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If you've got your Bibles, go ahead and open them up to Psalm 13.
That's where we're going to be today.
As you turn there, I want to remind you one of the announcements that came on the screen
was about our Harvest Hangout.
What we've done over the last several years is we've had an opportunity, well, not over
the last several years, but before we had an opportunity in our fall season to partner with
White Knoll Elementary School to do a time of harvest celebration where we had an opportunity
to get out and to work and to serve our community.
But because of situations and circumstances over the last several years, we haven't been
able to do that.
And so instead of saying this year, we're not going to do that, what we've decided to do
is just pull that into our church, into our parking lot.
And so on Sunday, October the 31st, from four to six o'clock, it's going to be a wonderful
time for us as a church family to get out together, to be outside, to enjoy, hopefully, the nice,
cool, fall weather, right, and celebrate just being a church family together.
And so we're going to do our Harvest Hangout during that time.
There are games, food, and activities for all ages.
So this isn't just something for the little kids.
This is something for all of us.
And so we want to encourage you to come out, to be a part that night, and to just celebrate
the opportunity that we have to be a church family.
Well, we are starting a new series this morning.
And over the next eight weeks, we're going to do something a little different.
I'm really excited about this.
Joel Berger and I have been talking about this for honestly a couple years, and how to piece
us together, and how to do this.
And God continued to open doors through areas of creativity to allow us to do this.
But over the next eight weeks, what we're going to do is we're going to look at a different
psalm.
So each week, we'll kind of bounce around the book there and look at a different psalm.
But what's going to be cool about it is either during our worship time or during our time
response, the band is going to come up on stage and play musically the psalm that we just read
about, that we just studied, or that we are going to read and that we are going to study.
So like today, we'll do that.
It'll be a time of reflection.
But then other times, it'll be a time of corporate worship.
And so Joel and I are really excited about this to kind of dive in and attack the psalms in a really
creative and in different way that I'll be honest with you is stretching me and is stretching
him.
And I know our team as well.
But I will go ahead and give you a little sneak preview.
You're going to be extremely blessed by Psalm 13 and how it's going to be led with us here
in just a moment.
All right.
So let's talk a little bit.
All right.
What is a psalm?
Not necessarily a word that we use often and definitely isn't a word that is used often
outside of a Christian context.
And so let's talk a little bit about what do we mean when we say we're going to study
Psalm 13 this morning.
So a psalm is a song or a poem that is written for worship.
So when you open the psalms each time that you read from them and they read like poetry
and there's a reason for that.
It's because it is a poem.
It is a song.
That when these were written, they were written as an act and as a time of worship.
So the early church, they would have turned to these.
This would have been their time of worship.
Even the Israelites during this time would have looked at these as they worship the Lord
and they would have sang the psalms.
And so that's what we want to look at them as and that's how we want to treat them.
Now, there are 150 psalms and David that we know as King David, David and Goliath, right?
He wrote at least 73 of them.
And so a lot of what we study, we're going to be able to draw comparisons of what was happening
in David's life in the point in time when he wrote the psalm.
Now, what we'll find is this, that the psalms are extremely emotional, right?
Extremely emotional.
You think about like the good songs of all time, right?
And you listen to the songs that are there and you can know that whoever this songwriter
was that wrote this song is like working through and dealing through some things in their life.
And that's what we're going to find with these as well.
They're extremely emotional, but they're also revealing.
And they open our eyes to see things how we haven't necessarily seen them before.
And honestly, how we don't see things a lot of times in scripture.
The psalms will be revealing about God.
They will speak to the untimely character and nature and truth about who God is.
But also what we will find out is they will reveal so much about the author also.
And so when we look at psalms, we'll find like there's kind of three categories that they move to.
One of the categories is they cry out to God.
And that's really a lot of what we're going to look at today.
A cry out to God, but also a need given to God.
As they go through a struggle, what's there?
You know, we use this phrase often, turn it over to the Lord.
And what we're going to find out from the psalmist is that in often all of these things of what they're going through,
they turn their needs over to him as well.
But also as we look through them, we'll see that many of these are simply songs dedicated to God.
I like to oftentimes look at the psalms and see they're almost like a love song, right,
written not about a spouse or a significant other, but they're a love song written about God,
of God's faithfulness, of God's love, of God's kindness, and of God's compassion.
And so that's what we're going to look at each week when we see these.
Now, Psalm 13 is a psalm that was written by David.
And it's a psalm that's written by David during a very difficult time in David's life.
And so if you don't know who David is, David was a boy who was promised by God that he would be the king of Israel.
God sent his prophet Samuel to tell David this in 1 Samuel 16.
But there's only one issue when God reveals to David that he will be king.
It's that there's already a king, King Saul.
Now, you know a lot about kings, right?
One thing that a king does not want to do quite often is release power.
They don't want to turn over the kingdom to someone else.
And Saul is no different.
It's his throne.
He's been given this throne, and he wants to keep a hold of it in spite of his rebellion to the Lord.
And so when Saul begins to feel threatened by David, he responds and tries to seek out and to kill David so that Saul can fight for what's his.
And so where we find David at in Psalm 13 is David is running from King Saul.
In fact, if you looked at 1 Samuel 20 verse 3, it tells us that David says that he feels like there's a step between him and death.
Like imagine that.
David's like, man, death is so close, I feel like it's one step away.
Like he could just reach out at any point in time, in any moment, and grab it.
And so David's world in the midst of the chaos feels like it's falling apart.
And as David is there and as David is running and as David is hiding in Psalm 13, he begins to wrestle with what is going on in his life.
David knows that God has promised David the throne, but the fulfillment of that day seems like it is getting farther and farther away and not closer like it should.
Saul was doing all kinds of evil and rebellion against God, but David feels like Saul's getting away with it.
And David is trying to be obedient in all that he does, but he feels like he's getting punished.
And then, I don't know if you've ever been here, but you probably have.
I know that I've been here as well.
David's beginning to feel like in this moment, God, why are you letting this happen?
God, this is what you promised.
This is what you said.
This is what I'm doing out of obedience of that.
But Lord, everything that is playing out in front of me does not speak to these things.
And so, God, why are you letting this happen?
Now, I've found very many points and times in my life where this has been me.
And it's probably been you as well.
You know, it's probably not the promise of a kingdom.
It's probably not the pursuit of someone who's trying to kill you.
But we come to the same end of thought.
God, why are you letting this happen?
God, I know you promised good to me, but all it seems like you give me is pain and suffering.
God, I look around me and I see those who disobey you and they feel blessed.
But I look at my life and my heart to obey and yet I feel cursed.
Why, God?
Why?
You know, let's talk real quickly about being honest with the Lord.
So many times we put on this false facade and what we're going to see in the beauty of David's writing is the honesty where he looks at him and says, God, why?
Why?
So look at Psalm 13.
We're going to read verses 1 and 2.
How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
This is the raw honesty of David here in this moment as he's going through these situations.
And what I want us to understand and work through is what do we do when God feels distant?
What do we do when God feels far away?
Because your life and my life, it's a lot like David's, right?
David loved the Lord.
David sought to be obedient to the Lord, but yet at the same time, there's the levels of the flesh that are within him where we see these acts of disobedience that come from him.
And so there begins to be moments and times when we know who God is, we know the promises of God, but yet he still feels distant.
Because here's the truth about your life and mine.
Your life and mine is this meshed together mixture of success and failure, sin and obedience, glory and brokenness, right?
That's who we are.
Some days, right, man, I'm clicking, getting this, doing it.
And then other days, it's like, man, do I even know what in the world I'm doing as I'm living in these moments of rebellion?
We're this meshed up, mixed up group of holiness and brokenness, all found in one as we live out the practicality of our everyday life.
And when we live, even as redeemed followers of Christ in this broken world, this can take us to places like it brought David,
where we feel like God has left us, where God has forgotten about us, and where things like depression and anxiety begin to take hold and root within our own lives.
I mean, this is what we see from David, right?
David, who described in Scripture as a man after God's own heart, but right, like, we don't have the time to get into all the details of David's life,
but, like, let's just cover it by saying this.
David can't pass a background check to work in your kid's school, right?
That's King David.
A man after God's own heart, who has had some hard core sin failures in his life.
And that's the mixed up, meshed up world that he finds himself in.
And I don't know about you, but I find the truth oftentimes rings true for us, right?
There's this conglomerate that's there.
And so David, in this moment of honesty, right, he brings these four frustrations to God that we see in these two verses.
The first one that he says is, how long, Lord, will you forget me?
David feels like God is alienating him, right?
Have you ever been rejected by God or felt rejected by God?
Have you ever felt like God, like, I'm here, but where are you?
Have you ever felt stiffed, armed, away from him?
That's what David is experiencing.
How long, O Lord, will you forget me?
Lord, how long will you make me feel alienated from you?
But that's not his only frustration.
He comes back and says, how long will you hide your face from me?
Well, the face of God is associated with the blessings of God.
And so David's saying, not only do I feel alienated from you, not only do I feel rejected by you,
but God, in this moment, I feel like you're revoking your blessings from me.
I feel like my life is a curse.
And then David brings up another frustration.
He says, how long must I take counsel in my soul, in sorrow, in my heart?
Here's what David confesses right here in these words.
God, I'm depressed.
And the spirit of depression is what speaks to me.
I don't know if you've ever gone through depression.
But depression speaks oftentimes at the most inner part of your soul.
You're not worthy.
You're not loved.
You're not cared for.
You don't matter.
David comes before God and says, God, I feel like you're stiff-arming me, pushing me away.
God, I feel like you're revoking and removing the blessings that you've given me.
And Lord, I don't hear you.
The only thing that I hear is the depression that sinks with inside of me.
And then he said, God, and how long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
And here's the honesty of David.
God, this is where I am.
And why are you letting this happen?
Right?
Now, this would be the message that many of us have gone through, sometimes often in our life.
David brings the perspective as a man who loves the Lord, but yet finds the circumstances around his life
are not what he would have chosen for himself, but even more so is not the circumstances that he feel like God has promised him
that don't reflect the faithfulness of God.
But what we see in these first two verses are from David's perspective, but not the perspective of God.
God hasn't forgotten David.
Who's sustaining David?
God is.
God has not removed his blessing from him.
It will be fulfilled, but in God's timing.
God is not leaving David alone in his depression, but God is working in restoring him.
And God is not exalting David's enemies, but what God is doing is God is exalting himself.
But from David's perspective, you can't see this, right?
And so you and I, we need to look here in this moment as we walk through these things, and we have to make the choice.
What do we do here?
What do we do when life brings us this?
What do we do when our meshed up world of sin and obedience, right, begin to collide in these moments,
and we're wondering, God, where in the world are you?
Are we going to call it quit?
Are we going to be done?
Or are we going to do what David needs to do here in this moment, is lean in and trust God?
Lean in and trust God.
David knows what he needs.
David knows what he wants.
David knows what he's desiring.
But yet he feels that these are far and removed to him.
So let's look at ours, our life, and our moments, and our struggles.
Be willing to bet that no one in here feels like they should be the king of anything, right, or even the queen of anything, you know?
But we begin to see here the health struggles, the sickness of life, and we ask our questions, God, where are you?
We see our marriages begin to struggle and fall apart, and we wonder why in our obedience to God and desire to see him glorified, God, where are you?
We look at our struggles with our kids, some of them young, some of them old and moved away, and we see the brokenness that's there.
We see we know what we raised them to pursue, but we see them pursuing other things, and we ask God the question, God, where are you?
We try to honor God with our finances, but yet we continue to see financial struggles, and we wonder, God, where are you?
I don't know about you, but we can continue to leave list after list after list as we walk through these, as we face these, as depression begins to sink in,
and say, God, where are you?
And in those moments, in a breaking point of choice in the life of a follower of Christ, you and I are going to choose one of two things,
to either dig in or quit.
To dig in or quit.
And I want to be honest with you.
I've seen so many men and women proclaim Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and then something between a speed bump and a mountain enters into their life,
and in that moment, it's too difficult to push through, so they throw their hands up, and I'm done.
I'm done.
And they quit, but that's not what David does, and that's not what God wants us to do.
What does David do?
David digs in.
Look at verses three and four.
He says,
So here's what David does.
Everything that he feels like God is promising him is falling short, and so what David does is David digs in, and David cries out to God.
And so I want to look at this morning of what does it mean to cry out to God?
What does that mean?
Well, let's start off with this.
Look, can we admit that when it comes to the Lord, that if we can't be honest with him, who can we be honest with?
Life is hard.
This world is broken, and you and I live in the reality of that every single day.
Life is hard, and God knows that.
The other day, I went to the gas station to get a big gulp in a Snickers bar.
Moment of confession, right?
Oh, yeah.
And I walked in, and I walked back, and I got my, like, 124-ounce styrofoam cup for 99 cents, and grabbed the Snickers bar, and I walked up to the counter, and I set it down there, and the lady said,
How's your day going today, and what do you think I said?
Fine.
Fine, right?
Fine.
And then I said, because it's common courtesy, well, how's your day going?
And what did I expect her to say?
Fine, right?
She didn't.
I know about her boss.
I know about her kids.
I know about her husband.
And let me just tell you, right?
We're going to have a prayer service for her in a little while.
It was a tough, tough day.
But I asked, and she answered, and she answered with realness and rawness, and I just gave it fine.
I'm going to be honest with you.
So many times, we look at maturity and say that going before the Lord and saying we're fine is maturity.
But David is a man after God's own heart.
And David comes to the Lord and says, I need to be honest with you.
I'm not fine.
I'm not okay.
I'm not good.
And we've got to have an honest conversation between you and I.
And what David does here is David makes three requests to the Lord.
The first thing that he says to him is he says, God, look at me.
Look at me.
What David's wanting in that moment of where he's at is he says, God, I want you to express your love to me.
God, look at me.
Look at me.
And then David says, answer me.
Answer me.
What does David want?
David's crying out so that he hears more than his depression.
He wants to hear more than the dark space in the back corners of his mind.
David wants to hear more than what his sinful heart is trying to say to him.
David says, God, I want to hear from you.
And then I love this.
He says, he says, give me light.
Give me light.
God, I know I'm blessed.
Let me see it.
Let me see the blessings of life.
Now, notice this.
David's cry isn't about the problem.
Never mention Saul.
David's cry is not about a quick fix.
David didn't come to the Lord and say, hey, could you just wipe this out for me,
real quick?
Just do it.
Just, he's gone, right?
He doesn't do that.
What does David want in his moment of brokenness?
He wants more of God.
The solution to David's despair is God and more of him.
David's saying, God, I trust you.
But I just need more of you.
I just need more of you.
I'm reminded of the father in the gospels who cries out to Jesus because his child is dead.
And Jesus says, everything's possible for those who believe.
And the father cries out, Jesus, I believe, help my unbelief.
Right?
That's trust.
That's faith.
It's all there.
And David cries out because he knows he needs more of God.
And so then God's going to answer, right?
We're going to read the last two verses and God's going to be like, cool, I got this.
And then like thumps all off the earth.
Right?
No, that doesn't happen.
Let's look at verses five and six.
David says, but I've trusted in your steadfast love.
My heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me.
And so what David chooses in the midst of the reality of what's there, what David chooses as he cries out for the Lord is worship.
And he worships through the circumstances.
One of my favorite authors, one of my favorite pastors to read is a guy by the name of John Piper.
And I'm going to try to quote him the best I can.
But he says this.
He says, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.
And then I was at a conference one time and he tagged an end part to this.
And I love this.
So let me add the tag at the end.
God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him, especially in our suffering.
Right?
And so David in the pit of despair, David in the moment of crying out, says, but I want to make you beautiful.
And so I will worship you.
I will worship you.
The same man who says that death feels like a step away in these two verses says that he can trust because he knows that God loves him and that God always will.
David says, but I have trusted in your steadfast love.
David's trust is not found in his circumstances, but is found in the holy love of God.
David says that he can rejoice in his salvation.
David says, but my heart shall rejoice in your salvation because what he knows is that God cares for him, that it may feel that he's distant, that that may be the reality, but that knows that God cares for him.
And then above all things, David says, I will sing to the Lord because you deal with me, not in how I deserve, but you deal with me through your grace.
David even understands that at the pit of where he finds himself, that what he's being overflowed with is the holy grace of God.
And that this is where he finds himself.
Don't let your feelings mislead you.
This is a message that I have to preach to myself often.
Don't let your feelings mislead you.
When God feels distant, and he may feel distant right now, he isn't.
He isn't.
If you want to go deep with God, I hear this from people a lot.
I want to go deep.
Go deep here.
Go deep in prayer.
Go deep in confession.
Go in your room, close the blinds, close the door, and get ugly before the Lord.
That's what depth looks like.
That's what it means.
That God, through my tears, and through my struggle, and through my pain, and through my suffering, I'm going to dig down deep.
And when these seasons come, and they do.
Some of you, I know what you're going through right now, and you're in the midst of this season right now.
You know exactly what it feels like.
You know, because that circumstance is closer than a step behind you.
You feel that that circumstance has just wrapped its ugly, nasty, filthy arms around you, and it's trying to bring you down, and it's trying to destroy you.
Here's what I want to tell you.
Worship through it.
Press through it.
Dig in through it.
Cling to the Lord through it.
Read.
I know you don't want to read your Bible.
Read it anyways.
I know you don't want to pray, but cry out in the midst of it.
I know you don't want to sing, but sing in the closet of your room, and let it out so that the Lord can hear it.
And in those moments, when those seasons come, you can either quit or dig in.
Don't quit.
Dig in.
I'm going to ask, we've got some members of the band that are going to come up, and they're going to lead us in a time of response and reflection.
Because there's so many of us that the words of Psalm 13 is where you find yourself right now.
The struggle and the pain and the suffering that's there.
And so before we take communion together, we just want to have a time of reflection.
And so maybe for you, as Joanne sings the words, you just want to listen to the words.
Maybe it's a time of getting bright and bowing your head before God and crying out to Him.
You can come down front and you can do it right where you are.
But it's a time to realize, to be able to say, you know what?
It's okay to not be okay.
It's okay to say that these circumstances and these things around us are not what I've chosen.
They're not what I wanted.
My marriage may be falling apart.
My life may be falling apart.
My finances may be falling apart.
My kids may be falling apart.
And God, I just need to bring this to you.
And lay it down at your feet.
And so as they play, as they sing, let the words of this Psalm minister to you.
I will confess some days I feel forgotten.
It seems like you're hiding your face from me.
I will admit that I wrestle with my thoughts, struggle with all of the sorrows deep.
How long will you leave me without answers, crushed by the words of my enemies?
But I will trust your unfailing love.
I will rest knowing you're in love.
I will give praise through all my days.
You have been good to me.
I will confess some days I feel forgotten.
It seems like you're hiding your face from me.
I will admit that I wrestle with my thoughts, struggle with all of the sorrows deep.
How long will you leave me here without answers, crushed by the words of my enemies?
I will trust your unfailing love.
But I will trust your unfailing love.
I will rest knowing you're enough.
I will trust your unfailing love.
I will give praise through all my days.
You have been good to me.
I will trust your unfailing love.
I will rest knowing you're in love.
I will give praise through all my days.
You have been good to me.
I will give praise through all my days.
You have been good to me.
You're not forgotten.
You're chosen.
You're not forsaken.
You're loved.
You're not cursed.
You're blessed.
That's the truth for everyone who's found in Christ.
And there's no greater reminder of that.
There's no greater source of that that's found in Jesus.
And the work that he came to do so that you and I could be made at peace with the Lord.
So that you and I could be made at peace with God.
So that every sin, every failure, every shortcoming would be wiped away.
The Bible tells us that forgiveness, the word that we use as forgiveness, it is not remembered,
but we move past from.
But forgiveness means removed from.
So when Jesus forgives you, he removes from you every failure, every sin.
He removes it.
So it's just you.
So we're going to acknowledge him and what he's done by taking part in the Lord's Supper.
So if you would open and take the bread that's on top.
That represents the body of Christ.
Died on the cross for your sins and mine.
And the Bible tells us that Jesus, on the night he was betrayed,
he took the bread and he broke it.
And he gave thanks.
And he said, this is my body, which is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
And the next he took the cup.
The cup that would represent his blood, the forgiveness of sin, the new covenant.
And Jesus says so.
He said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
Will you pray with me?
Lord, I come to you this morning.
Knowing that so many of us right now, Lord, we feel like you've forgotten us.
We feel as if your face has been hidden from us.
All we can hear is the depression of our soul.
And God, we want to see you exalted.
God, I just lift up every person in this room that this is the reality of what they face right now.
Lord, can we have the moment of honesty where we cry out to you.
Where we're honest with you.
And Lord, where we seek are not solutions to our problems, but just more of you, Jesus.
More of you, Jesus, is our sustainer.
It's the one who provides our hope.
The one who cares for us.
And so, Lord, look at us.
Answer us.
Give us the light.
Lord, we want to experience your love.
We want to hear your sweet voice.
Lord, we want to live in the blessings of God.
Lord, may we press through.
And press through.
May we dig in.
And not quit.
Let's sing Jesus and pray.
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