Lord of My Sadness

Reflection Text:

Romans 5:3–5 ESV

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Sermon Text:

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.

INTRO / TRANSITION

We live in a broken world. Even in the midst of great happiness and joyful moments there is an undercurrent that something isn’t right.

If we tuck in to our bubble of materialistic numbness, we can think everything is okay. But it isn’t.

There is great sadness in the land…on the earth. There is great brokenness.

Recent events are magnifying that sadness, but they are not the cause.

But we are saddened when our society fails tests of decency as they often do.

We are saddened when friends don’t seem to understand our own plight…as is often the case.

We are saddened by heinous acts of violence and destruction executed with malice and aforethought.

We are saddened by the darkness in our own hearts and minds that doesn’t take long to send us on a downward spiral

Sometimes, we are saddened to the point of despair. Is that you today?

- Are you a Christian struggling with sadness? You may be a child of God, blood-washed, mercy-bought, hell-fought, true-taught, born again Christian…and you might feel so sad, that you’re not sure what’s next.

- Are you sad and without a Savior? maybe you’re mostly comfortable in church, around church people…but not fully surrendered to the claims of Christ, not yet under the authority of the Word of God.

There is encouragement for the child of God as we walk with David this morning through great sorrow.

And if you’re not yet a child of God, my prayer is that you will not settle for the fleeting hope/joy that the world can give, but you will see clearly the one who is himself, “hope” - the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s look at the text this morning under a few headers:

1. David’s Despair in verses 1-2

2. His Demands in verses 3-4

3. He is Drawn to the Father in verses 5-6

1. David’s Despair / Lament / Complaint

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?

4 “HOW LONGS” / Downward steps

One commentator very coldly states: this is a series of rhetorical questions designed to motivate God to answer His prayer.

But it’s hard to read this and not hear the angst, the pain, the hurt, the deep sorrow…he’s spiraling fast.

David complains that God has forgotten him

God has hidden his face (this is worse - rejection)

Morbid Introspection

Thinking the enemy/darkness will triumph

How long will I hurt?

How long will I weep?

How long will I pray unanswered prayers?

Have you forgotten me? Are you forgetting me? Will you keep on forgetting me? How long will you hide?

“How long” is a familiar cry in these laments:

Psalm 6:3 ESV

3 My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O Lord—how long?

It’s a desperate cry for God to act! How long will you allow this suffering to continue?

Can you relate?

Is your needle stuck? Is your suffering, your trial, your tribulation on auto-repeat?

One of the phrases here in verse 2

“take counsel in my heart”

the Hebrew text means “hold counsels.”* But according to some scholars the Hebrew text can be translated “How long shall I continue devising plans (in my mind)?” That is, the psalmist in vain tries to think of ways to improve the situation. So njb “How long must I nurse rebellion in my soul?”

It’s a similar practice to the meditation mentioned in Joshua, but with a different and result:

Joshua 1:8 ESV

8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

“Is everything sad going to come untrue?”

—Sam Gamgee to Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings (chapter 4, Book Six)

David doesn’t stay here. He moves to, what can really be described as

2. Demands

Deep sadness will not sit idly by.

Even Elton John knew that misery loves company:

And it feels so good to hurt so bad And suffer just enough to sing the blues

So turn 'em on, turn 'em on Turn on those sad songs When all hope is gone Why don't you tune in and turn them on

David isn’t shooting for the top 40 here, he’s singing a very raw and very sad song here. He’s about to make some audacious “requests”

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.

Consider me - look at me! Answer me, O Lord my God! Revive me, or else I will die! (NET)

Notice the Lord’s patient forbearance of David’s demand to “consider” (v. 3).

Like a lawyer interrogating a witness, David demands an “answer” (v. 3), for he is afraid of dying at the hands of God’s mockers (v. 4)

This is raw. Untidy. Exposed. Messy. But…not crass, too familiar

Can I take a moment to remind you that more than 45% of the content of the Psalms can be classified as lament?

It’s okay to be sad. To be deeply troubled.

It’s okay to express that sadness to the Father. He can handle it.

We probably sing too many happy songs. It’s largely due to our bent toward triumphalism that an act of faith. Walter Bruggamann writes in The Spirituality of the Psalms:

Spirituality of the Psalms Chapter 3: Psalms of Disorientation

It is my judgment that this action of the church is less a defiance guided by faith and founded in the good news, and much more a frightened, numb denial and deception that does not want to acknowledge or experience the disorientation of life. The reason for such relentless affirmation of orientation seems to come, not from faith, but from the wishful optimism of our culture. Such a denial and cover-up, which I take it to be, is an odd inclination for passionate Bible users, given the large number of psalms that are songs of lament, protest, and complaint about the incoherence that is experienced in the world. At least it is clear that a church that goes on singing “happy songs” in the face of raw reality is doing something very different from what the Bible itself does.

Hebrews 4:15a “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses...”

However, I want you to notice that David doesn’t “stay” in the key of sadness.

“[Some mortals] say of some temporal suffering, “No future bliss can make up for it,” not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory.” —C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, chapter 9.

3. DRAWN TO THE FATHER

Only a good, good Heavenly Father would allow his suffering children to complain in order to draw us to Him and to greater faith.

By the end of the prayer, we see the Father’s strategy working.

In the midst of all the unknowns, David tethers to what he knows.

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.

Being drawn to the Father’s knee, David remembers that God’s love is “steadfast”. (cf. v. 5a and Ex. 34:6–7),

The Lord says of Himself in Exodus 34

Exodus 34:6–7 ESV

6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

David is so confident that God will deliver him, that he begins to sing BEFORE He is delivered!

He focuses on God’s steadfast love (hesed)

He only has this concept abstractly through events in Israel’s history and moments in his own life. WE…SEE THAT THE HESED OF GOD HUNG, BLED, AND DIED ON A TORTUROUS ROMAN CROSS!

(Lyrics) Unfailing Love by Jonathan Stockstill

I see You hanging there, I see Your nail pierced hands For me, You paid the price for me I see Your wounded side, I hear Your lonely cries For me, You paid the price for me

Chorus:

It was unfailing love Grace by Your blood Come and pour over me 'til all I see Is Your unfailing love

I see the crown of thorns, I hear them laugh and scorn For me, You paid the price for me I see Your Father's eyes turn from His bleeding Son For me, You paid the price for me

It was unfailing love Grace by Your blood Come and pour over me 'til all I see Is Your unfailing love

In deep sadness, I’m here to tell you that the Lord Jesus Christ is fully capable of sitting on the throne of your sadness, too!

Focus on his love. TRUST His hesed love. That little phrase that shows up over and over again in the Jesus Storybook Bible,

“Because Jesus was showing people what God’s love was like — his wonderful, Never Stopping, Never Giving up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love”

Sing of His goodness!

We don’t sing because things are going well.

We don’t sing because the song is our favorite.

We sing because we have trusted in His steadfast love.

We sing because this great God and King, the maker of Heaven and Earth, the one in whom there is no shadow of turning, he is also a SAVIOR…A RESCUER!

I’m speaking today to a people who need saving…or have been saved by this great Rescuer. We are a people who need saving! All of humanity…as the children’s song says - we’re all precious in His sight! But, we all need a Savior!

The Gospel shows us that We have rebelled against God - directly! (Rom 1:18, 21-23)

Romans 3:23 ESV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 1:18 ESV

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Romans 6:23 ESV

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Gospel shows us that God’s solution for all humanity is Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection. (Rom 3:21, 24-25)

"But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—

24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

The Gospel Shows Us How can we be involved in this great salvation (Rom 3.22; 4:5)

the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:

ANSWER: Repent and Believe - Mark 1:15

Mark 1:15 ESV

15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

[BRIDGE]

Just like we can’t trust in ourselves for our salvation, we cannot trust in ourselves…looking inwardly…listen to our own hearts to guide us well in (and ultimately out of) our sadness.

Left alone, without God’s help, what can a man do but think and think, plan and scheme to weariness all night and carry a heavy heart as he sees by daylight how futile his plans are?

The sad minor of “How long?” if coming from faithful lips, passes into a jubilant key, which heralds the full gladness of the yet future songs of deliverance. WHEN we fix our eyes on Jesus!

SUMMARY: Are you in the grips of sadness, heavy laden ‘neath a load of care?

Cry out to God, honestly!

Use God’s Word as a guide to keep you in-bounds.

Trust God!

Hope in God!

Sing to God! Even while you’re waiting.

Some of us can use this Psalm as a heart-wrenching, but beautiful way to remind us that He is Lord of our Sadness. This is for the believer, the one who has a living covenant relationship with the LORD.

Some of you may need to go to Psalm 51. To respond to God’s command that you repent and trust Him. He can and will be the Lord of your sadness, but first, you need to know Him as Savior and King!

PRAY: Brother / Sister, Let’s take a moment and take our sadness to the Lord.

Friend, if you’re here gathered outside with us, let me point out a couple friends that you can help you if you’re ready to take your sins to the Lord and begin a living relationship with Him.

NORM, other Elders, NANCY, KRISTY.

If you’re online, there is a link in the sermon notes tab on the livestream on our webpage entitled, the Gospel. It’s there so you can go back through the Gospel for yourself…if you have questions or prayer requests, please let us know.

CLOSE IN PRAYER

Lord, for those who feel like God has abandoned them, there is no way of knowing when the winds and waves…the darkness of this sadness will finally lift. But your Word reminds us that the believer is never alone. History shows us we are walking the same paths of many great women and men of God. The LORD Jesus Christ was TRULY forsaken on the cross by the Father as he bore our sin and shame.

Lord, remind us to call out to you in prayer, even when you seem far away. The clouds will lift, the light will shine…and we will discover that you have been right there in the midst of our sadness. We put our hope in you. We trust you. Your promises are true, your Word is sure…You alone can save us…be the Lord of our sadness.

TRANSITION TO SONG!