Pastor Fredo Ramos: For whatever reason, I have always struggled to pray. And so, as this new year begins and as many of you think about new routines that you wanna give yourself to, especially for those of you who follow Jesus, I wanna invite you to learn to pray the Psalms with us. It's a practice I picked up years ago that really saved, my ability to learn to pray, to speak to God honestly about how I was feeling and what I was thinking. And so every single day on sandalschurch.tv on YouTube, we're gonna be releasing, praying the Psalms, a psalm a day. We started in January 1st and every day you're gonna get a new psalm, but the opportunity to read the psalm with us, to reflect on a phrase, and then to respond to God in prayer, how to pray through the psalms.
This has been a gift to me in my own journey with Jesus. I pray that it's a gift to you and so would you join us. Grace and peace. As we continue praying the Psalms, we come to Psalm 13. David asked this question beginning there in verse 1.
Oh, lord. How long will you forget me? Many of us have maybe asked that question. Forever, he says. How long will you look the other way?
How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul? Some translations might even say anxious thoughts. With the sorrow in my heart that's there every day, how long will my enemy have the upper hand? Turn and answer me, oh lord, my god. Restore the sparkle to my eyes or I will die.
Don't let my enemies gloat saying, we have defeated him. Don't let them rejoice at my downfall. Notice the turn in verse in verse 5. 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. By way of reflection, I want us to notice 2 realities that David presents here in this Psalm that really addresses anxiety. 2 things can be true at the same time, that you can be waiting for a god who you feel like has been quiet, and at the same time, you can trust that he is good. You can trust that he will still be faithful in his love towards you. Notice there, beginning in verse 1, 4 times David says, how long?
How long will you forgive me? How long will you look the other way as if God is not present to him, God doesn't see him? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul? God, David, I think here, has the permission to name his anxiety, which I think is also important for us to do. And he says there's sorrow in his heart every day.
How long will my enemy have the upper hand? Four times. David just simply says, how long? Again, I think the psalm is preserved for us in scripture so that we might have the freedom and invitation to pray the emotion of anxiety before God. Even in the feeling as though he is absent to us, we speak to God about his absence.
There's a beautiful irony there. He says there in verse 3, turn to me. Like, Lord, answer me. Please, break the silence finally. He says restore the the sparkle in my eye or his countenance.
Like, give him a a sense of life again in his face. And he offers three concerns that might happen if this doesn't happen, if God doesn't respond. He says I might die at the end of verse 3. His enemies will defeat him, there in verse 4. And and then at the end of verse 4, he says, they'll rejoice at his his downfall or him slipping away.
So he moves from 4 how longs to 3 potential results, but then notice 2 resounding things that David will rest in in this final part of the prayer. I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me. Notice the past tense there. And I will sing because he is good to me.
It's important for us to name as humans, especially in prayer, the anxiety that surface oh, the anxiety that surfaces, whether it's anxiety that's maybe birthed because of something spiritually that's happening, like you feel God's not near you, maybe it's a physical thing, maybe it's it's an emotional thing, or maybe it's just everyday guilt that kind of sets in that has convinced you and me that because of who we are and what we've done, God is just too far away from us. But I love the two realities that David offers here. Yes. He is anxious, and at the same time, he is declaring his trust in the unfailing love of God. 2 things that are important.
Not as a way to try to fix you or to fix your anxiety or to answer all the questions you might have, but just in prayer to name both things. Jesus, that's what we hear you inviting us to do today, to name the ways that maybe we are anxious and to even confess that deep ache of a question. How long, god, must we must we wait on you? But yet at the same time, Jesus, we also confess that you love us and you are good to us. And we can learn to both wait with anxious feelings and trust at the same time.
Lord, help us by the power of your holy spirit to do that today. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Grace and peace. Stay tuned for Psalm 14.