Psalm 13
One of the loneliest times we can have comes when we face a time of need without having a loving friend to talk to about it. Everyone needs at least one trusted friend in whom to confide. Elisha A. Hoffman, author and composer of more than 2,000 gospel songs, was pastor of a church in Lebanon Pennsylvania. He visited a woman who had experienced many moments of emotional pain in her life. She told Rev. Hoffman of the many burdens on her heart and concluded with the question, "Brother Hoffinan, what shall I do? What shall I do?" He replied, "You cannot do better than to take all of your sorrows to Jesus. You must tell Jesus." For a moment, the lady seemed lost in meditation. Then her eyes brightened and she exclaimed, "Yes, I must tell Jesus."
From that experience Elisha Hoffman wrote a hymn which we still sing today: "I Must Tell Jesus." The beauty of this hymn is its honesty. The Christian life is not always happiness. There are times we feel exhausted and depressed. We are at wit’s end, without resources, at lost for a way, perplexed and desperate. That is usually when we see God begin to work. But before He does anything about our situation, He wants to do something about ourselves and that is where we begin to hedge. We want God to deal with our complication; He wants to develop our character. We want Him to change our circumstances; He wants to change us first.
The Psalmist David understood this. His psalms were written like a journal. He wrote eloquently of his joy as well as his sorrow. He expressed the feelings of his heart, whether in despair or times of joy and praise.
Psalm 13 is an example of his prayer during a time of despair. Saul and his army were pursuing David and he was hidden in a cave. David also retreated into the dark cave within himself. In the dark, damp and alone, he sang his laments to the Lord.
"How long, will you forget me, 0 Lord? Forever? How long will you hide your face from me?"
David will ask "how long" two more times during this song. The repetition is his way of saying, "God, I’m talking to you. I’m trying to get through to you. Can you hear me?" David has trusted God, he has been anointed king, and he has slain the mighty Goliath by the Lord’s power. So, where is God now?
At times it may seem that God has forgotten you and left you to perish in the gloom. As you go deeper inside your own caves of despair, your soul still cries out. How long will you be in this place, how long can you exist like this? If God has forgotten you, what hope is there? Will He hide from you forever?
It is not God who forgets; we are the ones who forget. We are the ones who turn away and turn within ourselves compounding the feelings of loneliness and feelings of abandonment. Your hurt can become so debilitating that it makes you feel there is something terribly wrong with you.
As David’s song continues we get a good indication of the source of David’s fear:
"How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?"
Another translation reads, "...raise questions in my inner being." David’s doubts and fears are not so much the result of outside forces as they are of intrinsic sources. David is not as afraid of Saul’s might than he is of his own limitations. The enemy may be real, but the mind is the place where grasshoppers become giants. The fear may be more imagination than reality.
In a book by Alex Kotlowitz, There Are No Children Here, an interesting story is told of boys growing up in the inner-city of Chicago. Occasionally the boys would go to the railroad tracks to look for snakes. When the train comes by, they hide for fear the people on board the train will shoot at them. The people aboard the train duck for fear the boys will throw rocks at them. The fear for each group is real; but, the reasoning for the fear is not real.
The source of our fear many times comes from within ourselves. Guilt can come when we either have fallen in certain areas of our lives, or we’ve found it hard to believe God’s forgiveness. A bruised or broken heart is probably the most devastating pain known to mankind. When that pain, whether real or imagined, becomes too great you close yourself off from family, your friends, your church, and even God.
We want answers, but at the same time, deep inside, we are afraid of what that answer might be or that no answer exists. We need to look at what these answers arise from. Does God want us to feel despair, to think we are alone? No! God repeatedly in His Word tells us we are not alone, that, as His children, we belong to a family that will not desert us.
Listen to a few of His promises:
I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." (Genesis 28: 15)
The LORD replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."(Exodus 33:14)
When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. (Deuteronomy 20:1)
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. (Isaiah 43:2)
And surely lam with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)
So then, where do these depressions come from? I believe that Satan is somewhere at the base, directly or indirectly. We may have been emotionally or mentally hurt by people: Satan is still the author. Satan relishes when you are down and are not feeling the fellowship of God.
The song continues. David’s plea becomes a demand. His questioning is replaced by an ultimatum.
Look on me and answer, 0 Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall."
The song has reached its emotional climax. There is nothing left to do but to cry. The sorrow is complete. Go ahead and cry, but cry from the hurt, not from unbelief or self-pity. Jesus never turns away a crying heart. Psalms 51:17 says, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, 0 God, you will not despise."
Let’s think about these first four verses for a moment. They are the heartfelt prayer from David to the Lord. One of the greatest blessings in life is to have a friend who will never misunderstand us; by whom all of our unintelligible and contradictory words will be pitied and not blamed. If God were not so gracious He could have cast David away and no one would have blamed Him. How many of us would have listened to a complaint like that which David put to God and would still speak to the person the next day?
But, God never misinterprets the language of a broken heart or a bewildered soul. We may always tell God how we feel. If words will not come, then our groaning is not hidden from Him. God will answer us, not according to our imperfections, but will do exceeding abundantly for us above all we can ask or think.
God sat patiently by while David complained of his sorrow. As he continually questioned the motives of God, God waited for the moment when David would allow His Lord to intervene.
With verse 5 God gets His chance. David stops looking inward. He stops looking outward. He begins to look upward. He no longer sees the fear within himself. He no longer sees the forces closing in around him. He sees the Source of his salvation.
"But I trust Your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for He has been good to me."
While still hid in the cave, in fear for his life, David exchanged his weakness and the direction he was headed for the strength and the direction that only God can give. The very thought of David’s foes having the victory was enough to make him realize that was not what the Lord wanted in his life. David received the answer although he was in the darkest and deepest point of the cave, physically and mentally.
Help comes to David even as he is speaking in prayer. So often, God is more ready to answer than we are too ask. God waits to be gracious. The peace that is given is real. There may be a storm without, but there is calm within. The soul that seemed about to enter the dark valley of the shadow of death, with the terrible fear that God was departed, now rejoices in the sunshine of God’s presence.
Light suddenly breaks forth out of the darkness. In the middle of his prayer David’s worst fear, that God has forgotten him, is destroyed. In the very act of prayer, his mind is led out of himself and his faith is rekindled. Despair says, "I have trusted in myself and am forsaken." Faith says, "I have trusted God; therefore I cannot be forsaken."
So, what happened? Had David’s circumstances changed? No! Had Saul called off the search for David’s life? No! Did David devise a tactic to defeat Saul in battle? No! Nothing has changed except David’s faith and hope in a God who does not change. David remembers "...He has been good to me."
A few years ago I met a lady named Blanche. She was a resident at Sunrise Manor Nursing Home in Hodgenville, Ky. At the time she was 96-years-old and trying to understand why God had allowed her to live so long. But, she kept her faith in Him and trusted that He knew best. She shared this poem with me:
There are always two sides, the Good and the Bad,
The Dark and the Light, the Sad and the Glad -
But in looking back over the Good and the Bad
We’re aware of the number of Good things we’ve had
And in counting our blessings we find when we ’re through
We’ve no reason to complain or be blue
So thank God for Good Things He has already done
And be grateful to Him for the battles you’ve won
And know the same God who helped you before
Is ready and willing to help you once more.
We must allow the God of good times past be the God of good times in the future.
We often get caught up in our problems - real and imagined - and forget God. But God wants us to admit our doubts. God wants us to acknowledge our fears. When the trial has secured its needed end in the strengthening of our faith, then the pressures will be relaxed. We should not want it any other way. It is far more important to have our afflictions sanctified than to have them removed.
The beauty of this psalm is in its sincerity. It shows the Bible to be a book of honesty by recording complaints to God. A child of God does not always sing psalms of thanksgiving. At times the child feels worthless and defeated. The song is not always one of harmonious praise. It may be a song of dissonant despair. Our song will not always carry a bold theme of total confidence. It may be a somber theme of distrust and fear. The flowing line of one psalm may be wisdom; but, the disjunct motion of the next may be confusion.
One moment our song may be:
"I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I ’m free;
For His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me."
The next moment our song may be,
"Does Jesus care when my heart is pained too deeply for mirth and song,
as the burdens press and the cares distress, and the way grows weary and long?"
One day you may be rejoicing with,
"Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee, How great Thou art"
The next day you may sing,
"l am a poor way-faring stranger just traveling through this world below."
We invite believers to this house by singing,
"Brethren, we have met to worship and adore the Lord our God."
But we must also invite others by singing,
"Are you weary? Are you heavy-hearted? Tell it to Jesus!"
Psalm 13 may begin with despair, but it ends with joy. Psalm 13 may be a lament, but it ends in exaltation. Psalm 13 may start like a dirge, but it ends in a celebration of life.
The psalm starts out in a depressing and somber tone. It slowly develops into a theme of confusion. Soon, distress and despair have created a discord of tension and uneasiness
But then the dissonance is resolved. The forgetfulness of God is contrasted with the unfailing love of God. Pain and sorrow are comforted by a rejoicing heart. Death is defeated by salvation. The foes that rejoice cannot hold a candle to the One who has dealt bountifully with me.
I have ministered to families broken by divorce. I have ministered to families whose parent is suffering a slow and agonizing death. I have ministered to my own family in the death of my brother. It’s difficult to find a word of comfort and encouragement. But when they ask, "Where is God, right now?" I can answer, "He’s right here. He’s been beside you the whole time."
When encouragement does not meet our need, there is a Savior. When friends and family do not ease the pain within, there is a Comforter. When Scripture can no longer heal a wounded heart, there is a God.
God did not promise you a painless life. He promised a way of escape; to put you back on your feet when you slip and fall. Psalms 73:23 tells us, "Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand." His is the healing, the restoring of peace through His glory.
Stop condemning yourself. Stop trying to figure out what you did wrong and why you got hurt. You will be surprised how much you can bear with God helping you. You have to let God step in and take over in your life. Then you can join David as he rejoices, in verse 6, in the victory that only comes from God, "I will sing to the Lord, for He has been good to me." The victory He promises is His Son Jesus Christ and it is in Him we must put our trust.
