Strong faith in God does not come all at once and it is not without its times of doubt.It is often gained through willing submission to His love and goodness in the midst of trial. In February 1862, President Abraham Lincoln endured one of many “dark nights of the soul” when the circumstances of his life brought unbearable pain, despair and disillusionment. His son Willie died, and his son Tad became seriously ill.
A Christian nurse attending the sick child recalled that the president watched by his bedside and often paced, lamenting, over and over again,
“This is the hardest trial of my life, Why is it? Why is it?”
Sooner or later we all find ourselves in the midst of circumstances that bring unbearable pain, despair and disillusionment. Such is the inevitable consequence of life in this sin-marred world. The death of a loved one, divorce, terminal illness, financial crisis, serious family problems or other circumstances bring about “dark nights of the soul.”In the midst of the pain, confusion and uncertainty of such times we, too, sometimes cry out to God, lamenting over and over again,
“Why is it? Why is it?
“Where are you God? Don’t you care?”
Our text for this morning, Psalm 13, is a psalm of lament. Psalms of lament often make people uncomfortable.“They say things we aren’t sure should even be said aloud. They get in touch with the pain inside of us that we’re not always eager to engage.
Nevertheless, Psalm 13 and the other psalms of lament are part of the inspired Word of Almighty God. They have been placed there by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, deliberately, thereby giving us permission to lament. Before we look at this specific psalm of lament, we ought to begin by reminding ourselves that psalms of lament really are the neglected psalms. And there are a good many of them.”
Psalm 10 begins by saying, “WHY, O LORD, DO YOU STAND FAR OFF? WHY DO YOU HIDE YOURSELF IN TIMES OF TROUBLE?”
Have there ever been times in your life when you felt like saying that to God?
In Psalm 22 David cried out saying, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME? WHY ARE YOU SO FAR FROM THE WORDS OF MY GROANING? O MY GOD, I CRY OUT BY DAY BUT YOU DO NOT ANSWER….”
Have you ever entertained those thoughts? I’m sure you have.
Psalm 42 says, “WHEN CAN I GO AND MEET WITH GOD? MY TEARS HAVE BEEN MY FOOD DAY AND NIGHT.”
Psalm 88 is probably one of the bleakest: “I CRY TO YOU FOR HELP, O LORD….WHY, O LORD, DO YOU REJECT ME AND HIDE YOUR FACE FROM ME?” These are earthy psalms. There are reasons why they are such neglected pslams.”
“There is a feeling among us that seems to think crying and complaining and lamenting to God are signs of a feeble faith. If you had a strong faith, you wouldn’t” complain and lament. Some feel that good Christians don’t complain; they certainly don’t question and doubt. Good Christians can handle anything; they are never down. Their faith never wavers. Many are, therefore, inclined to think that it is a sign of weakness, of an inadequate faith if we question and complain. But this is certainly not the case. In a world where there is so much hurt and pain we need to be able to express our feelings and be honest with God.
We also need to express ourselves because it is healthier for us to pour out our pain. There is something therapeutic about it. Besides, God knows what we are thinking anyway!
TEXT
In the 13th Psalm, the Psalmist David, with troubled heart, cries out to God saying,
“HOW LONG, O LORD? WILL YOU FORGET ME FOREVER? HOW LONG WILL YOU HIDE YOUR FACE FROM ME?”
His complaint is that God has failed to act on his behalf and seems unwilling even to listen to his appeal for help. As a result he knows great pain in his mind and sorrow in his heart. “HOW LONG” wonders, “MUST I WRESTLE WITH MY THOUGHTS AND EVERYDAY HAVE SORROW IN MY HEART?” The undesirable and painful circumstances of his life filled him with uncertainty and confusion about God.So he shared his thoughts and feelings with the Lord God.He cried out for deliverance. David’s lament could have come from any number of circumstances. We are not told and consequently we are able to read into it our own experiences, hurts, confusion and ambivalent feelings, whatever they might be.
There are so many circumstances that cause us to experience “dark nights of the soul.” Sometimes unrelenting pain, be it physical or emotional, can cause us to wonder if,perhaps, God has forgotten us. The heartaches and bitter disappointments of life confuse us, calling into question God’s love and providential care. Then when the heartache doesn’t go away we become confused about the power, if not the goodness, of God. When day after day and month after month the ache continues, like the Psalmist we, too, cry out, “How long, O Lord?” No matter how you pray about the problem, nothing seems to change. Which brings us to another cause of laments: unanswered prayers. When our pain is unbearable or our hearts are breaking and we call out to God and he doesn’t intervene on our behalf, a crisis of faith often results. That is when the problem becomes a real problem. That is what the Psalmist David was wrestling with.
He had been praying for some specific need and God did not seem to answer. At least not in the manner he had expected. “WILL YOU FORGET ME FOREVER? HOW LONG WILL YOU HIDE YOUR FACE FROM ME?” he cried. When you feel like that you even question the efficacy of prayer. Even committed Christians, at times, experience these feelings. Feelings of abandonment often result when we go through the heartaches of life causing us to lament as did David, “HOW LONG, O GOD, WILL YOU HIDE YOUR FACE FROM ME?” Although David knew intellectually that God never abandons His own, his feelings called that truth into question. Then it snowballed and he began to question other truths about God, causing his laments to increase and intensify. Overcome with doubt he cries out in vs. 2 saying, “HOW LONG MUST I WRESTLE WITH MY THOUGHTS….?” “Your mind begins to struggle with things; it plays tricks on you. What you know in your mind but don’t feel in your experience leads you to ask questions. ‘Is the bible true?…..Does God really care about me? Does prayer work?….Is this whole business a hoax?’”
“David is admitting to us that there are some disturbing realities that the child of God has to live with in this sin-marred world.” Confused and burdened by serious family problems, unrelenting financial pressures, work related stress, broken relationships or debilitating illnesses that remain seemingly unaffected by our fervent prayers our faith is often tested.At that point, questions about God arise and doubts often assail. We easily begin to wonder about His love or providential care. When adequate answers are not forthcoming and God seems silent, we experience times that are best described as “dark nights of the soul.”“If you are uncomfortable with all that, let me remind you that David is known as the man after God’s own heart. David is the outstanding man of God, the king of Israel and the father in the line of the Messiah. But he did not cover up the fact that he also went through those dark periods.” Dark nights of the soul come to everybody at one time or another. The important thing is the way in which we handle these times. David shows us what we must do to get through them. In the 5th verse of our text he says, “BUT 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.”
David’s laments, his cries of pain and confusion during his dark nights of the soul were acceptable to God because they occurred within the context of trust. In spite of the apparent silence and inactivity of God and his own inability to understand, the Psalmist chose to trust in God no matter what was happening in his life. That trust was rewarded as it always is ultimately. When President Abraham Lincoln was going through his dark night of the soul, the Christian nurse that was attending his child told him that she was a widow and that her husband and two children were in heaven. She told Lincoln that she saw the hand of God in it all and never loved him so much as she did after her great trials. “How is that brought about?” inquired Lincoln.“Simply by trusting in God,” she replied. Lincoln replied, “I will try to go to God with my sorrows.” After a few days she asked him if he could trust God. He replied, “I think I can. I will try. I wish I had that childlike faith you speak of, and I trust He will give it to me.” Trust is what we must all learn to do when we are going through our dark nights of the soul. There are some truths that can help us to trust God.
APPEARANCES ARE OFTEN DECEPTIVE
Nearly every moment of our lives we are deceived by appearances, by the way things seem to be. The earth appears to be flat but it isn’t. It appears to be stationary but that is not the case. The sun appears to rise every morning but it really doesn’t. The sky appears to be blue but it is not blue. In the realm of the spiritual, appearances are often deceptive as the Old Testament character Joseph discovered many times. On one occasion he was mistreated by his jealous brothers, sold into slavery and even imprisoned for doing what was morally right.Talk about a dark night of the soul! It certainly seemed to him that God had forgotten him and failed him. Eventually, he discovered that in spite of the pain and injustice inflicted upon him God hadn’t forsaken him. Joseph was later able to say that “WHILE MEN MEANT THINGS FOR EVIL IN HIS LIFE, GOD USED THE EVIL FOR GOOD” (Gen.50:20). That is often the case in our lives and that is why as Scripture says, we “WALK BY FAITH AND NOT BY SIGHT” (2 Corinthians 5:7) Things are not always what they appear to us; appearances are sometimes deceptive. Our initial thoughts and conclusions are not always accurate. In the midst of many a crisis we often reach wrong conclusions about God but later, in hindsight, we see that He was there for us, He did not forsake us. In remembering this, it will, at times, be easier to trust God no matter what we are going through.
GOD’S WAYS ARE OFTEN UNKNOWABLE
In Romans 11:33 the apostle Paul speaks of this profound Biblical truth when he says,
“OH, THE DEPTH OF THE RICHES OF THE WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE OF GOD!HOW UNSEARCHABLE ARE HIS JUDGMENTS AND HIS WAYS PAST FINDING OUT.” Since God’s ways are often unknowable we must be careful we don’t jump to wrong conclusions. Forgetting this truth we will make the mistake of the man who was shipwrecked. Clinging to a broken piece of the ship he washed ashore on a small island. With nothing more than a knapsack of possessions he built a little hut and using his small supply of matches he was able to cook and keep warm. Everyday he prayed to the Lord for deliverance. One day while out foraging for food he returned only to find his hut in flames. He lashed out at God wondering, as did the Psalmist David, why God had forgotten him and ignored his prayers for deliverance. Angry at God and totally dejected he sat down by the seashore contemplating his next desperate move. Off in the distance he saw a small ship headed his way. When it was near the shore, the captain called out to him, “We saw your smoke signal.”
In our inability to understand the unsearchable ways of God, there is a tendency for us to reach wrong conclusions. There are times when God is silent and we erroneously interpret his silence for inactivity. There are times in our lives when our hearts are breaking and God does nothing to restore them. Often when He does not work in our prescribed way or within our time frame we sometimes feel, like the Psalmist, that He has forgotten us. As the infinite Creator, God often works in mysterious and unfathomable ways. Ambivalent and confusing feelings often arise. Hence we can erroneously feel that He doesn’t care about us.
Those feelings are not true. In remembering the biblical truth that God’s ways are unsearchable it becomes easier to trust Him when everything about us is falling apart and we feel that He is ignoring us.It becomes easier to hold on and keep waiting upon Him in prayer even when we feel He is not there for us. He is there for us and no matter how we might feel at the time, he has promised us in His Word that “HE WILL NEVER LEAVE US NOR FORSAKE US” (Hebrews 13:5).
GOD NEVER PROMISED US A ROSE GARDEN
Lastly, if we are to trust God during the “dark nights of the soul,” we need to remember that He hasn’t promised us a life free of trouble and pain. In fact we should expect just the opposite. Jesus Himself said in John 16:33, “…IN THIS WORLD YOU WILL HAVE TRIBULATION…” In this sin-marred world we should expect troubles and heartaches. God has promised to make all things right not in this life but in the life to come. “We have not been promised a life free from pain and sorrow, but rather one in which joy will have the last word.” Recognizing this truth it becomes easier to trust God when our hearts are breaking and we wonder if, perhaps, He has forgotten us or just doesn’t care. “It becomes easier to affirm with our minds what we are not yet experiencing in our emotions.” If we forget the fact that in this life we will have one heartache after another, we will quickly reach wrong conclusions about God.
CONCLUSION
In a very practical sense, this 13th psalm becomes the universal lament or complaint of the tried and tested believer. Burdened by life’s tragic, sorrowful and frustrating experiences, the believer sometimes cries out, “HOW LONG WILL YOU FORGET ME, O LORD? FOREVER? Perhaps this morning there are some thins going on in your life that have brought you to the point of despair and you may even feel abandoned by God.
Maybe you are enduring the death of a loved one, a painful divorce, a terminal illness, financial crisis, a rebellious teenager or a debilitating time of depression. Share your laments to God no matter what they are.But also continue, as did the Psalmist, to seek His face in prayer, trusting Him. And remember that God, whose ways are unsearchable, is weaving your life into a pattern.
