Our scripture reading for this morning's sermon is taken from Psalm chapter 13. Psalm chapter 13 can be found on page number 405 in the Pew Bible in front of you. Though this psalm may not be on the top five list of your favorite psalms, it has reached that point for me. And I hope that together we'll come to learn more of it this morning and be strengthened by it. Before we read it, however, let's pray together and ask the Lord to bless the reading of His Word. Our Father in Heaven, we thank You for revealing Yourself to us in so many great acts throughout history and for revealing Yourself and recording these acts in Your Word. We thank you for preserving it over such a long period of time of trouble and trial, for preserving your people, for preserving your church, and for the Holy Spirit to empower us and to give us eyes to see and understand what we read and hear. We confess that we need your help now to understand these things. And we ask that you would keep us from error, from the errors of men, And that we would together grow more in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray. In the name of Jesus, amen. Psalm 13. Listen now to this, the word of God. How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, O Lord my God. Give light to my eyes or I will sleep the sleep of death. My enemy will say I have overcome him and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I have trusted in your unfailing love. My heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for He has been good to me. It's no secret in this congregation that the Psalter has long been a favorite of the people of God. We often memorize whole Psalms, don't we? I still remember Psalm 23 when I was just a young boy in school. We sing the psalms, we pray the psalms, and often we find ourselves struck by their depth, by the gravity and gladness of their poetic expression. And yet, far beyond their beauty, I trust, we love the psalms because as the Word of God, they teach us, they instruct us, and they help us give faithful voice and a response, an expression to the manifold and oftentimes very difficult experiences of life. In the psalm before us this morning, we have what is likely a prayer of David as he cries out to God for help against his enemies. And this psalm is different from the psalms of praise and thanksgiving. It's easy to see that right off the bat, isn't it, As we read through it, it strikes us with its character, with what it says. And that's because this is a psalm of lament. And it lingers, as we read it, as a bold cry of desperation, concern, of even fear. And that's common to the psalms of lament, where we find feelings of grief, loneliness, perplexity, anger, frustration, even despair. In verses 1 through 4 of our text this morning, we find just such things, don't we? Yet the psalms of lament, we must remember, are prayers to God for help. And so while we may find them striking, they are nothing less than prayers of faith. They are a faithful voice. That's what we find here. The expression of a heart that believes in God. While they may be brutally honest, they are nothing less than songs and prayers of faith. In this psalm, I think the Holy Spirit teaches us how to grieve. How to grieve in life as we face many trials and troubles, even while giving glory to our God, our sovereign King in heaven. And that's exactly what we find happening. As this means of grace, this prayer is enjoined, as it's picked up, David in verses 5 through 6 leaves this prayer on solid ground, giving praise to God for His loving kindness. This is a helpful psalm for us. For as we consider the troubles even of this past week, as we consider the reality of war, the rumors of wars, and the troubles we face ourselves here in Escondido, in our own families, in our heart of hearts, we find how we ourselves can grieve, even while bringing glory to God. Now, as we study the psalm this morning, we should remember that David was far more than a poet. He was a poet, and he was a very gifted poet, inspired by God, and he was also the king of God's people. And as king, he was their most victorious and righteous leader. Through his sword, through his songs and his service, the people of God prospered, didn't they? And yet, the enemies of God and his people were many. And as king, it was David's responsibility to go out and subdue them and secure peace for the land and for the people of God. And as we read of his life, as we read of his battles, we find that his victories were sweet and we find that the battles of grief were great. Psalm 13 is a window into that grief, that darkness of despair when the enemy gains ground, when we feel forgotten and all seems lost out of such a crucible. Out of such a crucible of life, David, first of all, in verses 1 through 2, gives voice to his concerns. Second, we find, in verses 3 through 4, the petitions. And in verses 5 through 6, this prayer ends with praise. After we deal with first the concerns, then the petitions, then the praise, we're going to step back and we're going to consider how this psalm fits into the broader picture, An unfolding plan of God is revealed to us in Scripture. We're going to take a brief look at how we see through this text the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And what we'll find is that though this psalm is not ours in the sense that we wrote it, it is ours, or it should be ours, as disciples of Christ who are called to fight in the battles of life for the glory of our God. That's where we're going. First of all, then, let's consider in verses 1 through 2, the concerns. Verse 1 begins with, How long, O Lord? We find that this prayer, as we might expect, is addressed to the Lord. Capital L-O-R-D. It's the covenant name that God gave Himself to His people of Israel. It's His personal name. And it finds a striking parallel to Revelation 6, where we see held before us the martyrs up in heaven under the throne of the risen Christ. And they too cry out, O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who will dwell on the earth? For David, as he addresses the Lord, He's thinking of the covenant God who promised to uphold, preserve, and redeem His people. He lifts up His eyes, as it were, to the heavens for He knows whom His help comes from. Not the gods of man's own imagination or making. Not the gods of the nations around Him that they might have built with some wood or stone. But as verse 3 tells us, He looks up and cries to the Lord God. Elohim, from Genesis 1, the maker and creator of heavens and the earth. As the troubles of battle begin to press upon him, David knows right where to turn. His creator, his sustainer, and his redeemer. And yet, we find that he cries out to this Lord, How long? How long? For as the battle grows more fierce, it seems that God has not heard him, that God has forgotten his servant, that he's hidden his face. He is distant and refuses to look upon the desperate situation of his king and of his people. And in that dreaded silence, when the heavens seem silent, what is man to do? We might sympathize with this. What is man to do but turn his eyes inward? And he looks within himself. And that is what David describes in the first line of verse 2, saying, How long must I take counsel in my soul? Maybe you've been there too. Again and again, you've appealed to the Lord for help, and yet the season of suffering lingers. God doesn't seem to answer your prayers, And so your heavenward eyes sinfully look away within yourself. Doubts begin to fester as faith is weakened and a bad situation is made all the worse. If you've been there, you may resonate with the second line of verse 2 as it parallels, expands, and kind of explains upon the first saying, how long must I have sorrow in my heart all the day? And the last and most significant concern of David as these concerns build upon one another is put this way in verse 3. How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? We're not told in the psalm what the enemy in mind here is, but as we look at 2 Samuel, as we look at the record of David's life and as he engages the responsibility of his kingship, we find that he is constantly embattled. He's constantly at war, trying to subdue the men and the kings and the countries and nations who would strip him of his rule and bring defeat upon the people of God and ravage the promised land. Though we may not face the hatred of an army with weapons here in America, though we may not face them today. We do face, don't we, the troubles of Satan as he roars around like a lion, Peter says. We do face the enemies of our own sin and its festering presence. And we do face, don't we, ongoing temptation and other troubles of this life. You see, the enemies of the people of God are not merely those who might carry a sword, but the true enemies of the people of God are anything that would tempt us to question God and to shipwreck our faith and to throw it all away, to turn our back upon Him in rebellion. And so as we consider these enemies and the troubles that we face day in and day out, we can come to appreciate a little bit more where this psalm is coming from. We can appreciate where these concerns flow from. And second, after these concerns are stated, we see that David persists in his prayer of lament with verses 3 through 4 by emphasizing three petitions. He says, Consider, O Lord, or better yet, look. See what is happening to your king and to your people. Consider the trouble that we face and the enemies who press upon us look. Pressing further, he implores God, answer me with a boldness that only a rebel could muster. Or maybe a soldier in need. Or a knowing child who looks to his father for help. Knowing he's there. knowing he's got the ability to step in and to solve the problem. You know, in light of that God that we know is in heaven, only a fool would turn his back away from the grace and mercy that is offered there. In a recent commentary on a rather famous fighter in the early 1900s, This hero is portrayed as one who overcame all odds while turning his back against God, refusing to pray. In interesting contrast, all of his loved ones are shown to be pouring into the church, praying for him, upholding him. Friends, let us not be fools. Let us not lift up our hands to heaven in rebellion against God, but let us, as soldiers who need the help of the commanding officer, let us, as children who know our Father is near, let us lift up our cup and ask Him to fill it. Let us lift up our hand and ask Him to take it. Surely, our God hears. And yet, sometimes it feels that He's silent, doesn't it? And so, with David, we might call upon him to look, to answer. And third, we might ask him to lift up our, to rather light up our eyes. That's what we find him doing in verse 3. Light up my eyes, he said. It's a metaphor that likely refers to the giving of strength, to the strengthening of your body and being like Jonathan in 1 Samuel 14. The text tells us, weary from battle, he sees honey on the side of the road, sticks out his staff, tastes it, and it gives light to his eyes. That's what the text tells us. Clearly a metaphor that gave him strength. It's just what he needed as a warrior. Just what he needed to keep going in the face of battle. David asks the Lord to light up his eyes. In contrast to this, we read in verse 3, is the sleep of death. Light up my eyes, he said, lest I sleep the sleep of death. And it's possible that physical death could be in view here, especially if we read the psalm as in light of a battle. The sleep of death, however, might also be a metaphor, something that refers to doubt and defeat. a doubt so great that one despairs of life itself, a defeat, a breaking of the will. So you just give up and you can't go on anymore. Whatever calling the Lord's placed upon your life, you can't do it. You're defeated. It's a sleep that's as good as death. And I think it's a likely alternative for this text. For as we consider the courage of King David, as we read of his battles, As we see him before Goliath or the Philistines or for countless hosts against him, he was a man of courage and seemingly without fear of death. The last thing it seems that he would be concerned of is death itself. Rather, it would seem that his greatest fear is that as the King of Israel, he would be defeated. And the people of Yahweh ravaged and the glory of their God spoiled as the enemy hosts flood the land and mock his holy name. If the Lord does not look, if he does not answer, if he does not give light to my eyes, then David says, as king, I will be defeated. And my enemies will say I have prevailed over him. See, that's where he's going. Verse 4 again. My foes will rejoice because I am shaken, it says. Well, we find that through this prayer of lament, God does hear the concerns. God does hear his petitions and he pours out his grace. Look at verse 5. But, David says, I have trusted in your steadfast love. He turns a corner. But, I have trusted in your steadfast love. In the midst of this dark plea, David's eyes are enlightened. He is given strength. He is revived. And as he considers the loving kindness of the Lord, that bedrock of the Psalter's praise occurring over 130 times, He's given the grace and strength that he needs. His faith is fed and he's upheld. For David, that covenant faithfulness, that loving kindness likely refers back to 2 Samuel 7. There we find that God recounts for David all that he had done for him. And then he promised to give him rest from his enemies. He promised to make his name great. And then in verse 12, the Lord promises an eternal kingdom. The Lord promised a throne that will last forever. And it's likely that David remembers that covenant. In the midst of his despair, God takes those earthbound eyes and He turns them back to heaven as He reminds him of His covenant. And He says, I will, bless you, I will remember My covenant. The One who promised our Lord and God. Is He not faithful to fulfill those promises? Is He not faithful to do all that He promised to do? He was faithful in the past. He is faithful today. And He will be faithful on into the future because He promised. And that's a word, dear friends, we can trust. that we can rest in the promise of our God. And that's what David does as he ends this psalm with remarkable confidence in verse 5. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation, he says. And again in verse 6, I will sing to the Lord because He has dealt bountifully with me. In the midst of his despair, we see David resting and falling upon the promises of God and gives praise to God. There's no hint that his situation changed, but his heart was changed as God heard his cry and gave him grace and upheld him in the midst of his circumstances, in the midst of his battle, just as he has for every saint since. The Lord has shown himself to be faithful. In the midst of that grief, glory is brought to God. So we see here in the psalm the concerns, the petitions, and the praise of a faithful saint and servant of the Lord. What is a prayer of lament, of grief, often gives glory to our God. And surely we can. It seems to me we should be able to relate to these feelings. But do we offer them to the Lord? Do we turn to the Lord in times of trouble and trial? Or do we turn to the closest friend? Do we merely turn to other devices that might be in our lives? Television, a good book? Friends, the Lord is our help and our strength. We must offer these things to the Lord. David models it for us here. He doesn't hide his fears. He doesn't merely pretend they're not there. He's not some kind of a classic stoic. You know, true spirituality, we find it here. Looking to the Lord, giving Him praise in times of joy and goodness and giving Him the honest expressions of our heart, asking Him for mercy and for grace in times of trial and trouble. Under sunny skies, David gives voice to joy and praise to God. And here, he gives voice to his grief through laments. And while looking to God, he's strengthened to hope once again and that grace to come. And he flees this prayer with strength and faith that the King and the Kingdom of God would prevail. while David's sword and his songs and service gave rise to this hope this hope that the king would come it wasn't eternally secured until Jesus, was it? God's promise of 2 Samuel that promise to establish an eternal kingdom who was it who established that kingdom? it wasn't David Solomon died the kingdom was divided The kings following them proved themselves to be unfaithful and sinful. Where is that eternal kingdom? Where is that throne that would have no end? It was established in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Matthew wants us to understand when he begins his gospel by saying, Jesus, the son of David. And Luke joining Matthew, tracing their genealogies back through David. The message is the King has come. The promised one is here. This is the good news that God has been faithful. That Jesus Christ has executed the great promises of God and secured peace for His people. From the day of His anointing, do you remember? From the day of His anointing, Jesus was in the midst of battle as He went against, striving after the enemies of God. in the wilderness, against Satan, and throughout the land of Galilee. And his battle, of course, it wasn't against flesh and blood. It wasn't against the Romans. He didn't call to him a host of soldiers. Jesus' battle was against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places, Paul tells us. And his battle was fierce. His grief far beyond what we can even imagine. And he too, our Lord, also gave voice to his concerns and his petitions. We see it in the Garden of Gethsemane. As he pled with his father, could there be some other way? Could there be some other way, Jesus says. And yet, like the transitional butt of David in Psalm 13, Jesus rests upon solid ground as he continues to pray, nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. And so, as it was determined from the foundations of the world, Jesus was left to die. It seems that he was forgotten. The text tells us he was forsaken. Indeed, the greatest fears of David were poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ as his enemies mocked him and rejoiced over his shaken and humble estate, the so-called King of the Jews. And yet, in the midst of that darkness, in the midst of that greatest of griefs, Jesus turned from a kind of pleading to a kind of praise with the final words of confidence and conviction. It is finished. The guilt of sin, the power of Satan, the curse of suffering, the power of these enemies broken once and for all by the finished and final work of our Lord Jesus Christ. What seemed a terrible defeat was ultimately, wasn't it? was ultimately a great victory. That great victory that David and all of God's people had been pleading for, praying for, longing for, it came. The answer came with the shaking of the earth, the splitting of rocks, with the dead being raised, the temple curtain torn from top to bottom as the old gave way to the new and his mocking enemies were silenced. even as His people were eternally saved. Thus, in the death of Jesus Christ, God finally secured fulfillment to His covenant promises of victory that He declares to all through the resurrection. And friend, we have to pause and ask, do you believe in this Lord Jesus? You hear the Gospel. You've heard of Him. You may have talked to Him. You may pray to Him. Do you believe in Him? He came so that you would live. He came to die so that you would be raised up. He came to fight and to secure a victory so that in your fighting, you would enjoy His victory. We need to look to this King. We need to come and to know His peace. He may not change our circumstances, But He has promised to all who look to Him in faith to change our hearts and to give us strength to stand. And for those of us who do believe the congregation of Christ, you may wonder, why do I still relate to the desperation of Psalm 13? If the longed-for Christ has come and His victory has won, why do we, believers and partakers of this great work of the Kingdom of God and of Heaven, Why do we remain in this humble estate? Why do we still battle against the temptations of sin, of Satan, and physical suffering? The short but not so easy answer is that we've been called to do so. The Lord Jesus has called us to remain here. He wants us to be here. He could have taken us home, but He chose not to. His plan is being worked out. It's a good plan. It's a perfect plan, though maybe a perplexing plan. But it's His will for us as His people that we remain here in our state of humiliation, to bear the cross of suffering until He returns in glory. In other words, we're to remain the church militant until He returns in all of His glory and to consummate the great kingdom that He's secured for us and for all His people. Think of it this way. When the sun breaks over the horizon, we say it's a new day. Though the shadows linger, the cold of the night persists, and the fog often covers the sun. Nevertheless, it's a new day. And dear friends, though Christ has risen, shadows remain for us. Doubts, disease, and death, along with sin and the last-ditch efforts of Satan's hosts, They remain, don't they? But nevertheless, it's a new day and morning has come with the resurrection of Christ and until it pleases the Father to open the clouds for the Son, our victorious King to be seen by all, we will fight, we will suffer, and we will sing and we must cry out with the saints of all ages, How long, O Lord? Joining our voices with those of the martyrs in Revelation. How long until you return? You see, Psalm 13 must be our cry. If it's not, we've somehow misunderstood this life that we've been called to live. Heaven is not here. And as long as Christ remains in His reigning glory of heaven, it will never come here. This is a battleground. We fight and we struggle and let us do it together, joining our hearts with one faith, calling out together to our God for His mercy. And as we do so, let us remember how the Lord has dealt bountifully with us. Christ has come. David could only look forward, hoping, looking in the shadows and the veils, searching. For us, He's come and His Word is dwelling within us. He's fed to us through the supper, signified for us in baptism. He's come and He's coming again. Therefore, let us pray as Peter instructs in his last chapter with humble hearts before the sovereign throne of our God so that at the proper time, he says, the Lord may exalt you. Cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Be sober, mindful. Be watchful. For your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him. Firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. Therefore, to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father, we do thank you for your word. We thank you for the wonder and goodness that you have revealed to us in Christ. We thank you for that secured salvation that he has won for us. And we pray that your power might uphold us and that we might be your people here on earth who give you glory in all times, in all ways and in seasons, even through the times of grief, trouble, and trials. May we turn our eyes to you and remember and believe that you hear us and are even now strengthening us. In the name of Jesus, we pray and ask. Amen.