Alright, Psalm 13 this morning. Psalm 13 while the young folks make their way downstairs. Couple of things as you're turning to Psalm 13. First of all, just for the record, this morning I brought my backup with me. And it actually has the message already loaded up on it. So if there's a problem, secondly, I have to give the Lord thanks this morning. As you know, last week my iPad died halfway through the message, so thank you for whoever prayed for that. But I have to say, I took it to the Apple store and they traded it out and gave me, I think it's refurbished, but I don't care, it works. And for nothing, didn't cost me any more than time. So I'm very grateful that the Lord worked that out because I didn't want to have to Go to the expense again. So I appreciate that. And then one more thing that I've been wanting to say for a few weeks now, and it's one of those things that, she's looking up smiling, she knows what I'm gonna say. I just wanna say a congratulations to Maddie McCoy as she is engaged to Nick Tryon to be married. And I'm sure we'll hear more details in time, but we want to congratulate her. And I've been telling her I wanna say something, but, Yes, she's usually over here kind of hidden behind people, but she's out where I could see her today, so great. Thank you, Maddie, for helping my addled brain to remember. All right, Psalm 13. We are continuing to look at our theme for 2025. Our theme is Only Trust Him. Now, the banner isn't here yet. It's in a truck somewhere, FedEx. I'll just throw that out there. It should have been here by now. It'll probably come during the snowstorm, but it will be here, Lord willing, next week. But we want to remember this theme because I think it's a very important one. Only trust Him. So let me just very quickly, before we look here at Psalm 13, give you the big picture. Only, the idea of only is the only one of its kind, there are no others. This is a singular choice, only. Trust, the idea of trust is an assured reliance on the character, the ability, the strength, the truth of someone. Who is that someone? Him. Who is him? He is the source, the object of our trust. the one who is singularly the unique one and only choice. We're talking about the Son of God, we're talking about God in the flesh, we're talking about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So when we say only trust Him, we are saying that Jesus Christ is the only option upon which you and I can place our trust. He is the only one. There may be other choices that are given to us by the devil, by the world, by our own flesh, but there really is only one true option that we can rest upon and that is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. So we've been talking about Him so far. We've noted that Abraham passed the trust test in Genesis 22 when he being told by God to sacrifice the promised son Isaac, the son of promise, was willing to do so, trusting as we saw in Hebrews. that God would still fulfill His promise. Even if he had to raise Isaac from the dead, he trusted God and no matter how incongruous the statement of God to him was to go and slay his son, he was willing to do that. He passed the test. Last week we noted in Psalm 22 that we can trust him and only him for our salvation. We noted that David wrote Psalm 22 1,000 years before the crucifixion of Christ, and he described in that psalm the very crucifixion of Christ at a time when crucifixion was unknown. It would be hundreds of years before crucifixion would really become a thing, and so in that backdrop of no historical accounts of any kind of crucifixion, here is a description reminding us that in Christ alone do you and I have hope for our eternal life and for our salvation. This morning, as we continue now to build upon this idea, upon this theme, we want to look here in Psalm 13 And we want to think about this idea. And here's a challenge that I'm wanting to place before you because I think this is something we all experience. David is explaining his own heart here, his own experience, but I don't think it's too far off from where you and I are from time to time. And that's simply this. We're to trust him even during those periods of life, when he may seem distant. Of course, the key word there is may. He may seem distant. We refer to these times as spiritually dry, excuse me, spiritually dry seasons. Spiritually dry seasons. Have you ever experienced something like that? Have you ever had a time in your life, maybe this morning, you're sitting here saying, yeah, That's kind of where I feel like I am right now. Well, here in Psalm 13, we note that David is speaking of a time in his life when he felt that God seemed distant. And we want to think about that this morning. So, there are six verses in this psalm. Let me read this psalm, and then we'll ask the Lord to illuminate His word to our hearts today. So David writes, 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 my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest by an enemy say I have prevailed against him, and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me. May God bless the reading of His Word this morning. Let's ask His blessing upon the message. Our Father, we are so grateful this morning for the opportunity we have to gather together with our brothers and our sisters in Christ, Lord, to set aside the cares of life and concerns about the cold or snow, that Lord, we can, for these moments, focus our hearts and minds upon Your Word and fellowship and commune together in the Scripture as the Holy Spirit opens the book to us, as He helps us to understand. And I pray this morning not only will we understand, But may we make application. Father, I believe this is one of those messages that we all feel some sense of it resonating within our hearts. Because each of us has had a season where we felt something similar to what David is expressing. And yet, Lord, as he may have expressed his angst in the first part of this psalm, Help us to come to an understanding of the trust that He exhibits in you and the praise that was on His lips as He acknowledged that you were still with Him. Lord, encourage our hearts today. Speak to our hearts wherever we might be. in our walk with you. I pray that this message would be fruitful. I pray that it would be impactful. I pray that it would be beneficial. And I pray, Lord, that it would encourage us to remember to look up, to remember to look to you, to remember that we can only trust our Savior. And we'll give you the glory for what you accomplish in our midst. We pray in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen. During these dry seasons, we feel like there's a lack of inspiration. There's just maybe a sense that our passion is just not quite what we perhaps once experienced, what we know we should have. In our hearts, there's a seeming absence of joy. It's not necessarily that we're depressed or even sad, but the joy of the Lord isn't welling up in our spirit the way we would like and the way that it has in the past. We feel a very real presence of weariness. Have you ever felt weary? Now, the Bible talks, the New Testament warns us about growing weary and well-doing. Well, the fact is, weariness is a part of life. We grow weary. Work makes us grow weary. Emotionally, we can grow weary. We can experience, we often do experience some sense of weariness. And can that sometimes affect Our feeling, and it's important to use that word feeling because we place such an importance in the modern world upon feelings to the exclusion sometimes of reality and fact. So we might feel that the Lord is far from us in our weariness. But we need to understand that the real problem is not that God is not with us, it's our feelings. Now let me put this another way. Someone said this, if you expect nothing from God, you will get it every time. I think that's a pretty good saying, isn't it? If you expect nothing from God, then that's what you're gonna get every time. In other words, what is the source of dry spells in our lives? Well, expectancy. We may have an expectancy that God should be doing a certain thing in our lives at that moment in time and He's not doing it. And our response then is to feel like if God isn't giving me what I expect in this moment, That God is not with me, but is that reality? The other issue with our sometimes feeling this way is just simply that our faith, sometimes our faith is strong and sometimes circumstances in life beat our faith down. We've all been there, right? Sometimes we're on the mountaintop and it's like we're ready with Elijah to call down fire from heaven. And other times, like Elijah, we're running and saying, Lord, I'm the only one, and nobody else is standing with you, and look what I'm suffering, and I'm trying to be faithful. And sometimes our faith is growing, and sometimes our faith is waning, and that affects how we feel. I have to say at the outset this morning, I have to admit that I have had times in my life when I felt that God was distant. I'm not asking for you to raise your hand if you felt the same. But it's simply to acknowledge that this is a real issue that God's people will sometimes wrestle with. Now, when that happens, I have to acknowledge that most often, one of two things is probably true. There's a lack of faith on my part. My faith is not as strong as it should be in the circumstance. Or there's sin in my life. Because sin will affect my relationship with God. Sin will affect your relationship with the Lord. And if it's sin, then we have a way biblically to deal with sin, right? We confess it, we turn from our sin, we turn back to the Lord. So we acknowledge if sin is that barrier, we need to deal with that immediately. But there are times, I think, in every Christian's life when we're walking by faith, and there is no known sin in our lives, but we still have this feeling that God seems far away. We pray, He doesn't answer, we read our Bibles, and sometimes, aren't there days when you read your Bible because you gotta check that box? but you're just sort of reading the words, but they're just sort of like cardboard. They just don't impact, they just don't, they're just like, okay, I'm reading words that may as well have been a newspaper. Remember what newspapers were? Yeah, I'm just reading something, but it doesn't seem to really catch. We seek God, but we wonder, is he really listening? Is he with me? And when that happens, what I want you to understand this morning is you're in good company. Consider with me David in this passage. David is a man after God's own heart. Now, you and I would, I'm sure, expect that a man who is after God's own heart would never have a spiritually dry season. He would never have a time in his life when he would feel like God was far from him. I mean, not a man after God's own heart. And yet, what do we find David doing here in Psalm 13? Well, very simply, out of the depths of his heart, David repeats four times a haunting phrase. Did you catch that phrase in the first two verses? What did he say in those verses four times? What are the two words that he repeats? How long. How long, Lord. Is this going to continue? How long is it going to seem like you're no longer with me? Now, there is no indication in these verses that David had sinned. That's important. There's nothing in these verses, other Psalms, you see David acknowledging sin, confessing sin. There's no sin that David is acknowledging that David is connecting to his having this feeling that God is far from him. His enemy is about to get him. He expresses that. And in spite of his repeated prayers, from his perspective, God seems unavailable. So let me say, have you ever been there? Have you ever been in that kind of season? You desperately call out to God, but He seems to have to not be listening. He doesn't seem to have his ear open. Psalm 13 tells us what to do in those seasons of life when God may seem distant to you. There are three stanzas in this psalm. Verses 1 and 2, we see David's angst, his deep feeling of anxiety. And that's what these two verses are acknowledging. David felt a deep sense of anxiety. There was anguish in his soul. Verses 3 and 4, we find a deliberate cry from a dependent heart. And in verses 5 and 6, we see his statement of trust, that he could only trust Him even when God seemed distant. David understood he needed to trust God. The stanzas, in fact, seem to decrease in magnitude or turmoil as you read them. At first, he's crying out of this angst, this anxiety, this anguish. Then he offers a more gentle petition, deliberately recognizing his dependent state upon God. And finally, he rests in the joy of knowing that he can trust God and that God will answer. So in a sentence, what is Psalm 13? If you think of Psalm 13, if you're writing it in the corner of your Bible, what is Psalm 13 teaching us? I think it's teaching us this. When God seems distant, we must call to Him and trust in His unfailing love. Hence the song service this morning. When God seems distant, we must trust Him. Only trust Him. And what David is acknowledging is we're trusting Him because of His love for us. So let's think about the three parts of this psalm this morning together. Notice with me first of all David's angst in verses 1 and 2. His angst because God seemed distant to him. God's distance in the face of the enemy's prominence resulted in a lot of inner turmoil in David. And that's really the context here. We don't know specifically the event or the time. I think that this is most likely when Saul is chasing David and David is hiding in the caves out in the wilderness of Judea. But I think during that time, David is He's full of angst because things aren't working out the way he anticipated that they should. Number one, God seemed distant to him. So verse one, how long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? It seemed as if God had forgotten David, had hidden himself from him as if he would never turn back to him again, at least from David's perspective. That's what he's conveying here. It always seems as if a time of intense trial will last forever. Have you ever been in a season of trial like that? And it just seems like it's never going to stop from the human perspective. In fact, here's a profound statement. I didn't come up with it, so I can't claim this profoundness. The hardest thing about waiting is waiting. Oh, profound. But it's true, isn't it? Wait. I mean, you tell a child. Wait. And from the adult perspective, well, you know, what's an hour? From a child's perspective, that's half my life. I mean, the idea of waiting is hard for a child, but isn't it hard for adults too, really? Especially in terms of our expectation of what we believe God is supposed to be doing in our life at any given moment, and it's not happening. Do you like to wait? I don't like to wait. I hate waiting. I mean, I live in a world where we have instant everything, so I would love it if that's the way life played out, that it was just at the moment that I thought I needed something, bam, there it was. But life would be really boring if that was the case, wouldn't it? I mean, think about how much dependence we would have upon God if that's the way it turned out. We'd have none because our expectation would only be that if nothing else, God is a great magician who gives us what we want when we want it and we miss the big picture. Waiting is especially hard if you don't have much to do while you wait. Think about this psalm. If this psalm was written when David is being pursued by Saul and he's out in the wilderness and he's in the cave, what is David doing with his time? He's holed up in a cave in the wilderness of Judea. about all that he and his men have to do is, what are we going to eat today? And somebody needs to stand at the door of the cave and make sure that nobody's coming. I mean, that's it. Can you imagine that being what your life consists of? The hours, the days, the weeks, the months drag by and David is still there in the wilderness. See, the problem for you and me when we read about the histories in the Bible, we already know the whole story. And we're reading it as if it's all compact. The whole story of David and King Saul, that all happened in what, about two weeks? I mean, when we read it, it's like it all happened. We're not realizing that David was anointed by Samuel when he was a teenager. When did he become king? When he was 30. And what happened in all of those intervening years? A lot of bad things from David's perspective. Life was not all that great. And here's an example of David waiting in that cave. It seems as if God is moving so slowly. Hurry, hurry, hurry is the mantra of our day. But God says sometimes to us, just wait. Just wait. Just back off a little bit. and give me time to work out my plan on my schedule. Wait. Perhaps we can relate to a preacher from a bygone day who we are told was a normally calm man, but one day he was very agitated and one of his friends asked him, what's the trouble? And he replied, the trouble is I'm in a hurry, but God isn't. Have you ever felt that way? We want it now. We want it today. And why isn't God answering my prayer on my timeline? Where is God in my life at the moment? Have you ever noticed a difference between God's timetable and ours? How do we think? We think in terms of minutes. We think in terms of hours. We think in terms of days. God thinks in terms of years. I mean, God is eternal. So for Him, what is a thousand years? It's like a day. And of course, even that doesn't fully convey the reality that for God, time is outside. He exists outside of time because He created time. So we look at time and we expect God to act upon our timetable when God's timetable is different. Is that true? Well, let me remind you. We're talking about David as an example here. How about Joseph? Here's another person that we all know quite well, Joseph. God wanted Joseph to be in a position of influence in Egypt. Do you agree with me? It was the will of God that Joseph be in a position where he could save his family in a time of famine. Is that right? I think we all would agree to that. Okay. How did God get Joseph there? Let's think about it. First, He had him sold into slavery by his brothers when he was a teenager. Wait a minute, how is that a step toward influence in Egypt? He was hauled off to a foreign land, then he had him falsely accused by Potiphar's wife and thrown into prison. He was a slave in an Egyptian's home and a lie is told about him and now he's in prison. Things seem to be going in the wrong direction. A long time went by. What do you think Joseph was doing when he was in that prison? He was sitting there saying, man, this is great. I've got all the time in the world to just sit here and do nothing. I imagine he was praying and saying, Lord, when are you going to get me out of this place? God didn't seem to answer. Finally, an opportunity came to interpret the dreams of a couple of fellow inmates. The one man, the king's cupbearer, who would be released from prison, restored to his job, Joseph pled to that gentleman, remember me when you get out of here. And the cupbearer said, I will. I'm not going to forget. I'm going to remember you. Genesis 41-1, the very next thing after that promise, casually reads, now it happened at the end of two full years. Pharaoh had a dream. Two full years. Two years. Think back to two years ago in your life. I mean, when you get older, two years doesn't really seem all that long ago, but then again, two years is a long time ago, right? I mean, if I make a promise to you, I'm gonna do this for you two years from now, there's where the waiting comes in, right? Two years, that's so far away, two years. Here's the point. Joseph is in that prison for two years after he has the promise of the cupbearer, hey, I will remember you. And then God sends a dream to Pharaoh. Couldn't God have given Pharaoh that dream before two years? I mean, we blame the cupbearer, but really, God gave the dream to Pharaoh two years later. Joseph's timeline would have been, I need to be out of here today. God says, wait, two more years. Two more years. Why that long? Why the long wait? Joseph spent the better part of his 20s. He was a teenager, sold into slavery. He spends the better part of his 20s either as a slave or in prison. Now, when do we feel the most physically vital and strong? Well, generally in your 20s, right? What happens when you hit 30? Some of you there yet? And then you hit 40, and then you hit 50, and oh, I'm getting depressed now. But the reality is we know there's a finite period of time for us all and here he is in these years that were vital years, years of strength. He's a slave in a prison waiting years before God eventually worked out the plan. Want another example? So far you're talking Old Testament. We're New Testament. Think about Paul. The apostle Paul, God's apostle to the Gentiles. There was so much work to do. So little time to do it. When you read Paul's epistles, don't you get that sense of urgency? I mean, Paul felt that urgency. We have been called by God to do a work, to do a job. He is with us. He will empower us. We need to do it. Paul wanted to go to Rome, and then he wanted to go on to Spain. How did God get Paul to Rome? Just give him an airplane ticket? Somebody paid for a nice passage on a boat through the Mediterranean? I hear it's kinda nice there. We could ask Brother Tim Deterese. I'm sure he could fill us in on that. How did God get him to Rome? Well, this is the way. He had him imprisoned. Does that make sense? How did God get Paul to Rome? He had him arrested and put in prison. The governor in Caesarea, let me just turn there. In Acts chapter 24, some things haven't changed, folks. Acts 24 verse 26. He hoped, this is, that the governor of Caesarea Felix. He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him, wherefore he sent for him the offener and communed with him." So here's the picture. Paul is arrested. He is put in prison. The governor of Caesarea acknowledges Paul is innocent. But he doesn't release him. Why? Because he wants a bribe. I mean, that's what's happening here. He wants a bribe, verse 27. But after two years, Portia's Festus came into Felix's room. How long is Paul in prison with Festus waiting, or Felix waiting? Felix and Festus, I get those two mixed up in my brain. He waits two years in prison. Folks, think about it. Two years. People were perishing without Christ. There were towns where no church had yet been founded. Young Christians needed to be discipled. Paul wanted to go to Rome and then on to Spain. How much work could he have accomplished in two years? A lot. But where did God have him? God had him in a prison in Caesarea for two years. Let me ask you a question. Was Paul sinning? Was Paul not walking with the Lord? Was Paul out of God's will? Was Paul not praying? Don't you imagine Paul was praying every day? Lord, I need to get out of here. There's work that needs to be done. He had to sit there for two more years. Back to Psalm 13. That's what David's going through. He'd been anointed as king by the prophet Samuel when he was a teenager. Saul pursued him. He's in his late 20s. It had been going on for years. Where was God? Had he forgotten about David? Let me say it this way. When God seems distant, when we find ourselves in these times when we just don't understand, that's where David is. He doesn't understand. And that's why I use the word feel or feeling. Because in these times, it affects our emotions. David was in turmoil. Notice verse two. How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? The idea of Hebrews, verse 2, these two points, in the Hebrew, the idea here is that of adding one thought to another. He's trying to get out of the difficulty. Don't we do this? He's trying to think it through. All he can do is think it through from the human perspective. God doesn't seem to be answering his prayer. His 20s are going by and he is supposed to be on the throne. Sorry. Why isn't God doing this? And so he's trying to come up with an idea. He makes his plans. Nothing happens. So he's gone from hope to despair. He's on an emotional roller coaster. And in the midst of that, at the end of verse 2, "...how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?" Saul was still the king. Think about it. It looks like the enemy is winning. The enemy enjoys the comfort of the palace. David's in a cave. Saul is the bad guy. He's not seeking the Lord. David is. Saul is trying to kill David without cause, even though David had spared Saul's life. Didn't God know any of this was happening? Couldn't He do something? Had He forgotten David? Folks, what I'm trying to share in this is sooner or later we all find ourselves thinking this way. Why is this happening to me? Why is it happening now? Look at that guy over there who doesn't care for the Lord one whit. And look at his wonderful life. That may not be true, but that's our perception. And here I am trying to be faithful, trying to do what's right, and look at my life. Look at how I'm suffering. Why has God forgotten me? An extended time of trial. You call out to God. He doesn't answer. You try to figure out how to get out of your circumstance. Nothing works. You go from the heights of hope to the depths of despair. You go through that roller coaster ride so many times you can't take it anymore. There are two vital lessons I want to challenge you with as you think about when you're in that situation. Two lessons, two important points. Number one, God has not forsaken you. He has not forgotten you. These are the words of Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 49. He says in verses 14 and 15. But Zion said, the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Verse 15, 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. What is God saying? He's saying, it is more likely that a woman would forget about her helpless child than my forgetting you. Now, he's setting up a picture here. It'd be impossible for a mother to forget her child. Well, God's not going to forget you either. That's a promise to Zion, but it's a promise in Scripture to us. God has not forsaken us. In fact, Hebrews 13, 5, we have the promise, I will never leave thee, I will never forsake thee. And of course, we've talked about how that's a double and a triple negative. So that in Greek, it is making the point, it is hitting the point, it is highlighting the way. He is never, never going to forsake us. Never, never, never is he going to turn his back on us. God does seemingly forget Joseph, Paul, David, from the human perspective. Couldn't God have done something for David earlier? Couldn't God have done something for Joseph where he didn't have to spend all those years in a prison? Couldn't God have gotten Paul out of that jail in Caesarea so he could continue his ministry? It seems like God may have forgotten. But do you know what's happening during that time? This is where the rubber meets the road. What is happening during that time? God is building maturity into His men so that they will learn to trust Him. Just as it takes years to grow a sturdy oak tree, it takes years to build the godly character qualities needed to be an effective servant of the Lord. Why is God allowing difficulties into your life? Because He is molding you. He is shaping you. He is sharpening you. It is through those trials. That's why James 1 says we cannot all joy when we fall into diverse or different kinds of trials. God allows trials into our lives to grow us. It takes some pain for us to become the instruments that God wants us to be. That's the second lesson. There's no such thing as instant godliness. We have instant everything in our society. David anointed King in his teens. He had a strong faith at that time. After all, he faced the giant Goliath. Did God put him on the throne when he was a teenager? No. When he was 21, no. 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, no. Through all those years of running from Saul, living in caves, David learned to wait upon the Lord. God was developing his man. Now, for you and me living in our rush rush world, that doesn't seem like the way it's supposed to work. But that's how God works. If God has to shut you up in some frustrating circumstance, and you rack your brain trying to figure a way out, but nothing works, and you see the godless prospering while you suffer, and it seems like God is far away, here's my challenge, hang on. Don't give up. Don't worry. God has not forsaken you. He has not forgiven you. He is doing a work in your life to mold you and shape you into the image of Christ. Let God do His perfect work. He has not forgotten you. Andrew Murray, in his book, Humility, the Beauty of Holiness, said this, and I quote, In trial and weakness and trouble, He seeks to bring us low until we learn that His grace is all, and to take pleasure in the very thing that brings us and keeps us low. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. His presence filling and satisfying our emptiness becomes the secret of humility that need never fail." He says in another book, Humility and Absolute Surrender, the humble man has learned the secret of abiding gladness. The weaker he feels, the lower he sinks, the greater his humiliations appear, the more power and the presence of Christ are his portion. Those are some powerful thoughts. It is in those moments when we understand our weakness that we can see God's greatness. And that brings me to our second point. Don't fret. This is tea, by the way. So, that's helpful. A deliberate cry from a dependent heart. That's the second point. What does David do in this circumstance? Consider and hear me, O Lord my God. Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Let mine enemy say I have prevailed against him, and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. You know what many Christians do? Why they don't grow in maturity what they do when they face trials and difficulties? Instead of calling on the Lord, they kind of shrug their shoulders and say, oh well, I tried it, I've tried to live for the Lord, I've tried to do the right thing, look where I am, look at my life, look at the difficulties, look at the problems. Or they go and they buy the next best self-help book. Because you know, after all, somebody out there has written on this and they've got the magic elixir. Here are 10 steps to David didn't do any of that. What did David do? When God seemed distant, he called on Him to answer him. Instead of turning from God, he turned to Him. Instead of complaining to men about God, he complained to God about men. Matthew Henry puts it this way, we should never allow ourselves to make any complaints but what are fit to be offered up to God and what drives us to our knees. Four lessons, very quickly. Our prayer should be concerned for God's glory, not just our happiness. Isn't that one of the mistakes we make? You know, I'm not happy because of my circumstances. God, I want to be happy. Well, happiness can be a fruit. It can be a result of us doing the right thing. We can find ourselves being persecuted for doing the right thing, but our prayer is not, Lord, I want to be happy. The prayer is, Lord, I want to bring glory to you. David wasn't just praying for deliverance. He is praying to escape his problem, but he's praying for this reason. Notice what he says again. Verse four, lest mine enemies say I have prevailed against him. What is David concerned about? God anointed David to be king, correct? If David is killed, what does that say about God? Would that dishonor God? David's prayer is not, deliver me so I look good. His prayer ultimately is, deliver me for your namesake. You chose me, you anointed me for your glory. Deliver me. Let me give you another example of this mindset. We've been studying Nehemiah on Wednesday nights. When Nehemiah in chapter two arrived in Jerusalem and he shared the vision that God had given to him about rebuilding the walls, what did he say that motivated the people? Let's build this wall to make a name for ourselves. Let's build this wall so every future generation will know we were the ones, our forefathers, remember this is 90 years after they returned from exile. They haven't rebuilt the walls in 90 years. He could have come and said, hey, your fathers all failed. We're not gonna fail. We're gonna do the job. Did he say that? What did he say? God is dishonored by these walls being broken. His challenge and his vision was not to make a name for himself. It was to bring honor to God because God had chosen to put his name in that city. And those walls being broken dishonored God. When we find ourselves in these difficulties, we have to remember, we're not praying that God would do something to make us happy. We're praying that God would, in that circumstance, use us to bring glory to Himself. It is about His name. The fact is, if you profess, as David did, to trust in God alone, then your defeat becomes God's defeat. So to defend His own honor, God will defend you. In a time of crisis, you can call out to Him to rescue you, not just for your relief, but for His glory. Number two, we must seek God especially when He seems distant. David was sensitive to the presence of God in his life. If he lost that sense of God's presence, he went after it with a fervor. Note what I'm going to say. The test of your faith is not when God's presence is real. When you see God at work in your life, that's not the test of your faith. The real test of your faith is when God seems distant. This is the real test of your faith. When God seems distant, do you seek Him? Do you seek Him? If you seek Him, you'll find Him. But if you turn to the world or some quick fix, you won't find Him. Seek Him. Number three, we must keep an awareness of God and the enemy before us at all times. One writer said, "...awareness of God and the enemy is virtually the hallmark of every psalm of David, the positive and negative charge which produced the driving force of his best years." In other words, we have to keep two realities in mind. One, we have to keep God in mind and our desire to bring glory to Him. Second, we have to keep in mind there is an enemy who will do everything he can to distract us from bringing glory to God. This is the avowed purpose of my life as a believer, to bring glory to God, whether I eat or drink or whatever I do, I do it all to the glory of God. The devil is over here making noise, distracting me, putting stumbling blocks in my path, doing everything he can to keep me from bringing glory to God. I have to remember that. I have to seek the face of God, I have to resist the devil. And the promise of God, if we resist the devil, what will he do? He will flee from us, won't he? One seminary professor said it this way. When you're doing what Jesus Christ has called you to do, you can count on two things. You can stake your life on it. You will possess spiritual power because you have the presence of Christ, and you'll experience opposition because the devil does not concentrate on secondary targets. He never majors on the minor. If you're not doing anything for God, then the enemy's not gonna really be concerned about you. But if you step out to do something for God, the enemy is going to step out to trip you up. Number four, God allows us to come to the end of ourselves so that we must rely on Him. David was fearing for his life. Notice what he says here in verse three. Consider and hear me, O Lord my God. Lighten mine eyes. That's an interesting statement. Lighten my eyes. Are your eyes heavy? Is that what he's talking about? Heavy eyelids? What does that idiom mean, lighten my eyes? Well, for the Hebrews, dim eyes were a sign that the vital powers of life were growing dim, that death was approaching. By observation, looking at an older person, the eye can convey that sense of dimness. Bright eyes were a sign of life. You ever seen the eyes of a child? Much different, right? So David calls out to God to enlighten his eyes, that is to bring him from the brink of death back to life again. David says, I'm gonna die out here in this wilderness. God, deliver me, bring light to my eyes. But again, why? For the glory of God, not just for himself. Paul said that he and his coworkers in the gospel, this is 2 Corinthians 1, despaired even of life, we had the sentence of death within ourselves in order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. So Paul acknowledges this very principle. We suffered, Paul says in our ministry, we had death hanging over our heads. How often was Paul beaten and whipped and thrown in prison, et cetera? But his point was, why? in order that we would not trust in ourselves but God. We cannot look to ourselves because we are absolutely weak, powerless. And if we try to do the Lord's work in our own strength, we're gonna fall on our face and we're gonna dishonor God in the process. But in our weakness, in our frailty, in our inability, in our powerlessness, we have an opportunity. Trust Him alone. Trust Him only and we will see Him work. And he gets all the glory because he is the one who accomplishes the work. David came to that point where he understood that his only hope was to trust in God. He was powerless to change the circumstances, but he did eventually sit on the throne, didn't he? But God brought about those circumstances. It wasn't David taking it himself. And that brings me to my final point. Verses five and six is statement of trust. But I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me. Here's the point I wanna make. David's circumstances hadn't changed. He's still in that cave. He's still in the wilderness. Time is still ticking by. He has no higher prospect, no better prospect on the day he wrote verses 5 and 6 than he did before that eventually he's going to be the king in Jerusalem. Nothing has changed. There's only one thing that changes from verse 1 to verse 6. And that's David's focus. His focus. David shifted his thoughts to God's love and to the salvation that God promised. This shift in focus moved him from confusion and depression to joy and praise. It didn't happen accidentally. The I, but I have trusted, I will sing. This is emphatic. It is David's deliberate choice to rely on God's love. He chose to interpret his circumstances by God's love rather than interpret God's love by his circumstances. Are you sometimes guilty of the latter? Judging God's love by your circumstances? If your circumstances are bad, does God really love me? My circumstances are great. Boy, God really loves me. David said, you know, I'm not going to judge the love of God by my circumstances. I want to judge my circumstances by God's love. What does that mean? That if in the will of God, He led me into these circumstances, He will not forsake me. And I can trust Him. I can trust Him. I may not understand. I may not understand until I get to heaven, but it's not a question of, will I ever understand? It's a question of my trusting Him. He is the only one to whom we can turn, the only one who can give us hope. Let me close. One gentleman, as he was trying to illustrate this passage, used this story. Spurgeon Charles Haddon Spurgeon, preacher from a bygone day, was walking through the English countryside with a friend. He noticed a barn with a weather vane and on top of the weather vane were the words, God is love. Spurgeon remarked that this was an inappropriate place for such a message because weather vanes are changeable but God's love never changes. Alright, I see his point, right? But his friend disagreed and said, oh, you misunderstand, Brother Spurgeon. The weather vane is stating the truth that no matter which way the wind blows, God is love. I think the second guy got it right. It doesn't matter how the wind is blowing. God is love and that never changes. My trust, your trust, is built upon the character of God. It is because of who He is that we can trust what He says. And the winds may blow fiercely and they may be blowing in a direction we wish they would not blow. But God is still love. And His promises are still going to be fulfilled. And we can still rest in Him. And we can still have that hope. And one day, looking back on this life, we will see how God carried us through. we will see how through all the weeks and the months and the years, God was doing a work. He is working in my life, in your life. He is molding us and shaping us. He has a purpose for each one of us. He has gifted each one of us as a part of the body of Christ. And it is through trials and difficulties that He is doing that work of preparing us for a greater work. We become, if I can state it this way, the quality of our service is enhanced by the difficulties and trials that God takes us through. If we never went through them, it would be like taking someone who is a kindergarten graduate and saying, you don't have to go any further in school, you already know your ABCs. Okay, great, I have the foundation for education. But we still go to first, second, third, fourth, et cetera, why? Because there's still so much to learn. We become better for having gone through school with all the tests and the papers and the projects. God does that for us. Don't waste your trials. but allow God to use them. In those seasons, in those dry spells, don't turn away from God. Use those times to draw an eye to Him. And I know that if you do, you will find He will never turn you away. Let's close in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for the opportunity we have to think about the life of David, and more today, thinking of Joseph, and thinking of Paul, and we're thinking about years that seemingly were wasted in the lives of these three men. Years that they could have been doing something more useful, something more positive, and yet in each case, you used those years of forced idleness not as a waste, but as an education. You prepared them. You built them. You helped them to be better and to be ready for the bigger things that would come in the future. And so too for us. We go through difficulties. We wish things would be on a much quicker, faster timetable. We don't want to wait. But Lord, just like these men, we must trust you. Dear Lord, help us not to be distracted. Help us to remember that you will never forget us and that you're using these trials and difficulties simply to prepare us. Lord, help us to be faithful and to honor you and we'll give you the glory in Jesus'