Let's turn in our Bibles this morning to Psalm 13. Psalm 13 this morning, somewhat brief psalm. Like other psalms, both in its brevity as well as its content. And as we come to the psalms, these are songs. These are the meditations of King David in all of his experiences as he pointed toward the Lord Jesus, who one day would come as the son of David. These words are written about the Lord Jesus Christ. These words are the very words our Lord Jesus sang as a young boy, as a grown man, And these are the words that, could we say, even the Holy Spirit breathes in and out of us as he works in us to sing them to the Lord our God. So these verses can be considered from various angles, all of which reminds us this is the word of God and he is doing many things in view of his word as it's read and preached. Let's first pray and ask for God's help as we come to the word today. Father, we pause and reflect on the way that you have preserved your word among a hostile and sinful world through all the generations of your people. As we sang in the psalm that by your word you created, and by your word you sustain your people. As we come to hear the word read and preached, Help for us to lay it up in our hearts and to practice it in our lives, that you would help us to remember it, even to speak it forth to others. Lord, comfort us by your word, conform us to the image of Christ, and Lord, make for good things to happen within us and even from us as a result of what we'll hear today. Give your blessing for your own glory even as we ask for our good. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Psalm 13. This is a psalm of David for the choir director. He says, how long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul? having sorrow in my heart all the day. How long will my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God. Enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest my enemy say, I have overcome him. Lest my adversaries rejoice when I am shaken. but I have trusted in your loving kindness. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. And Psalm 13 read to us today. It seems that a requirement for every parent At least every parent who will take his or her young child in the car on a trip for more than a few hours is that he be prepared to hear and to answer that question, are we almost there yet? And once he has answered that question, he needs to be prepared for a next question which could go like this, how much longer until we're there? And after that question, should it be asked, once answered that question, he or she would do well to brace for the complaint. This is taking forever. Such a child may be upset. And yet, a parent too can be upset by such remarks. Perhaps you have mom or dad, or maybe one of you children has asked that question or complained to your parents like the psalmist here does to God. In a moment of weakness, a parent can be irritated when answering from one of the front seats, but a good parent, like God here as our Heavenly Father, will consider that what is at issue with that child, young, is that he is attempting to fathom with his small, developing mind things that are just too big to grasp. He can't yet grasp the distance of, say, 500 miles. He can't yet fathom, get his arms around the idea of, say, five hours, or even what to do along such a far journey. And so the question is, are we there yet? How much longer until we are there? What's taking so long? And even the conclusion, it's taking forever. Isn't it strange that the trip's length and duration is not grasped, but yet what is firm to the youngster is that it's taking forever. In this 13th Psalm, David, amid his troubles, it appears because of some troubling enemy, verse 2 and 4, that he questions God at verse 1. How long, O Lord? Indeed, he asks, how long? No less than four times in two verses. If he was a backseat child, he would have said, am I almost there yet? He, in fact, in his own way says, this is taking forever. You see it, verse one, how long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? He is a child of God, and he sounds very much like one of our own children. He is journeying toward the heavenly state of glory. Yes, even the child of God not only asks how long, oh Lord, but also complains this is taking forever. Note that David adds that very word right after the question. Will you forget me forever? Are we almost there yet? What's taking so long? His mind, as a child of God, still small, still developing, is trying to figure out God's purposes. How to make sense of these far-reaching things, very involved, very detailed things like trials and troubles. He, almost like everybody who suffers from the likes of ancient Job to the modern-day Jim, couldn't fathom the whole of a given situation. There is a world that operates that we can't see. and we don't know, and we are ignorant. God's purpose didn't seem right to David. It's something that seemed wrong to him. He wanted it to be corrected. Things weren't happening as David wanted them to happen. I wonder if he sounds like not only children, doesn't he sound a lot like us, adults? and yet small developing children of God. But even worse to this, to David it seemed that God was not speaking at all. God was not answering. God was not interested even. He wanted to hear God. He wanted to hear him say that his troubles were over, done, finished, ended. He didn't want them necessarily to be explained He just wanted an answer. He wanted them certainly to be over. David wanted God to say, in the words of maybe our backseat child, we're just about there, son. We're almost there, honey. In fact, let me turn here and oh, look at this. We are here. We've arrived just as you asked. And we can get out now. Trip is all done. That's not the way it happened. God wasn't saying this to David. In fact, he wasn't saying anything. Verse 1, he had hidden his face. David then speaks of taking counsel with himself, verse 2, as maybe a youngster might be under his breath in the back seat. And then he prayed, consider and answer me, verse 3. David's not getting any answers from God. To David, like many a believer amidst trials and troubles, God was silent. God was not attending. It seemed he was inattentive. Could it be that God had forgotten him, it seemed? He had hidden his face. God left him alone to his own thoughts and ways and said, I'm too busy driving. The more David asked, how long, O Lord, the more God was silent. David thought that God should answer. Maybe David thought he deserved an answer. Maybe David thought that the more I repeat my prayer, and I enunciate it, maybe with a decibel on the first how long, and then raising the volume on the next, and the next, and finally the last how long, that God would then give his answer. Well, as parents know, there may come a time where even the tantrum doesn't get answered. So it's these kinds of things that we can only look into and wonder about, but yet see as the child of God in relation to David's plight. Enlighten my eyes or I will sleep the sleep of death. What is more, verse five, my enemy will think that this has come about by his own evil power. And God, you don't want that to happen, do you? You need to consider and answer. Well, like David, we often present the issue to God in far larger ways than it really is to God. We think in the largest possible scenario, the worst case scenario, We offer that to God as what the complaint is. This isn't to marginalize David's single enemy there at verses 2 and 4, nor his plural adversaries at verse 4, whether it was merely Saul or whether it was all of the Philistines. We're not minimizing David, we're not minimizing his complaint to God, but it is to say that David has here come to an end in himself and he has learned that the only one that is sufficient as my saving help is God. And if God doesn't answer, I'm doomed. And so what I will do then is reflect upon the things that God has spoken in the past, the things that God has done for me in days past. That's the general flow of Psalm 13. It leads us to the point today that you and I have need of prayerful perseverance before God and in Christ. We have not only the need of persevering, but of prayerful persevering. Not just keeping on, but calling on God as we keep on in Christ. The Psalm highlights this by two features that we'll look at today. The first is sighing to the Lord. And the second is singing to the Lord. To prayerfully persevere, there is sighing to the Lord and singing to the Lord." You see his sighing to the Lord. It's there in the how long, O Lord, of verse 1 and 2. It's there in the imperative, consider and answer me. You can see it in the argument here in verse 3 that there's the likelihood he might die. Enemies might conquer and something bad will happen to me even worse as a child of God. You see the sighing here. Do you children know how to sigh? All kinds of ways to sigh. Adults know how to sigh. There are all ways to sigh, and you can sigh without even sighing. It's a look on the face. It's what's going on in the heart. It's all of the fuming, and you can't see the gray smoke go out of the ears, but it's there in the heart. There is sighing to the Lord. That's what's wrapped up in David's experience. The whole assumption, though, that God is not looking, or God is not seeing, or God is not listening, or God is not even tending is misplaced. And if you read the Psalms, you'll find that the psalmist, not only David, but also like Korah, and Asaph, and other psalm writers by the inspiration of God, they side too And you see in Psalm 77, you can either turn over or you could read it yourselves again today, but here's another scenario like Psalm 13, where as it begins, my voice rises to God, I will cry aloud. My voice rises to God, he just said it, but he says it again, and he will hear me. He goes on and then recounts. the troubles that he's going to, not only in terms of his earthly troubles, but the trouble he has with God. When I remember God, then I'm disturbed. He was disturbed already. Then he comes to God, and he's more disturbed. I sigh, and then my spirit grows faint. You have held my eyelids open. I'm so troubled that I cannot speak. And then he goes on in verse five and six and he says, I've considered the days of old, the years of long ago. I will remember my song in the night. I will meditate with my heart and my spirit ponders. Verse seven, will the Lord reject forever? Will he never be favorable again? This is like the first verse of Psalm 13. Has his loving kindness ceased forever? Has his promise come to an end forever? Has God forgotten to be gracious, or has He in His anger withdrawn His compassion?" Well, then I said, it is my grief that the right hand of the Most High has changed. And you can understand that, that it's my grief that I'm undergoing what I'm experiencing, or it is my grief that the right hand of God has changed. that he doesn't seem to be hearing or attending. The psalmist had sighed before. Heads up, you'll probably sigh to God more than once. And it will be again and again. Things go wrong, bad things happen to us, we are tried, we are tempted, and oftentimes the trouble is not so much an enemy, it's ourselves, and we might even think, that the real trouble is God himself. Even so, David sighs to the Lord. He doesn't sigh at the Lord. And there's a big difference here. Because David is honestly bringing all of who he is. We could say this is a sort of just-as-I-am moment. He comes to the Lord and unburdens himself, and he says, here's this one, and here's that one, and Lord, I don't have anything, and I need you. Now, God does care, as he showed the other psalmists in other places. God does care for the believer in his trials, in her troubles, even though there is ignorance, there is discontent, there is impatience. A hidden God is no sign of a forgetful God or a careless God. God may hide his face from you, but he'll never take his favor from you. That is always there. In times when it's difficult sighing to the Lord, we always have to remember that there may be anger or trouble at night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning. There may be lamentation, but dancing will come once again. Sighing to the Lord uncovers a real and remaining resistance to God's providence. And God sometimes, by just remaining quiet, will occasion us to then start thinking about ourselves. And one of the things we should readily see is that we have trouble with God's providence. Oh, we love it when God's providence is good for us and it's going well for us. And we sometimes have this weird and fallen notion that God's providence is only good. We even speak that way. Something good happens and we say, oh, the providence of God. How providential that this member of the church drove by right when I got out of the car with a flat tire. What a good providence of God. Well, you know what? It's the same providence of God when your fellow member in the church drives by and didn't even see you get out of the car. God's providence is what happens and how God guides things. And when God is silent and hides his face from us, it's so that we will sigh not at God, but to the Lord. come to reflect on ourselves that the real issue here is not God. The real issue here is that I'm unhappy with God's providence. I have the problem. It's not God. I have the problem, and it's with God's providence. That's why I'm upset. That's why I sigh. But don't sigh at the Lord, you sigh to the Lord. It is right to sigh to the Lord. David, was he wrong to do so? Was it wrong for the Lord Jesus to sigh and say, how long must I be with you unbelieving generation? Does Psalm 13 become a correction to us? Or is it also an encouragement for us? It's both. Charles Spurgeon says about this psalm, typical Spurgeon type comment, we have been want to call this the how long psalm. We had almost said the howling psalm from the incessant repetition of the cry how long. So there's how long and there's howling. You'll get the pun if you work out the spelling of it. But there's this howling in his how long. And the howling is about our short-sighted, weak, imperfect faith. How long is not so much a complaint as it is a confession. It's a confession. It's not so much a complaint against God as it is a confession for God and toward God. This is a believing man sighing, persevering, praying. He's a believing man as much as he is a sighing man. And the very words, how long, imply that he's going somewhere. Things are happening. And he is enduring something that he doesn't like. Sighing to the Lord can't even be a profession of faith. And it often is, though it may be of weak faith to weak believers. It's a word that said, you may remember in Revelation chapter six, where even martyrs at the throne of God in Revelation 6, when the fifth seal was broken, John says, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained, and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, how long, O Lord? Holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Here they are, they've gone past the greatest enemy, which was their death, and they're chanting in the very presence of God, how long? Are we there yet? Had we not arrived here at heaven, and yet we're still imploring the Lord to have justice on the earth and avenge us in relation to our enemies. We have need of prayerful perseverance before God and in Christ. Is that not what our Lord voiced from the cross? And although the words how long were not there, we yet have our Lord sighing. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I think that's one of the deeper questions than how long. Why? And children know how to ask the question why. And they're often good at doing that. And we're not good at answering that. But here is our Lord sighing on a greater adversity that he faced than David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Another one at the very same cross was I thirst. And even vinegar had been maliciously given to him as a tease, as a way of lessening the pain and being inebriated by the effect of that, one of Satan's foul, wily ways at the more opportune time to tempt our Lord, that he would just ease the pain. No, Jesus wasn't going to ease the pain. He was going to take the pain. No pain, no gain. and all of his suffering must be endured. And yet he sighed, I thirst. Then there is that other sigh, probably a gasping sigh. Into your hands I commit my spirit. Our Lord knows all about sighing. Are we to say that it's wrong to sigh to the Lord? David would correct us. Our Lord would correct us. And both would say, here is how you prayerfully persevere in all of your trials, tribulations before God and in Christ. It's a long road to glory. As the Apostle Paul said in Acts 14, 22, it is through many tribulations that we inherit the kingdom of heaven. It is through. You know how difficult it is to go through things. Any obstacle is a barrier. To go through something takes time. It puts you back as you're going forward. It slows things down. such that when you encounter them over and over again, the question is, how long? It seems that I'm going backward or being kept from going forward as I progress. The Christian life is often that way, where sanctification is hard. It's grueling. It's a warfare. There are temptations, some we know of, some we're blindsided by. There's the recurrence of what we thought were subdued sins, and yet they come once again. How long, oh Lord? We just don't know. We cannot know how long. Think about it. Do we really want to know? What if God said, do you wanna know how long it's gonna be? And then he laid out the bold, clear truth of the matter. Would we want to know if it's far longer than what we had thought? Would we be worse if God told us? Isn't it really better that we don't know and thereby at least still have the hope that it may be soon? It may be sooner than what we thought. But if it is that God's view of long is much longer than our long view of how long, it could utterly demoralize us. It could cripple us. And so there may be a wisdom, indeed there is a wisdom and a kindness that God does not answer the question, how long? I don't think you and I can really take the honest truth of God and our greatest moments of weakness when we cry out four times in a mere two verses, how long? It could be God's mercy. When you think in terms of health trials, when you think of the deterioration of the body, when you think yet again of a condition that resurfaces, maybe a cancer that returns, and you begin asking how long, it could be God's mercy that you don't know or have an answer. When you think in terms of civic ordeals, national calamities, we've been reminded of this quite recently. that there is a lot of evil in the world and a very routine gathering. And you would think that all of the boxes are checked and all things are safe and secure. Nothing is gonna go wrong. Well, remember there is the God of providence and he rules. And even as the Proverb 20 says, that even the hearts of kings is like channels of water, and the Most High leads them wherever they will go. National calamities, famines, pestilence, war, all sorts of evil could break out one by one. And yet it could be God's mercy that we're not told how long. We may want to know. It is God's wisdom. And God is altogether always right when He doesn't tell us. and he reserves to himself to be the sovereign God, and if there's no other reason for what's taking so long, it's so that you will see, or really see, that God is sovereign, and not you or me. And you and I should be thankful for that. You know why? because it leads us to prayerful perseverance before God and in Christ. Once again, there are four how longs. He asked once, he asks twice, three times, and a fourth. That's prayerful perseverance. So don't get frustrated with God. sigh to the Lord in a believing prayer. God is testing your holiness. He's testing your faithfulness. He's testing your limits. He's not pushing your buttons. He's testing you. Do you trust the Lord? Will you persevere? Will you pray? Will you accept from God that he is good and he works all things together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose? That means that dot must be connected to dot. and second dot must be connected to third dot, which is way over here. How long? It takes time for the will of God to be done in your life. The day of glory is going to come, and you will look back on all of your how long, oh Lords, and like Job, You will repent and you will retract every one of them. And in sackcloth and ashes say, I misspoke. And Lord, you were holy and sovereign and good that you still said nothing. How long, O Lord, is sighing to the Lord? How long, O Lord, This long. That's the only answer you need to hear. This long. As long as I say it takes. But sighing to the Lord leads to the second. And that is singing to the Lord. What a contrast between these two. It's quite the contrast. He goes from a storm into a sunny day. He goes from verses one and four as if from a dark room with scary noises into a light room with smiling friends. That's what Psalm 13 is. He goes from sighing to singing. Verses five and six, but. Pay attention to the word but in scripture. You know the word but, that means this has happened, and when that word but comes, that is a change from what happened. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, but God being rich in mercy, with his great love with which he loved us, by grace saved us, through Jesus Christ. It's by grace that you've been saved. Well, here's the but of verse five, with all of his how long, struggling to persevere, God not answering, his enemies may be encroaching, but I have trusted in your loving kindness. And he says it to God, not to himself. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord. And maybe now he's talking to other people because he has dealt bountifully with me. What a change comes over us when we sort of unburden ourselves and pour out our complaint before the Lord. And when we're all empty and we're rock bottom and we're frustrated and we see our weakness. that we turn from there and say there's only one thing that's left to do, and that's to sing. And God hasn't abandoned me in my weak faith. I still have a voice. It's weak and it's cracked, but I'll sing. I will sing and rejoice in the Lord and his salvation. And as the sigh was to the Lord, that sigh leads to singing to the Lord. the young traveler, and maybe you have one of these, you with younger children, you need a busy bag for the long trip. That's what I call it, a busy bag. You always have to have activities, something to do for the youngster to be helped as you make the long, endless, and forever trip merely two and a half or three hours away. You need a busy bag. And what do we put in that busy bag? But we maybe put things that they only get to get into in the car ride. Or maybe it's a new thing that they didn't even know existed. Or maybe it's an old toy that they wondered, where is that? I've looked everywhere for it. And then, ah, it's in the busy bag. Well, the busy bag for the people of God is to sing the Lord's songs. And you have 150 of them. It's a big busy bag. All sorts of good tunes. Now, maybe as you travel, you sing songs of all sorts of silly variations or common songs, or you play, well, I guess people don't play the radio anymore, but you put in songs, or you put in books on tape. and you have something not to distract you, but to occupy you as you make the long trip. Take note that when you travel, on exit signs they're numbered, and you actually see such things as 24A, or you see 56B. Well, for those of us who sing the Psalms, that just means it's time to sing said Psalm on the journey. God is reminding you and pulling out of the busy bag an activity to be done. Singing the Lord's praises, singing the Psalms, reciting verses, listening to scripture on tape, talking, about what the Lord has done for us. That's the activity of the believing traveler, fresh from the busy bag. Are we there yet? It's taking forever. You know, some people still wear fanny packs. And they're made fun of sometimes. I'm of that generation, I guess, that I'd be caught wearing a fanny pack. The busy bag is like the fanny pack. You can store a lot of needful and helpful things in a busy bag. We do well to wear the busy bag. I'm out of the car now. I'm talking about walking through life. Spiritually speaking, wear a busy bag. Sling it on you. It may look silly to the unbelieving world, but you need a busy bag. You need to sing the Lord's praises. How many times do we sing and read of in the Psalms, in Isaiah, and other parts of Scripture, even Chronicles, of I will sing to the Lord. Places you wouldn't expect. First Chronicles, buried in the 16th chapter. I will sing to the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord for His love endures forever. There it is again. Wear a busy bag. You've sighed to the Lord and oh, how much energy it's taken out of you. Well, why don't you wear a busy bag? That's how you get your voice back. Sing the Lord's praises. It's not taking forever. It is heading there, though. In all of this, you're going somewhere. Life is not one of those airport escalators, I call them, that just doesn't go up and goes horizontally. That's not what's happening here. You're not just on the treadmill at the airport, going from one place to the next. You are going up, as it seems you're not going anywhere. God wants you to want more of him. That's why it's taking so long. God wants you to be more holy than you thought you could ever be in life. That's why it's taking so long. God wants you to hate sin and evil, not only about them, but about yourself. That's why it's taking so long. God wants you to know Jesus Christ more than you ever thought possible. That's why it's taking so long. That's why you're destined for everlasting life. It's gonna take a long time. How long, oh Lord? Mums the word. You have my promises. You have myself in the scripture. You have my son in your hearts. How long? Focus on the journey. Focus on what you're told about where you're going. He doesn't answer how long, very often at all. Only God is the place of refuge. And so set your heart at rest, your sighing heart to the comforts of the word of God. These songs will be light for darkness. These are going to be a kindling of faith where there's despairing of cooled embers. This is hope for despair. This is singing for sighing. This takes a while. But since you and I are gonna be singing for all eternity, probably good that we have these dress rehearsals and opportunities to start practicing now. So sigh to the Lord. As often as you sigh, remember to sing to the Lord. You and I have need of prayerful perseverance before God and in Christ. The Lord help you with these things. Psalm 13, for your heads and for your hearts in Jesus' name. Let us pray. Oh Lord, our God, we're mindful that in the experiences of David, he was helped and we today are helped because our Lord knew these words even better than David and even better than us. And therefore we may know them well as we sing them in Christ who once sang them while among us. Help us with the comfort and encouragement of the Holy Spirit. Give us your blessing as we travel, as we ride, as we walk, as we run in the way of your commandments, that as we sigh, we would also sing. And in being brought to an end in ourselves, we'll see that you alone are our sufficient God, who all the while has been traveling with us and remains with us. Give us your help and your blessing. In Jesus' name and for his sake we pray. Amen.