When God Seems Silent: Finding Hope in Psalm 13

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Hey, it is an honor to be here.

I'm so grateful to get to come and just preach God's word to you.

And I'm so grateful for your senior pastor. He is a good friend of mine.

And for so many reasons, he's a friend. But I love so much of what God is doing

in and through him as he's leading this church. And so, but as we kind of kick

off, I really want to kind of give a little bit of a disclaimer.

When I was talking with Logan and he was seeing if I could be able to come out

and preach this Sunday, I was overwhelmingly excited and I kind of had a message

that God was laying on my heart and thought that that's where we were going.

And then this last week, God kind of pulled an audible and just kept drawing

my heart to this passage.

That's where we're going. So hopefully it's great for his sake and his glory,

but if not, just lie to me and tell me it was, all right?

But let's jump in and let's pray together really quickly, okay?

Just real quick in the stillness of this moment, in the quietness of your own

heart, I'm going to invite you to just for a second, would you pray for yourself?

Would you pray that God might speak to you today?

Would you pray for the other people that are in this room that God might speak to them today?

Would you pray for the kids' ministry team as they teach our kids about Jesus today?

And then if you don't mind, would you pray for me? That God might speak through

me and it might make sense.

God, we come and we are grateful for this opportunity to gather and to worship you together.

And we thank you for your word that you've given us, your word because you desire

to communicate with your people.

And Lord, as we come and open up that word, would you speak to us?

Would you draw us closer to you? Wherever it is that we find ourselves today,

would you encourage us or convict us or provide us whatever it is that we might

need and might it result in us just glorifying your name in every way that we can?

Lord, we love you and we trust you. And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

If you have your Bible, we're gonna head to Psalm chapter 13.

Psalms 13 · chapter mention

Psalm chapter 13. And as you kind of turn there, I know that we're in the middle

Psalms 13 · chapter mention

of a summer series and really where can we find God in certain circumstances?

Where can we see God in things like fun or chaos?

And today we're kind of continuing that, but we're looking at how do we see

God in the midst of sorrow?

And I know that that's not always like the most fun topic in the middle of summer,

right? But it still can be the case in the midst of summer, right?

Like sorrow is not just relegated to a certain season that even when we have

all of the sunshine and we have all of the different things kind of going on

around us, our hearts can still be sad.

We can still deal with such things like sorrow and pain and grief because sorrow

doesn't care about the season within the calendar.

And there are seasons within our life where it just feels like life is just

hurting more than it's ever hurt before.

It feels like in these seasons where there can be circumstances that are so

big that really, I'm even at a loss for words, not only to describe them,

but also to find its solution.

I don't have answers. That there's seasons where bumper sticker theology just

doesn't seem to cut it. It doesn't help.

And if you're there, I want you to feel encouraged. One, hey,

you're welcome in this place.

But the two, like I want you to be encouraged that we've all been there and

we're gonna find ourselves there yet again.

But what do we do in such a season? What do we do when sorrow has overtaken our soul?

Where do we turn to? What's the remedy for such a moment? How can I find hope

in the midst of hardship?

How can I see God in the midst of sorrow?

And I think Psalm 13 can be able to help us out.

It says this, I'm gonna read it and then we're gonna talk for a while.

It says this in verse one, how long, O Lord, will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I counsel in my own

soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O Lord, my God. God, lift up my eyes,

lest I sleep the sleep of death.

Lest my enemies say I have prevailed over him. Lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

But I have trusted in your steadfast love.

My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he

is dealt bountifully with me.

The Psalms are an interesting book. It's this collection of poetry and all of

it collected by King David, who's also the author of most of these poems that

have also turned into these different songs.

And really, I find that encouraging because the Psalms are helping us do something

that we really don't see a lot in the other books throughout the Bible.

So you see, really the Bible, it's not just gonna be there to help address our

thoughts and our actions, but it also, and especially through the Psalms,

help us kind of deal with our emotions.

And sometimes emotions isn't really the topic that we always wanna get into

because a lot of times people will fall on one end of the spectrum or the other.

Either we wanna just feel all the feelings and let's just dive into this and

I'm gonna trust all of those emotions or the other end of the spectrum,

man, I don't wanna deal with that nonsense at all.

How do I suppress this even more? How do I, no, no, let's not talk about this.

I don't wanna deal with any of this. Let's just bury it.

And so when we have people that are kind of, let's believe it all or let's bury

it all, the Bible's gonna speak a better word.

Because the Bible's not gonna come in and tell us, hey, either be led by your

emotions or just ignore them.

It doesn't give us either one of those kind of suggestions. What it is gonna

tell us, no, hey, feel those emotions, but then also inform them.

Experience them, be honest about it, but then, hey, speak the truth of God's word over them as well.

Let them surface, but then also shepherd those emotions where they need to be able to go.

And so Psalms is going to address some difficult and different emotions,

but really its primary emotion that it wrestles through is lament.

Out of the 150 Psalms, 67 of them, and yes, I hit the 6-7, but 67 of them is

still there showing us, hey, these are Psalms of lament.

And I'm really sorry about the 6-7 part, my bad.

But they're going to show us how do we weep before God?

How do we cry unto him? How do we bring such heavy things like sorrow to him?

How can we complain to God?

Because it gives us that invitation that we can complain to God.

And so Psalm 13 gives us this prompt. It gives us this pattern of how do we

come and really process such things like sorrow and grief and pain before the Lord?

The first prompt within this process is just, we have to adjust the problem.

If you're taking notes or you wanna kind of remember that, point number one,

it's just the problem. And that's what David does here, that he voices the problem in verse one.

How long, oh Lord, will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my

own soul? Sorrow is in my heart all the day long. How long will these enemies

just be extended over me, exalted over me?

That he's trying out, but real quickly here, I think it's important for us to

understand who are we trying out to?

Yes, this is an individual psalm of lament from King David, but it's also,

he's showing us kind of, this is what we can do as well. And the Bible's inviting

us to be able to follow the same pattern, follow the same process.

And the first one is, yeah, we're addressing the problem, but out of the gate,

it's helping us understand who do we bring it to?

And it says, he's bringing it to, he says, how long, oh Lord?

And if you've ever noticed like within your Bible, that the word Lord is in

all caps and it's not like an accident.

It's not like, like that's an intentional thing because what our English translations

are trying to do is it's trying to show us that when they're using that type

of word Lord, it's not just a generic title.

Like what it's doing, it's communicating

the personal name for God in the Hebrew. That the name is Yahweh.

And so it's not just kind of this idea of a Lord or this kind of word Lord.

No, no, it's translating this personal, intimate name, the covenantial name

that God gave to his people.

And he says, this is the name that you are to address me by.

It's the name in Genesis 2, where Adam and Eve, they drop off that name when

they're being tempted by the serpent.

But then they bring that name back up when he's walking in the cool of the day.

And he promises to be able to send the seed of the woman to crush the serpent's head.

It's the name in Genesis 12 that it's telling Abram, hey, leave this land and

go to the land that I'm going to show you.

And there I will bless you and you will be a blessing and so much so that the

whole world, the whole earth will be blessed through you.

It's the same name in Genesis 15 where he then tells Abraham now was Abram.

And he says this, hey, I'm making a covenant with you that I will be your God

and you will be my people that we are going to be connected, yours and your mind.

It's the same name in Exodus 3 where he comes and he gives that name to Moses

when he's talking, hey, it's the Lord, it's Yahweh that's coming,

and he has seen your affliction.

He's the one who's heard your cry. He's the one who knows your suffering.

He's the one who's come to deliver you.

And when Moses says, okay, well, when they ask who sent me, what do I say? He says, I am.

He's the name that, hey, Yahweh, I'm with you.

It's this name that David's calling upon. It's the intentional covenantial name.

And here's the point that I want you to see within all that,

that David is trying out to a God that he knows.

He's a deep, personal, intimate relationship with him. He's not trying out to a faceless guy.

He's calling out to his covenantial king.

And he's coming to him saying, Lord, I know that you love me.

I know that you're for me. And yet we see him complain.

He says, will you forget me forever?

So even though he has hope, because he knows who he's calling out to,

he knows the God that he's met, but also he's being honest with his hurt.

He says, God, it feels like you're forgetting me. God, it feels like you're overlooking me.

And he says, will you forget me forever? Remembering, especially in the Old

Testament, it's really, it's a prelude to action. And so really what this is

communicating a little bit more is that it doesn't feel like I have your attention.

It feels like you've kind of just overlooked me and forsaken me.

It feels like I'm hurting right now and you're not showing up for me in my life.

Have you ever been there?

We can be honest about it. King David has given us permission.

The Bible has given us permission to be honest about that.

Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

It's amplifying that forgetfulness even more so.

Not only do I feel like I'm outside of your mind, but also it feels like you're

just actively avoiding me. God, are you ghosting me right now in the midst of

my affliction? I'm sorry for that one too.

It's tragic language. It feels like you're kidding me.

It's tragic language because specifically like the greatest prayer that you

could pray in the Old Testament would be the Shema.

And it says that, man, I just pray that the Lord might bless you and keep you

and might turn his face upon you.

And so now he's communicating here. Hey, I understand, God, that it's within

your presence I can find the fullness of joy, but I don't know where your presence is.

When your face shines upon me, it's the greatest thing I can have,

but it feels like your face is far from me, turning it from me.

He says, how long will you hide your face from me?

Dave says, I feel like you're hiding and it's terrifying me, Lord.

And he says, how long must I take counsel in my own soul?

And so take counsel is just meaning, hey, I'm thinking, I'm trying to solve

this. And so David's like, it feels like I'm trying to handle this issue all

on my own and you're not showing up. Where are you, God?

I'm tired of trying to handle this and solve this on my own.

But all that seems to be doing is just expounding the problem.

This is not going well, which is why he continues this.

I have sorrow in my heart and it's all the day long.

There's no respite from this. There's no relief from this.

Sorrow is just flooding my heart and my soul and that feels like you're silent. Where are you?

I can't solve this on my own, so it's distressing. And so then he adds on top

of that, now my enemies are all against me.

And so now he's showing us, hey, this is a difficult spot.

And it seems to just be repeating.

He keeps saying, how long is this happening? How long will this happen?

How long will this happen?

Have you ever been there? Where it just feels as though, man,

this struggle is real and I just can't seem to be able to get this resolved.

And I'm tired of the circumstance.

I'm tired of being single, Lord.

When are you gonna finally give me somebody I can spend my life with?

I'm tired of this job, Lord. When are you gonna give me something that I can

actually provide for my family and put some food on the table?

I'm tired, Lord, of always being anxious. When are you gonna give me this peace

that you promised? I'm tired, Lord, of being sick.

You say that you can heal, and yet I'm still hurting.

How long, oh Lord?

You see the honesty? He's not hiding the problem in any way.

There's such an honesty that I find relieving. It shows I can be honest too, but he's trying out.

There's a problem, Lord, and I can't solve this. Why aren't you?

And so we see the inspired word of God giving us that invitation to approach

God like this, that we can come to him when things are messy.

We can come to him when things are confusing. We can come to him when we're full of emotions.

And then we see it shift here and he moves from the problem.

And then he brings us into the petition.

That's point number two, this petition where now he's like, I'm gonna bring

this to you, Lord, but let me make some requests as well.

Derek Heidner says this lament is pointless unless it culminates in prayer.

And if we're honest, oftentimes all we really wanna do about our problems is complain.

Because somehow we feel like there's some kind of power in victimhood,

that somehow that might justify my self-destructing choices.

And hear me, there can be some good things. There can be value in our venting,

but at some point we have to do something.

And so we surface the problem, we let it rise, but then we get perspective.

We get perspective and we start to process these emotions, process the circumstance

and the presence of our God.

And so that's what David's gonna do. He says, okay, I'm not just gonna simmer

in my sorrow, but Lord, I'm gonna come and I'm gonna bring this to you and I'm

gonna process it in front of you

and in your presence, but I have some requests to make at the same time.

He says this in verse three, he says, consider and answer me,

O Lord, my God, light up my eyes.

Consider me, God, that means, hey, think about me, Lord, which is kind of a

wild thing to say to the creator God most high, but it's not so crazy if we

also understand him to be our father.

He says, answer me, Lord, I need you to solve this. I'm bringing this to you

because I need some resolution and you're the only one that can provide that for me.

And again, he says, oh, Lord, my God. So we see that the intimate and that the

personal approach is still remaining. But then he says something interesting.

He says, light up my eyes.

And that there's a couple of ways that we can kind of translate that phrase.

And it can mean things like maybe his problem is that he was sick and he was

about to die because the Bible will talk about that.

If they're kind of dim in the eyes, that means that they're dying or maybe can mean some other things.

But really what it can really translate is that when we get some information,

specifically information of hope that kind of settles deep in our soul,

that it starts to make our eyes a little bit sparkle. And we still use that

kind of language today, don't we?

Like you can see, like when somebody got some good news, it just seems like,

man, I could see their eyes light up when they got that news.

And then this is what he's saying. He says, Lord, I need this from you.

I need some kind of information. I need you to plant something in my soul that

can cause my eyes to sparkle a little bit, that I can be able to light up my

eyes because I see the hope of whatever the circumstance might actually be.

So he's making this request. I need you to consider me. I need you to answer

me. I need my eyes to light up, which can only happen from you.

And then he gives him some kind of, if you don't, this is gonna happen, Lord.

And we get the lest eyes, lest this, lest this. and he says,

lest I sleep the sleep of death. If you don't do this, God, I'm done.

Lest my enemies say I prevailed over him. Not only if you don't do this,

I'm done, but they're gonna take credit over this. My enemies are gonna say,

yeah, this is what took place.

Lest my foes rejoice because I'm shaken.

He's communicating, I'm in a bad place and I can't save me. So Lord, turn your face to me.

Turn your face to me so my eyes can light up.

It's almost as though David's singing Bonnie Tyler's song, turn around every

now and then I get a little bit lonely.

I'm not going to sing my kids are in here, but that you, you get what I'm saying, right?

Like it's saying, turn around, pride eyes. He's saying that that's the song

that he's declaring. And so Bonnie probably got that from King David most assuredly.

Right. I mean, that's, but no, no, he's screaming out the song at the top of

his lungs with all of the desperation that's there.

He's saying, Lord, I desperately need you.

This is too big for me and I'm not gonna act like this isn't a problem that

problem is there so I surfaced it I'm dealing with it but I'm bringing it to

you to help me make sense of it for you to do something about it help me Lord because if not,

I have no other hope I got nothing but you.

There's no other refuge but you. And so he's trying this out to the Lord.

And it's here that we see such a beautiful shift in the Psalms.

And it leads us to the third thing that we see from King David, which is the praise.

He's honest about the problem. He brings that to its petition, asking of the Lord.

And then now he begins to praise in the midst of his sorrow.

Verse 5 says this, but I have trusted in your steadfast love.

My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he,

has dealt bountifully with me.

Such wild contrast between the first part of this chapter and now this.

Such wild contrast is taking place. And so that's the entirety of Psalm 13.

And it's incredibly short. And that can lead us to maybe have an understanding

of like, all right, man, well, that crisis seemed to be over pretty quickly.

That must be nice, David.

Seems like God kind of answered you. Now you can be able to sing the praises

unto his name in a pretty quick fashion.

Must be nice. Some of us are still kind of dealing with the crisis.

And it's not seeming to be, it's not ending anytime soon.

It must be nice for everything to kind of come to a resolution so quick for you, David,

and although like some Psalms are gonna give us what's called the the oracle

of salvation right it's gonna have all the lamenting the difficulties the things

but then it's gonna show you and then then I had a revelation and then God led

me in this way and everything got a lot better and

and we really don't see that here but but we do see something if we're paying

attention it's it's subtle but but I want you to see that none of this is just random,

and he didn't go through this necessarily just quickly but but I want you to

pay attention to a couple of things.

One, he says, I have trusted in what?

Your steadfast love.

Steadfast love. The Hebrew would be the hisad.

I've trusted in that. Now that hisad, that steadfast love is a part of the theme

of all of scripture from beginning to end.

When we get to see it always, it's the steadfast love or the loving kindness or the unfailing love.

We can have different English translations for all of that, but all of those

are tied directly to Yahweh himself.

That it's communicating this idea that yes, Lord, you have promised to show

up for your people and you have, and I know that you will.

And so Lord, I will trust you.

I'm choosing to trust in your steadfast love that I've seen evidence in all

of eternity past and I will see evidence as it's coming in all of eternity future.

But they understand that, man, it was his steadfast love that would part the

Red Sea and allow God's people to pass on dry ground as they're escaping from

Pharaoh and it's gonna then come in and swarm Pharaoh to remove him from their threat.

It was God's steadfast love that would feed his people throughout the wilderness

as he's leading them all the way home to this promised land.

It was his steadfast love that would help them defeat Goliath and then establish a kingdom.

It was a steadfast love that would hold onto us and will never let us go.

It was his steadfast love that says, I know you've been faithful in the past

and so I know you can be faithful and you will be faithful in the future.

So that's why King David says, I have trusted in that.

Now, can we get nerdy for a little bit? Can I geek out a little bit?

Is that okay? Be like, hey, I don't know what you've been doing all this time so far, my guy, like.

I have trusted is in what's called the perfect tense, right?

And so does that mean he's doing it perfectly? Nope, that's not what that means

at all. What it means is that it's an action that's been taking place in the

past, but it carries implications into the future.

And so I'm saying, I have trusted in you because your steadfast love has shown me I can and I should.

And so I have done this, Lord. And so I'm saying that I've already trusted in that.

I've already trusted in your hasad, that steadfast love, because you're always faithful.

That you are always providing, that you're always enough.

I know your steadfast love never lets me go. So then he says,

my heart shall rejoice. That's imperfect tense.

Does that mean, yeah, we do that when imperfect? Yeah, we probably do that imperfectly as well.

But all of that saying is really that it's just not fully happening,

that that action has not stopped yet.

That I trusted that you're faithful. I've seen in the past, I believe that I'm

gonna be able to continue to see that in the future. And so,

Lord, I'm not going to wait. I will rejoice you now.

Have trusted perfect tense. I will rejoice right now because I'm not going to

wait to see this all get better before I do.

I know where you're leading things. It might not make sense to me.

I might not understand it. I might not even like it, Lord, but I'll make this

choice to rejoice right now because I know that that's coming.

I know you will work this because you work all things for good for those who

love you and are called according to your purposes.

I will rejoice now because I remember who you are. And he says, I will sing.

Again, that's imperfect tense. I'm gonna choose to do that right now.

I'm not gonna wait for my sorrow to succeed or stop before I start singing your praises.

That in the midst of the sorrow, I can understand the two things can be true at the same time.

My sorrow is real. And yet I will also sing your praises because you are good and you are faithful.

And why? Because you have done pountifully with me. And it translates back to the perfect tense.

You have done this in the past. You've been perfect to me already.

And there's implications of that running into the future.

See this, Lord. You have done this. You will do this. And so I trust you even now.

In the midst of sorrows, in the midst of sadness, we can trust the Lord, Yahweh.

We can trust His steadfast love.

As the band begins to kind of make their way back up to the stage,

I have some really good news for us. This was the posture.

This was the process. This was the pattern that David went through.

And it's not just David. We would see this evidenced within Abraham.

We would see this evidence in so many other people throughout scripture,

but he's doing all of this because he's remembering God's steadfast love.

You've been faithful to all of your promises in the past.

And so I know you'll be faithful to all your promises in the future.

So even though things aren't really good right now, I don't have to wait for

things to get good before I praise and bless your name.

And if he can come to this conclusion, if he can walk through this process with what he knew of God?

The good news for us is we've been able to see so much more than even King David.

See, King David had this beautiful viewpoint, had this evidence of God showing

up and fulfilling his promises as he understood.

It was, yes, that he was understanding these great things like we talked about,

the Red Sea and Goliath and him taking over as king and then establishing this kingdom.

But there are so much more, the promises of God that he did not see,

but he was trusting him, that it would be the seed of this woman that would

come and it would crush the serpent's head, that it would be the seed of Abraham

that would come and bless the entire nation.

It would be the seed of even himself, King David, that would come and sit on

the throne and reign forever.

He knew that those things were coming, but he had not yet seen them.

Friends, you and I have the privilege of the place where God has placed us in

history. We have seen such things.

We were able to see the seed of the woman come. We were able to see the seed

of Abraham come, the seed of David come, and he came and crushed Jesus, the Messiah.

We saw, we witnessed this king, this incredible promise of God come to fulfillment

as we watch Jesus Christ, God the Son, come and dwell with us.

And we saw him as he was kind to those, we saw him as he healed those who were

hurting, that we saw him extend grace to those who made a mess of their life.

We saw him teach God's word with such an authority because he's the one who

authored it in the beginning. We saw him speak with, yes, truth, but also grace.

And we saw him most clearly as he became the son of suffering for us.

As he would take on the pain caused by our sin. We watched him as he who knew

no sin became sin on our behalf as he was nailed to that tree and crucified.

We also watched him as they put him in the ground.

And we watched him rise victoriously and walk out of that tomb,

declaring victory over sin and even death.

That we come and we see him take something as difficult as sin and death and turn it into victory.

And then he tells you and I to trust him. Thank you.

We will see the goodness of God in the land of the living.

Friends, we,

we don't just have the promise of Jesus coming to deal with our sin like what

David did. No, friends, we've seen it.

The culmination of God's glory and it's telling you and I, hey,

death is not the end in Christ.

Sin is not the end in Christ. And for today's purposes, sorrow and sadness and

pain and grief is not the end in Christ.

And we have victory over sin.

We have the steadfast love of God is covering us.

What I would beckon and plead,

is for all of us, myself included.

Might we look to him?

Is life hard right now? Yeah, it very well could be, because life is difficult at times.

Jesus promises that surely you will have trouble in this world,

but then he gives us hope. Take heart, I've overcome the world.

And it is the steadfast love that accomplishes that on our behalf.

Let's look to him, friends.

And by faith, might we see our sorrow and pain, be honest about it.

We can let that rise, but then we can get some perspective as we bring that to the Lord.

And then we can turn that to praise as we are reminded of a steadfast love demonstrated

throughout all of eternity past.

And we can be confident that it will continue in all the days for eternity future.

So as brash as it can sound,

without mitigating, without diminishing any bit of your sorrow and pain,

friends, we've been invited to sing in the midst of our sorrow.

As we root that, anchor that to the steadfast love of our Savior?

How do we see sorrow and how do we see our Savior in sorrow?

We look to His steadfast love and we're reminded of who He is.

Pray that you know them. We pray with me, God, we love you. We thank you for

this time and this opportunity to come and worship you.

We thank you for everything that you've done for us on our behalf as you've,

beckoned us to you, as you've done everything necessary for us to have a relationship with you.

And Lord, that doesn't mean that this is just all rainbows and butterflies because

Lord, we understand as we read your word, there's no such thing as the prosperity gospel.

That's nothing but utter garbage and nonsense.

Lord, you've actually promised us difficulty. You've promised us sorrow because

you experienced it, so why would we not?

But in the midst of that, you've given us a promise that's even greater than

just eliminating those things, Lord.

You've given us the promise that even in the midst of that, we can have you and you're enough.

And so, Lord, I pray for everybody in this room, Lord, that first and foremost,

if they don't know you as their Savior, might today be the day.

Might they see what you've done for them on the cross and it not just be this

ethereal story that they've heard, but that this is intimate and personal to even them,

that you have become sin on their behalf so that they might become the righteousness

of God if they would just by grace through faith trust in your name.

Might today be the day that they call upon the name of you, Lord Jesus, and be saved.

But Lord, if we are here and we are saved and we're still dealing with some

sorrow, Lord, would you remind us that we can still bring this all to you,

that we don't have to hide this.

We don't have to act like it's not there. We can be honest and we can complain,

Lord, but then we can bring it to you for perspective and then we can sing in

the midst of it because you are faithful and you have dealt bountifully with us.

Remind us of the goodness of you, Lord.

Whatever it is that we need to do in this moment, Lord, we trust you.

Would you lead us and guide us and would you help us have the courage through

the power of your Holy Spirit to be faithful to whatever it is that you're calling us to do.

We love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's stand,

let's sing, let's praise God in this moment.