July 20, 2003 Sunday Evening
Title: “Are We There Yet?”
Text: Psalms 13:1-6
Introduction
When we were on vacation, one of the questions that we frequently received from our children was "are we there yet?"
Or "how much longer?"
or "are we ever going to get there?"
Did you ever notice that those kinds of questions never come when the kids are having a great time?
One day, earlier this year, we took the children to Disney World, they never once ask "How much longer?"
"Are we done yet?"
"Can we go home now"?
It’s the same for us as adults.
When times are going great...we seldom ask, "How much longer is this going to last"?
But, when times are rough...they seem to go on and on and on.
We begin to wonder if it will ever end.
The story is told of a Sunday class that had been asked the question, “in your time of discouragement, what is your favorite Scripture.”
A young man said, “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want" Psalm 23:1.”
A middle age woman said, “God is my refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1
Another woman said, “In this world you shall have tribulations, but be of good cheer, I have overcome this world.John 16:33-35
Then John, an 80 years old man said, “and it came to pass” 396 times in the bible".
The class started to laugh a little, thinking that old John’s lack of memory was getting the best of him.
When the snickering stopped, he said. "At 30 I lost my job with six hungry mouths and a wife to feed. I didn’t know how I would make it. At 40 my eldest son was killed overseas in the war. It knocked me down. At 50 my house burned to the ground. Nothing was saved out of the house. At 60 my wife of 40 years got cancer. It slowly ate away at her. We cried together many a night on our knees in prayer. At 65 she died. I still miss her today. The agony I went through in each of these situations was unbelievable. I wondered where was God. But each time I looked in the bible I saw one of those 396 verses that said, “and it came to pass.” I felt that God was telling me, my pain and my circumstances were also going to pass and that God would get me through it."
When life gets rough, we need to remember ol’ John’s verse, “and it came to pass.”
David had times in his life when he felt like the tough times would never end.
Maybe it was as simple as wondering,
while he was sitting out in the hot sun watching the sheep,
is this day ever going to end?
Maybe it was more serious,
like all those years that he was being chased by Saul and his army...
and he was living like a refugee
A refugee is simply someone who is fleeing, hoping to find a place of refuge.
But that wasn’t the worst for David...
perhaps the most difficult things David had to face was the turmoil in his own family...
when one of his sons raped his daughter....
when one of his sons, using many of his own army, revolted and tried to kill him.
When one of his sons was murdered by another.
When tragedy struck, David felt as if it would last forever.
In fact, in just the book of Psalms, those words, "how long" are found 22 times!
And the chapter with the greatest number of occurrences of those words in Psalm chapter 13, where it occurs 4 times.
Read Text: Psalm 13:1-6
This Psalm is equally divided into 3 stanzas; each one with 2 verses each.
And as you read and study this Psalm, you will notice a natural progression in thought.
You could almost picture this Psalm as a mountain.
When it begins, in the 1st Stanza, David is at the lowest valley of his life.
But in the 2nd Stanza, we see that David has begun to climb the mountain of faith before him.
And in the 3rd Stanza, David has reached the top of the mountain; and he can look back and see how God was with him.
Let’s look at each of these stanzas.
Body
1. First Stanza--In the deepest valley
David just jumps right in by sharing with God what was on his heart.
One thing we learn from David in the Psalms is that we can always "bare our soul" to God.
Even when we are angry or frustrated with God; it is okay to tell God just that.
David doesn’t pull any punches.
and neither should we.
David says, "How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me? Psalms 13:1 (NIV)
It is obvious that David has wanted God to intervene before now and do something about his situation.
David has likely persisted in prayer to God for his needs.
He has probably poured out his heart to God over and over...
but now he has gotten to the end of his rope...
and it is like he is saying,
"God, do you even know I am here"?
Can you hear me when I cry out to You?
Do you care what I am going through?"
"Am I ever going to pass through this Valley of the Shadow of Death?
Will I ever get through all this?
I can’t stand it much more.
And we can certainly identify with David.
We’ve been there ourselves.
We’ve cried out to God until we couldn’t cry anymore...
We’ve reached the end of our rope...
and God didn’t seem to even know what we were going through.
And when we get there, we need to realize that we can still bring all our frustration and pain to God.
David could have given up.
He could have said, "Well forget this,
God isn’t going to do anything,
I’ll just have to take matters into my own hands"
But David didn’t give up...
because we see him here in Psalm 13 pouring out his guts to God.
Don’t give up on God
Even if He hasn’t answered you...
even if you feel He isn’t listening...
even if you feel abandoned...
Go to God and just open up and share with Him exactly how you are feeling.
Continue to go to God in prayer.
As we will see later, if we persist in our prayer life...
God will come!
And we will see that mountaintop again yet!
2. Stanza 2: Starting the Ascent
In the 2nd Stanza, we see that David is still struggling...
but at least he has started climbing the mountain of faith before him.
He is no longer languishing in the valley.
I really enjoy the Tour De France
For those of you who don’t know, the Tour DeFrance is a bike race that lasts 3 weeks...
and travels over 2,000 miles.
It goes through the Alps and the Pyrenees Mountains...
so it is a very arduous race...arguably one of the most arduous sporting events of all.
I follow Lance Armstrong very closely.
You may know his story.
How he was diagnosed with brain cancer...
and he underwent surgery...
and radiation therapy..
he wasn’t expected to survive...
But Lance not only survived...
but he has come back in a major way...
He is THE MAN to beat in the Tour DeFrance this year.
If he wins this year, he will become only the second man to win the Tour 5 times in a row.
And the only American to do so.
If you read Lance’s book...
and you read his quotes during the race...
you will see that Lance is extremely focused.
He has a strong determination...
and a strong drive to compete.
You can see it in his face.
You can hear it in his voice.
Another American, Taylor Hamilton is also competing this year...
earlier in the race, he had an accident on his bike and broke his collar bone...
and yet, he is still racing, broken collar bone and all.
Sometimes that is the kind of drive and determination that we need to even begin to climb the mountain before us.
If the truth be told, we probably feel like giving up.
We would rather just throw in the towel.
But we are confident that the climb is worth the effort.
The strain of the effort of the climb won’t last forever.
And we are hoping that when we reach the mountaintop that there will be a blessing waiting for us.
But we have to persist!
We can’t give up in the middle.
In Psalm 13:3, David says, "Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death"
He has stopped asking "how long"?
And now his request is for understanding.
It is as if David is saying, "If I could just understand why I am going through this, it would help"
or "if I just knew what was going on, I’d be okay"
"I feel like I am in the dark"
3. Stanza 3: The Mountaintop
But then, David arrives at the summit of the mountain of faith!
He says, "But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation Psalms 13:5 (NIV)
David is saying, "God, I may not have all the answers, but I’m going to trust You anyway."
"I KNOW that You love me"
"And that knowledge is enough to bring a song to my heart"
And then, in Psalm 13:6, we can almost imagine that David is looking back,
He sees all that he has come through...
He sees the valley where he started out...
He sees that there were times that he didn’t THINK that God was there; but now he realizes that GOD WAS THERE ALL THE TIME!!!
He says, "I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me." Psalms 13:6 (NIV)
If we will hang in there.
If we will persist...
If we will struggle with all our might to climb this mountain...
it may seem insurmountable at times...
but if we continue to cry out to God...
even to the point of expressing all our frustration and pain...
We WILL reach the mountaintop!!!
We will be able to reach the summit...
and look back and realize that yes,
God really does love me....
and He has really been good to me...
and we will have a song in our heart once again!
Conclusion
We’ve all been in the valley at one time or another.
We’ve questioned God...
We’ve asked "how long are you going to let this go on"?
Maybe you are there right now.
And the pain that you feel is so fresh and raw.
But, like David, we continue to cry out to God...
He can handle our questions...
our pain...
our frustration...
and yes, even our anger.
And we begin to climb that mountain of faith once again.
We may not feel like it.
We may feel like giving up many times along the way.
But if we will persist, there is a blessing waiting for us at the top!
We need to realize, like John, "and it came to pass".
Our pain won’t last forever.
The terrible circumstances that you find yourself in are temporary,
and they will pass, some time or other...
perhaps not as soon as we would like...
But hang in there!
And when we do, we will be able to shout from the top of our lungs from the mountaintop: 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. Psalms 13:5-6 (NIV)
End Notes
Derek Kidner, "Psalms 1-72: An Introduction and Commentary", (IVP, 1973) pp. 77-78
I also used an illustration from Rick Gillespie-Mobley’s sermon at http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=55425&ContributorID=5503
