We're going to be looking at Psalm chapter 13 this evening. I hope that you brought your participators with you, because you're going to be having a part in participating as we look at Psalm chapter 13. I've entitled this particular psalm, From Sighing to Singing, because this psalm expresses David's emotion during the time that he was hunted as a fugitive by Saul. His powers of endurance are almost totally gone. He's flat out discouraged. Have you ever been there? He feels that unless God acts quickly, he's a done deal. He's finished. He's down and out for the count. Now some of you may never ever want to admit that you've been there, but you haven't really lived very long in the Christian life if you don't feel that way at one time or another. Some people say it's wrong to bring your complaint to God. Some people say it's wrong to complain to God and tell him how you really feel. He might think you're unspiritual if you do. Well, does God know our hearts? Does He know our thoughts? Was David transparent before God? I think that we've studied a few of the Psalms, including now looking at Psalm 13, and we realize that, quite frankly, David is discouraged. And this Psalm is kind of the story of a soul's journey as it needs to turn from self to God. And I think that that's a big problem that oftentimes we have. Because when trials come, we have a tendency to dwell upon self, focus in on self. whether it be self-pity or pride, and we need to turn our vision towards God. In our psalm, before we go in for some discussion, in our psalm we have three stanzas of two verses each. In verses one and two, we have what I would call the sorrowful heart. His heart is full of sorrow. We're going to notice that four times in two verses we have the phrase quoted, how long. Do you think that David had a time problem with God? How long is used four times. The first how longs, the first two how longs are related and directed to God. But then the third, how long, is directed towards himself. And then the fourth, how long, is regarding his enemy. So in verses 1 and 2, we have the sorrowful heart. It says in verse 1 and 2, How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? He felt that God had forgotten him. God's promises are for everybody else, but they're not for me. How long, O Lord? Forever? Are you going to forget me forever? Might I remind you that these words are coming from someone who is a spiritual man? Do we ever get to the place where we're so spiritual that we don't doubt God's timing and God's purposes in our lives? He says here, how long will you hide your face from me? Lord, you're hiding your face from me. Then he goes and he continues, how long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? Lord, I try to find comfort and keep a good stiff upper lip, and it seems like, Lord, it doesn't do any good. I've tried daily. I've had sorrow in my heart daily. How long shall the enemy be exalted over me? So here he has a sorrowful heart in verses 1 and 2. I suppose that if you were going to look at this psalm from the standpoint of sea level, he's here below sea level. He's expressing despair, and he's below sea level. Now, in verses 3 and 4, we've had the sorrowful heart, but now you have the sleeping heart in verses 3 and 4. He says, Consider and hear me, O LORD my God. Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. His eyes were heavy because of tears. His eyes were heavy because of sleep deprivation and the trial that he was going through. And he says here, Lest my enemy say, I have prevailed against him, and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved." You know, in verses 1 and 2 you have expressions of despair, well here you have expressions of desire. He's just asking the Lord to help him. So, you have the soluble heart in verses 1 and 2, the sleeping heart in verses 3 and 4, but now look at the singing heart. He goes from sighing to singing here. But I want us to answer a question as we look at the singing heart. What are the answers? I'd like to kind of go around the room a little bit and have you answer the question, how do you handle it in your life when it seems like your prayers don't go beyond the ceiling tiles? What is your response? How would you counsel someone who finds themselves where David is? David finds himself with a sorrowful heart. Lord, how long? I've tried praying and it just seems like you're not answering. Anyone have some suggestions for David as we're looking at this passage of scripture? Yes, John? Okay. John suggests to us that as difficult as it is to swallow, there's the element of waiting on God's timing and trusting in God's will. And yet that's difficult, isn't it? That's one solution to look at. Anyone else? Yes, Lois? Latching on to a promise of God and taking that promise and praying it back. to God, claiming it, Jeremiah 33.3 is a favorite of Lois' and this is good. By the way, do the trials and the dry times of our lives, do they drive us to the word? Or very often do we have a proclivity towards being driven away from the Word, almost in anger against God. God, you're treating me this way and I don't like what you're doing. I'm going to get even with you and I'm not going to read your Bible or your promises to me. Who's on the losing end when we do that? Yeah, I don't feel like praying. Now, you may not have said that ever, but you've acted it out, and so have I. And when we fall into prayerlessness, and we're in inner rebellion and hostility against the Lord, and we strike out by not praying, and we strike out by not reading His Word, we're cutting our own oxygen source, you see. And what's going to happen? The devil has us where he wants us. And by the way, how many of you have ever seen people who went through a tragedy or a trial and, hey, I'm going to stop going to church. And we start accusing God's goodness. And if God were really the good God that he is, he wouldn't have allowed this to happen. And we begin listening to whom? Satan, yeah, we begin listening to Satan. Now, all of you have been through some of these dry spells. All of us have been through some of these dry spells. But how would you counsel someone else in another area on this area? Yes, Del? We, I'm sure, in the process, we all need to be looking at it in a different way. Crying out to God, if you are in a desperate situation, but if that's far enough crying out, you've got to look into it and see whether you're in, you're always in, you've got to use it to try and move us. Sighing to singing. And we're going to get into the singing in a minute. Where does it say, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me? It's in the Psalms. Anybody remember? Psalm 66, verse 18. What does the word regard mean? If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. What does that mean? Are we supposed to be sinless? Give place to? Harbor it? Have little protective pockets? where we set conditions. By the way, when we pray, how many times do we request for something, and we have conditions, Lord, I want you to answer me, but I have certain conditions on what I'll accept as answers. And if I don't like the envelope that you give me, I'll pass it back, and I'll just not consider that an answer at all. and we place conditions upon God. What does Philippians 4 and verse 6 teach about our prayer and giving God conditions for the kind of answers that we want? Let's all turn to Philippians 4 and verse 6. Philippians 4 and verse 6. Jim, will you read that for me, please? All of us are well aware or familiar with the scripture, but let's turn to it. Philippians 4.6. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication. With thanksgiving let your request be known unto God. Let your requests be made known unto God. Okay. You see, we need to check our hearts sometimes when we're not getting answers to prayer. Maybe God is answering, but we have certain conditions that we're not going to accept certain answers. You know, we place conditions on what we'll do or where we'll go. you know, or something, conditions, or areas that we'll surrender except for. Areas. But the Word of God says here, whatever the trial, what determines the heart attitude is whether we're able to give thanks to God for the trial. Even while we're in it and we don't know what He's doing. And we need to do that. I think of the passage, and we've preached on this in the past, of the persistent servant in Luke chapter 18. Whenever you're in a dry spell like David was in Psalm 13, remember, continue in prayer. Keep on praying. Don't stop praying. Don't give up. That's important. Then number two, check your heart. Is there a spirit of rebellion? Are we placing conditions upon obedience in our hearts? Then I think Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, commit your way unto God. If you've examined your heart before God and there are no conditions, towards well Lord I'll do this but not this and I'll go here but not there and Lord you know you can you can call me anywhere you want as long as it's a tropical climate you know something along that line you know or Lord you can call me anywhere you want as long as it's it's Florida you know or we can have our conditions whatever it may be Lord I'm willing to do this but not this you know And kind of like the parable of the nobleman, you know, to dig ditches I'm ashamed. And he had that concept. And we have limitations upon God. And God wants us to check our hearts. Are we willing to be thankful for whatever he places before us? Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, we need to commit our way. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. When you're going through a dry spell, keep on doing right. Don't stop. Don't quit. Don't allow yourself to step into an area of disobedience. So often a tragedy takes place. So what do we do? We rebel against God and we start hanging around the wrong crowd. And you know, you start hanging around with those that are rebels against the Lord. And there's guilt in our hearts. And like Peter, we're warming our hands by the fire. with the enemies of God's people, you see. And the Lord wants us to keep on doing right. When you're in the storm, put your plane on automatic pilot. But fix your compass on the Word of God, and the bumps will come, and the darkness you'll not be able to see outside of the cockpit, but you'll know that God's compass is going to direct you. Now, I am not, by and large, much older than most of you, and I'm not, by and large, a great deal younger, but the point that I'm saying is that I can tell you that every trial in my life, I haven't been able to figure them all out to this day. There are a few of them that I have to wait until eternity, when I stand before the Lord, to figure it all out. But I'll say this, that every single one, as I've committed it to the Lord, I can honestly say that I'd do it all over again, committing it to the Lord, because He does work it out in His time. And I've been better because of it, you see. And I can trust the Lord. Now, turn back to Psalm 13. Psalm 13. While we're turning, Jim, share with me what you have in your heart that you'd like to add. I try to confess all known sins and that's useful in my prayer life. If what I'm going through is a result of my sin I want to confess it because I don't want anything in the way. I don't know if I'm being chastised or going through something because of sin but if it That's right. And if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. And there's another condition for the Lord not hearing us, and that's our home life. 1 Peter 3.7, dwell with your wives according to knowledge, that your prayers be not hindered. you see. So that's an area that we really need to examine in our hearts and lives. Now going back to Psalm 13, just finishing up now, we've seen a sorrowing heart, a sleeping heart, but you know, we can go from sighing to singing because it says in verses 5 and 6, but I have trusted Remember, the word trust means to lean on. I have trusted in thy mercy. Now, the Hebrew word translated mercy there, it's the word hesed, which means covenant mercy. God's mercy extended to us on resting upon his covenant with us. And when we are in Christ Jesus, God promises to work out his best in our lives because of his promise, the new covenant, God's relationship through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we will promise and commit ourselves to waiting upon God and being obedient to Him and not going to the right hand or to the left or taking things in our own hands. I think of the guy that, they probably don't do this anymore because everything is by computer, but you've often heard of those psychological exams where they used to give people triangular pegs and circles and rectangular pegs, and they were supposed to fit them in. And sometimes you get so frustrated, some of these people would want to take out a pen knife and whittle away at it and force it in. And those psychological exams. Some Christians are that way. They get so frustrated that, Lord, you're not answering me, so I'm going to take matters into my own hands. And we all kid about senior panic. And you know, the story is the one who's graduating from college, and I'm not married yet. So therefore, I'm going to take matters into my own hands. And they certainly suffer because of it. But we need to trust in the Lord's covenant mercy. And it says here, my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. Notice he didn't say my salvation, he said thy salvation. What's the difference between my salvation and thy salvation? Any difference at all? Dale, what do you think? And what would be the difference? Ah, yeah, pretty big difference between heaven and hell. That's right. Is there a difference from the standpoint outside of the fact that, yes, salvation is from the Lord, but what would have been the difference if David had said, Lord, you know, I'm rejoicing in my salvation that I have from you? What would be the difference in saying thy salvation still? He's still waiting. Lord, it's your salvation. It's not mine. Because I don't see the end of this. And it hasn't come yet. I'm trusting in you. Anyone else have something to add to that? Jim, you're just scratching your forehead, so I'm not going to call on you. Anybody else have a suggestion on that? And any solution to our problems is, in reality, going to come from whom? From God, you see. He is the one who has the solution. So therefore, does it make sense for us to take matters into our own hands? Do you think God's going to bless it when we do wrong? Is it ever right to do wrong so that good may come about? You'd be surprised how many Christians actually practice that, even though it may not be in their doctrinal creed. But notice, you can go from sighing to singing and not have a change in your circumstances. It says in verse six, I will sing unto the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. What do you think David started doing for him to say, Lord, you've dealt bountifully with me? What journey has he taken between verses one and six? Remember, outward circumstances haven't changed, but all of a sudden he's looking at bountiful things. What do you think he's been doing? And then what did he begin seeing when he did that? His burdens being lifted and he began seeing what in his life? What God had already done. That's right. What he had already done. Anybody know a little Christian jingle that kind of follows that thinking? I mean a hymn, you know that. But what is it? Count your blessings. That's right. Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. And you can go from sighing to singing without a change of outward circumstances. And you know what? That brings glory to God. It exalts God. I don't know of a more sincere expression of worship that you can give to the Lord as to come to him and say, Lord, though you slay me, yet will I trust you. And Lord, I know that you've dealt bountifully for me. And you know what? I have a feeling that when you do that, the trial will come to pass. Very often because you've learned through that. But don't forget that we are not to discontinue being in prayer. We're not to bail out and pull the cord and bail out of the plane and say, I'm going to do it my way. I'm going to whittle away at the pegs. I'm going to put conditions on my obedience. Lord, you need to commit your way to the Lord. Keep on doing right. But you know, don't lose your song. Don't lose your song. Lord, you've dealt bountifully with me. And you know, when we look at our beloved nation, And we're going to spend a good time in prayer for our nation tonight. But when you look at how bountifully we individually have been blessed. You can divide your life into so many areas. You can divide it into just creature comforts. Just like last week we were studying about the homelessness of Jesus. And you know, praise the Lord for the Marys and Marthas. and you know Lazarus and he went to their homes and he would have a place of shelter but he did not have a place that he could call his own and yet every one of you are going to go back home to an air-conditioned home and you're going to go to a home where there are groceries on the shelf it may not be just exactly what you'd like But there's food there. Most of you, I don't believe, are going hungry. You have the blessings of the United States of America and the laws that are protecting you and me. And we can go to bed at night. And we go to this wall and turn the switch. And what do we expect? We get electricity. And it lights the room. And we can go. Go to the, I mean, just the blessings of having plumbing that works, and the things of the conveniences that we have, and then you go into the area of our civil liberties, and the blessings that we have in Christ Jesus, which far overshadow all of the others. that the Lord is with us and he'll never leave us or forsake us. The blessings of family, the blessings that we have in Psalm 103, all of the benefits that are given to us. And when we begin singing unto the Lord, and I always recommend, I like to sing hymns to the Lord, and I like to sing praise unto the Lord, and I like to be of ministry to other people. especially those that are helpless, as a means of encouraging my heart. I receive strength in helping other people. That's the way the Lord made me. I think he's probably done the same thing with you in one way or another. But there are so many things that we can be thankful for. We can be thankful for one another, that we're here together. God has brought each one of us together in each one of our lives for a reason. And we have the blessing of knowing that I can pray for you. Jim, you can pray for me. I can pray for you. And I love you all. And I thank the Lord that He's brought you into my life. And I can thank the Lord. You know what? We're going to get to know each other real good, because we're going to spend eternity in heaven. And just think of it. Pastor John without a sin nature. Wouldn't that be great? Right? Then I'll really be in good shape, you know. And we can be thankful for so many things. Now, the Lord knows that we have needs. If a son asks his father for a piece of bread, he'll not give him a stone. But we have to be careful that we don't set conditions on God of what we'll accept and what we won't. We have to go to the Lord open-handed and say, I am here. I'm yielding myself to you. And don't forget to give thanks unto the Lord. I'm just wondering how many here would have a concluding statement that you would like to make that the Lord has given you that you want to add to what I just said here? Anybody else have anything you want to share before we close in prayer? It's totally reciprocal, I guarantee you. How I thank the Lord. Melody, do you have something you'd like to share? It's not after God solves everything that was wrong. The Bible talks about waiting and waiting and how precious that time is to the Lord if we use it in the right way and how it can strengthen us and help us to when we do receive the answer to do with it what God wants us to do. It really trials and learning to wait upon God produces a depth in our lives that can never be produced any other way. And it's a metaphysical thing, and I'm not trying to sound like the Unity Church down on Glaucona Ocoee or anything when I say that. But it's metaphysical in the sense that somebody notices a depth and they can't explain it. But it's something that God has done in your life. And it's a deep resource that you can draw from. And it's a deep well. But the Lord puts our tears in a bottle while we're waiting. I just want to encourage you towards that end. Anyone else have something to share? We have many requests that I'm sure apply to what we've been talking about here. Yes, Francis? Right now, I have received a phone call from Evelyn Lynch. This is not on your prayer request, but I received a phone call from Evelyn Lynch. Her sister is a widow. Her husband recently died. She is 82 years old. She had a stroke. She's all by herself. No family. Her daughter, her only daughter died at age 40. Her husband died. She's all by herself. Think of the family and loved ones that you have around you in different ways. But Evelyn is going now to her sister, very close to death. She knows Christ as Savior. But we thank the Lord. that she is a child of God. Evelyn Lynch, friends with Marge Steele, the little lady that got baptized, her sister, and she's traveling to Binghamton, New York. That's not on your prayer sheet, that's hot off the press. But she's traveling to Binghamton to be with her older sister, 82 years old. And then I look at Melody's mom, she's 83, and how she'll probably kill me for saying that. But anyway, that's not on tape, though. Is it? Anyway, but you know what? I mean, she's gone through the valve surgery. And sure, there are some complications that have recently just surfaced today. But there's so much to be thankful for. But look around you, look around you, and you can certainly be thankful for what the Lord has done. And we need to encourage one another and pray for one another. Let's pray now. Father, bless us as we share requests and minister to one another in the ministry of prayer. And Father, we thank you for the blessings that you have, Lord, so bountifully rained upon us. And Father, those areas that we're trusting with you, Father, we entrust it and commit it into your hands. And Lord, may it be an instrument of learning and Lord, helping us to depend upon you. Lord, remove pride and arrogance, self-will out of our lives. Lord, we don't place any conditions upon what we should be or what you'll do with our lives What you'll have us do, Lord, we just want to do what you would have us do. And Lord, if it's humbling that we need, Lord, may that be the case and may we humble ourselves that in effect we'll be lifted up by your grace. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.