatest time of need, they began to devise their own counsel on how to get out of their problem. Then they became agitated when it didn’t work. This compounded their frustration and led them to resort to desperate measures because they were not getting wise counsel.

David overcomes his fear and frustrations by fighting his battle on his knees. Prayer

Psalm 13:3 “Consider and hear me, O Lord my God;”

The word “consider” in the Hebrew is nabat, naw-bat'; a primitive root; to scan, i.e. look intently at; by implication to regard with pleasure, favor or care. 

David wanted God to look intently at him with pleasure or favor and to hear him as he began to pray. Notice that he addresses God as “my God.” David wanted his God, the one with whom he is in a personal relationship, to look upon him and hear his prayer.

· Please hear me and pay close attention, you need to realize that when you feel fearful and forsaken, God is as close to you as your prayers. You have a God to cry out to, ask Him to look at you with His divine favor.

· God loves you, and He is right there presently watching over you, and you need to cry out to him so that He can hear your needs.

· What I love about David is that he did not give up. I want to encourage you not to give up. God’s delay is not His denial.

Notice what David says in verse 3b. Enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. David was in darkness of despair, he feared death and he wanted God’s wisdom to enlighten him in the right way out of his trouble.

Your fear will keep you from seeing things clearly. It will keep you from seeing that God is your very help in getting you out of your problems, and fear will cause you to lose your joy.

Ps. 6:7, David says, “My eye wastes away because of grief; It grows old because of all my enemies.”

David is grief-stricken because of his enemies, and he is asking the Lord to restore his joy. David realized that without God’s help, his enemies would be the death of him. 

· Being overwhelmed by problems and fear can harm your health and even cause death. When you are faced with problems you cannot see your way out of, you need to cry out to God to enlighten your eyes. Cry out to God and say, "God, restore my joy. Allow me to see your promises and not my problems. Allow me to see those who are against me."

Psalm 13:4 “Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him”; Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.”

David’s prayer was a plea for God’s help, for he recognized that if God did not intervene, his enemies would be successful in their plans against him. In fact, David’s knew that his enemies would rejoice in the trouble that they would cause him.

· There are some people who would love to rejoice at your downfall. They have plans to see you go down, and they cannot wait to rejoice in your misery.

· But you need to recognize that if it had not been for God’s mercy, your enemies’ plans against you would have succeeded. But God was right there, breaking up their plans and the plots of your enemies. Even though you thought He delayed, it wasn’t His denial. God has been protecting you, defending you. You have no idea what evil forces were set up against you that God shut down.

David’s trust in God’s mercy caused him to rejoice. (v. 5-6).

Psalm 13:5–6 “But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.”

Trusting in God’s mercy will always cause you to rejoice in Him. Praise will always flow from your remembrance of God’s mercy. This is why David says he has trusted in God’s mercy. He’s gotten this far by God’s mercy. How many of you listening to me right now have trusted in God’s mercy? Know that you have gotten this far by His mercy.

David is no longer under stress and no longer fearful, for he realizes that God’s delay is not his denial. And he begins to rejoice and praise God, for David said he will rejoice in God’s salvation. When you know that God will save you, you can’t help but rejoice.

Praising God enables you to stop focusing on your present danger and refocus on delighting in God, your present help, a God you can trust. Because God’s delay is not His denial.

David said he could now sing unto the Lord, even in the midst of his depression, he wouldn’t complain, he stop worrying, he began to sing! Why, because he has dealt bountifully with me. Bountifully – Gamal means “do good”

What David is saying is that even though trouble is all around me, I can still sing unto the Lord because He has been good to me. And if he has been good to me, I have faith in Him that He’ll continue to be good to me. I wonder if there is a witness who is listening to me right now who knows that God has been good to you!

I wonder if you can sing unto the Lord even in the midst of what you are going through, and as of right now, you will stop complaining and worrying, but sing praise to God because you know God’s delay is not His denial.