Hello, you're listening to Let the Bible Speak. Let the Bible Speak is the radio ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church. Stephen Pollack is the pastor of Free Presbyterian Church of Malvern, Pennsylvania. The church is located at the junction of 401 and Mallon Road. Thank you for joining us today as Dr. Pollack opens the Word of God and lets the Bible speak. Hello and welcome to another episode of Let the Bible Speak. Before we come to today's study, I want to point out a very important thing. We're looking at the book of Psalms, we're considering the experiences of the child of God, and today we're going to look at the Psalm 13, considering the subject of seeing in the midst of our sorrows, or how we process our faith in times of pain. Some of the things that we'll consider have to do with the blessings that belong to the children of God. And before we get to the broadcast, I want to be clear that these blessings only belong to those who are in Christ Jesus. To those who have been born again with the Spirit of God. who've been given that new nature, and have come to recognise Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, the Saviour of sinners, and the Son of God. These blessings belong to those who have given up on their sin. They have turned away in repentance from a sinful life, confessing that sin in the presence of God, and then acknowledging Christ as their Lord and Saviour. But for everyone who comes to know this blessing, they have the assurance of the grace of God in their lives. And that's what the psalmist is recognizing. He's understanding, he can trust in the mercy and in the goodness of God. And I trust that by God's grace, you can come to that same assurance, to know that God is your Lord and your God today. I'll please turn with you tonight in your Bibles to the 13th Psalm. The 13th Psalm. Again, trust in the Lord to bring a word to your souls tonight. Again, the purpose of these devotionals are really to trust and courage, to edify our hearts, and to lead us to a closer relationship with the Lord. And that would indeed be expressed then in the place of prayer. The Psalm 13, the chief musician, a Psalm of David. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? Forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O Lord my God. Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest mine enemies say I have prevailed against him, and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me." Amen. This is God's Word. Again, to our hearts tonight, may it be a blessing to each and every soul. I think I understand the sentiment of some of the hymn writers But also I'm concerned that hymnology often falls short of the honesty of the Psalms. I think of him like at the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight and now I am happy all the day. I think my concern may well be with the use of the word happy. I think we could well substitute that word with a word like rejoicing. As the hymn writer says, I'm rejoicing night and day as I walk the pilgrim way for the hand of God in all my life I see. Again, there are times in the Christian experience that we are marked by profound heaviness. not happiness. And yes, at such times we still know joy, but very few of us can say that we're not happy all the day. If we mean by that the happiness that is often understood in modern language. But whatever the issues with the hymns, the Psalms present us with a very sobering display of the troubles of a genuine believer. We're 13 Psalms into this series, and we've seen the recurring thought of the trials of faith in many troubles. It seems every single psalm, at least some part of it, is dealing with the troubles that come upon the child of God. This psalm, you see four times in the opening two verses, the question is, how long? How long would I forget me? How long would I hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my sorrow? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? How long? It's a question that certainly reveals prolonged and painful sorrows, a sense in which he's at his, we might say, his wit's end. I don't know if I can endure this any longer. Again, I've certainly met many of the people of God who've come to that point in their lives. They get to that point and say, I'm not sure I can keep going in this present season of tremendous trouble. There's a longing in the question for deliverance, a real heartfelt longing for deliverance and deliverance that will be soon. Again, there are some commentators who suggest there is a tinge of impatience here in the psalmist. I'm not so sure about that. I think you have to take the entire psalm and look at that as the entirety of this experience. And you'll see in verse number five, he ends with profound hope, but I have trusted in thy mercy." So perhaps rather than seeing this as impatience, we should see it as a child of God engaging in holy argument with the Lord. It's an inspired portion of Scripture. It's given to the people of God for them to sing, to rehearse. It's not corrected. It's not in any way rebuked. It comes with a sense of honest transparency. as such, it causes us to ask the question, how do we process our faith in painful times? What are the actions we should take? What does this psalm teach us when we get to the point of saying to the Lord, How long? How long? If it's not your experience now, it may well be your experience very soon. Or maybe there'll be a time you look back to past experience, and you can now look back and say with a different spirit, yes, I wish I'd been more like that in those past times. The psalm breaks into three very simple sections, two verses for each section. And each of the sections give us some direction regarding how we should process our faith in these painful times. First of all, we are to be honest with the Lord. Secondly, we must be humble before the Lord. And thirdly, be hopeful in the Lord. And you can all memorize that very, very simple, straightforward instruction from the word of God to help us tonight. I trust, first of all, let us all be honest with the Lord. Verse one and two, we have these questions. I've read them a couple of times already. I won't read them again at this time, but it is this, since how long? How long? I think the Psalmist is indeed being honest before God here. Again, I remind you, the psalm doesn't end in verse two. It ends with the triumphant thought, reminding himself that God has dealt bountifully with him. But at the opening part, he's expressing his struggles. Of course, when I speak of being honest before the Lord, we remember the Lord knows our hearts already. He knows all about our hearts. He knows our every thought, even our every sinful thoughts known by the Lord. But there's no point in prayer in pretending that all is well. Sometimes we get to prayer and we think, well, I might think this, but I can't pray it. I might struggle this on my own private thoughts, but if I come to pray, I've gotta be more spiritual than this. And we get to the point that we pretend that we are better than we are in the place of prayer. as if God doesn't know how we feel when we get upon our knees. There is a time for real open honesty in the place of prayer. Now, I'm not suggesting we do it here in a public prayer meeting, but certainly privately in our own times with the Lord, there's a time just to pour out our souls before God in absolute honesty. We think, how long? But we fear to admit those thoughts in prayer It's important, I suggest to you, even to bring our false thoughts before God. Not to tell God our false thoughts are true, but to confess our false thoughts in the place of prayer and admit to the Lord, this is how I feel right now. Please help me. To come before God with such an openness, admitting our struggles and grief, is not necessarily a grumbling, complaining spirit, but can well be an honest expression of faith in the darkness. We think these thoughts, bringing them to the Lord, forces us to scrutinize our thoughts and to challenge our thoughts. We're bringing them to a holy God. Are they really right and true and good? This is a God who delights to have us on our knees, who delights to see us in a state of absolute dependence upon Him. He is not surprised when we come to Him and say, how long? The psalmist here is clearly struggling with profound sorrow. Verse number two describes the sorrow in his heart that is daily. It's almost a sense, not just at one point in every day, but all the day long. It's just a continual experience of profound sorrow, and it leads to internal reflection. How long shall I take counsel in my soul? There's this continual conversation in his own mind. If you go forward, perhaps, in your mind to later Psalms, why art thy cast down on my soul? There is conversation with the psalmist in himself as he takes counsel in his own heart. And there are these honest feelings that come forward in the place of prayer. Now, when you look at these four questions again, Sometimes you've got to be careful. The poetic scriptures, they don't allow the same precise, logical dissection that a letter of Paul may allow. And so I don't want to read too much into this, but I do suspect there is something happening here. I think the psalmist is reasoning, and you see that reasoning if you go backwards through the four clauses. How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? How long shall I have this daily sorrow in my heart? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long wilt thou forget me? I wonder, is he beginning with his experience? And so you start here and you say, well, my enemy is being exalted over me. Again, there are several times in David's life that that's the case. And so that's the cause of his sorrow. He feels that he's walking with God, but he's under oppression and affliction. Again, physical enemies for the psalmist, spiritual so often for ourselves. And that experience leads to this daily sorrow in his heart. The first part of verse number two. His enemy's exalted, then the daily sorrow, and then he perceives that God's face is hid from him. His conclusion, if my enemy's exalted, causing me sorrow, then God's face must be hid from me. And then he goes one step too far, and he comes to the conclusion that God has forgotten him. You see, the first two statements, like, so, if you like, verse number two, are statements of fact. He's bringing this factual statement to God. My enemy exulted over me. I'm in daily sorrow. And that leads him to the conclusion that perhaps God's face is hid from him. Now, that is possible. Again, you have a portion like Deuteronomy 31. And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they have wrought. God brings the people a warning that he will hide his face from them. It's like, it's a removal of the expression of God's grace. That God's face towards them is the outpouring of his mercy towards them. And God does warn his people in the Old Covenant that he will hide his face from them. So that's possible. But the worst conclusion is that God has forgotten him. You see, that is not possible. You see, you turn across to Isaiah 49. We sang the hymn that reflects this. Can a woman's tender care cease toward the child she bear? Yes, she may forgetful be, yet will I remember thee? It's drawn from Isaiah 49 here. It's interesting, William Cooper penned those words. Isaac Watts refers to mother's monster be. that it's possible for a natural affection for a child to be reversed through sin in the fall. And to verse number 15, can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget. Yea, yet will I not forget thee. And there's that assurance that God will not forget his people, even if his face is hid from them. And so, behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hand. Thy walls are continually before me. And so David, as a saved man, could not be forgotten of God. And so he's wrestling with God in the place of prayer. He's expressing honestly his feelings, but ultimately he's come to a wrong conclusion. Hence, I want to give you just a word of pastoral counsel. Be careful that in your sorrows, your internal deliberations of factual situations do not lead to wrong conclusions. You can reason within yourself and look at a particular circumstance that is factual and proper, but you can misread the factual situation to bring a wrong conclusion regarding God's action in your life. So yes, bring these things to God. Put your circumstances open up before God like that open book in the place of prayer, and be honest. Come to God in honesty in those seasons where you've got to say, how long? How long, oh Lord? That's the first thing, be honest. Secondly then, we must be humble. We must be humble before the Lord. This is verses three and four. Consider and hear me, O Lord my God. Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest mine enemies say I have prevailed against him, and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. These petitions show a humility before the Lord. He's not presumptuous here. but openly, humbly dependent upon the Lord. We might say he's in the face of death. He's fearful, lest he sleeps the sleep of death. He's in the face of darkness. He wants his eyes to be lightened. He's in the face of defeat. He's concerned his enemies will indeed rejoice when he is moved, that is, when he's shaken and brought to nothing. He's again expressing his helplessness. Come back to the very simple thought that occurs in the Scriptures, particularly in the Psalms, I am poor and needy. I need the Lord to think upon me. And so he brings these two petitions, consider and hear, and lighten mine eyes. The consider and the lighten actually are interesting in the terms that are used. The word considered that he brings to the Lord is the word to see, to look upon. He's asking God to look upon him. Again, this is not in any way the Psalmist denying God's omniscience or God's omnipresence. Of course, God knows him and sees him in his every circumstance. So he's asking for God to look upon him in his affliction. As God looked upon the Israelites in the days of Moses, he sees their groanings, he sees them in their afflictions, he looks upon them and intervenes. It's a petition for intervention. Consider, look. But the word lighten also has the sense of giving sight. Lord, see me in the darkness and grant me sight. I think that's a profound way to consider ourselves in our troubles. We get to a point in our spiritual experience, and all the lights are out, spiritually speaking. We come to the house of God and we leave on the Lord's day and we've nothing, we've seen nothing. There is no glory of God before our sight. When we get to the Bible and the words are all jumbled and we can't even read them. We've nothing but blindness and darkness and we don't see God in all of our ways. And so what we must do is humble ourselves, asking God to look without presumption. Let thine ear now be attentive, and thy eyes opened, says Nehemiah, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant." A desire that we would see in the darkness. I think it's a profound thing to bring to, perhaps, people in your own families or friendship circles. In a dark place, they're struggling. Encourage them. Just get to the very basics of prayer. Lord, see me. See me where I am, and help me to see. You see, in such times, we want to see God. You know, when the soul is cast down, there is the assurance, the psalmist, that he will yet hope in God, the prospect that he would still come to know something of the future blessing of God. It's the end seasons of pain and distress. We need to see God, and we need to see the way forward. You know, in such time, we said it already in this series, at such times of trouble and distress, we find ourselves at peril of going away from the paths of righteousness, but we're blind in the darkness. We can't see God, and we can't see the way, and we need God to help us. Not being bitter in our troubles, but seeking God in humble faith. As you don't forget, this is humble faith. Look what he says in verse number three. Consider and hear me, O Lord. And please don't miss the preciousness of the next two words. My God. That's a believer in Old Testament terms claiming the covenantal promises. I will be their God and they will be my people. It's a covenantal assurance. The psalmist, even though he's at a point, he's saying, how long, oh Lord, will you forget me? He has not forgotten the covenant assurances that the Lord is his God. And so he comes in humble dependence. Be honest. Be honest in the place of prayer. Be honest with the Lord. Be humble before the Lord. And thirdly and finally, be hopeful in the Lord. Again, verse five and six. But I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me. There's a triumphant end to this. Beginning in darkness and ending in the light. Beginning in misery and ending in the mercy of God. and I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice, I will sing, because ye have dealt bountifully with me. Even in his miseries, there's a sense of his knowledge that God is dealing well with him, the confidence and the hope of the child of God. You know, this is true for every single child of God. Even if their pain and sorrow leads to death, this is still true. It is the hope of the child of God that they will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And in that place, their hearts shall rejoice in God's salvation. In that place, they will sing unto the Lord. In that place, they will eternally testify to God's bountiful dealings with them. And so even though we may lose our lives in this world, yet this promise is still ours. This expectation still belongs to the child of God. And that future confidence rests on one word. Verse number five, it is the word mercy. We find ourselves coming back to what I trust is not a familiar word in the Old Testament Scriptures. It is the word hesed again. We saw in our Bible studies in the Sunday morning a few weeks ago, that word speaks of God's commitment to show His goodness in covenantal relationship. It's a word that is so closely connected with God's faithfulness. Turn across to Psalm 36. In Psalm 36, in the verse number five, and you'll see the connection there. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. The parallel terms, the mercy, the covenant mercy of God is an expression of God's covenantal faithfulness. A promise that comes to a God who in Deuteronomy 7 is the faithful God, which keep with covenant and mercy. He's the God that is determined to show mercy to his people forever and forever. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That's the hope of the child of God. Because even when we say how long, That's still true. Even we find ourselves in the darkness, those assurances still belong to the child of God. Promise is expressed in the terms of covenant. You take the language of Isaiah 54 and the verse number 10, for the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed. But my kindness, that's our word, has said, my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of thy peace be removed, saith the Lord, that I have mercy on thee. You know where we go in this. We go to the blood of the everlasting covenant. Now for both old and new covenant believers, their hope in God's faithful mercy It was a hope based upon covenantal promises and based upon covenantal bloodshed. That is the assurance of this mercy in which we can trust that our future hope is secure. It's secure as God's name. A God that cannot deny himself. A God that if we're in Christ cannot deprive us of his mercy. Secure as God's promise, sealed by Christ's blood. I think the psalm has so much to teach us. It may be a time to store the word in your heart for some future season. Young people, that may well be your experience. You've gotta hide the word of God in your heart for some future time. Or perhaps it's just a word in season for your soul. Time to be honest. Admit your struggles before God. and then come in humility before the Lord in prayer, yet hopeful and expectant of God's grace. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of care, and bids me at my father's throne make all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief my soul has often found relief, and oft escaped the tempter's snare by thy return. Sweet hour of prayer, I have trusted in thy mercy. Christ secures that for us. May our hope and confidence be in Him. Amen. Thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode of Let the Bible Speak from Malvern Free Presbyterian Church. If you'd like more information about the gospel or the church, please call 610-993-3170 or email malvernfpc at yahoo.com. We extend an invitation to all to join us as we worship the Lord each week. You will be made very welcome. The church is situated at 80 Mallon Road, Malvern, Pennsylvania, at the junction of 401 and Mallon Road. We meet for worship on the Lord's Day at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. A Bible study and prayer meeting is also held on Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. We preach Christ Crucified.