Sermon Title: From Depression To Delight
Text: Psalm 13:1-6
Speaker: Ed Grable
Date: 12.26.2021
You can watch the sermon here.
You can find the sermon notes here.
Good morning! I’m so excited to be with you today! I always enjoy it when we join together as one body during the combined services. I also want to take a moment and welcome all of the kids that are joining us in the service. I'm so glad you are with us today. If you are a kid, just wave at me so I know where you are. Great, I see you. Thank you as well to the Kidway team for making activity sheets for the kids. You guys are awesome! Finally, I want to welcome anyone who is visiting. I know some of you are here because you have a drug problem. In other words you were “drug” to church today. I know, “dad joke”, sorry, I couldn’t resist. It is the day after Christmas.
I have the privilege of finishing the Psalms series this year. This has been a series where a few staff and elders are being trained and equipped to preach the Word. The last time we were in the Psalms we heard from pastor Robert from Psalm twelve where he reminded us to take God at his word. So, if you missed any of the Psalms series I will challenge you to go to gatewayepc.org and watch them.
Today we’re going to be looking at Psalm 13. So if you have your Bible, and I hope you do, you can turn there now. As you’re finding our verses for today, I want to share some facts with you that I found. Did you know that during the pandemic the cases of reported issues with depression and anxiety climbed expediently? Listen to this:
“Depression among adults in the United States tripled in the early 2020 months of the global coronavirus pandemic—jumping from 8.5 percent before the pandemic to a staggering 27.8 percent. New research from Boston University School of Public Health reveals that the elevated rate of depression has persisted into 2021, and even worsened, climbing to 32.8 percent and affecting 1 in every 3 American adults.”
The study goes on to say that a spike in numbers after a traumatic event like a hurricane, earthquake, or even an Ebola outbreak is normal but usually they see the numbers start to drop after time but this is not the case presently. The numbers continue to stay high. I’m sure if I asked for a show of hands in this room right now if you have struggled this last year with moments of depression and anxiety, I would see a lot of hands.
I bring this to your attention because this is what David the writer of our psalm is experiencing today in our text. These six verses are his prayer in a time of depression, loneliness, and fear.
Now let us look at Psalm 13 together. Starting in verse 1, we read.
13 1 O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way? 2 How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand? 3 Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die. 4 Don't let my enemies gloat, saying, "We have defeated him!" Don't let them rejoice at my downfall. 5 But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me. 6 I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me. (NLT)
So this is a song of lament. Lament means to feel or express sorrow or regret. In other words, David is singing a sad song. One thing we don’t often talk about when it comes to David is he was a talented songwriter and musician. Some of his songs we still sing today. One of my favorites is Whom Shall I Fear or God of Angel Armies by Chris Tomlin.
In our passages for today, David is on the run from King Saul. David was anointed to be the next king as a boy but would not sit on the throne for fifteen years. The king he was to replace was so jealous of him he tried to kill David. So like any smart person, David ran. He ran and hid from King Saul for eight years. Can you imagine waiting that long for a promise? Can you imagine running for your life for that long? An interesting side note is that Saul was David’s father-in-law and David’s best friend’s dad. And you think you had a crazy family dynamic.
Let’s look at verse one again. The first thing we notice is David begins his prayer with pleading with God and he repeats himself four times as he cries out “how long.” Pastor Charles Spurgeon calls this the howling psalm. There is a lot here, so let’s start back in verse one where David asks:
1 O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way?
Now I don’t know about you but doesn’t this sound like someone who feels all alone and if we are honest a little dramatic? I’m sure there are some kids in the audience that are wondering what is wrong with David. Because in their minds this is the Shepherd boy that was loved so much by God that he was called the man after God’s own heart and he even killed a giant with a stone. And they would be right. It is. In fact, this is the adult version of that boy.
But at this moment in time, he feels God has left him. We can tell he does not feel God’s presence. When he asks God if he is going to forget him forever, you get the sense that it’s been a very long time since he has felt the closeness they once had. But remember when we are dealing with feelings and emotions, our idea of time can be skewed. For example, have you ever left your children, spouse, or best friend for a moment of time and returned and you hear something like “you were gone forever” when it has only been a short time in your mind? The desire to be with someone we love can make time feel like it stands still.
Anyone who has served in the military or worked somewhere like Marathon has experienced this. You are called up to travel halfway around the world and as you sit and dream about home and the people and things you desire to get back to, time can become the real enemy.
As a young man, I missed many opportunities because I didn’t see time from my wife’s or children’s point of view. All they just wanted was some time with me. Even if I felt like it hadn’t been very long, to them it felt like forever.
David not only gives a time frame of how long he feels God has been absent but he also tells us that he thinks God has turned his back on him. Look at the second part of the verse where he asks: How long will you look the other way? We see David say something similar in Psalm 22:1 when he says: My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Some translations use the word forsaken instead of abandoned which we see in Matthew’s gospel as Jesus cries out to the father on the cross.
Matthew 27:46 Then from midday until three o’clock darkness spread over the whole countryside, and then Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’(Phillips)
But unlike the sin of the cross, God has not turned his back on David - for some reason, he just feels he has. I think I said this last time when we looked at Psalm six but it bears repeating, David knew what it was to be one with God andfeel his presence. That presence brings peace in times of fear and courage as battles rage around us. He cries out in desperation for that feeling to return to him.
Look with me at verse two. David continues: 2 How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand? (Psalm 13:2)
Now we see that he is feeling God’s absence and it is causing him to feel it in his heart. We get the picture here that he is trying to figure out what is going on. Another translation says “how long must I take counsel in my soul?” Meaning he has been trying to figure out why he feels this way.
So he thinks about it and thinks about it but he can’t figure it out. This can turn into self-pity. If we are not careful, in this life things happen and it feels like no one cares and no one is listening and we can start to feel sorry for ourselves and dive into sadness and depression. And in many cases, we are not alone. But if we tell ourselves enough, it becomes the truth.
A famous pastor once said, “The problem with life is it happens daily.”
How many of you can relate? I sure can!
David finishes with one more how long. He asks God how long will his enemy have the upper hand. David was a general in the army and as a military leader who had led men into battle, the feeling of defeat was especially difficult for him. David had faced far greater enemies in the past but now he felt vulnerable because he didn’t have the confidence of victory that he had when God was by his side in the fight. He has another reason for this that we will see later.
So what about you? Have you cried out how long, oh Lord! Do you feel at times that God has forgotten you or turned his back on you? Do you fight back the tears while trying to figure out how you can find relief in the struggles you are going through? Does the enemy seem to be winning? I know some of you today your “how long” is a question of healing from a sickness or disease. I also know that there are some of you who are asking how long until your marriage is restored or that child you love would stop running away from you or God?
How about “how long” on the lighter side. I had a lady in my first church who used to ask me “how long?” until the Lord comes and takes us home. As a young pastor, I would smile and say I’m not sure. Only he knows his plans. She would chuckle and say well I guess we better be ready if he does. And I would respond with, “yep I guess we better!”. When she passed I told the people at the funeral that story. And we all laughed because she was the readiest of us all to meet Jesus. It wasn’t until many years later did I find a great scripture to respond with when asked that question again. It’s found in 2 Peter 3:9 and it says:
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed but wants everyone to repent. 2 Peter 3:9 (NLT)
So the next time someone asks you how long until the Lord returns, share these verses and ask them to pray for more people to come to salvation or better yet, challenge them to talk to someone about Jesus.
We transition in the prayer from David pleading for God’s attention to him telling him what the problem is. Let’s look at verse three.
3 Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.
David tries to get God to look at him and see what is going on or at least answer him in some way. Remember, he feels like God has left him so he is saying God, I need you to not only look at me but answer me and answer me in a way I can have confidence in your plan.
That is what David desires from God - the wisdom to get through what he is facing. To restore the sparkle in someone’s eyes from the Hebrew perspective was to ask for wisdom. The best definition of wisdom I’ve heard came from an old pastor friend of mine. He said, ”Eddie, true wisdom is when you can look at your life down the road and around the corner and find answers.”
That is all David wants from God. He wants to know that God is going to be with him and be true to the promises he had proclaimed about David’s life and future because that gave him hope and the ability to trust in plans God had made.
How many of us have found ourselves saying something like, “I just wish God would tell me what was going to happen. Then I can move forward with confidence”? Or, “If God would only just send me a text, or an email, or even write it in the sky telling me what to do or plan for, I would do what he wants.” But if we are honest, some of us would see what God is doing and start to bargain with him to do something different. “That is all well and good, God, but that’s not how I was thinking things would go.”
Everyone struggles with God’s plan every now and then. Some of us are just better at hiding it than others. My family will tell you my response when they ask me how I’m doing is, “I’m fine.” I do this for two reasons. I hate to show weakness and the people I love have their own troubles to deal with. I don’t want to add anything to their already crazy lives with my stuff.
But this is not the way we are called to handle the struggles in our lives especially as a Christ-follower. If someone asks how you are doing, be honest. If they take the time to ask, then, in most cases, they are prepared to help even if it is as simple as just listening. You may think you are good at disguising what is going on in your life but people may surprise you especially if they have known you for a while.
I learned this a year ago when I was trying to be strong during a very difficult time in my life. I had everyone convinced I was fine. But one day an old friend would not take my “I’m fine” as my final answer. He pressed me and said “You’re not fooling me, brother. I can see you struggling. Talk to me!” That day he helped me see that when we put our trust in God and ask for his help in the struggles of this life, part of his answer is putting people in our path that can support us and walk with us in the valleys. Stop trying to do it on your own.
Life’s struggles can cause us to doubt, and even start to doubt or trust that God will remain faithful. But the good news is we can trust his faithfulness and take everything to him in confidence, even if it is as simple as telling him exactly what you need help with. And yes, he already knows, but he wants you to bother him. He wants to hear from his children.
As we finish verse three, we once again hear the depths of David’s desperation. He believes if God doesn’t respond to his request he will die. We saw the same fear when we looked at David’s sleepless night in Psalm 6. In my research, I came across many things that have been known to lead people to depression. There are a couple that we can speculate are affecting David as he cries out to God in prayer.
First, an illness can drain physical strength and lead to depression. Someone can be the most joyous person when they are well but when they get sick, all joy seems to leave them. I’ve seen this many times with patients in the hospital setting. David could have fought with illness in his life.
Secondly, exhaustion can also leave one quite open to depression and the feeling of abandonment. Remember David is on the run and has been in constant thought about all that has been happening to him, so it would be understandable if he was depressed as a result of physical and emotional exhaustion.
The third reason we might see people becoming depressed is they are battling a let-down after some great effort, fueled by coming down off of an adrenaline high, which can often lead to depression. Again this would make sense for David because he had many mountaintop experiences in his life. We have already talked about him being a giant killer and the anointed king but he was such a great warrior that they sang songs about his many victories. In fact, this is what drove Saul’s jealousy of David.
The final possibility for David’s depression and anxiety and most obvious was the pressure he was feeling from both spiritual and natural enemies. Look at what David says in verse four.
4 Don't let my enemies gloat, saying, "We have defeated him!" Don't let them rejoice at my downfall.
Once again, David references his enemy, asking for God’s help with them.
Old Testament scholar Derek Kidner in his book on the Psalms says: “Awareness of God and the enemy is virtually the hallmark or theme of every psalm of David”
Between his feelings of abandonment from God and the fear of an enemy army approaching David could have easily found himself feeling hopeless as he hid in a dark cave scared and alone. Not only did he fear defeat because they would win, but he feared they would gloat about their victory not over him alone but they could claim victory over God as well.
Maybe this explanation might help:
David wasn’t just praying for deliverance so that he could escape from his problems and be happy. His fear was that the enemy would rejoice (v. 4). Since David was God’s anointed king, if he died at the hands of his enemies, it would make God look bad. God’s honor was tied up with David’s deliverance. If you profess, as David did, to trust in God alone, then your defeat becomes God’s defeat. To defend His own honor, God will defend you. So in a time of crisis, you can call out to God to rescue you, not just for your relief, but for God’s glory. God delights to honor such prayers.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been there. Where, no matter how well you have planned and prepared or done your best to do the right thing, the enemy finds you. You try to ignore it hoping it will go away but they keep rattling the latch on the door. There is no escape, and you are starting to feel like there is no hope.
It’s like being in quicksand. The harder you fight, the quicker you sink. It’s not until you completely surrender and reach out for help that you will be helped. Trust me. I’ve been there in my life and in real quicksand. It’s not until you remember or are reminded that you are not alone and God is with you. He will protect you.
We see this thinking emerge as David concludes this Psalm. We see a change in his demeanor. He decides no matter what he is facing he is going to trust God and his unfailing love. Look at verse five. 5 But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
What has happened here is that David has changed his focus. Instead of focusing on what he wants God to do and his circumstances, he remembers how faithful God has been in his life. As he reflects on all God has done for him, he finds the confidence to move forward. Now, remember, nothing has changed for David. He is still hiding from his enemy, and they are still trying to find him and kill him.
But David has surrendered his heart to God and tells himself God's love is never changing and even though he has not felt God’s presence, God never left him. It just felt that way.
One of my favorite scriptures I received from my pastor before deploying to war tells us of God’s faithfulness to his people and a promise David knew is found in Deuteronomy 31:6 And it says: Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; “He will never leave you nor forsake you.”
The caution with a verse like this is people often assume that if God is with them then all of their hopes and dreams will come true or they won’t be affected by all the evil in the world. But that is not the case. This verse is telling us that as a child of God we will never be alone. No matter what we are up against he is with us. This understanding is what we believe helps David turn the corner and go from depressed to determined and sadness to singing. He rejoices because he knows God will rescue him.
Sadly, there are so many in our culture today that are trying to self-rescue. Self-rescue is something I have seen in some military training scenarios. I was on a team that had missed its window to be taken out by helicopter so the call came in that we had to self-rescue. This meant we had to walk through the night to get to another place to be picked up by truck if we were lucky. Sometimes it meant we had to walk all the way back to base on our own. We had no help coming and we were on our own. Talk about a long walk.
As Christ-followers, we have a reason to rejoice because God sent his son Jesus to rescue us. Because we could not rescue ourselves. Paul had this same faith when he wrote to the Colossians and said.
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:13-14
Even though David did not have the understanding of Jesus, we do. He concludes the Psalm with singing. Look at verse 6. David writes: 6 I will sing to the Lord because he is good to me.
David finds joy in knowing that his prayer will be answered and God will fulfill the promise he has given to him. He is not going to allow his present circumstances to keep him low any longer. His song of sadness has turned into a song of praise. A song of someone who has been saved or rescued.
I think we can start to forget what all we have been saved from as Christ-followers. If we would take a moment to think about all Christ did for us through his life, death, and resurrection, we would surely be singing like David at the top of our lungs. Like no one is watching
So how about you? What is going on in your life that has you asking “God, how long?” Keep taking it to God in prayer. Don’t give up. Continue to pray for that child, spouse, or friend that you wish was sitting in that empty chair next to you. In fact, the reason some of you are sitting in this room this morning is because someone faithfully and fervently prayed for you, and their prayers were eventually answered.
I heard a story a few years ago about a mom who had been praying for her son and asking God to save him. She was not sure where he stood with the Lord so she kept praying. He joined the military and was called to go fight in Iraq. She was so afraid that she would get that knock on the door saying her son had been killed and she still wasn’t sure of his salvation. So she continued to pray. Sadly that knock came and she was told her son had died. She was devastated as any mother would be. But the next day in the mail was a letter from her son and it told of his newfound faith in Jesus. A few weeks prior he had felt the nudge to talk to the chaplain about his faith and after a few days, he gave his life to Jesus and was baptized. She knew then that her prayers had been heard and were answered. So don’t give up. Keep praying and asking God how long.
Maybe you are sitting here and you feel God has abandoned you and you desire to feel his presence. Once again, keep praying as a child of God. He is with you even when you don’t feel it. With the new year right around the corner, some of you may be looking for wisdom and answers in your life. Keep praying and seeking his face knowing he is faithful. Finally, I want to encourage those of you who struggle as David did with depression and anxiety. I want you to know that when life gets hard and it feels like the enemy is going to win, you can trust two things: Jesus loves you and we as a church love you. You don’t have to face this alone. Reach out to Pastor Robert here at the church or talk to someone in your family or Life Group. I know they would love to help you. Let’s pray.
Father God, you know all of those listening to my voice who are struggling as David. They have been crying out, “How long, oh Lord?” but there seems to be no answer. They feel that God has turned his face from them and abandoned them. It seems like the enemy is surrounding them and is on the verge of winning. Father, may they find confidence in you and the truth that you are still with them and have never left them. Also, may they find the confidence deep down like David did that you will rescue them and they have a reason to rejoice because of all you have done.
I pray this is true for the rest of us as well. We can get comfortable being comfortable and the story of our own rescue can lose its power. May we look on the cross with fresh eyes remembering the price that was paid for our sin. And in return sing praises at the top of our lungs to our savior and king Jesus. As we leave this place may we continue to strive to live the life of the Christ-follower you have called us to be and your ambassadors. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
May you go praising your rescuer Jesus at the top of your lungs!
You are sent!
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