Let's open our Bibles again to
Psalm 13. I've entitled the message this evening, How Long Will This
Last? How long will this last? David
begins this Psalm sighing. Look here at verse 1. How long
will thou forget me, O Lord? Forever? How long wilt thou hide
thy face from me? David asks a question here that
at some point Every believer asks, how long are you going
to forget me? Have you forgotten me? And I
read all the writers I normally read, and most of them were kind
of hard on old David for asking this question. How long, Lord,
will you forget me? And they're kind of hard on him.
I see their point. We know this. God's never going
to forget the people that he loves. Now, we know that. Yet why is it that at some point
every believer asks this question? Even though we know that every
believer asks this question, Lord, have you forgotten me?
Why do we ask that? Well, I could think of several
reasons, and they all have to do with who we are. I tell Janet
this all the time. Everybody thinks that other people
are just like them, that they're motivated by the same things,
they think the same things. We do God a great disservice
when we think that he's anything like us. That's why we think
that the Lord would would forget us. We think somehow he's like
us. We think God could forget me. Because I can forget God
who I love. I mean, I know this is the honestly
I love the Lord, which is something I love. But God forgetting. I must be able to when Lord instituted
the Lord's table. He gave us this commandment.
This do in remembrance of me. We must need to be reminded.
Second, I think we ask that question because we could forget the people
who we love. Look over in Isaiah chapter 49.
We can forget the people that we love, but God can't. Isaiah
49, verse 13. Sing, O heavens, and be joyful,
O earth. Break forth into singing, O mountains,
for the Lord hath comforted his people. and will have mercy upon
his afflicted. But Zion said, the Lord hath
forgotten me. The Lord hath forsaken me and
my Lord hath forgotten me. That's what Zion says, and here's
the Lord's answer. 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. Behold,
I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually
before me. The Lord will not and cannot
forget his people, the people that he chose to save, the people
that he suffered and bled and died for. He said, I can't forget
those people. Lord said, I've graven thee on
the palms of my hands. What he's talking about there
is the scars that he suffered being crucified for his people
as he suffered when he was made a curse. He suffered those scars
being nailed to the curse tree. The Lord says, I have a constant
reminder of my love for you and my sacrifice for you and my own
body. I won't forget you. I died for
you. I will not forget you. I will
not let you go. And now we know that's true. Yet
believers still ask this. David did. Under inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, David asked this question. The believers
there in Israel, Isaiah 49 asked this question and we do. Ask
the same question from time to time. And that's exactly why
the Lord moved David to write this question. Lord, how long
will you forget me? Forever? You know, we can't identify,
I don't reckon anybody here can identify with David when he went
out there to fight the giant Goliath. Goliath was armed to
the teeth and David went out there with a slingshot. He was
so bold and courageous. It's hard for us to identify
with David there in the battle. But every one of us, full of
fear and doubt and trembling, can identify with David when
he asks, how long will you forget me, O Lord? See, we know the
right doctrine up here. The Lord's not going to forget
his people. But here's what we worry. We worry. Am I really? Could I really be
one of those people that the Father loves? but he chose to
save. Could I be one of those people?
Could I be one of those people? I know Christ died for sinners.
Could He do that for me? I know the Spirit gives life
to His people, but could He have given me life like that? You
know, we think of John Newton as a giant in the faith, don't
we? Oh, what a courageous man. He's
a great preacher, a great songwriter. He wrote amazing grace, how sweet
the sound, that saved a wretch like me. In such confidence,
Newton wrote, through many dangers, toils and snares, I've already
come, because grace has brought me safe thus far. Grace is going
to lead me home. He was so confident, yet that
same man, the same man, so full of doubt and fear, wrote this,
Dear Lord, If indeed I am thine, if thou art my son in my song,
say, why do I languish in pine? Why are my winters so long? Have
ye cleanly forgotten me? How long will this winter last?
In another song he wrote, tis a point I long to know. Oft it
gives me anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I his or am I not? If I love, why am I thus? Why this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly sure could they be worse,
who've never heard his name. Doesn't sound like the same fella,
does it? Yet every child of God has wondered the exact same thing.
How long is this going to last? David asked this four different
ways. How long? Four different how longs. First
he says, how long will you forget me, Lord? Well, we know the answer's
never. The Lord never forgets His people.
We know that because he promised it. So that brings us to the
second, how long? If the Lord won't forget me,
how long is he going to hide his face from me? Been there where David is? How
long will the Lord hide his face from me? I look for him. I can't see him. No matter where
I look, I cannot find the Savior. I know he's everywhere, but when
I look, I can't find him. I know he's on every page of
this book. I know it. Yet when I read it,
all I see is blessing for somebody else and condemnation for me.
I can't see. Now that's miserable. Is that
the definition of misery? And we ask this, how long will
that last? How long will the Lord hide his
face from me? Just a little while. Look in
Isaiah 54, just a little while. And then it's going to end in
great mercy because our God's great in mercy. Isaiah 54 verse
seven. For a small moment have I forsaken
thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little
wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee Sayeth the Lord thy Redeemer. How long will it last? Just a
little while. He'll reveal himself again in
just a little while. Well, here's the third how long,
verse two. How long shall I take counsel of my soul, having sorrow
in my heart daily? Here I am, David says, in the
midst of this trouble. I seek the Lord's face, but I
can't see. He's hid his face from me. So
I look for a solution. I look for solutions in myself.
I'm taking counsel on my own soul. I'm looking for solutions
in myself. I'm trying to look at my own
ideas or ideas of other people from self-help books or something,
you know. And that's just going to leave
us in utter misery. There is no help in man. Man doesn't have any good ideas.
If you're looking for ideas from men, you're going to just be
left in misery. And that song I quoted earlier,
"'Tis a point I long to know." There's a verse in there, Newton
got right down to the root of the problem. He said, when I
turn my eyes within, all is dark and vain and wild, filled with
unbelief and sin. Can I deem myself a child? If
you go to look within, that's the only conclusion you can come
to. If I look within, that's what I see. Everything is dark
and vain and wild. How can I be a child of God?
And we ask, how long is this misery going to last? Me taking
counsel with my own self, how long is this misery going to
last? Well, it's going to last until the Lord reveals His face
again. In just a moment, He's going to reveal His face again.
So, what do I do in the meantime? Quit looking in here. Look out
of myself. Keep looking for the Lord. He's
going to reveal Himself. And then here's the fourth, how
long? How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? And none
of us want our enemies to get the upper hand over us, do we?
None of us want our enemies controlling us. But of all the enemies that
we have, there's one we ought to fear the most. It's ourself. It's our own sin. There's a civil
war going on inside every believer. And every believer gets frightened
about this war. That warfare between the old
man and the new man. Now the old man cannot prevail.
He can't prevail. Christ just can't. He can't rule
for long. But boy, there's times he gets
some influence in there. You know who made us look inside
ourselves and take counsel inside ourselves in the first place?
It's that old man. That old man, he's the one that
starts whispering in our ear, the thing that makes us fear
the most. The Lord's going to get you.
The Lord's going to give you what your sin deserves. If our
enemy prevails over us, we're going to be damned, aren't we?
Oh, what fear, what misery, what utter misery to go through this
life Constantly fearing the next life. What misery to constantly
go through this life fearing the judgment. But the believer
can have joy. Even going through the valley
of the shadow of death, the believer can have joy. If we know this,
there's no fear if Christ is our sacrifice. If Christ is our
sacrifice, he put our sin away. If Christ is my substitute, I've
got no fear. He's already been condemned for
me. If Christ is my life, I don't fear death because Christ is
my life. But if we don't have Christ.
There's nothing but fear, nothing but constant fear. And the believers
fear is the greatest. When we can't see Christ. When
it feels like my sin is reigning over me, controlling me, I know
the right doctrine. I know that God's in control.
But all I can see is my sin reigning over me. How long? How long is this miserable fear
going to last? Well, it's going to last until
Christ comes. Puts our sin away. It's going to last until Christ
comes and reveals His face to us. And then that fear is going
to end. You see, there's a reason that
believers find themselves in this situation where they ask
these for how long? There's a reason that it's not
an accident. There's a reason for it. The Lord hides his face
from his people for just a little moment. He lets us go through
this time of misery like David is describing here. So that we'll
seek him so that we'll call on him so that we'll beg him so
that we'll seek him in prayer. And that's what happened to David.
Here's our second point. First, David began sighing, but
now he goes from sighing to praying. Verse three. Consider and hear
me, O Lord, my God. Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep
the sleep of death. Now here's a good prayer for
all times, but especially if the Lord's hidden his face from
us for a moment. This is a good prayer. Consider me and hear
me, O my God. That word consider, it means
to look at, look on me intently with pleasure or regard. What's
David praying? Look at me in Christ. That's
the only way God can look at me in pleasure or regard is in
Christ. Look at me in Christ. And hear
doesn't just mean hear, that word means hear and respond.
Lord, respond. Answer my prayer in Christ. Hear me in Christ. See me in
Christ and answer me in Christ for Christ's sake. See, now David
starts to have some confidence that when he begins to pray,
he starts to have some confidence. Did you notice what he calls
the Lord here? The Lord, my God. Some of that fear, some of that
doubt has been taken away and now he says the Lord is my God. We can pray with confidence.
and with a good hope if the Lord is my God. He's my God. I'm His and He's mine because
He's made me His. He chose me. He chose me to be
His own. He sent His Son and He bought
me with the blood of His Son. He gave us life by His Spirit
dwelling in us. He made His people so that we
belong to Him. then we can pray with that confidence
knowing He'll not leave us alone. If He bought us, He's not going
to leave us alone. And see, that's our confidence. Our confidence
is not in what we've done. See, that's why we've got to
quit this taking counsel with ourselves and looking in the
ear. Our confidence is not in what we've done or what we think
or what we think we're going to do. Our confidence is in who
God is. God is good. God's not going
to forget. Our confidence is in what God has done for his
people by his grace. That's our confidence. Here's
another great thing to pray when we can't see the face of the
Lord. Lord, lighten my eyes. I can't see your face, so lighten
mine eyes so that I see. Let me see your face. Lighten
my eyes so I see Christ the Savior. And here's the key to this whole
prayer. Lord, lighten my eyes so that
I can see Christ crucified. This is what I told us all Sunday.
Lift up your eyes. Lift up your eyes. Let's get
our eyes off of us and lift up our eyes to Christ. Let's lift
up our eyes off this world around us and lift them up to Christ. If we lift our eyes up to Christ
crucified, our hearts are going to be lifted up too. Because
he's our confidence. He's our assurance. Our confidence
is in who our sacrifice is. If Christ is our sacrifice, God
has no reason to take his presence promised over. Because Christ's
blood put our sin away. If Christ is our sacrifice, the
enemy of my sin, my greatest enemy, my sin is not going to
get the victory over me. Not if Christ died for me, it's
not. He put my sin away. He blotted it out with his blood.
If Christ is our life, we can't die. We can never die. David's
praying here, Lord, restore your presence to me. If you don't,
this misery is so great, I'm just going to die. This is what every believer is
going to learn. I believe David's learning in
this psalm. I can live without almost anything. in this world, all the things
that I enjoy, the people that I love and enjoy, I can live
without any of them and without any of it. This is why I can't
live without the presence of the Lord. I can't live without
it. And David said, I can do without
anything, but you restore your presence to me or I'm going to
die. And I'm certainly going to die
eternally if you're not my sacrifice. The Lord's not my life. If he's
not dwelling in me, I'll die eternally. See, now David's praying,
isn't he? I mean, he's praying. I mean,
there's times that you pray and times you pray. David's praying. Here's something that I think
will help us. This helped me as I was looking
at this this week. Talking to the Lord about the
Lord. to lift up, give us confidence
and lift our hearts up. Talking to the Lord about the
Lord is going to give us some confidence and revive our heart.
That's what happened to David. Here's a third point. Now David
goes from praying to praising. Verse five. I have trusted in
thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy
salvation. David asked that the Lord lighten
his eyes, that he be enabled to see Christ lifted up as a
sacrifice for sin. And David saw Christ when his
heart started being revived because he was talking to the Lord about
the Lord. He began to rejoice in God's salvation. He began
to rejoice in God's mercy to him. See, suddenly David has
been set free from this fear that's been gripping his heart,
and he's been set free from this sign. You know why? Because Christ took all that
sign, all those reasons for sign, Christ took them away from David.
That's what enabled David to rejoice in God's mercy and God's
salvation. See, the words of these first
four verses, now they're David's words. These are the words of
a believer. How long, Lord? But David is delivered from his
sign because these are also the words of Christ, the son of David. Look back here at verse one.
How long will Thou forget me, O Lord? Forever? How long will
Thou hide Thy face from me? That's Christ crying from the
cross. At Calvary, the Son of God was made sin. So the Father
turned His back on His Son, the sinner. It's too holy to look
on sin, even when it's found upon His Son. Now this is the
Son who from eternity had daily been the delight of his father,
and rightfully so. He's perfect, he's glorious.
Yet at Calvary, the father turns his back on his son in justice,
and he cries, how long? My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? The father forsook the son, because
he's bearing the punishment that the sin of his people deserves.
And since Christ our Savior bore that for his people, since the
father turned his back upon his son, our substitute. The father
will never desert his people. He'll never forget his people.
He'll never turn his back upon them. He'll hide his face for
a little moment, but he'll never, ever, ever forsake his people
because of their sins. Because he already punished Christ,
our substitute for him. Then look at verse two. How long
shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? This is Christ
crying from the cross. How long will this suffering
last? You know, just the casual observer
looks there, Calvary. It appears the enemy's winning
the victory over him, doesn't it? It appears like he's defeated.
I'm confident Satan thought he was winning the war. At that
moment, I'm confident he thought he was winning the war. He knew
who the Lord Jesus was. This is the Lord of Glory. He
suffered and died. Satan thought, I'm winning the
victory. But what was really happening? Our Savior was putting
Satan out of business. Oh, his heel was bruised. But
with that bruised heel, he crushed Satan's head and put him out
of business. It sure looked like the will of man And the sin of
man was winning at Calvary, wasn't it? Man was doing whatever they
wanted to do, putting the Son of God to death. But what was
really happening there? What was really happening? Sin
was being put out of business. Christ was blotting it out with
His blood, with the blood of His sacrifice. So He cries, how
long? How long will He suffer? He'll
suffer until justice is satisfied. He's gonna suffer until all of
the sin of all of God's elect has been paid for. The Lord Jesus
Christ gave up the ghost. Nobody took his life from him.
He gave up the ghost. But he didn't give up the ghost
until he had suffered everything the sin of his people deserves.
And then he gave up the ghost to die to satisfy the law's last
demand. Death for sin. Christ suffered
until Every enemy was defeated once and for all. So when Christ
died, so did the power of the sin of his people. Christ died
for you. Your sin can't harm you now.
He took the sting away. When Christ died, so did the
power of Satan. Satan can't harm you now. Now
if Christ died for you, he can. When Christ died, so did death. Death. for his people died when
Christ died. The death of these bodies can
never harm you now. He put every enemy out of business. And when the great transaction
was done, our Savior said, Father, into thy hands, I commend my
spirit. And he gave up the ghost. And
he said, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. This is what he's
saying, verse three. Consider and hear me, O Lord, my God.
Light my eyes, lest I sleep the death. Sleep of theirs in italics,
it's been added by the translators. He's saying, consider me and
hear me, lest I sleep death. The Lord Jesus said, Father,
consider my sacrifice. Look upon my sacrifice with favor. See my sacrifice as payment for
the sin of all my people, lest I sleep the death. Look at my
sacrifice with favor. If the father does not look upon
the sacrifice of Christ with favor, he's going to stay dead
and there'll be no hope of salvation for any sinner. There's not going
to be another sacrifice. If the father doesn't look upon
this sacrifice with favor, there's no hope of salvation. And we
know the father did look upon that sacrifice with favor, don't
we? How do we know that? Three days later, the father
raised Christ from the dead. because sin was gone. The victory
is won. And because of the victorious
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, his people, no matter what our
earthly circumstances happen to be at the moment, shall rejoice
in God's salvation. They will suffer. They're going
to go through times of suffering. But the Lord will always reveal
himself to them in the moment that glorifies Him the most.
I got three examples for you. The impotent man, laying by the
pool of Bethesda. Remember the water would be stirred
up and the first one in there would be healed of whatever infirmity.
This man was impotent. He couldn't walk. He couldn't
roll over. He couldn't do anything to get
himself to that water. He'd been there for 38 years. 38 years. Shawn, you're a principal
over a bunch of kindergartners now. 38 years ago, you weren't
even in kindergarten. In some ways, 38 years goes like
that. I mean, from the time you were
Landry's age, it was like that. But if you're suffering every
moment, 38 years is a long time. I mean, if you're suffering with
a headache for a day, a day is a long time. 38 years he suffered. That's a long time. Did the Lord
know he was suffering? Yes, He did. But the Lord waited
to reveal Himself to this man on a specific Sabbath day so
He could heal him. So He could tell him, take up
your bed and walk. So people would know the Lord
of the Sabbath is the Son who quickeneth whom He will. Then
there was that poor blind man. blind from his birth. He spent
his entire lifetime in darkness. It must have been a sad, sad
state to see that man, that blind man there. Because the disciples
asked the Lord, who sinned? Him or his father that causes
this awful tragedy? The Lord said, no, this didn't
happen because of that. This happened for my glory. That
poor man, he was so miserable, he was without any help without
any visible means of support. I mean, his parents were willing
to throw him under the bus, you know, after he was gone, the
Lord gave him sight. Did the Lord know he was suffering
all that time? Yeah, he knew all how he suffered. There was no social net, nothing
to help this poor guy. The Lord knew he was suffering.
But he waited for his glory for a specific Sabbath day. to make
some mud out of spittle and put on that man's eyes and give him
sight so that he could reveal himself as the light of the world. Then there's the woman with the
issue of blood we read about. She'd been sick for a long time.
This was no small thing. She was unclean according to
the law. I mean, she just suffered so
many things. This went on 13 years until She
spent everything she had trying to get better. And she lost everything. She spent all her possessions,
and she was no better off than the day this thing started. She
spent 13 years taking counsel inside of her own self, trying
to take counsel with other men, trying to fix this problem. And
she suffered 13 years. The Lord loved that woman. And
the minute after she comes up and touches the hand of His garment,
He called her daughter. As far as I know, that's the
only person in Scripture the Lord Jesus spoke to and called
daughter. I know a little bit about daughters.
You love them. Oh, it's a tender love. Why do you let her suffer? How
long, Lord? But he waited until she lost
everything so that she'd crawl up on her hands and knees and
touch the hem of his garment so that he could reveal himself
as the object of faith, the saving object of faith. Then he told
her, daughter, thy faith hath made thee old. Be old, you're
plagued. You see, every believer goes
through just exactly what David was suffering. Right here when
he started, sighing. Our grief and our pain and the
troubles of this life, they cause us to sigh. They make us think
we're all alone. We're on our own. We've got to
do this ourselves, you know. But the Lord brings us to that
point for this purpose. To cause us to pray. To cause
us to seek Him. so that when he reveals himself,
oh, now we rejoice. We rejoice in Christ our Savior. And that brings me to my fourth
point. Now David starts to sing. A heart
of praise just got to sing out loud. Verse six, I will sing
unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me. I
will sing, David said, I'll sing of my Redeemer and his wondrous
love to me. I'll sing because He's dealt
so bountifully with me. He dealt with me in bountiful,
rich mercy. He dealt with me in plenteous,
undeserved grace. He dealt with me in bountifully,
in abundant peace, abundant love. How bountifully has the Lord
dealt with His people? So bountifully, eternity can't
hold it. How long is our sorrow and sighing
gonna last? Just a little while. Just till
we see Christ. How long is our rejoicing in
Christ gonna last? Eternally. Eternally. Because Christ, by his one sacrifice,
hath obtained eternal redemption for us. And one more thing I want us
to see before we close. From verse one, that verse six,
not one thing in David's earthly existence changed. Not one thing
changed. We don't know what troubles it
was that prompted David to write this psalm. It was Saul or Abner
or Joab or Shimei or Absalom or Michael. Whoever, whatever
caused this problem, caused him to begin to sigh in the first
place. None of that's changed at all in the time it took him
to write these six verses. Then what changed? What changed to cause David to
go from sighing to singing? It was the sight of the Savior
by faith. That was all it took. And it's
the same sight, the same eyes of faith, the same sight of Christ
that will comfort our hearts and cause us to go from sighing
to singing. As I prepared this message, I
thought, this is a good message for Wednesday night. The gospel
is good any time. This is a good message for Wednesday
night. You know, on Wednesdays now,
my day goes, I sit in my study all day, you know, and come out
and get ready to go to church. And I remember getting up five
o'clock in the morning and going to work and working all day in
the I'm dragging myself in here with
a knee. That suit it? I pray that Lord give us a sight
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ah, we came in sighing. I hope
we can leave here tonight singing. joy, rejoicing in our hearts,
gone all the way from sign to sign. All right, let's bow. Our Father, how we thank you
for this precious portion of your word. How we thank you for
the for the teaching, for the instruction. To know we go through
these times of suffering, sorrow, grief and darkness and pain and
fears and doubts. That you've not forgotten your
people. That you just hide your face for a little moment. So
that you can reveal yourself to your people. More glory and
grace and mercy. That you comfort our hearts with
the sight of you. Fathers, we go through this valley. Cause us to ever seek you. Cause
us to ever look outside of ourselves and constantly look to Christ
our Savior. Father, restore us. Give a refreshing to the hearts
of your people through the sight of the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Cause his name to be glorified,
that your people would be comforted and edified and instructed in
being able to worship at your feet. For it's in the precious
name of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray and give thanks.