In Kentucky, there’s a cave called “Mammoth Cave”, and on one of their tours, the guide stopped and turned to the crowd. He said: “Do you want to see what a real cave looks like?” And of course, everyone said yes. And, without another word - he SHUT OFF ALL THE LIGHTS.
Now, that’s what a REAL cave looks like. Real caves can be mighty dark places when you turn the lights out. And there are people who won’t even go into caves because they don’t like the darkness, and that darkness can make them feel depressed and trapped.
The psalm we’re dealing with this morning is unique because it’s one of the few Psalms that tells us where David was at when he wrote it. Where was David at? He’s in a cave. That’s what the opening line in the psalm tells us.
It’s probably a cavern known as the Cave of Adullam – not too far from Bethlehem. It’s had several rooms… and it was a good place to hide. But it was also a dark and depressing place for David. You can almost hear David’s dark mood as you read the Psalm.
Now, what’s David doing hiding in this cave? Well, he’s hiding from King Saul, and he’s hiding from the King because Saul became aware that David was a threat to him, and that David would soon replace him as King of Israel. So Saul decided it was time to get rid of the competition. David had to die!
Just a little background: God had had the prophet Samuel anoint David to be the next king of Israel because King Saul had disobeyed a direct command from God and God told Saul that (because of his disobedience) he would be replaced by a man after GOD’S own heart. That man was David.
But initially, King Saul didn’t know that. He didn’t realize David was his replacement. And so David started out… being WELCOMED by Saul. Saul hired David to come to his palace and sing for him. Saul sent David out to meet Goliath. And then Saul sent David to fight the Philistines - and David was victorious every time.
I Samuel 18:5-9 tells us “David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him, so that Saul set him over the men of war. And this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul’s servants. As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, "Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands." And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, "They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?" And Saul eyed David from that day on.
Saul became jealous of David, and soon he realized this young man was probably the person God had chosen to replace him. And so he sought to kill David and began to seek his life. Now David’s on the run. Later, other men come and join with him, but right now, it seems he’s all alone. But Saul has an army of 3000 men searching for him and if Saul ever catches David… it’s all over.
And now David’s hiding in the cave of Adullam, and his thoughts are as dark as the cave he lives in. Just a few short days before this, David had everything: He lived in the palace; He was a man of prominence; He'd been a man who loved by the people of Israel; And he had a future. He was supposed to be next king.
But now, that’s all gone. He’s running for his life, and Psalm 142 tells us that David’s going to die… and nobody seems to care. “There is none who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul.” Psalm 142:4
NO ONE CARES! Everything is gone. And David is trapped and alone. All David had left… was God.
How do you deal with life When the world caves in on you? When it seems like no one cares. when it seems you’ve lost everything or MAY lose everything you’ve held dear?
Well, what David did was… he prayed. a lot of people don’t do that… they just end up complaining to the people around them. Of course, David complained too - but he complained to God in prayer. “I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him. Psalm 142:2
David complains to God. Now, if you’re gonna complain to anybody you ought to complain to somebody who can something about what bothers you. But don’t complain to me - I can’t fix things for you. BUT GOD CAN! So, David cried out in prayer. He pleaded for MERCY. And well… he complained. There’s nothing wrong with complaining in prayer. When you do it right it’s OK. The Bible is filled with people who complained to God. There’s a lot of the Psalms, and the Prophets where people complained to God. There’s even the book of Lamentations which is filled with complaints. But those complaints were TO God… not about God. When you complain TO God, you’re asking for His help.
But we do have to be careful about this, because if we’re not careful in our complaining TO God, our prayers can bleed over into grumbling - and that’s where a lot of people can get into trouble - because grumbling is a sin.
Philippians 2:14–15 warns us “Do everything WITHOUT GRUMBLING ... so that you may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.’ Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky”
Grumbling implies a distrust, or even a rebellion against God. It’s a blame game where God gets the blame because folks can begin to think that God has failed to do His part.
When the Israelites were out in the wilderness, they grumbled all the time. The Bible lists 15 times when the Israelites got into grumbling. For example the Israelites complained/grumbled in Exodus 16:3 - “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full,
for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
Again, in Numbers 11:5-6 we read that they grumbled: “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is
nothing at all but this manna to look at.” Numbers 11:5-6
And, of course, my personal favorite is this one from Exodus 14:11 “Were there not enough graves in Egypt that you’ve brought out into the desert to die”
They grumbled - and grumbling was a terrible sin. And when they grumbled - God punished Israel.
ILLUS: Back when I sang with the SonShine Boys Quartet, we’d sing at various congregations, and one time we were part of a big Singspiration at a charismatic church. There were a lot of groups there and it seemed like it went on for hours. Right in the middle of the singing they had a “witness time”, where people were encouraged to come up take the mic and witness about what God had done for them.
Now, this was several years ago, and I can’t remember exactly what was said - but about the 3rd person up was a woman who started out saying: “I want to praise God for my husband even though God hasn’t gotten him a job because the man’s too lazy to get out of bed; I want to praise God for our car… even God hasn’t gotten us any help yet to get it fixed; I want to praise God for my children even though they never call… and won’t listen to me and… they make my life a living misery.”
And she went on and on like that. She was obviously NOT praising God for nothing!! She was rebuking God and insulting Him for not meeting her expectations. And I found myself getting upset because all she was doing was spitting on God with her grumbling. If I had been in charge of that meeting, I’d have walked over and taken mic right out of her hand and I’d have rebuked her in front of everyone because she wasn’t praising God… she was grumbling against Him. In her mind, God had failed her over and over again, and she masking her disappointment by calling it “praise”. She was a grumbler and an evil woman.
But David wasn’t like that. David didn’t grumble or accuse God of anything. David did complain about his situation, but he didn’t blame God for any of it. He focused his complaints and describing what was bothering him and then appealing to God for help.
David constantly described God’s power to overcome his situation. God could deal with his persecutors because they are too strong for him; God would cause righteous people to surround him; God was the only one who could save him; And he believed God would deal BOUNTIFULLY with him (i.e. Give him an abundance of blessings when it was all done).
So, when life fell apart, David prayed, because God was just a prayer away. Years ago, we had a famous radio evangelist named Ed Bousman, and his wife wrote a song for him that he sang for his program - and it went like this:
“God is just a prayer away, meet Him every hour night or day. His ear is never closed, to your cares and woes. God is just a prayer away, He is near each hour, night or day. His love so divine, from His heart to mine. For God is just a prayer away.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avMoi2Z3mv4)
That’s what David believed. He believed in a God who was only a prayer away, and that’s why this Psalm is about David praying to God. David believed in a God who listened to him, and a God who could do mighty things. And that’s how he lived his life.
But there was just one glitch - he had no idea how this was all going to work out. David acknowledged that when his spirit fainted within him, God knew David’s way! (Psalm 142:3) But the glitch was - God knew where David was going (God knew the way), but David didn’t! David’s path was as dark as the cave he was in.
And so he did the only thing he could do that HE KNEW would work. He turned to God in prayer. He reached out in the darkness of his life to cling to God’s hand - because he knew that the only comfort he could find.
You see, the God of the Bible is entirely different than the man-made gods of the pagans. Someone once noted that the Assyrians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans – they all had their many gods. They had gods of war, and industry, and agriculture. They had gods of cities, gods of towns, and lots of other deities. But in all that pantheon of gods, the pagans didn’t have one god they called “god of hope” BECAUSE… THEIR gODS OFFERED NO HOPE
But Romans 15:13 introduces us to “the God of hope....” (Evie Megginson Sermoncentral.com) That's the God WE serve.
CLOSE: You see Psalm 142 isn’t about David conquering giants, or about David sweeping away the enemies of Israel, or about David sitting on a royal throne. This psalm is about finding God in the midst of our troubles. Prayer isn’t always about getting our way; or solving our problems; or even about getting answers to our suffering.
One man observed: “When life caves in, you do not need reasons — you need COMFORT. You do not need some answers — you need SOMEONE. God doesn’t always come to us with explanations. He comes to us with His presence.” — Bob Benson
Why? BECAUSE HE’LL NEVER LEAVE US OR FORSAKE US
The heart of this prayer that David sings to us, is that David sought comfort and hope from the God he trusted. Even if his situation NEVER changed, David knew that his God was only a prayer away.
One last thought – as I was preparing this sermon, there was another prayer that I remembered that was a lot like David’s. That prayer was in a garden called Gethsemane. It was Jesus who was praying… and the darkness Jesus faced was the darkness of His death on the cross. Jesus’ prayer didn’t change anything about that destiny, but it did bring Jesus the comfort He needed to face what He was to encounter.
(Jesus) withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. Luke 22:41-43
God didn’t say we wouldn’t be tempted in this life; Or that we wouldn’t face trials and tribulations in this world;
Or that we wouldn’t be suffer' What God said was: “I will never leave you or forsake you.”
One last thought – a friend of mine recently shared about his visit to Mammoth Caves. He said, they turned the lights off when he was there too. But then the guide did something unusual … HE LIT A MATCH. And my friend said that that one SMALL light allowed you to see again …even if dimly… because darkness couldn’t overcome it. This is why Jesus is called the light of the world. He is the light we all need to overcome the darkness of the world we live in.
INVITATION
