Psa 13 – How long, O Lord? (sermon notes)
Text: Psalm 13
Ever experienced an unresponsive landlord, lover, parent? Here, the psalmist is confronting an (apparently) unresponsive God!
1. Protest, vv1-2
A threefold problem: circumstantial (enemy), personal (troubled thoughts), spiritual (God has gone AWOL).
How do you feel about that?
- happy with God all the time?
- never known God on intimate terms?
- used to low expectations?
- disrespectful?
David was ‘a man after God’s own heart’ (1 Sam 13:14; Acts 13:22).
Marghanita Laski: ‘What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me.’ [Or to thank; or to complain to.]
This experience expressed in song by Brian Doerksen, Roberto Cacciapaglia, Barbara Woolett.
The experience of Jesus, Mt 15:34.
The question itself opens up a way forward – ‘My God’/’Lord’, and in the expectation that God ought to be there.
2. Prayer, vv3-4
“Look at me!” “Give light to my eyes!”
Do you pray?
‘God looks not at the elegancy of your prayers, to see how neat they are; nor yet at the geometry of your prayers, to see how long they are; nor yet at the arithmetic of your prayers, to see how many they are; nor yet at the music of your prayers, nor yet at the sweetness of your voice, nor yet at the logic of your prayers; but at the sincerity of your prayers, how hearty they are.’ (Thomas Brooks)
Jesus’ example – ‘He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard…’ (Hebrews 5:7)
3. Praise, vv5-6
Has the question been answered? No!
Have the circumstances changed? No!
Ever feel like giving up?
Some while, in a radio discussion, ex-Christian Rebekah Bennetch was asked this perceptive question by Sheridan Voysey. “Where did Jesus disappoint you?”
Jesus’ achievement. Heb 12:1c-3 ‘Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.’
What God has done is the guarantee of what he will do.
‘He who did not spare his own Son…’
‘Grace has brought us safe thus far…’
God himself never changes.
He sometimes changes our circumstances.
He will always change us. If we ask him.