Honesty & Hope

Series Introduction

The book of Psalms: Our Living Hymnal

English Standard Version Psalm 13

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.

Introduction

Many say, many feel that the year 2020 has been unpleasant. In fact, many would say that 2020 has been devastating.

COVID-19

8.93 million cases

228 thousand deaths

Economic

7.9% unemployment rate as of the end of September (661k people)

Mental Health

CDC: during late June, 40% of US adults reported struggling with mental health or substance abuse

The Church

The Barna Group reports that as many as 1 in 5 churches are facing permanent closure due to COVID-19 shutdowns

But then there’s everything else. The unrest in the country seen in riots and destruction. The contentious race for the presidential election.

And there continue to be trials that do not make the headlines, but are difficult. Among our own family at New life.

The loss of loved ones

Illness

Tragedy

Family conflict

A host of other things

We are a people in anguish. Perhaps that does not describe you in this moment, but it surrounds us all. And I think we have difficulty reconciling the reality of our anguish and the reality of the hope we possess in Christ.

Anguish and hope. Can they exist together. Can we suffer, and be transparent about the fact that we are suffering; facing

cancer

death

fears of a crumbling country

Can we be honest about the anguish we feel because of these and many other things, and still maintain our hope that we have from God?

FCF: We have difficulty understanding the relationship between honest expressions of our anguish to God and remaining hopeful in our anguish.

Big Idea: Maintaining our hope in God does not prevent us from expressing our anguish to God.

Analytical Question: What must we do to maintain the clarity of the hope we have in God while honestly expressing our anguish to God?

1. Acknowledge our desperation to God in prayer. (1-2)

AQ: Why bother expressing our anguish to God in prayer?

Commentary on the Old Testament Psalm 13

Hitzig assigns Ps. 13 to the time when Saul posted watchers to hunt David from place to place, and when, having been long and unceasingly persecuted, David dared to cherish a hope of escaping death only by indefatigable vigilance and endurance.

Sub-point #1: To combat the lie that God has forsaken us (1)

“forget” = abandon

“hide” = conceal, undiscoverable

Sub-point #2: To combat the lie that we can navigate our anguish with our own wisdom (1)

NIV = wrestle with my own thoughts

Sub-point #3: To combat the lie that justice is dead (2)

“exalted” related to being prideful

Psalm 75:5–7 ESV

do not lift up your horn on high, or speak with haughty neck.’ ” For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up, but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.

Philippians 2:10–11 ESV

so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

evil may prevail for a time but will not ultimately prevail

Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 6940 Truth from Battle-Shock

General S. L. A. Marshall discovered that men interviewed after battle are in such a state of shock that they can only tell the truth: officially it is called group method. General Marshall says that the average man cannot lie in the presence of comrades who would contradict him if he were telling an untruth; haunted by the memory of the recent dead, he will not lie.

In the midst of our desperation, we need to be honest with God about how we are feeling, that is, be honest about our anguish, but also confront the lies that will emerge in our minds as we struggle. Believing these lies will compromise one of the most precious treasures we have in our salvation. HOPE.

[Transition Statement] Maintaining our hope in God does not prevent us from expressing our anguish to God. Another step to take to maintain the clarity of the hope we have in God while expressing our anguish to Him

2. Pray for relief (3-4)

AQ: For what should we pray when praying for relief?

Sub-point #1: that we would embrace the promise that even in our anguish, God has not ceased to be our loving ruler (3)

“Consider” = acknowledge

A prayer in response to the struggle expressed in verse 1 - struggling with the lie that God had forsaken the Psalmist

Sub-point #2: that we would be encouraged (3)

“light up my eyes”: bring encouragement to me

Ezra 9:8 ESV

But now for a brief moment favor has been shown by the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant and to give us a secure hold within his holy place, that our God may brighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our slavery.

It may be God’s will that we suffer for a time, and though we may not understand His purposes, we can pray for encouragement in the midst of our suffering.

Sub-point #3: that our salvation would be evident to others (4)

David sees what’s at stake here. When we suffer, there’s allot at stake, and it’s not primarily our perseverance through the trial.

2 things that are at stake:

that the trial would not be victorious over us

that our faith would not falter

What can this look like?

bitterness

cynicism

isolation

anger

jadedness

What we need and what we want when we suffer is relief, and the good news for God’s people is that relief from suffering is not contingent on the cause of the anguish ceasing.

Psalm 42:1 ESV

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.

This is what we need. We need God. We need to yearn for Him like we yearn for something to drink when we are thirsty. This is from where relief comes.

But let’s be clear on the God that offers us relief.

Matthew 11:28 ESV

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

We know from the context of Matthew 11, that the father had handed over all things to Jesus. Jesus is who we seek for relief. Jesus is the one… the only one who can give us the relief from our anguish that we desperately want. Go to Him in the midst of your pain. Don’t think you need to wait until somehow you get to the other side of it.

[Transition Statement] Maintaining our hope in God does not prevent us from expressing our anguish to God. A final step to take to maintain the clarity of the hope we have in God while expressing our anguish to Him

3. Remember the steadfast faithfulness of God. (5-6)

AQ: What is always true for God’s people when we suffer?

Sub-point #1: God loves us (5)

an unfailing kind of love, kindness, or goodness; often used of God’s love that is related to faithfulness to his covenant.

We cannot ultimately trust in human love because it is not steadfast. Only God’s covenant love for His people is steadfast.

Sub-point #2: God has saved us (5)

David is expressing his confidence in God to deliver him from his current suffering.

I do want us to see that though we may experience suffering, even extended suffering, if we have salvation from God, nothing can change this fact. No amount of suffering can change the fact that we are saved.

English Standard Version Chapter 4

8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

So much could be said here, but Paul experienced tremendous suffering, but was not driven to despair (hopelessness), because he understood the connection between his own suffering and the death of Jesus. The death of Jesus overcame his sin, covered his sin, granted forgiveness for his sin. Living in light of this reality, even while, especially while experiencing suffering displayed the life of Jesus. Our suffering does not, cannot over come this reality because God’s people have been saved by God. By the redemptive work of Christ

Gospel

Sub-point #3: God is always worthy of our worship (6)

What’s the reason David will sing to the Lord while he suffers? Because God has dealt bountifully with him.

“bountifully” = response to behavior

As we strive for faithfulness to God while we suffer. As we remain prayerful, cry out to God, fight not to give into the lies that say God has forsaken me, I can figure this out with my own wisdom, justice is nowhere to be found, God will honor that. God will bless us here. He will grant us a peace that surpasses our understanding.

And so we worship God in our suffering. We worship Him with cries of anguish, cries for help and cries that express our fight to believe that He is always faithful.

Conclusion

Big Idea: Maintaining our hope in God does not prevent us from expressing our anguish to God.

But we need to

Acknowledge our desperation to God in prayer

Pray for relief

Remember the steadfast faithfulness of God

Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 2273 Any Hope of Rescue?

Someone has said that if you could convince a man there was no hope, he would curse the day he was born. Hope is an indispensable quality of life.

Years ago the S-4 submarine was rammed by another ship and quickly sank. The entire crew was trapped in its prison house of death. Ships rushed to the scene of disaster off the coast of Massachusetts. We don’t know what took place down in the sunken submarine, but we can be sure that the men clung bravely to life as the oxygen slowly gave out.

A diver placed his helmeted ear to the side of the vessel and listened. He heard a tapping noise. Someone, he learned, was tapping out a question in the dots and dashes of the Morse Code. The question came slowly: “Is … there … any … hope?”

This seems to be the cry of humanity: “Is there any hope?” Hope, indeed, is the basis of all human existence in Christ!

Church, we do not need to ask if there is any hope. There is hope, even in our anguish. Preach to yourself what the psalmist preached to himself in one of the darkest moments of his life:

Psalm 42:5 ESV

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation