Sorrow to Rejoicing (Psalm 13)
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Psalm 13
Sorrow to Rejoicing
Sunday, August 13, 2023
Introduction
There is this popular saying out there, “life’s tough, get a helmet.” I’m sure the majority of us have heard this phrase or some variation of it. I know even my 3, almost 4, year old has jokingly heard it used. The phrase itself though is often used in light hearted moments. But the reality of the matter is, life is tough. It is hard. And at times and in certain situations it feels as if the pain of sorrow and suffering is down right unbearable. But there is another complexity added to it, for Christians. For we know that we are to be a joyful people. In fact, we know from James 1:2 that we are told, “Count it all joy, my brothers (and sisters), when you meet trials of various kinds”.
So the question that lies before us then this morning is how on earth are we to count trials as joy, how are we to be joyful when life comes at us with a fiery in really hard and painful circumstances? With great trials of sorrow and suffering? The answer is not just grin and bear it, I will tell you that right now. The answer isn’t just become more mature and you will count these things as joy. No, these aren’t the answers in how to deal with our very real sorrow. The answer is also not to blame God and doubt his goodness.
As sufferings come, some will be tempted to move away from trusting the LORD. This is not the way. The way to move a sorrowful heart to rejoicing lies in the need to remember God’s goodness and to hope in it. This is what we see David modeling for us in Psalm 13, our text for this morning. So I invite you to take a copy of the Bible and turn with me to Psalm 13. If you are newer to the Bible, or don’t yet have the Bible order memorized, you can open the Bible up in the middle and you should land somewhere in the Psalms, and turn forward or backward accordingly. Or, if you are using one of the Pew Bibles, you can find it on page #____.
The main idea of Psalm 13 is this, the only path to move a heart filled with sorrow to rejoicing is to honestly acknowledge our sorrow as we also trust in God’s goodness. We are then going to unfold this in 3 parts: (1) a sorrowful heart, (2) a prayerful cry, and (3) a steadfast love.
A Sorrowful Heart
Sooner or later, deep and dark sorrows of grief and suffering will fill our hearts. It is inevitable. Some of us have known these from a young age. Maybe some dare we say learned these way too young. While others, you have been most fortunate to have been guarded for a lengthy time from such grief and suffering. But inevitably it will come. Sorrow is not partial, it comes for all of us as we live in a world in which the full effects of sin are still felt. Where creation itself is still groaning.
This is not to say that our sorrow is a direct result of our own sinfulness. In saying that sorrow comes as a result of the full effects of sin is to say that we live in a world where sickness still exists. We live in a world where death still comes for us all. These are part of the curse, part of the fall of man. And because of this reality, every person, every family will feel these effects sooner or later.
Sorrows that come in the form of tragically or suddenly losing a loved one to the pangs of death. Sorrows that come in the form of bouts of depression and anxiety. Sorrows that come in the form of serious diseases, one being cancer. Sorrows that come when a loved one battles dementia and Alzheimers. Sorrows come and they are no respecter of persons. And though the cause of our sorrows are different, the feeling of sorrow is much the same. It starts small, but can quickly increase and feel as if the weight of an elephant is stepping onto our chests, making it unbearable. It is here where we most wonder how we are to count such sorrow as joy?
The counting the sorrow as joy comes as we learn to lament our sorrow while at the same time learning to trust in the goodness of the LORD. In his book, Dark Clouds Deep Mercy, Mark Vroegop writes, “Lament is the honest cry of a hurting heart wrestling with the paradox of pain and the promise of God’s goodness.”
And that is the model of David here in Psalm 13. As sorrow strikes, David wrestles with the reality of his pain and sorrow, while at the same time seeking to trust and hope in the promises of the LORD. And the first step in this paradox is to both acknowledge God and make our complaint known to the LORD. Psalm 13:1-2….
In these two verses, we see that four times, David uses the phrase, “How long?” Each of these how longs acknowledges the various feelings of complaint David has. The repetition of “How long?” also lets us understand the intensity of the sorrow that David was feeling.
It is likely for David here in Psalm 13, as he asks the question, how long, that it is some significant length of time. But let it be noted brothers and sisters, the intensity of sorrow can come upon each of us in different amounts in different times. The sorrows that one of us are facing might be in moderation, but for great lengths of time. For others, your sorrows might have been for a short length of time, but with such intensity that you come to feeling as if you are at a breaking point with little time having gone by. Or some combination of these. I mention this, because we need to see that regardless of the length of time, to ask the question, how long is not unwarranted if we are feeling the weight of sorrow within our soul. For in acknowledging the unbearableness we feel in our soul, we are confessing our need in the LORD, and the need for it quickly.
David felt this need for quick deliverance, as he struggled with feeling forgotten by the LORD and as if the Lord was hidden from him. His first two how long questions as he acknowledges his complaints to the LORD.
And while we can all relate to the feeling of being forgotten at moments, the concept of the Lord hiding his face from us might be a more foreign concept to us if we are not as familiar with our Old Testament. For many of us, we might be familiar with the Lord telling Moses on Mount Sinai that he cannot see his face and live. But in other parts of the Old Testament where the book of Psalms is, God’s face being shown goes together with blessing and favor. The opposite then is also true, when God’s face is hidden, it is a sign of displeasure. We see this clearly in the book of Deuteronomy as Joshua is being prepared to take over for Moses in leading the Israelites, the LORD states in Deuteronomy 31:17;
Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’
It is this hiding of the face in which David feels, and asks the LORD, how long will it be like this? How long will he treat him with disfavor? But there is more sorrow upon sorrow, as David advances his complaint to the LORD, wondering about the ongoing sorrow in his heart all the day and about his enemy being exalted over him.
The suffering and sorrow of David is real. And while he knows some of these things in his mind, he is forced to wrestle with his soul in feeling these various ways. For we must remember here, that David is said to be a man after God’s own heart. He is a man seeking to please the LORD. And while he is far from perfect as we all can relate to, he is not ungodly here in the expression of these sorrows. In fact, it is because of his faith in the LORD that he acknowledges the raw and honest thoughts of his heart and mind to the LORD. In his commentary, John Calvin writes, “If David had not been persuaded that God had his eyes upon him, it would have availed him nothing to cry to God; but this persuasion was the effect of faith.”
Christian, we do not have to try and hide the struggles of our heart from the LORD. In fact, part of trusting the LORD is to confess our struggles with honesty to the LORD. For it is only in our honest confession of our struggles that we can begin the process of turning our hearts from sorrow back to a heart of rejoicing.
Brothers and sisters, whatever is weighing down our hearts with sorrow, let us acknowledge the LORD and make known our complaint. Make known the wrestlings of our soul within of the feelings we are feeling, whether it be like David in feeling forgotten or the LORD himself being hidden, to enemies thriving, or something else. Let’s make our complaints known to our God. But we can’t stop there, for like David we must move from making our complaint known to crying out boldly to the LORD for help. This is where we turn with our second point.
A Prayerful Cry
Again, lament is the process of wrestling with the tension of real and painful sorrow within our souls while seeking to trust the LORD. The next step in the process of lament then is to move from complaint to a bold asking of the LORD to act, even when our eyes are filled with tears from the weight of the sorrow. We see this example from David, as he moves from his four how long questions in verses 1-2 to his requests in verses 3-4. We read….
When David asks the LORD to light up his eyes, he is not talking about some kind of enlightenment. An opening of his eyes to knowledge. No, this is far from what David is asking here in this Psalm. David instead is asking for the LORD to refresh him. For this is how the Old Testament, especially in David’s day uses the idea of lighting up the eyes.
Consider what happened to David’s good friend Jonathan. Jonathan’s father, Saul, was rash to make an oath after defeating the Philistines. Saul laid an oath on the people of Israel to not eat until evening after he was avenged from his enemies. An oath that should never have been made. This is made clear in what we read as follows from 1 Samuel 14:27-29:
But Jonathan had not heard his father charge the people with the oath, so he put out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb and put his hand to his mouth, and he’s eyes became bright. Then one of the people said, “Your father strictly charged the people with an oath, saying, ‘Cursed be the man who eats food this day’.” And the people were faint. Then Jonathan said, “My father has troubled the land. See how my eyes have become bright because I tasted a little of this honey.
When we have the lighting up of our eyes, it communicates refreshment. Refreshment from hardship, refreshment from the weight of sorrow that was pressing against us. Refreshment that enables us to find relief from the feeling of despair, from the feeling as if soon the sleep of death will come upon us from the unbearableness of our present sorrows.
Notice though the grounding of this plea for refreshment, lest the enemy of David prevails over him, lest they rejoice because he is shaken. David’s bold cry of prayer now begins to show his trust in the LORD, including here of trusting in the justice and righteousness of the LORD. For David knows that if his enemies, his foes are given the privilege of rejoicing over his being shaken, God would not be glorified. For the wicked would prosper, while God’s people suffer.
Charles Spurgeon in his Treasury of David puts this well. He writes, “It is not the Lord’s will that the great enemy of our souls should overcome his children. This would dishonor God, and cause the evil one to boost.”
Even as sufferings come upon us, Christian, it is not intended for our downfall, for our destruction while our enemies, those who stand opposed to God, stand victorious. Our sufferings are for the sake of working for our ultimate good, to strengthen our trust in the LORD as we rely on him more and more. Therefore the prayer here for David is that the LORD would refresh him to the point of enduring, of pressing onward so that the LORD himself was glorified in delivering his people, in carrying them through. To quote Spurgeon once more, “It is well for us that our salvation and God’s honor are so intimately connected, that they stand or fall together.”
And it is because of remembering this, that our endurance and God’s honor are tied together, that we should turn to the LORD and boldly ask for his aide, for his strength in the midst of the overwhelming feelings of our sorrow and grief. Remembering that even as we ask, we are acknowledging our ongoing need for the LORD, and our trusting him to aide us along the way! And this brings us to our final point this morning.
A Steadfast Love
Lament starts with acknowledging God and making our complaints known. Lament then moves to boldly asking the LORD to act, but its end purpose is to bring our hearts back to a trust in the LORD, even in the midst of our sorrow. We do this, to paraphrase Mark Vroegop in his book Dark Clouds Deep Mercy by wrapping the gospel around our sorrows. Psalm 13:5-6….
David trusted in the steadfast love of the LORD, and trusted in the LORD’s deliverance for him and his people, despite his ongoing trials. He rested in the certainty that the love of the LORD never ceases. Jeremiah would go on and acknowledge something similar in Lamentations 3:22-23 which says:
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
By remembering the steadfast love of the LORD and that it never ceases reaches down into the midst of our sunken heart of sorrow and lifts it back up. It lifts it back up as we recall the purposes of God for us in his steadfast love, to deliver us from this present world and its afflictions. For David here in Psalm 13, though his enemies still were a threat, David trusted the steadfast love of the LORD to save him in the end, to deal bountifully with him.
Brothers and sisters, if David had this hope under the old covenant, how much more should we have this hope under the new covenant that was sealed with the blood of Jesus? We have a greater hope and a greater display of God’s steadfast love being made known to us. For we know that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). And because of this, we have already been saved from the condemnation of sin, we are being saved from the power of sin in our lives, and we will be saved in the removal of sin in us, as well as its effects on us that bring about these sorrows.
For even as we remember the steadfast love of the LORD, our hearts are to move from sorrow to rejoicing, from despair to singing, not at the end of the trials that brought us the sorrow, but from the hope of the gospel. The hope that God’s love will not fail us. The hope that God will not forget us. The hope that God will not abandon us. Psalm 13 isn’t a magical pill for us to take and all our sorrows disappear. Psalm 13 is a Psalm, with many other Psalms of lament to give us the language to express our struggles in a godly manner and move from despair to hope, from sorrow to rejoicing as we look to the object of our faith, the LORD our God and what he has done for us in Christ!
And as we look to the LORD, knowing that he will carry us through, until our faith becomes sight! Therefore let us cast our wishful eye to Canaan’s fair and happy land, where our possessions lie. Let us long for the healthful shore where sickness, sorrow, pain and death are felt no more. For the steadfast love of the LORD will bring us to Jordan’s Stormy Banks and carry us to the other side. This is our hope in suffering, that in Christ all things are being made new both in this life and in the life to come!
And friend, maybe you are here this morning, and as we have been talking here about sorrow and lament and trust, you realize that you have your own sorrows and not sure where to turn. You too need to see here the steadfast love of the LORD who has made away to save you too. It is through his one and only Son Jesus who died so that you could live. That he rose from the dead in the resurrection so that new life could be found in him, including the overturning of our sorrows. If you will come to Jesus and believe him, you too can find rest for your weary souls. Believe this today and live. Make today the day your sorrows are turned to rejoicing as you come to taste deliverance from your sins in Jesus! If you have questions, grab somebody and ask them your questions when we end here shortly. Or come find me, I’ll be in the back as you leave. We want to point you to the one who brings rest for our souls, our only hope, Jesus!
Let’s pray….
