Well, let's turn this evening to Psalm 28. We're in the 28th Psalm. I want to speak from the Psalm this evening. Thank you for coming and joining, making the effort to be at the house of God. Lovely to see you here, young and old. We really appreciate your prayerful support of the work of God here. So it's Psalm 28. We'll read the Psalm together. It is a Psalm of David. And David writes, by inspiration, unto thee will I cry. O Lord my rock, be not silent to me, lest if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle, or towards the sanctuary, or more specifically, towards the holy of holies. And we were thinking about that in recent times. Draw me not away. with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts. Give them according to their deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavors. Give them after the work of their hands. Render to them their dessert, because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands. He shall destroy them and not build them up. Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. The Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoiceth. And with my song will I praise him. The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed. Save thy people and bless thine inheritance. Feed them also and lift them up forever. Amen. And may, as we always say, may God bless even as we have read the word of God this evening. I wonder, have you ever found yourself where David found himself in this particular, Sam, have you ever felt that God just isn't listening to your prayers? Does it seem that the heavens are as brass? And you leave the place of prayer wondering why you even bothered to spend time before the throne of heavenly grace. Does it appear that God has nothing to say to you. Well if so, you're not alone in feeling such a way. One of the things that I love about the Psalms is that David comes to express what we often come to experience in our own personal lives as Christians. You know the Psalmist doesn't use some kind of filter. He doesn't filter out those things that perplexed him in order to make everything look so perfect in his life as a Christian. There's no editing taking place here. with regard to David's life and his own personal experience that would make the reader think that well David has it all in hand as a Christian and that he never had any struggles with doubt and why God did some things and why God didn't do other things. David is a very frank, he's a very honest man and certainly the opening verse of this particular psalm comes to verify that to be the case because we find David crying out to God these words, be not silent to me lest if thou be silent to me I become like them that go down into the pit. When David breathes out this petition, it appears that God is being silent to him, and therefore he takes this matter to God in prayer, and he cries to God, be not silent to me. Such is the sad portion of the sinner, the ungodly. Sinners come to a place in their lives where God has nothing more to say to them. We need to pray that our loved ones and our friends and our work colleagues never reach that place in their lives. For it is the most terrifying place for an individual ever to reach when God has nothing more to say to them, but God simply gives them over to their sin. We have an example of that in scripture. This actually occurred in the life of an ungodly sinner. You'll know his name. His name is Herod. You'll know that John the Baptist was sent to Herod by God to confront him about his sin with Herodias, Philip's brother's wife. Herod, as a result of that confrontation, decided to behead John because John publicly denounced Herod's sin and Herodias' sin. Fast forward three years, and now Jesus Christ comes to stand before the same man, Herod, When the Savior is questioned by Herod, the Son of God has nothing to say to him. Dr. Luke tells us there in Luke 23 that Herod questioned him with many words, but he, speaking of Jesus Christ, answered him nothing. We come to ask the question, why did Jesus Christ say nothing to Herod? Well, could I suggest to you, as many have suggested, that God had said everything that Herod needed to hear through the mouth of John the Baptist, and because John the Baptist did not want to hear what Herod did not want to hear what John the Baptist said to him, God had nothing more to say. John the Baptist's message was God's final word to Herod, and thus God stopped speaking to him. was silent to Herod, I believe, after he beheaded John the Baptist. He cut off God's voice. And we need to pray that our loved ones and our friends never reach that position where God has nothing more to say to them, but he simply gives them up over to their sin. As Christians, we certainly never want to reach that place in our lives when God is silent to us. But there are times when it appears that God has nothing to say to us. Now, the reasons for that can be varied. For example, it might be the consequence of unconfessed sin in our lives. We need to be very careful that we must ever keep short accounts with the Lord. We must confess our sin. Luther said that the Christian life is a continual repentance. There is to be a daily repentance of our sins against God, and at times when there is unconfessed sin, God is silent to us. He withdraws, as it were, His voice from us. It might be due to an unwillingness on our part to submit to His counsel that comes to us via His servants. God speaks to us through the Word. We are rebellious against that Word, and God will have nothing more to say to us until we obey what God has dealt with us with regard to God's servant, and as God's servant has preached, there might be an unwillingness and a reluctance to do the will of God, or it might be simply God stirring us up to seek Him in a greater earnestness than we have before. But I'm not wanting tonight to focus on why God is silent to David. as it appears to be from his words and his petition here in the opening verse. But what I want you to do and what I want to do this evening is to show you what David did whenever God was silent to him. What was David's response when God was silent to him? And so my title for tonight's message is What To Do When God Is Silent. What To Do When God Is Silent. If we ever find ourselves in that place as a Christian, may we be enabled by God to do what David did here in the psalm. Three very simple, quick things I want you to think about this evening. I can imagine David maybe sitting down in despair and maybe saying to himself, though God is silent to me, yet will I still, number one, yet will I still pray to him. Though God is silent to me, yet will I still pray to him. Note the terms in the opening verses of this psalm that really point us to David's resolve to keep on praying despite God's seeming reluctance to answer his prayers. Verse number one. Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock. Verse number two, hear the voice of my supplications when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands towards thy holy oracle. Though it appeared at this time that God was silent to David, the encouraging thing is this, David was not silent to God. Though it appeared that God was silent to David, David was not silent to God. There's no doubt that this must have been a great test on the part of David's faith at this juncture in his life. What would he do when God appeared to have nothing to say to him when, as it were, heaven was silent to him? What was he going to do? Well, what David did is he kept on praying. He kept before the throne of grace. I'm sure that praying would involve confession of his sin. I'm sure the silence from heaven would have caused David to search out his heart. Why the silence, Lord? Is there sin? Someone confess sin in my life. Is there something that I have done wrong? Is there something that I've said that has grieved your spirit? I'm sure there was searchings of heart by David, and I'm sure there was confession of sin. I'm also sure there was adoration on the part of the psalmist, and we find that within the psalm there's thanksgiving and there would have been supplications. But David didn't stop praying. He didn't quit praying. Simply, he continued to make his appeals to God at the throne of heavenly grace. And brethren and sisters, that's what we ought to do when it appears that God is silent to us. We must keep on praying, keep on seeking him, keep on petitioning his throne, keep offering up our supplications and our intercession You see, Satan would love to keep you and I away from the throne of heavenly grace. And he would love to do that at all costs because he knows that the Christian there finds mercy and grace to help in their time of need. And thus he wants to keep us away from the throne of grace. He wants to keep us from seeking the Lord. And so the devil will do everything to discourage us from praying. And He'll distract us when we're praying, and He'll dissuade us from praying, and He'll divert us before we even get to prayer. And He'll certainly suggest to our minds when it appears that God is silent to us and silent to our prayers, that God isn't hearing our prayers at all. You're not a bit interested. your supplications he's not a bit interested in your prayers he's indifferent to your intercessions he regards not your cries that's what he'll suggest to your mind it is then that we live by faith and we come to inform the wicked one we come to inform him that we believe and know that god is the hearer of prayer Because Psalm 65 and the verse number 2 tells us that. Because in Psalm 65 and the verse 2, we read, And thus, when God is silent to us and the devil would suggest to our minds that he's not interested in your prayers, he's not even listening to your prayers, we remind the devil that the Lord is the hearer of prayer. Not only that, we also remind him that the prayer of the upright is the Lord's delight. As we're told in Proverbs 15 in the verse eight, and not only that, but we tell him that the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open on to their cry, as we find in Psalm 34 in the verse number 15. It is then we live by faith. It is then that we persist in prayer. It is then that we engage in prayer when God is silent, and all sin is confessed, and yet God remains silent. It is then that we continue instant in prayer. We don't leave prayer, but we engage in prayer. There's a wonderful account in the Savior's earthly ministry that really comes to illustrate this thought of When God is silent, we continue to persist. We think of that Canaanite woman. We read of her in Matthew chapter 15. She has a daughter who is vexed with a devil. And this woman, she comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. She comes crying unto him, saying in verse 22, And then I want you to notice verse 23, It's as if it went over the Savior's head. It's as if she wasn't even there. And what's she going to do? Is she going to give up? Is she going to think to herself, An ignorant man, do you not hear when I cry? Does he not know my state? Does he not know my situation? Does he not know the extent of desperation to which I have reached that I have left my home? I as a woman have left my home With all the dangers that were surrounding, not like today, we think of the bandits and all that would have been about, and yet she comes out off the coast side of Canaan, and she makes her way to the Lord Jesus Christ, and he says nothing to her, and then the disciples, they chip in, and they say, send her away, for she crieth after us. She's not getting much encouragement to persist, and yet this woman, Distressed. This distressed mother, she persists. We would say that she doggedly persists. Because he eventually answers and said, I am not sent on to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And she came and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, it is not me to take children's bread and cast it to dogs. And she said, truth Lord, yet the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from off the master's table. She found a little crumb of comfort with the fact that a dog can eat a crumb off the table. And she says, yes, I am a dog, but the dogs even get a crumb off the table. Lord, give me a crumb, give me a crumb. Maybe that's what you need to pray tonight. Maybe it's not the loaf you need. Maybe it's just a crumb. Lord, give me a crumb. Well, what happens? It goes on to say, then Jesus answered and said unto her, a woman great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. There's a woman and she persists in prayer. She persists supplicating, interceding on behalf of her daughter. And it goes on to say, and her daughter was made whole from that That very hour, even when the Son of God answered her not a word, that mother persisted to pray, to intercede on behalf of her daughter. And maybe you're here tonight, and you're a Christian mother, and you've got a son, you've got a daughter, and they're far in the world, and it appears that all of your prayers are falling on deaf ears. Mother, learn from this mother. Persist in your praying. Continue to intercede. Don't be giving up on your son. Don't be giving up on your daughter. God is listening to your prayer, and he's observant of your tears. There's other examples. In the scriptures, remember the man who goes to his friend at midnight and knocks the door. A friend has come to his house. He's got no food. He goes to another friend's house to require loaves. And he persists, and he persists, and he persists. until he gets the answer. We think of that little widow who goes to that unjust judge, another example of persistence in prayer and how she continues to persuade and to intercede on behalf of her own need. And the unjust judge, he says, because of her importunity, because she just persists in it, He says, I will do what is required. And then the Savior said, if that's what an unjust judge does, what will I not do for you? And so men ought always to pray and not to faint. That was the moral. That was the teaching of the very parable itself. I say, believer, don't be discouraged or disheartened when it appears that God is silent in His response when you pray. Continue in prayer, for the answer is on the way. William Gurnall, a Puritan, he said, God hears us indeed as soon as we pray, but we oft do not hear of Him so soon. Prayers are not long in their journey to heaven, but long a coming fence. in a full answer oh yes we rapidly pray we quickly pray and we expect the answer to be as quick and as rapid from heaven but not so with god but god has heard prayer i say if all sin has been confessed and if all christian duty is being done and all relationship with others as it ought to be and all requests are being made known according to god's well All unbelief forsaken, then we can be assured that God will hear and God will answer prayer according to his will. When God was silent, David wasn't. David kept on praying. In the second instance, I can see David sitting and saying to himself, though God is silent to me, yet will I still have faith in him. I'll still have faith in him. Having poured out his complaint before God in the verses 3 through to 5, and we're not looking at really what he prayed, but that is the petition. As he speaks, he desires that his enemies would be dealt with by the Lord and God would take vengeance upon them. But having poured out his complaint, David now comes to speak the language of faith in verse 6 and 7. "'Blessed be the Lord,' he said, "'because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. "'The Lord is my strength and my shield. "'My heart trusteth in him, and I am helped.'" The psalmist's faith throughout the psalm, it never wavers. It never wavers. Despite the appearance that God was being silent to him at this point of life, his faith doesn't waver. He still speaks of God as being his rock in verse number one. He's my rock. I still believe that. Though he's silent to me, I still believe he's my rock. And not only that, I also believe that he is my God. He is the hearer of my prayer. Verse number six, I believe that. And not only that, I believe he's my strength, I believe he's my shield, and I believe that he is my helper. Verse number seven, these are all declarations of faith, brethren and sisters. I say, brethren and sisters, a faith that doesn't endure just because God is silent to us isn't a genuine faith. A faith that is real. There's one that causes a Christian to cling to God and believe in God even when he is silent. To still trust him, though he be silent to me, I still believe he's my rock, my hearer of prayer, my shield, my strength, and my helper. I still believe that, though he's silent to me, because I'm living by faith and not by my sight. Do you not meet a man like that in the scripture? He's so familiar to us, Job. That dear man of God, a man who eschewed evil, a man who walked uprightly in his generation, and yet the man who believed in God, even when it appeared that God was silent to him, you'll know that he was severely tested. His world falls apart in one day. In chapter 31 of Job. Job chapter 31 and the verse 35, Job comes to breathe out this lament. Listen to what he says. Job 31 and the verse 35, all that one would hear me. Behold, my desire is that the Almighty would answer me and that my adversary had written a book It's as if God has nothing to say to Job in the midst of the valley when he needed to hear him the most. It appears that God has nothing to say to him. Oh, that the Almighty would answer me. I have spoken to him, but he's nothing to say to me. Oh, that someone would hear me. Are you there? They suggest that God was silent with respect to all that had happened to Job. In the previous chapter, Job looks everywhere for God. He can't find Him. Behold, I go forward, He's not there. Backward, I can't perceive Him. In the right hand, where He doth work, I can't behold Him. He hideth Himself in the right hand, I cannot see Him. Job searches for God in that chapter. And he does so in order that in Job's own words, I would know the words which he would answer me and understand what he would say unto me. That's why he searches for God. He's listening for God. He wants to hear from God. And yet despite this silence from God, the Almighty nothing to say to him. In the midst of his trial and in his valley experience, in the midst of his heartache, and God has nothing to say to him, Job is a man who continues to exercise faith in his God. Job 1 verse 21. And the news reaches Job and he bows his head and he worships God. He says, naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return hither. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. There's faith in God. This is faith expressing himself. Listen to this for an expression of faith. Job 13, 15, though he slay me, Yet will I trust in him. But I will maintain my own ways beforehand. There in Job 23 and the verses 11 and 12, yes, Job could not find the Lord, but this is what he said. My foot hath held to his steps. His way have I kept and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Yes, my circumstances are bleak and dire, but I have not gone back. I'm still a child of faith. You know, there will be times in our lives when God is silent, times when we will not be able to discern God's purposes in our lives, events that will test our faith to the greatest degree. And in such times, we have that choice to make. Will we believe God? Will we still trust in Him, or will we distrust Him? You know, ignorance of God's intentions may sometimes say to us, distrust Him. And unbelief may suggest, distrust Him. And fear may whisper into our ears, distrust Him. But in spite of such voices, may we be able to say, I will trust in Him. This is faith. Yes, God is silent to me. but he's still my rock, and he's still my shield, and he's still my helper, and he's still my strength. I have enough faith to say that still. May God help you and I to trust him even when he is silent. One final thought. I can imagine David, I can imagine him saying to himself, though God is silent to me, yet will I still praise him. I'll still praise him. Look at the words of the verse number seven, Sam 28 in the verse seven. The Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusted in him and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth and with my song will I praise him. You know, whenever God is silent to us, what often happens is that we fall silent to him. The stream of praise sadly dries up and we come really to employ our voices in complaining and murmuring rather than in praising our God. But this is not so in the life of David, where David continues to praise God despite the fact that it appears that God is silent to him. David will soon pen words in Psalm 34 in the verse one, I will bless the Lord. At all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth. It appears that David had resolved that regardless of what was going on in his life or in the world around him, that nothing and no one was going to stop him from praising his God. It's a good resolution to make, brethren and sisters. Nothing and no one is going to stop me from praising my God. J.R. Miller said, David had learned to sing in the hours of pain as well as in the times of gladness. That is the way the Christian should live. Nothing should hush his song or choke the voice of thanksgiving and praise. Who's stolen your praise, child of God? What stopped your lips from praising God? Not even a silent God could stop David from praising his God. And should the whole frame of nature become unhinged, and all family and friends prove to be false and deceitful, and all my hopes and my plans be disappointed, And all my possessions taken from me, and the wheels of sickness and poverty overwhelm this soul of mine. May God still enable me to praise him, for I've a lot to praise him for. He brought me out of the horrible pit, and from the mirey clay, and he set my feet on a rock, and he's established my goings and he put a new song in my mouth even praise on to our God and many shall see it and shall fear the Lord. Praise him. Praise him. Praise him at all times. Oh that God would enable us to praise him in the dark days knowing that his wisdom has ordained such to come to pass. Now it's interesting to notice what it is that stimulates this praise in the heart of the psalmist. It's not his circumstances. They're dire. And it's not his feelings, for they are downcast. What is it that stimulates this praise in the heart of the psalm? It's his God. It's his God. As David comes to recall how God is his strength and his shield and as he comes to experience God's help in his life, for that's what the previous part of the verse said. The Lord is my strength and my shield. Here's a man and he's got his focus on the Lord. My heart trusted in him and I am helped. Therefore, in light of that, in light of who God is and what God has done for me, therefore, my heart rejoiceth and with my song praise him such as the extent of the joy produced within the heart of the psalmist that it cannot be confined to his heart but like a volcano or like a geyser like a volcano or a geyser. It just erupts this praise. It erupts out of his soul and it pours out of his lips. He says, my heart rejoiceth and as a result with my soul will I praise him. I'm gonna praise him. A glad heart will praise the Lord. A rejoicing heart will praise the Lord. The outward song is but an expression of the inward joy. By the way, that word song is the Hebrew word sherif, which means an ode or a religious song, a lyric song. David sings a solo. He sings a solo in which God is highly praised. He's my rock. He's my strength. He's my shield. He's the one who's helped me. He sang when God was silent. You know, beloved Paul and Silas, they praised the Lord even when they found themselves in a trying circumstance. Having been in prison for the preaching of the gospel, I and as the Savior traveled to the cross, he sung a hymn. He sang. Well, these are reminders to us, whether it be David, Paul, Silas, or most importantly, our Savior, they are reminders that our circumstances do not need to be ideal for us to praise our God. Because if that were to be the case, if we could only but praise God when everything was ideal and everything was perfect in our lives, I say we wouldn't be praising God too often. But we still praise him. I'll still praise him. Because that's faith. That is faith. Twice in the Psalms we are reminded that praise on the part of the Christian is comely. That's the word that's used. It's comely. In other words, it's befitting. Praise is befitting. Praise is suitable. It's proper. It's right. And when we consider simply the mercies that we receive from God as well as the things that God withholds from us, and you heard me right, the things that God withholds from us When we think of those things, we have good grounds to praise God for. Thank God there are things in my life that God withheld from me. For it would have been to my spiritual detriment. Now it might have been for my financial prosperity, but it would have been to my spiritual detriment. and you too, so thank him for the things that he doesn't give you, as well as the things that he has. Child of God, don't stop praising God, even when he appears to be silent to you, still praise him, still praise him. What do we do? when it seems that God has nothing to say to us, when it appears that He's silent. Well, if there is no sin that needs to be confessed, no neglected jury that needs to be engaged in, no broken relationship that needs to be mended between us and another believer, pray, trust, Because soon he'll answer those prayers. And that will only lead to two things, a greater trust in him and a greater praise of him. So when God is silent, pray on. Continue to have faith in him and continue to praise him. May God help us to do that for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Our gracious Father, we thank Thee for Thy word. How much we have to praise Thee for. Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise. will help us to be a people of prayer, a people of faith, a people of praise. May, oh God, the ungodly look on, and may they wonder, may they be caught up in wonder as they look at our lives. And as I see a faith that is working itself out from day to day, bless thy good word to our souls. We offer prayer in Jesus' name.