Psalm 13
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How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me. -
What Jesus is like
What Jesus asks
What he does
Introduction: Kelvin shares a story about being sent for a long weight when he worked for a Motor mechanic - he was caught out, it was a long wait!
Waiting is difficult after Kelvin’s accident in 1979 – there was much prayer for healing, FGB, mum Rita, ORU, Wimber, McNutt, a prayer group in church –all petitioning God - seeking healing - 45 years later, still waiting.
We know Psalm 13 is a song (notes to the choirmaster) but we do not know the exact circumstance of the trouble David was in. He had prayed for healing of a child (who died), from a Disease (Psalm 38). Saul tried to kill him. He was P.o.W in Gad. There could be many types of trouble. In fact, not knowing what led to this Psalm helps us as worshippers to guide and assist us here and now.
Whatever David’s situation he is Waiting and Wailing and Worshipping – 3 W’s that help us respond to God’s silence. You are here this weekend- maybe hard, anxiety, worry, trouble and you need God to show up - you feel overlooked v1 how long? How do I respond? It is good that you are here.
Waiting. Wailing. Worshipping
Waiting
Psalm 13 helps us draw closer to God when we experience silence and delay as we pray. This Psalm helps us express both our frustration and our loyalty when we may even question is God even hearing me. Does God care in that personal way that a parent cares for a child? I’m sure we have all been in a situation where we’re praying for guidance or Praying for a miracle. It needs to be now. Then you don’t get the job, or the house, you miss the flight, the condition worsens or the loved one dies. We are tempted to say – what’s going on, I give up (praying).
My Lake of Tears experience came out of that background, came out of expressing all of that in prayer on the 10th anniversary of my accident and resulting disability.
This first session I want to ask - what do we do when God is quiet, he keeps us waiting?
Ps 13:1,2 says how long X4. How long will you turn your face from me? How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul & have sorrow in my heart all day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Granddaughter Layla. Cover my face – she’s sad - I'm gone. I revealed my face again she smiles - I'm back. I turned my face to her. Maybe we are like Layla - God how long will you turn your face from me? Still, He’s ever-present. We can't see the full picture. David is in turmoil - can't feel God's presence. God has ignored his pain, his heartache, the threats, the trouble.
This Psalm is in the Bible because God wants to know how we feel even if it grieves him even if we accuse him. David felt God was looking the other way. But vip still David prayed. Lucy Grimble: “In season’s of life, where its hard to see, and hard to understand… ‘still I will pray. Even in this oh Lord.”
KB Lake of tears: After years of waiting - I was drifting from my trusting in a personal God to an impersonal view. I repeatedly played this song. I couldn't pray anything but Paul Field's ‘Don't let me fall from you.’
It was a very personal prayer. Then I ranted at God, God you don't know how hard this is, the tears, the frustration, the loss, the pain, you don't know. It was anguish expressed.
Read Book Excerpt pg 119
NB God is Omniscient (all knowing) - when you pray that sort of prayer it is not new information to God. When you say Lord I'm ill, I'm in trouble, I'm struggling, I’m lost. Do you think God is up in heaven and saying ‘Oh no I forgot all about him - I was so busy in Ukraine.’ And I forgot about KB struggling.
Nonsense, he is omniscient - all-knowing. He is omnipresent: ever-present everywhere.
KB Diary entry 1/1/79. I wrote… ‘something to do with my legs.’
What is that all about? God is an all-knowing God, telling me he is ahead of me. He knows everything. He loves you he is with you always even when it doesn't seem like it. He is YHWH - his name given to Moses – I Am. always present.
With you always means what he says ‘always.’ Yes even now. It's a promise.
KB signs ‘Always.’ Sign above my door. Matt 28:20. Psalm 46:1 Ever present help in times of trouble. Emanuel - God with us - says it all. ‘Withness’ is part of God's character, it's in his nature to never leave us or forsake us. He can't be anything but with us.
Isa 7:14 Hebrew Immanu (with us) & El (God). They will call his it name Emanuel - who are ‘they’? (Not Joe & Mary). ‘They’ are the people down the edges from 700 years BC when this name was given to his birthday and to now. Me you they - who know and trust in Jesus as God in the flesh. This is not a name given to Joe and Mary (like a middle name for Jesus). This is the name for me, you, they, people through the ages who he will save because he is ‘with us.’ ‘Withness’, Ever-present. Matt 1:21 - he will save his people from their sins. Well said Joe - spoken like a feature. Doesn't say he will save the world from climate change - he will save his people from their sins. God with us also means one of us. Only a sinless one of us could save us from our sins. Jn 1:29 sinless spotless Lamb of God.
Other religions give you advice, mindfulness techniques, prayer patterns or posture - Christianity gives you Christ.
A person:
Within you, dwelling,
Upon you – soaking,
Around you – guarding.
A person, not a feeling nor an exercise - a presence – withness - God with us.
If God seems silent or seems to keep us waiting it is not because he isn't there, it’s not because doesn't love you. His promise is his presence.
Wailing
David cries to God, that’s important he literally cries out for God’s attention. Ps 13:3, ‘Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes.’ Then he expresses the consequences of the waiting 1. I will sleep in death 2. My foes will rejoice’
Lamenting Face hiding implies a deliberate act. Wailing, ‘Will you forget forever,’ also implies a deliberate act. This would be thought of as irreverent today. But notice Face-hiding also assumes a personal relationship with God, still present. Like the father hiding his face from the infant – yet he is with us always (Matt 28:20).
Notice, that David wailing ‘how long’ four times - is still a prayer. Many times I have sat with people, and they say I don't think God hears me. I don't think he is with me and I reply, ‘If you put God as the sentence starter, then it is a prayer like Psalm 13 or a Psalm that David sang.
I met Madeline, when I was Chaplain at the IoW NHS Trust. She was a successful athlete: Marathon runner, Triathlete, Swam across the Solent, County netball player, Squash player. Then at 71 she was in Hosp for 8 weeks (some as a day patient). How Long Lord was a very real prayer for Madeline.
Psalm 13 gives words to this frustration - Psalm 13:4 “Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.”
For Madeline, like David, it was overwhelming… struggling with his thoughts and ‘sorrow in my heart.’ David is saying Lord I'm struggling here and I feel like I am on my own, I need help - I can't do this on my own.
When we suffer, trouble or illness and there doesn't seem to be a way out we are so vulnerable spiritually, physically, mentally. In that situation, we have a choice to move towards God or you move away. There is no fence to sit on. It is (a) or (b). David teaches us something vip – he moves to God. He shares his feelings. Tells God how he feels. Have you ever done that? It is a right response.
Madeline was encouraged through Chaplaincy visits and her own Rev Helen to see the Psalms as a resource. Psalm 91 became her favourite.
Psalm 91:1 “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High, will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
She was encouraged to write her own Psalm, this is an excerpt
My Psalm
Lord, I call out to you again and again,
When I think you have left me.
Yet I know in my heart,
That you love me so much and are ever close to me.
[Ending]
Lord, I look to you, you raise me up.
You show me your way forward.
And take my hand……..and I Trust in You.”
Wailing is what is going on here. She expressed her thoughts that God had left her but in reality, she was moving towards God, not away because she chose to pray. By the end of her Psalm, she was able to declare ‘I trust in You.’
Worshiping
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.
Psalm 13:5,6 is the climax of the Psalm: ‘But I trust in your unfailing love, I will rejoice because you have rescued me, I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me.’
The word ‘But’ in Psalm 13:5 links to the previous verse and contrasts. Notice the resolve in v5,6 ‘I have’, ‘I shall’, ‘I will’ of this last pair of verses is emphatic - I have trusted, I shall rejoice, I will rejoice. No matter how the enemy attacks or how difficult the wait - the choice is still David's to make (and ours). I have/I will - focusing not on the troubles or even the quality of his faith but on worshipping the Lord, rejoicing in our salvation and singing of his bountiful goodness.
When you are struggling and under attack you cannot trust your feelings - feelings take over. We get hazy, like a sea mist coming over to impede the true beauty and view.
This Psalm leads us to worship the Lord by proclaiming 3 great truths:
1] Ps 13:5 - Trust in his unfailing love. It is God’s Character before creation - unfailing love. When you feel under pressure/struggling - recite or sing this ‘I trust in God's unfailing love.’
2] God is a rescuer (v5) – rescued/saved - past tense. Worship our Saviour/rescuer. Another aspect of God's nature: Rescuer. I will rejoice because you have rescued me. (NLT),
3] God is good and he is generous (v6) I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me. NB the word ‘Bountiful.’ Sing it. The Lord gives more than we deserve or are capable of perceiving – bountiful. Worship our Lord for who he is, God incarnate, sinless one slain.
Imagine Jesus on the cross praying these first 4 verses to the Father for us. “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul & have sorrow in my heart all day?
Then we can say v5,v6 in response. Lord, 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.
Worship Initiative -featuring Hannah Hardin & Bethany Barnard : Psalm 13
