Psalm 13
Sermon preached at Barclay Church, Edinburgh by Rev D. Graham Leitch
7 July 2002

What a wealth of instruction and encouragement is to be found in the book of Psalms. In our services for the past two or three weeks we have begun to look at some of the personal lessons that come to us from this rich Old Testament Book.

ALL OF HUMAN LIFE IS HERE!
One of the most encouraging things about so many of David’s Psalms (in the Old Testament) is their honesty - David doesn’t hide his emotions in his writings. They are neither clinical nor academic. They honestly reflect his moods and feelings - the ups and downs that followed the swings of fortune in his life.

All human life is here - joy and sorrow, faith and doubt, anger and bitterness, victory and despair, pleasure and pain.

It is this, more than anything else, that lends to many of David’s Psalms their lasting value. Over and over again, despite our vastly different world, we can identify with David’s struggles. Again and again we find that the anatomy of David’s soul is but a reflection of our own.

Psalm 13 - the Psalm I’ve chosen for today - may disclose itself to us as such a Psalm.

THE BACKGROUND TO THE PSALM
The superscription or introduction to the Psalm in the Hebrew simply says “For the Director of Music - a psalm of David” Although no-one knows when Israel’s great poet-king composed this psalm, it was obviously at one of the bleakest and blackest periods in his life.

It isn’t so bad when something goes wrong (it’s fairly easy to keep your faith and keep going when you meet a single misfortune) - it isn’t so bad when one thing goes wrong but when everything’s going wrong it’s often a very different story!!

And life being as it is, sooner or later most of us reach that point. The point where if it can go wrong it will go wrong! When we’re fighting against a rising tide; swimming against a strong current; battling against wave upon wave of assault, difficulty, disappointment or sorrow.

When David penned this Psalm impatience was mixed with anger and weariness. He’d had enough! The question uppermost in his mind is “How long is it going to be like this? When’s the tide going to turn? When will my fortune change?” David had had more than enough!!

NO IMMUNITY FOR BELIEVERS!
If you’ve never felt like that you surely will one day - it’s part of being human!! And Christians are by no means immune!! It is the BEST who often suffer most!! Was it not Jesus who told his first disciples (Jn 16:33) “In this world you will have trouble”

When Paul went on his missionary journeys, he saw many men and women turn to Jesus Christ and find new life in Him. But later, when Paul thought about it, he was worried that he hadn’t spelt out clearly enough to the believers that their new faith in Jesus didn’t promise them immunity from the world’s ills. So he actually went back, retraced his steps to tell them plainly that it would be “through many hardships” that they would enter the Kingdom. No! Christian aren’t immune from life’s troubles.

In one of his hymns John Newton, the 18th century former master of a slave ship turned Christian writes:
“Why should I complain
of want or distress,
temptation or pain,
He told me no less:
The heirs of salvation,
I know from His word,
Through much tribulation
shall follow their Lord.”

But knowing that, as Christians, we’re not immune from life’s trials is sometimes not much comfort when we’re suffering, when we’re actually enduring them!!

When our children were younger we knew that measuring time by days or hours and measuring distance by miles meant nothing to them. Instead, we invented a new measure for both using the “apple” as the unit of measurement. The whole distance or time was “the apple.” The need for this measure was the product of long journeys in the car to visit their grandparents in Norfolk. “How long will it be until we get there?” and “How long is it now?” and “How long is it now?” are oft repeated questions designed to try the patience of any parent!!

HOW LONG MUST I SUFFER?
HOW LONG? is David’s big question. And like a child on a journey or waiting eagerly for something, he repeats it not once but over and over again in the first couple of verses of his psalm:
(1)“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me for ever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
(2) How long must I wrestle with my thoughts...
How long will my enemy triumph over me?”

It may help us to appreciate the lessons in this Psalm if we consider it under three heads as a record, first of:
* David’s TERRIBLE PREDICAMENT (vv.1-2)
* David’s TRUTHFUL PRAYER
* David’s TOUCHING PROFESSION. (vv.5-6)

There are lessons galore here for the struggling Christian and for every troubled spirit present today. Life had been treating David badly for some time - for ever it seemed to him - and what he had at first borne with patience he now resented. He was getting more and more angry and bitterness was overtaking him.

1. DAVID’S TERRIBLE PREDICAMENT
What WAS David’s terrible predicament? In vv.1-2 four aspects of his situation are highlighted. Look at v.1.

i) Has God forgotten me?
God had hidden his face from David for so long - had seemed to withhold his favour and withdraw his protection from him so completely that David was beginning to think the unthinkable for a saint of God - He was beginning to wonder whether God had forgotten him permanently!!
(1)“How long, O Lord? (How long will it be?)
Will you forget me for ever?”

We need to know today, as David needed to know then, that God’s memory never fails. Can God, who is omniscient, forget His children? No! Never!!

When the city of Jerusalem complained that God had forgotten them (in the days of the prophet Isaiah) God told them- and his words are surely meant for every child of God who believes he is forgotten -
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Yes, even she may forget, but I will NOT FORGET you!!” See I have your name engraved on the palms of my hands.”
(Isaiah 49:15)

The first part of David’s terrible predicament was the he feared that God had forgotten him. And has that thought never occurred to you?!!

ii) The mental turmoil he was living through.
The second part of David’s terrible predicament was the turmoil in his mind. He was plagued by doubt . All kinds of questions about God’s goodness and faithfulness - and perhaps even his very existence - rose up unbidden to haunt him.

This reminds us that when we are struggling with our faith because it is being tested, it is in the MIND that the battle most fiercely rages:

“How long must I wrestle with my thoughts?” David protests.

He knew God was His God!! Had not he given himself to God and had not God entered into a covenant relationship with him? He knew God and he knew the promises of God. But he didn’t know what to believe any more - whether to believe God and His promises (which were true and are true eternally) or to believe the disturbing doubts and questions that were ceaselessly invading his thoughts.

How much we need to be prepared for these mental assaults and how ready we need to be to deal with them - how do we do that? By believing God and his promises even in the bleakest and blackest periods of our lives!!

iii) The daily sorrow in his heart
The third aspect of David’s terrible situation had to do with the effect of the turmoil in his mind on the peace of his heart. As a result of his doubts and fears he was plagued by a heaviness of heart. He was miserable - he was in danger of becoming depressed.
“How long must I wrestle with my thoughts” he says (2) “and every day have sorrow in my heart.”

The third aspect of David’s terrible situation was that David was thoroughly and perpetually miserable!!

Remember the question the King of Persia put to his cup-bearer Nehemiah, after Nehemiah had learned the sorry state of Jerusalem and been so upset by it that he couldn’t hide his distress?:
“Why does you face look so sad when you’re not ill - this can be nothing but sadness of heart.”
That’s what David was suffering from!! But “sadness of heart” is a condition which afflicts most of God’s children from time to time - a heaviness (in here) that we can’t get rid of.

iv) The fear of his enemies gloating
And at the end of v.2 David reveals the final aspect of his distress. He is worrying that others - his enemies - will be gloating over him!

It is a terrible thing when we let the devil, the Prince of the power of the air, the source of all evil and the Father of lies, have the satisfaction of enjoying a victory over us. So much, then, for David’s TERRIBLE PREDICAMENT (outlined in vv.1-2.)

2. DAVID’S TRUTHFUL PRAYER
The second thing we have in this Psalm is David’s TRUTHFUL PRAYER. What I mean is this. He doesn’t just relate it “like it is” to us, he tells it “like it is” to God!!
One of the great things about David’s psalms is that they encourage us not only to be honest with ourselves - to own our feelings - but to be honest with God. This is something that is mentioned often in Psalms
Next week in Psalm 142 - for example - we’ll see how, in a time of despair, David OWNED his feelings and EXPRESSED them to God. He tells how he “poured out his complaint “ before God and told him his trouble.

In this Psalm (Psalm 13) David does the same. He brings his impatience and his anger, his confusion and his weariness to GOD. And he tells God how it is. “Here I am” he says “and I can’t help it, but this is how I feel!!”

“You’ve turned your back on me!” he complains. “You’ve forgotten me - you’ve abandoned me!!”

Centuries later, in the dying agonies of his awful crucifixion, the Son of God cried out “My God, my God - why have you forsaken me!!” Since the heart of the Son is like the heart of the Father, here is encouragement for us - God Himself knows what it’s like to feel that way!!

David’s TRUTHFUL PRAYER! In v.3, “Look on me and answer me, O Lord my God. Give light to my eyes or I will sleep in death” he practically says to God “I’m desperate - and you’re my only hope!”

Learn from David’s HONESTY that when you come to God in the bleakest and blackest moments, at the hardest and most harrowing times, you can ALWAYS be honest with God.

When you complain - when you’re angry - when you shout and you’re in a rage - yes and even when you are tempted to curse God - He UNDERSTANDS!! Even when you can tell no other - you can still tell him!!

LESSONS FROM PSALM 13
SO WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THIS PSALM.?
* We can learn from David’s TERRIBLE PREDICAMENT that even great saints can
face great trials. Think of the sufferings of the Son of God!
* We can learn from David’s TRUTHFUL PRAYER the importance of honesty in
prayer. When we complain to God or get angry in our troubles, God will understand.
3. DAVID’S TOUCHING PROFESSION
But the final lessons of this Psalm comes from what I have chosen to call David’s TOUCHING PROFESSION. Look at the last couple of verses (5-6):

“I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord for he has been good to me!”

Amazing!! A Psalm that commences with FEAR and FURY ends in FAITH. A saint who sits in darkness, at the beginning of his prayer to God, basks in light at the end of it!! The writer begins by complaining about how BAD God is, and ends up singing about how GOOD God is!!

What an astonishing reversal of spirit - what an amazing change in attitude!! At the end of the Psalm David’s situation is the same but David has changed! What is it that makes the difference?

I said earlier that when we are struggling with our faith because it’s being tested, it’s IN THE MIND that the battle most fiercely rages.
A CHOICE TO BE MADE
By the end of this Psalm the inner battle David was facing is over. Like everyone whose heart is weary, whose mind’s in turmoil and whose spirit is dejected, there was a choice David had to make.

The choice was WHICH VOICE in his mind to believe - the voices which rise up unbidden to haunt and taunt him with his misfortunes and mock his faith and the voice of self-pity? The temptation David faced and fought against was the temptation, in his trials, to listen to that incessant chorus of clamant voices.

He had a choice to make - to listen to that unholy chorus conducted by Satan and sung by His angels, or to listen instead to the voice of God saying:
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
“I have not forgotten you - your name is carved on my hands”
“ I love you.. I care for you.. You are dear to me..You are MINE.”

Whenever, like David, we face a succession of troubles and they wear us out and we feel we’ve had enough; whenever God’s face is hidden from us and we are tempted to think the unthinkable, that God has forgotten us; whenever our mind is in turmoil and our spirit is cast down and our hearts, like David’s in anger cry “how long will you forget me - for ever?!!”

WE FACE THE SAME LIFE-DESTROYING OR LIFE AFFIRMING CHOICE AS DAVID!!

The reason why there’s a world of a difference between David at the beginning of this Psalm complaining of God’s injustice and David at the end of it celebrating God’s goodness and love is simple:

DAVID MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE!!

In our troubles and trials and even in the bleakest and blackest times may God help US - each one of us - YOU and ME, to do the same!!

AMEN!