We're in Psalm 13 this evening, the 13th Psalm. Welcome, one and all, once again. How quickly our Wednesday nights come round, but we're glad to see you and appreciate your presence. Sincerely, we mean that. Lovely to have you here at the house of God tonight. Psalm number 13, only six verses to the psalm, and so it's not a lengthy psalm, but we'll read the psalm together. To the chief musician, a psalm of David, and David, he now, He pens the words, 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. As mine enemies say, I have prevailed against them, 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 on to the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me. Amen, and may God bless even the public reading of his wholly inspired, inerrant, infallible word. You know, one thing that I love about the book of Psalms is the frankness and the honesty of the psalmist when he comes to put pen to many of his compositions. There's no hiding of the psalmist behind the facade that we often ourselves hide behind as we pretend to others that all is well with us, when all is not well. David. is often found putting it all out there, to coin a phrase, putting it all out there for God to know that he is not in a good place spiritually, emotionally, and at times physically. Now in our modern age we would view such frankness and such honesty as being unnecessary, being below us. Rather the stiff upper lip and the putting on of a brave face is often how we choose to react whenever our worlds come crashing in around us. I suppose the lack of empathy from others, even within the family of God, can cause us to take that approach. However, even when others don't care or don't seem to care, we can still go to our God. And we can go and pour out our souls to Him and tell Him, how we are really feeling. This is exactly what David comes to do in Psalm 13 as he comes to vent his frustrations at the seeming indifference and inaction of God with respect to what he is presently going through as one of God's children. Many, as I said, in the Lord's day have referred to the psalm as the How Long Psalm, and they do that for a very good reason. The question, how long, appears some four times in the opening two verses. Look at the verses 1 and 2 again. How long, the psalmist said, wilt thou forget me, O Lord, forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel of my soul? Having sorrow in my heart daily, how long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Though it was asked four times, it is a question on my reading of the psalm that David doesn't get a specific answer to. If you are a Christian, at times, no doubt you go to the Lord in prayer, you ask him, for direction. That direction is not forthcoming. Sometimes the question is asked, but you never seem to get an answer. A silent God, let me say, is no indication of an angry God, of a disinterested God, an unconcerned God, an unsympathetic God, an uncaring God. At times, God leaves our questions unanswered, and He is within His right to do that. And so in such times, we are to continue to leave our question before God in prayer, and while He remains silent of the matter, we are to continue to walk in the light that He has already given us with respect to that particular matter. David isn't the only one who makes this question or utters this question to God. I was looking just this evening, I typed it into a little search engine and I found that this question is asked over a hundred times in the scripture, this how long? Isaiah the prophet, he asked the question in Isaiah chapter six. There we read with God speaking to Isaiah, he said, go and tell this people, hear ye indeed but understand and see ye indeed but perceive not. Verse 10, make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes. lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? He answered, until the cities be waste without habitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate. Habakkuk was another who asked this particular question. In Habakkuk chapter 1 in the verse 1, we read, And so Habakkuk, he finds himself in a similar situation as David. And then we find in the last book of the Bible, We read those great words concerning those who were slain for the testimony of Jesus Christ. And their souls are under the altar. Revelation 6 verse 10. And they cried, let's read verse 9. And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood and them that dwell on the earth? So if you ever find yourself asking the question, how long? You can join the company of David, Habakkuk, Isaiah, these slaughtered, martyred saints whose souls are under the altar and countless other believers who have found themselves asking the question, how long? Now as you've probably deciphered this Psalm, Psalm 13 divides itself into three parts each consisting of two verses and it is those three subsections that i want us to look at this evening i'm going to use three single words for each of the heading all beginning with the letter p the first heading that i want to consider this evening is the word pits pits to be in the pits is another way of stating that you're in the worst possible place you can be on so many different levels, whether that's emotionally, spiritually, financially, physically, or mentally. When you meet someone who's in the pits, you often find that that person is depressed, discouraged, maybe bitter, embittered, frustrated, unhappy. It seems that David finds himself in the pits when he comes to pen this psalm. And it is from the pit that David fires out four questions to God, all of which, as I've said, they begin with this phrase, how long? I want to look at each of them individually. Notice, first of all, the first how long question. How long, the psalmist says, will thou forget me, O Lord? Then he seems to check himself And he realizes that God's not going to forget him at all times, but he suggests, will it be forever? You know, there's no doubt when you find yourself in the pits, when you're in the depths of despair, this suggestion that God has forgotten you often comes frequently into the mind. When God does not immediately deliver his people from their enemies or help them out of their affliction the devil suggests to that individual that God has forgotten them. But let's take that suggestion that comes so often into our minds. Let's take that suggestion and let's take it to the word of God and see if it is possible that God can forget his redeemed child. One verse, Isaiah chapter 49. Well, a number of verses, Isaiah 49, verses 14 through to 16. And as we read these words, it'll bring you, I believe, to the settled conclusion that God cannot forget his child. Isaiah 49, 14 through to 16. But Zion said, and remember, Zion in the Old Testament is a symbol, a picture, a type of the church of which you belong to. the church of Jesus Christ. But Zion said, the Lord hath forsaken me, my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child? that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb. Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually before me. You see, beloved, it is impossible for God to forget any of his children just in the same way as it is impossible for a mother to forget her child. To forget us would be contrary to many things. It would be contrary to His covenant. God in covenant has ordered it so that He will not forget any of His children. Not only will it be contrary to His covenant, it will be contrary to His nature. God cannot forget us. God of love, a God of mercy, an omniscient God. He cannot forget us. He cannot forget us. It would be contrary to his promises, his promises towards us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. It will be contrary to his purposes, his purposes for his children. And what is his purpose? His purpose is to bring us eventually to glory, that we would behold his glory. That's his purpose for us. How will he then forget us? God will not forget any of his children in this life, and he will certainly not forget them when they pass through Death's Valley either. And so maybe you're here tonight and you feel that God has forgotten you. Well, he hasn't. Friends and family and those in the church fellowship may have forgotten you, but God hasn't. Omniscience cannot feel in memory. And God is omniscient. And therefore, he cannot forget you. In actual fact, he's thinking about you right now, because his thoughts are towards us. And more than that, he's not only thinking about you, he's praying for you. That's one of the reasons why the Son of God rose from the dead and returned back to heaven. He's there to live on our behalf. And there living, he's making intercession for us at the father's right hand. And so the psalmist, he asked the question, how long will thou forget me? And then he goes on to ask the question, how long will thou hide thy face from me? The hiding of God's face is poetic language that speaks of the withdrawing of the conscious sense of God's presence from our lives. The hiding of God's face, the turning away of the countenance is a sign of a person's displeasure towards another individual. We would talk about someone turning their back on us. And then turning their back on us, it's really a sign that there is an unresolved matter between us and between them. Well, in the mind of the Psalmist, it appears that God has hidden his face from him as if he has turned his back upon him. And that concerned David deeply. And beloved, it ought to concern us when God's countenance is no longer toward us. This ought to be a time in our lives when there is great searching of heart. It takes place to make sure that there are no unconfessed sins or unquestionable practices that need to be repented of by us. And yet, whenever all is well with us, between us and God, it still may be that God may hide His face from us, that we might seek His face. This is some of the reason, this is one of the reasons why God at times, as it appears, he turns his face from us, he hides his face from us in order that we might seek his face, that we might seek his favor, that we might seek his smile again, that our cry would be, Lord, lift up the light of thy countenance upon us. This is why at times he hides his face, but whatever reason, of the hiding of God's face, we must be reminded that a hidden face, a hidden face is no sign of a forgetful heart on the part of God. A hidden face is not a sign of a forgetful heart on the part of God. While God hides his face, we are to continue to wait upon him in faith and in prayer and in hope, knowing that he will again in his time lift up the light of his countenance upon us. How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? Are you there? David was there. He goes on to say, How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? Verse number two. Sorrow is something that we'll all face in this fallen world. Sorrow is actually a consequence of the fall. You turn back to Genesis chapter 3 and you'll see that both sexes, both male and female, were to suffer sorrow as a consequence of sin's entrance into the world. having promised to our first parents the promise of a coming Redeemer in Genesis 3 verse 15. God addresses Eve in verse 16 and he tells Eve there, unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thy desires shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And having addressed Eve, then he now addresses Adam in verse 17. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the fruit of which I command thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it. all the days of my life. Sorrow is the sad legacy of sin. And note, according to the psalmist here, the child of God is not immune from having their sorrows. This is what the psalmist said. How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? What's the saying? It's to say not something like you haven't your sorrows to seek. Someone will say that to you. You'll not have your sorrows to seek. Always encouraging people like that. You love to meet people like that there. Well, it is certainly true for us all, whether saved or unsaved, we'll not have our sorrows to seek in a world, a world that has fallen, a world blighted by sin. Sorrow, sorrows will cross your path. and we have it here that the psalmist he's experiencing daily sorrow and that's really what makes the matter worse the worst of sorrows are are they not the sorrows that just linger they keep coming they're they're always there We can't evade them, we can't avoid them. And this is what David is referring to here. David has tried to contrive ways to relieve his sorrow, but it's all to no avail because the sorrow is in his heart dealing. And maybe that's your condition tonight. Maybe sorrow plagues your heart day in, day out. You never seem to get away from it. Always there. Sorrow about your family, but your loved ones, Sorrow about the land. Sorrow about your personal circumstances. Sorrow, maybe about health issues. Sorrows. Though that is a difficult path to tread. And maybe you're treading it tonight, having sorrow daily in your heart. I want you to remember that the wonderful consolation that comes to you from the Word of God is that the man of sorrows, Lord Jesus Christ, is aware of your sorrows. There's a beautiful statement. I know that you'll know it. You read it over there in Exodus 3, verse 7. God is relating to Moses that he is abreast of all the situation that's happening to his people, his covenant people down there in Egypt. And in Exodus 3, verse 7, we read, And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. I know them. He knows them. He knew their sorrows. He knows your sorrows. Indifference and apathy have no place in the heart of our God when it comes to our sorrows. He knows our sorrows from which he may release us speedily or he may dispense to us the grace that is needed to bear us up under our sorrows. But brethren and sisters, let me be very frank with you. I'm very honest with you tonight. Our sorrows are going to continue to our dying day. We'll take comfort from the words of Thomas Adams who said, we spend our years with sign. It is a valley of tears, but death is the funeral of all our sorrows. Death is the funeral. of all our sorrows. Thomas Brooks, another Puritan, he said something akin to that, similar to that. He says, a Christian knows that death shall be the funeral of all his sins, his sorrows, his afflictions, his temptations, his vexations, his oppressions, his persecutions. He knows that death shall be the resurrection of all of his hopes, his joys, his delights, his comforts, his contentments. Death is the funeral of all our sorrows and sin, Very soon, we'll leave our sorrows behind and we'll ascend the hell of Zion where there will be no more sorrow and all sorrows and all tears will be wiped away. For the Christian, our sorrows are confined to time. Our joys are eternal, but for the sinner, their joys, oftentimes mingled with much sorrow, are confined to time, and their sorrows are to the extent of eternity. I know what side I'd rather be on. I'd rather be on the side of Christ the man of sorrows. Thank God, we will leave this place of sorrow and we'll never say again, how long, how long. Fourthly, he goes on to say, how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? Surely the prospering of the wicked is a source of great grief to the mind of any Christian Why do the ungodly prosper? It's one of the most perplexing questions that we come to ask ourselves on this side of the grave. And yet we are reminded in Scripture that again, they're prospering. It's only momentary, momentary. It's only temporary. You know, this thought came to my mind, how long shall my enemy be exalted over me? This thought came to my mind, and well, you can correct me if you don't believe it to be right. I'll leave it with you. But could it be, could it be that our enemies prospering in this world only will come to heighten their sense of loss in the world that is to come? To fall from a great height will certainly extenuate the loss that they will come to feel in eternity. It's like a rich individual, a multimillionaire, then descending into bankruptcy. The great fall that that would be compared to a man who simply, as it were, scrapes through life and he himself is also declared bankrupt. What will be the greater felt of loss? Surely will it not be the man who had it all? That millionaire, billionaire, and now he's now in the depths of bankruptcy. Well, is it not the case with the wicked who ride high in prosperity? How will they feel when they find themselves in the depths of hell? Surely, surely their height, the great height from which they fall will extenuate the loss that they will face in eternity. Now, brethren and sisters, we take no pleasure in that. We only come but to pity. The enemies of Christ who will come to be judged by Christ. How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? What a bitter pill for a child of God to swallow. While we are bowed down, our enemies are exalted. But remember, child of God, the wheel always turns. The wheel always turns. Those who are bowed down now will be exalted by God and those who are presently exalted will be brought down so that we will not need to cry to God, how long? Because God will see. to the destruction of His and our enemies. I believe I would be right in saying, brethren and sisters, that it's often not the trial itself that causes us to cry out how long, that really crushes us. Really, it's the length of the trial that often cripples us. You know, often we faint under the length of our trials. We feel that we could endure almost anything if we knew that it will come to an end next week. or next month, or next year, or 10 years down the line. And yet it seems that our trials, they have got no end to them, and there's no end in sight to them. And in those times, we find ourselves crying out, how long? And yet we must come to realize that all things will work together for good. Including the trials and the troubles that cause us to cry out, how long? It'll work out for good. His glory and our good. And so we find here the Psalmist is in the pits, moving on very quickly. And my last two points, not as lengthy as normal. You know that. Normally it's like that. Normally it's like that. But moving from the pits, my second word heading is pivot. Pivot. A pivot can be a fulcrum. upon which an object comes to rest and to swing on or to move. You have a fulcrum or a pivot there on a seesaw, causes the seesaw to move upon that particular pivot. And it seems to me that the pivot within the psalm comes here at the verses three and four, because it's in these verses that David comes to do something, because he can't do anything about the situation. But he can pray. He can pray. Maybe there's some situation that you're in tonight and you can do nothing about it. It's out of your hands. You can't do anything about it. You've maybe tried to do it and that's been a disaster. And so there's nothing that you can, as it were, do about the particular situation. But you can pray. You can pray about it. And this is what David comes to do, and it's on that pivot, the pivot of prayer, let's call it that, upon the pivot of prayer that the situation turns all around. Let's eavesdrop into David praying. Consider and hear me, he says in verse 3 and 4. 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 who trouble me rejoice when I am moved. What the psalmist does here is what we ought to do when we find ourselves feeling that God has forgotten us, when we feel that God has hidden his face from us, when we feel that the relieving of our sorrows is not forthcoming, that our enemies are allowed to triumph over us, we ought to take ourselves off to God in prayer. F.B. Meyer, the Christian author, he wrote, I suppose it's the Achilles' heel that we all suffer. It's the Achilles' heel that we all suffer from as Christians, that we are quick to go to others in our times of trouble instead of going first to God. And yet as good as friends and family members and ministers and pastors and elders are, they should never take the place of bringing everything to God in prayer. The repetition of David's appeal at the start of the verse three, consider and hear me, points the reader to, I believe, a desperation on the part of the psalmist he's reached within his life as he considers the things that are seemingly the wrong way around in his life. Consider, and then he adds, consider and hear me. Maybe, beloved, the reason why God hasn't answered our prayers is because we're not desperate enough. Where's the desperation in our prayers when our loved ones and friends, unsaved, are but a heartbeat away from eternity? Where's the rush to the throne of grace in our homes and in the public seasons of prayer? Where's the desperation? Where's the oh in our prayers now? I remember many years ago being at a meeting and a minister and evangelist speaking about where's the O's in our prayers. And I went to the prayer meeting the next night and there were a lot of O's in the praying. But it was all worked up. It was fleshly. Where's the O in our praying? Where's the burden? Here's David. He's desperate. There's a desperation here. And it's worth noting that David asked God here to intervene, not so that he could have an easier life, but that God, and I'm using another phrase, that God would take the wind out of the sails of his enemies. That's why he prays. Consider and hear me, O Lord, lest mine enemies say I have prevailed against him, and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. The enemies of God, they love to boast whenever God's people are cast down. The sweet Psalmist of Israel desires that God will reverse his fortunes so that his enemies' boasting is made null and void. I suppose we could ask the question, why do we want revival in the church? Why do we want our loved ones saved? Why do we want God to give us something that He is presently withholding from us? Is it down to the fact that we want an easier ride within the family? Is it because we want to consume it upon our own lusts? May the glory of God ever be the motivation. When we come to pray, we should be able to pray, if God is going to be glorified, then answer my petitions, and if he is not, then leave my prayers unanswered. The pivot comes when he prays. And that brings me to my third and final P. It is the word praise. And really, we're in the last two verses now of the psalm, but I have trusted in thy mercy. But, what a glorious but there. It's a change. The pivot is now happening. There's a change in the circumstance. No, there's not a change in the circumstance. There's a change in the psalmist. There's a change in the psalmist. No indication, no indication that the enemy has been righted, no indication whatsoever, but there's a change in the attitude of the one who has now petitioned God's throne. The change has come within. And maybe that's the reason why he was brought to this position of he's crying, how long? Because it wasn't the situation that needed to be changed, he needed to be changed. He needed to be changed. You need to watch you don't get caught up here. He needed to change. He says, but I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the Lord. because he had dealt bountifully with me. Having prayed about the matter, David's faith is strengthened to the point that he's now able to praise God for his unfeeling mercy and his bountiful dealings with him. Did you notice the change that takes place? And do you know where it takes place? Notice where it takes place. It takes place in his heart. Look there, verse number two. David laments about having sorrow. Where does he have the sorrow? having sorrow in my heart daily, but now notice verse five, my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. God has dealt with his heart. And I believe he blessed God for the day God took him in to that particular situation. Whatever it is, we're not told, but he thanked God that through that situation, His heart was changed. His heart was changed. The heart, it has moved from sorrow to singing. From sorrow to singing. You know, whenever you have nothing else in your life to rejoice your heart in, and at times you don't, things can be very bleak. But whenever you have nothing else in your life to rejoice your heart, then let me encourage you to consider the salvation that God has wrought in your life. Consider where God has brought you from, and consider where God has taken you to, and all because of his salvation. Because that's what the psalmist came to rejoice in. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. Maybe it was temporal salvation. I'm sure it was. But could he not have been a little deeper? Could he not have been saying, not only rejoicing in temporal salvation, temporal deliverance from my difficulty in trial, but surely my spiritual salvation. But don't miss it, brethren and sisters, the bridge, the bridge, could we use that metaphor, that image, that illustration, the bridge that brings David from despair felt in verse 1 and 2, the delight expressed in verses 5 and 6, the bridge that brings him over the great chasm, the great gulf, the great pit, whatever it is, is prayer. Prayer that he offers in verses 3 and 4. Are you despairing? Then take it to the Lord in prayer. Tell him all about it. And as you pray, remember there God's bountiful dealings with you. Because he hath dealt bountifully with me. And he has. He has dealt bountifully with you, brother, sister. He has. Beloved, the journey that David takes in this psalm can be your journey tonight from sorrow to singing. What a transition, what a change, what a turnaround in just a short period of time. Just because he took it to God in prayer. What a Psalm then for us to consider tonight before we get to prayer. And as we pray, you can leave this place with your sign having been turned into singing. And so let's avail ourselves of the opportunity to pray tonight, to cry to God. Those prayers that can be uttered publicly, they're prayers that need to be kept private. But those prayers that can be offered publicly, let's pray tonight. And brethren and sisters, let's be mindful that there's many here tonight And we want to encourage as many people to pray, to lift their hearts to God. So please remember that as we come to pray. Yes, pray. Thank God for a praying church. I was traveling today down the road, and I thank God for a praying church. But let's encourage as many to pray. Supplicate the throne of grace. You have your closet, your quiet time. let's gather collectively as in God's family and for voices that have been silent for too long let me encourage you just encourage you to lift your heart to God and if you have never prayed then pray pray God hears and God answers prayer may this sound be an encouragement to your soul even tonight for Christ's sake amen let's stand just to change our positions Our gracious Father, our loving God, we thank Thee for Thy Word and the instruction of it. We thank Thee for the great turnaround, the great pivot. Oh God, the great fulcrum within this psalm. It all hinges on prayer. Oh, He would have been still in the depths. He'd have been still crying out, how long? If He hadn't have taken Himself to God in prayer. Now help us to go to God. Help us to go to Thee, to our Father. who delights to give the best good things to his children. And so, Lord, help us as we pray. May we supplicate the throne. Help every individual, young and old. But, Lord, help us now just to listen to the announcements and, Lord, may we take these matters to God in prayer too. We pray these our prayers in Jesus' name. Amen.