Psalm 13 illustrates how to move from complaint to prayer and then to praise, even in difficult circumstances. The psalmist's journey begins with repeated questions of "how long?" but shifts to a plea for God to "enlighten my eyes," recognizing a potential personal misunderstanding of God's actions. This leads to an expression of trust in God's mercy, exemplified by the Hebrew word "chesed," which encompasses love, loyalty, and faithfulness. The sermon encourages listeners to remember God's past faithfulness, as David did, and to sing praises to the Lord even in the midst of present troubles, drawing parallels with Paul and Silas in prison. The ultimate conclusion is that true rejoicing comes from trusting in God's salvation, both in this life and in the future resurrection, regardless of current hardships.
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Our Father, we do give thanks this morning for a new day, for health and strength, for good friends. Remember the words of the King James Version, the lines have fallen unto us in pleasant places. So we thank you for material blessings, and we thank you for spiritual blessings this morning. And we've come together to read your word, and we pray that as we read it this morning, The Spirit of God will speak to us and encourage us. And we commend ourselves to you now, and we anticipate your help and blessing as we give thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen. Now I would like you to read with me one more time Psalm number thirteen, the thirteenth Psalm. It's a very short psalm. Psalm thirteen, 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 daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
Consider and hear me, O Lord my God, enlighten my eyes. lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemies say I have prevailed against him, lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted in your mercy. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. I have two... New Testaments with me which I am using and sometimes I'm not too careful and what I put in my pocket if the reading was a little different this morning it's because it's from the new King James Version in which I have read Psalm thirteen to you.
We're going to look at this Psalm for the last time today and then tomorrow I would like to add one further thought and spend the hour tomorrow morning talking to you about unmerited sufferings. We all have cases, perhaps in our own lives, or in the lives of those who surround us, among our friends, where people have suffered, and we think of those sufferings as unmerited sufferings. It's a very difficult subject. I would like to talk with you tomorrow just a little about unmerited sufferings. In this particular case, we noticed the first day we read the psalm that this portion does not really help us understand who wrote the psalm or in what conditions he found himself in when he wrote the psalm.
We did make the suggestion if it was David, maybe it was in Gaddi, but we don't really know. It could have been some other experience in David's life. He went through some very difficult times And evidently he felt the Lord had forgotten him, was looking in the opposite direction. We move from this very intense complaint four times, how long, how long, and found how he almost unconsciously from complaint slipped into the attitude of prayer. He begins to plead with God. And the most important phrase is the phrase, enlighten my eyes.
Because in it there is at least a recognition, if not a confession, maybe the problem was with me. And I don't understand what God is doing with me at this particular time. Then from prayer, he moves into praise. And in verse five, and in verse six, we have this beautiful expression of praise to God. It happens only in six verses. I don't know how long you have found yourself in difficulty or what your problems may be, but I wonder if you have had the grace from God to move from the honest complaint into the area of prayer, because if you do, before you know it, you'll find yourself praising God.
And here in verse five, the psalmist says, I have trusted in your mercy. Now, mercy is a very special word in the Old Testament. We are not Greek or Hebrew scholars, but this is one word that we really should all know in a very special way. Chesed is the Hebrew word. I've noticed in our Spanish translations, because as you know, most of my work is done in the Spanish language, I have found... over twelve different words in the Spanish language that are used to translate the word chisen. And I'm sure if I took time to go into all of the different English translations we have, I would found an equal number of words, perhaps even more.
Because there isn't one word in Spanish or one word in English that can capture the richness of the word chisen. The fundamental thought, of course, is of love, of a tender, passionate love. Let me give you this morning three illustrations, which I think may help us to understand something about this word Chesent. You may remember the story of Abraham when he was well on in years and his good and trusted servant, Eliezer. He sent him back to where Abraham had come from to look for a bride for Isaac, his son.
So Eliezer followed the trail of the Fertile Crescent, going away back to the places where Abraham had come from originally, where he still had family. And when he arrived in that place, he met a lovely, beautiful woman. Her name was Rebecca. And she belonged to the family of Laban. And Abraham's servant, Eliezer, went and talked to this man, and he said, I would like you to show Chesed to my master Abraham. If you will let me take the daughter, then say yes. If not, well, then I'll have to go and look somewhere else.
But the fundamental thought is, I would like you to show affection and love towards my master Abraham. and let Rebecca come back with me to be the bride of Isaac, the son of my master. You may remember the story of Jericho, and there was a woman there, apparently not of good reputation. Her name was Rahab, but she was a woman that thought deeply about religious matters. And one day some spies came into the city, among them Joshua and Caleb and others who had been sent by the leaders of Israel, and they came in to spy out the land, and they went into Jericho, and they went to the house of Rahab.
And the king of Jericho found out that they were there, and he sent out his men to find these men and destroy them. He must have known something about why they were there. and they searched everywhere, including the house of Rahab, and they looked high and low, and they could not find those men. This woman had hidden them very well. They were not found. And then, in quietness and probably in darkness, she finally helped them leave. And just as they were leaving, she said to them, Now, as I have shown you, Chesed, I would like you to return Chesed to me when you come and take Jericho and that you will spare my father's house and his family."
So you have once again this word Chesed, this love, this respect, this devotion. She had shown it to the spies and now she wanted them to remember her in the same way when they came back and took the city of Jericho. There's a very moving story. in connection with the death of Saul. When Saul died committing suicide on the battlefield, he had seen his sons die. Then the enemies came. It's a rather gruesome detail in the story. They mutilated the bodies of Saul and his sons. And word got back to some of the choice soldiers that belonged to King Saul.
And when they heard that the king had died and his sons and the bodies had been mistreated. They went on a forced march all night, and they finally arrived at the battlefield, and they gave honorable burial to Saul and his sons. David heard about it, and David recognized later, and he honored the soldiers because they had shown Chesed to Saul, their defeated leader, and to his sons. So in the use of the word in these stories, you can see affection, but there's more than that. There's also loyalty and responsibility and faithfulness because of relationships.
You see, Laban belonged to the family of Abraham. So there's a sense of responsibility and of faithfulness and of loyalty plus the great thought of love and tenderness. And so he let Rebecca go back to be the bride of Isaac. In connection with Rahab, the only relationship you can find in this story, it may be the only one, but it's a very important one, is that this woman had heard about Jehovah, and she had more confidence in the God of the Jews than she did in the pagan gods of Jericho.
And that was the link. There was a loyalty of religious commitment on the part of the spies and on the part of Rahab. So again, you have loyalty and responsibility plus respect and love and devotion. And that was certainly true in the case of Saul. These were Saul's soldiers, his choice soldiers. They had respected their king. And when they found out what had happened, they traveled all night. and they buried the king and his sons. They did it out of loyalty, responsibility, faithfulness, but also because of love and devotion to the king.
Now, with that in mind, this word in the Old Testament brings together a number of beautiful concepts, beginning with love, tenderness, passion, then responsibility, faithfulness, loyalty, and also the fact of a man gives his word and he keeps his word. Well, when you take these thoughts on the human level, they're only faint reflections of God's chesed, God's mercy. Here you find it in its perfect form. God cannot lie and he gives his word and he keeps his word.
He's faithful and loyal. And his love is eternal love. For he says, Through his servant Jeremiah, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Now, the psalmist is in a very difficult time in his life. Things are not going well. He even comes to the extreme point. He feels he's been abandoned by God. But then he prays, and then he remembers. We should never let pain or sorrow remove from our minds the memories of God's love and faithfulness in the past.
I think it happened for a moment in the psalmist. He forgot. He could only see the things that surrounded him right then. And that's when he says, how long, how long. But when he moved into God's presence and prayed, then he remembered. Now notice it's the past tense. For he says in verse five, But I have trusted in your mercy. He's going back and remembering the things of his past life. And there must have been some beautiful experiences in his life. If we're dealing with David, David could remember as a young man when God was with him. And he defeated Goliath.
When he went out against the bear and the lion, there are many things in his life when he saw God acting on his behalf. Now he says, I have trusted in the past. I've trusted in your faithful, beautiful, real love. And he remembers. That's only a phrase in the Psalm. Let me take you just for a moment. The Psalm, a hundred and thirty-two, where there's a little more said about this subject. Psalm, a hundred and thirty-two. You may remember, this is called the Psalm of Ascent. The Jews used to come from all around the Mediterranean world, especially at Passover time, and they made their pilgrimages up to the city of Jerusalem.
You know, you've come to Park of the Palms, probably in an air-conditioned car and on very good highways. and you stayed in beautiful motels or you came on the train or in an airplane. And we forget what it was like two thousand years ago when a little band of pilgrims set out for Jerusalem. It was a very dangerous trip. And if it rained, there would be mud. I've traveled in my youth on horseback and torrential rains and mud. It's an experience you go through. You don't want to go through again. If it doesn't rain, the dust and the intense heat in the Middle East, sometimes the shortage of water and of food, and yet they would come from long distances making their way up to Jerusalem.
And as they came, not all of them reached Jerusalem. Some would become discouraged, and it was too hard, and they would turn around and go back home again. to make sure you got there, was to remember. And you find in Psalm thirty-two that they say, Lord, remember David and all his afflictions, how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the mighty God of Jacob, surely I will not go into the chamber of my house or go up to the comfort of my bed. I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the mighty God of Jacob.
They remembered how David thought about the ark, the symbol of God's presence among his people, and the ark did not have a permanent dwelling place. In a sense, God was without a house. And David says, I will not rest, I will not sleep, I will not be at peace. until I find a dwelling place for the Lord. Well, the ark equals the temple, and the pilgrims are on their way up to Jerusalem, where the temple now stands. And they remember all that David did, and his faithfulness in times of affliction. And they encourage themselves, and they move on on their journey up towards Jerusalem.
And then when you come down to verse eleven, you have promises the Lord has sworn in truth. to David. He will not turn from it. I will set upon your throne the fruit of your body. If your sons will keep my covenant and my testimony, which I shall teach them, their sons also shall sit upon your throne forever. They were encouraged by the promises of God. When you come to the end of the psalm, they move into hope. And you find in verse fourteen, this is my resting place forever. Here I will dwell. for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision. I will satisfy her poor with bread.
I will also clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud for joy." So they remembered their past, their tradition, their history was an encouragement to them. And then they thought of God's promises, and then they also had the hope God has blessed Jerusalem and we're on our way to that great and holy city. Well, the psalmist says in our little psalm today, I have trusted in the Lord's mercy in the past. Then he turns from looking back and verse five of Psalm thirteen and the second part reads as follows.
My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. Now that's the future tense. The past tense, I have trusted. And remembering the past, then he looks to the future, and he recognizes, my heart shall rejoice. There will be times of rejoicing again, because I'm going to see the salvation of the Lord in my life now, just as I saw it in previous times. Now, salvation is a word that we often over-spiritualize, I don't think in Psalm thirteen we should read into the word salvation, the great mystery of salvation in Romans, spiritual salvation.
I want to take you back to the psalmist. He is in a very real problem and he needs literal relief, help, salvation from the Lord. If it's the case of Saul who was persecuting him, he needed security. He needed protection. He needed to be helped by God. He's looking forward now, and He's sure He's going to see that salvation. I remember years ago in British Columbia, where they have a Bible camp on a little island called Anvil Island. It still exists. It's a great Bible camp today. And in that Bible camp many years ago, I was there as a teacher with a group of young children, young boys, before I went to the Dominican Republic.
And while we were there towards the end of the camp, we decided that we would climb the mountain behind the camp. That was always part of our activities at camp. And the best way to go up the mountain was on the dry stream bed. There was only water in the stream when there were heavy rains, and it wasn't the time of rain. And if you went up the stream bed, well, then you didn't have to worry about trees and shrubs. You just went right up following the stream bed. And as we began, I gathered the boys together, and I said to them, Now, remember, there are a lot of loose stones here, and it's a very steep climb. When we're going up, try the stones before you put your weight on them.
Put your foot down, and make sure that the stone is firm before you put your weight on it to keep going up. And so the boys began, and they would try each stone before they made their way up the hill. There's a little boy beside me. and he was a little bit impatient and he was hurrying along and he didn't really try a stone and he put his foot on it, then his weight and the stone slipped and he came falling down, went right by me and I grabbed him by the hand and pulled him to his feet and gave him a little lecture, said, now test the rocks before you go any further. And so more carefully he began again to climb up the mountainside. We had a good day And then we came down from the mountain and went to the beach late afternoon for a swim.
We were all tired and had perspired, and so we went in and had a good swim. I'm around six foot when I stand straight, and these were little boys. I moved out a little farther in the water, and all of a sudden the same little boy was right beside me. But I noticed that his head was under the water, and his arms were flailing like this, and so I grabbed him again and pulled him up. And I took him to the beach and gave him another lecture about not going out too deep in the water. Apparently he didn't know how to swim. So finally that night we met together, I think it was the last night of the camp, around the bonfire. They usually do that at camps and we sang choruses.
The camp director then opened the session and said to the boys, now if anyone would like to tell us something of their experiences in this camp, This is the time to do it. And one little boy got up and said that it had been a very happy time for him. He'd been saved in Sunday school about two years before, but he had enjoyed the Bible classes and the teacher being a real help to him. But then he sat down. Another little boy got up and he said, I was saved yesterday after the class. My teacher spoke to me. And we prayed together, and I was saved. I received the Lord Jesus as my Savior.
And this word saved was used a number of times. Then there was a pause. It seemed that no one else had anything to say. And the camp director said one more time, well, now, we're going to close now with prayer and we'll go to our cabins. But if there's anybody else who would like to say a word, this is the last opportunity. There was a pause. Another little boy I'm referring to, he stood up and he said, Sir, I was saved twice today. Well, I heard the children behind me laughing and one boy said to another, He doesn't know what it means to be saved. And I wanted to stand up and say he certainly does know what it means to be saved.
Twice he was in danger and twice He had been saved. Now the psalmist is in danger, in trouble, in some type of difficulty. He remembers. I remember the steadfast, unfailing love of God in the past. I know my heart's going to rejoice again because I'm going to see His help, His salvation in my life. And when we move from that, then we come down to verse six. I will sing to the Lord. Now, in the translation of the Old Testament, especially the Hebrew language, the tense of the verbs is always a problem.
Is it past, future, present? Even that great phrase in connection with Jehovah, I am what I am, that can be I shall be what I shall be. It can be in the future. It can be in the present. It's not always easy to know just what the sense is. Now, the translators of the King James Version and other versions have used the future tense. I shall sing. Well, if you take it in the future tense, then it means I remember what God has done for me in the past. Today, I am in a very real problem.
But I believe that God will act again and he will help me. And after he helps me, then I shall sing again to the Lord. Now, I'm not at all sure that that is the right understanding of this song. I know that in the Bible, generally speaking, this is not the idea. We do not wait. until God helps us and then we sing. You can think of a number of illustrations. Instead, for instance, of using the future tense, some would suggest, and I among them, that perhaps the imperative tense is much better.
And that would read then like this, and I paraphrase, sing now my soul unto the Lord. When? Right in the middle of the problem. Don't wait until you see the action of God. But if your confidence is in God, and you know He has acted in His love in the past, then with confidence, even in your problem, you can say, Sing now my soul unto the Lord, for He has dealt bountifully with me. You may say to him this morning, Is it really possible to do that? Is it possible to sing in the middle of a problem?
Well, the great story that comes to mind is the story of Paul and Silas. We've mentioned it in the evening services when they arrived in Philippi and they had the privilege of seeing Lydia converted and others, and there was great joy and they were taken into Lydia's home. And then they're walking down through the streets and there's this slave girl that keeps coming and saying, these are servants of God and they're speaking of God's salvation. And finally Paul rebuked the evil spirit. He left the girl who was the fortune teller in the power of the evil spirit. And then the owners realized they'd lost their income. And then they went to the magistrates and Paul and Silas were taken prisoners and they were beaten.
I've never been beaten. I have seen in the Dominican Republic only once. I would never want to see it again. When a police officer lost his temper and he beat a young man, these men were probably taken, their clothes were removed, and the naked back, they were beaten. That means their back was like an open sore. And then because of the words that were given to the magistrates, they took these two men right into the inner prison and they put their feet in the stocks. Now if you can imagine this, what it's like to have your body in that position, your feet in the stocks and your back is an open wound, you are in a most uncomfortable position.
And here are these men in the midst of their problem and that midnight they are singing the praises of God. Whether they brought to mind Psalm thirteen or not, I don't know. They certainly knew Psalm thirteen. I can imagine them saying to each other, Sing now my soul. We've seen the Lord's help in the past. He's been good to us in the past. Let's sing his praises even now in our problems. And it was after they were singing that the earthquake came. and the doors were open and they were freed and there was further great blessing in their lives, but they sang first before they saw the salvation of the Lord.
If you are in a problem today, very gently and kindly, I ask you this morning, are you singing praises to the Lord even in the midst of your adversity? I think the psalmist did that. I know that Paul and Silas did that. And I know that they were helped by God in marvelous ways. They did not wait to see His salvation. They sang ahead of time. I think of the martyrs. I remember reading the stories when I was young. My father told them to me, first of all, I was always impressed with the fact that some of them went to their deaths and they were singing the praises of God.
And you might say, well, they did not see the salvation of the Lord. They really died, and some of them died horrible deaths. That is true, but these are men and women who saw beyond time and human circumstances, and they knew that as Jesus died and rose again, they too would see the salvation of God in resurrection and eternal glory. We must be honest with ourselves this morning. We will not live forever. There will be some sickness someday come into our lives that will bring our lives to an end if the Lord tarries in His coming.
That does not mean that we will not see the salvation of the Lord. We will see that salvation in resurrection. and glorification, and we will be with him forever, for not even death can conquer those who belong to the Lord Jesus. So in our adversity, we can sing to the Lord, for he has dealt bountifully with us. We began with the complaint one more time, how long, how long, how long, And then in six short verses, it changes.
And the psalmist says, Sing now my soul unto the Lord, for he has dealt bountifully with me. May the Lord fill our hearts with thanksgiving and praise today, regardless of our circumstances, as we think in his steadfast, unfailing love towards us. Let's take our hymn book as we close this morning, and in the front cover... You have the hymn, Praise the Savior, ye who know him, who can tell how much we owe him. Gladly let us render to him all we are and have. I'm not sure what's going on with the chairman this morning and Mr.
Woodhouse about sitting and standing, but I'm going to ask you this morning to stand. And we'll sing this hymn, Praise the Savior, Ye who know them. It's in the front cover of our books. And now to him, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, be the glory both now and forever. Amen.