Go with me back to Psalm 13. I pray this will be a real hell to all of us. I don't know if you picked up on it. In the scripture reading, Just like last Wednesday night, we looked at Psalm 29. The whole Psalm talked about the voice of the Lord. I don't know if you remember last Wednesday night, Psalm 29, the voice of the Lord. The power, the thunder, the voice of the Lord breaks the cedars. The voice of the Lord divides the fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness, just power, power, power, authority, thunder, and then the last word of the whole psalm is peace. Peace. Well, this psalm does the same thing. It heads down one definite path, and in the last verse, it turns.

All right, let's read this again. Verse one says, 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 mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest mine enemy say I have prevailed against him, and those that trouble me rejoice when I move. 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.

That's good, isn't it? What a change. What a change, what a glorious note to end on, what a glorious hope to end with. After all of that, David said, I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

Now, I want to look at this Psalm three ways. I'm hoping this will be brief. I want to be brief and to the point, but I want to look at this three ways. I want to see three things in this.

First, let's see Christ in this. Let's see the cross of Christ in this. Think about our Lord in everything that he suffered, bearing our sin in his body. In the garden of Gethsemane, as he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood, this is what he cried. My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." I'm so sad. I'm so sorrowful. Standing before Pilate, while all of those lies against him, while all of those false accusations and lies about him, while they were being spewed into his face, He opened not his mouth because he was bearing the guilt of those truths concerning us. That's an amazing thing to think about. He opened not his mouth, bearing the guilt of all of those truths concerning us, lies on him. truths concerning us.

He opened not his mouth because he was in that moment touching our infirmities. He was feeling our humiliation. I'm looking at a bunch of people who know a little something of humiliation. And you're looking at one too. And that's what he was doing in that moment. He was feeling our humiliation. He was being crushed by the agony of our guilt. Just crushed while he was hanging on that tree. And you think about that. He hung on a tree. They hung him on a tree. He cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? As his body laid in the grave, while his soul experienced the outcast separation from God, his body laid there in the grave, his soul was cast out, he cried, My flesh shall rest in hope, for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. Neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life.

And then as he arose from that death in conquering victory, he cried, and this is what Psalm 40 tells us, Well, right here, Psalm 13 says, I will sing unto the Lord because he's dealt bountifully with me. Psalm 40 says, he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay. He set my feet on a rock, he established my goings, and he put a new song in my mouth. That's what he did, he put a brand new song in my mouth.

We can hear the voice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in this. We can see the work, the finished work, the glorious work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in this. So let's read it again, six verses. And this time, let's listen to Him speaking. Let's listen to His voice. Let's listen to His cry from Gethsemane to Pilate, to the cross, to the grave, to the resurrection, okay?

Psalm 13, 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 mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest mine enemy say I have prevailed against him, and those that trouble me rejoice when I'm moved.

But I have trusted in thy mercy. I've trusted in this process. I've trusted in this work. His death on that cross was God's mercy to us. He said, I've trusted in thy mercy, my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. What the end result of this will accomplish. You know, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. I'll rejoice in what the result of this is, the end result. Therefore, as I'm now rising from this death, verse six, I will sing unto the Lord. Because he hath dealt bountifully with me and all of my people in me. He's dealt bountifully with us. We see our Lord in this.

All right. Now, the second thing I want us to notice is we see our experience of salvation in this. We see the dealings of our Lord with us in opening our eyes to His holiness and our sinfulness. Boy, when a person has his or her eyes open, that's what they see. He reveals to us where our one and only hope is. You know, man goes through this life with all these hopes. What's your hope? Well, How much time do you have? I gave my heart to Jesus when I was so and so years old. I was baptized. I dedicated my life. I rededicated my life. I, this, won. Won.

He reveals our one and only hope of eternal life. And this experience is not a one-time thing. I can't exactly put my finger on when I first experienced this. This is a reoccurring feeling. This is a reoccurring realization. realization. But when God opens the eyes of a sinner, the first thing that sinner becomes convinced of is God's holiness and his or her sinfulness. It's much worse than I realized. It's much worse.

If a man or a woman has not gotten a hold of his or her own sin, not just sin, oh buddy, there's a lot of sin in the world. I tell you that now, sin is everywhere now. If a man or a woman has not gotten a hold of his or her own sin, eyes have not seen. Eyes have not been opened in that case. If all that person sees is, now that person is a sinner. I'm gonna tell you right now. You see her over there? But is she a sinner? Those eyes haven't seen anything. Those eyes have not seen anything. I don't care what we see. Those eyes haven't seen anything.

That's what Isaiah said for the first five chapters of the book of Isaiah. Woe is unto you. That's true. That's true, buddy. Woe is unto you. In chapter six, he said, when King Uzziah died, when God removed that man from me, my eyes were opened and I saw the Lord high and lifted up and I cried, woe is me. Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm the man of unclean lips. I'm the sinner. I'm telling you, when eyes are opened, it's right here. It's right there, and it's right here. I'm not worried about anybody else. Nobody else is as bad as I am.

You know, like that story of of William Jay going into John Newton's study, you know, Brother Newton, did you hear that old John Smith was saved? No, I didn't hear that. That old guy from the gutter, that old, I'll never despair of anybody since God saved him. And John Newton said, Brother Jay, I'll never despair of anybody since God saved me. And God's people mean that. They mean that.

That publican in the temple cried, God be merciful to me. I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner.

The scripture says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of a holy God, the fear of a just judge. As long as a sinner is left in the blindness of his or her own false religion, there's no fear. There's no fear at all. And it's because the eyes don't really see sin at all, not really. And therefore, men and women think that they and Jesus have a good thing going and they need him but he needs them. That's the conversation of a blind, a blind man or woman.

The moment sovereignty is seen, sovereign election, sovereign redemption, a sovereign call, the moment it is revealed, we don't have a good thing going. He's doing everything and I'm dead in my trespasses and sins. Therefore, he doesn't need me. I thought he needed me, thought he had no hands but my hands. He doesn't need me, it would be easy, it would be just and right for him to leave me alone, just pass me by, let me rot in my condemnation, in my rebellion, in my sin. That's the moment a soul will start crying. Don't forget me, Lord. Even me, even me, let thy blessing fall on me. Pass me not, O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry.

Verse one says, 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, that's my sin. And again, this is not a one-time thing, this is a continual cry. How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O Lord my God. Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest mine enemies say I have prevailed against him, and those that trouble me rejoice when I'm moved.

But I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I need you. I need you. You're my only hope.

That's the soul, the soul that has been brought to this place, that's the soul that the Lord God says, look unto me. Look unto me, look to Jesus Christ and live. Look to the cross, look to the suffering, look to the substitute that's provided for you, the substitution that's provided in the blood of Christ. Look to Christ, look to the mercy and grace that has secured your place in the blood of Jesus Christ. That's the gospel that comes. That's the gospel that's heard and received and believed. That's the gospel that comforts and heals and causes a child of God to say.

Verse five, I've trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

We can see the finished work of the cross of Christ in this. We can see the experience of our conversion being called from darkness to light, from lies to truth, from works to grace. And then there's one more thing I want us to see in this. This is what initially grabbed my attention and made me want to look at this tonight. In my study yesterday, when I came to Psalm 13, as I was looking and searching and reading and all that, when I got to Psalm 13 and read these six verses the first time, I've now read them, you know, a hundred times since yesterday. But when I read them the first time and I noticed how verse six makes this complete change at the end. This is what immediately popped into my mind.

But it's good, right? That's what popped into my mind. That's what Brother Henry Mahan said over and over again at the end of his life when he was tired of hearing bad news. And, you know, I was thinking about it today. I guess by that point it had really started sinking in with him that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. We haven't gotten a hold of that yet. Maybe it takes, you know, 60, 70 years of hearing that preached to us before we really start to get a hold of that. But if any bad news came his way, that was his response.

But it's good, right? You know, the scripture says these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, Work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. You know what that means? But it's good, right? That's what it means. This life is so short. It's so short. And this life is so full of trouble. There is so much pain and so much sorrow and there's so much worry and there's so much fear. There's so much pain, sorrow, worry, and fear over the things we're going through and the things that we might possibly be going through in the future. The things that we fear could happen. in the future. We can't fully enjoy our health right now because we're so worried about sickness that may come. You can't just be in the moment of health because you're so worried, you know, I'm sure I'm probably going to get cancer. I'm probably going to get, you know, probably so.

Even though believers are not exempt from these things, from sickness and pain and trials and troubles, even though God's people are not exempt from the sickness, the trials, and the suffering, and even though they're not exempt from the worry over the sickness and the trials and the suffering, all we have to do, and this is the truth, dear brethren, this is the truth, All we have to do is enter into the cross of Jesus Christ. This is all we have to do. Enter into the cross of Jesus Christ and enter into the gospel of our salvation that he has revealed to us. The eternal hope that he has given to us in himself. The glorious inheritance that he has reserved for us in himself, he is the inheritance. The moment our minds and our hearts come back to that, it's all good. It's all good. We can honestly say, but it's good, right? We have Christ. We have Christ. It doesn't matter what we have or don't have down here. It doesn't matter what we have or don't have down here. We have Christ. We have forgiveness in the blood of Christ. What does that do for you? Let me tell you one thing you have. You don't have a lot. Let me tell you one thing you got. Forgiveness in the blood of Jesus Christ. No matter how bad things are here, temporarily, very temporarily, we have eternity coming with Christ. This is just for a minute. It's just for a minute. That's forever. Everything's good. Everything is good.

Let's read this one more time. OK. And really listen to the wording here. OK. Let's read this one more time as us wallowing in our misery. OK. You know, our Lord has endured the substitution suffering. Our calling and election has been made sure to us. He's revealed the gospel to us. Christ is our only hope. Now, here we are just living out the rest of our days on this earth as His people. This is us wallowing in our misery and then all of the sudden realizing, wait a minute, we have Christ. Oh yeah. We have Christ.

All right. Listen to this. Psalm 13 verse one. How long will thou forget me? Oh Lord. Anybody, anybody enter into that? All of his people here right now in this room tonight believe he will never leave you. He'll never forsake you. We all know that. If I go, I'm going to prepare a place for you. If you see me go, I'm gonna come back and get you to receive you where I am. It's finished. You're complete in Him. Have you forgotten me? I know all things, the end from the beginning. I know every beast of the forest, every bird of the sky. Did you forget about me? 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?

I mean, my little fickle, simple flesh thinks everything's Consider and hear me, O Lord my God. Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest mine enemies say I have prevailed against him, and those that trouble me rejoice when I'm moved. But I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. Oh yeah, I'm saved. I'm saved in the blood of the Lamb. I'm redeemed by love divine. Glory, glory, Christ is mine. All to Him I now resign because I've been redeemed.

Wait a minute. I will sing unto the Lord. because he hath dealt bountifully with me. What am I thinking? What am I saying? He's dealt bountifully with me. He's dealt so bountifully with me. Can we not all say that? He's dealt so bountifully with me. Yeah, but you got a hard life and you gotta, but he's dealt so bountifully with me. That realization makes an immediate change. I'm telling you it does.

The next time that we become down and outcast and depressed, if we will start actively thinking on what Christ has done for us through the blood of his cross, that change will come to us. That change will come to us. The next time you find yourself so miserably depressed, and it may not take that long, the next time you find yourself so miserably depressed that you don't know what to do with yourself, honestly, start praying and thanking the Lord for the cross of Jesus Christ. If you just literally think you can't go on, You start in prayer, thanking the Lord for the cross of Jesus Christ and everything he's done for you, and see what happens. Just see what happens. You will have a verse six turnaround. All of a sudden, you'll realize, but it's good, right? In Christ, it's all good. I will sing unto the Lord because he's dealt bountifully with me.