Are You Honest With God? (PM Lesson Outlines)
GIST: Bring your struggles to God and give Him credit for your joys.
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 13
"1 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? 3 Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, 4 lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed over him," lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. 5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. 6 I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me."
This is a psalm of lament. David is clearly heart broken...and he’s brutally honest about it. There’s a lesson for us in this. The gist? Bring your struggles to God and give Him credit for your joys.
I. PERCEPTION (1-4)
He Feels Abandoned. "1 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” He feels forgotten because God’s face is hidden. This should remind us of Psalm 10. Sometimes God appears to be hidden, though He never truly is, and this shakes us. Clearly, David is feeling shaken. In fact, He feels abandoned, left alone, hopeless.
So He “Looks Within” For Hope. “2a How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?” His immediate reaction doesn’t seem to have been praise. Instead he “looked inside”--and found nothing but sorrow! Ironically, this is often the advice of our world today, “you need look no further than yourself to find the power you need to face your trials”. The results aren’t any lasting hope.
In The Midst of This, He Is Ridiculed By His Enemies (For His Faith). “2b How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?” He’s losing to his enemies, and I don’t think this is referring necessarily to a physical battle. Verse 4 notes that he is in danger of his enemies rejoicing because he is shaken. They are gloating over his failed faith!
And He Knows He Needs Light. “3 Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, 4 lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed over him," lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.” He needs answered, and he needs light because, right now, his vision is clouded by heartache and despair. He’s going to the right place--the source of true light!
Don’t Miss the Expectations Here! (I did.) It wasn’t until Broyles pointed this out in his commentary that I realized the boldness in David’s lament. He feels hopeless because his expectation is intimate communion with God! He expects to be remembered. He expects to see God’s face. This isn’t a vain assumption. By even this point in the Psalms, it has become abundantly clear that David doesn’t feel like he deserves anything from God. Nonetheless, he understands grace. Do we? Do we even come to church expecting to hear from Him? What about in our “secular lives”?
II. REALITY (5-6)
Here again we have a balance presented that should be very familiar to us. David lays out his condition and then looks at it through the eyes of the truth. I just want to make two quick observations here.
1-He remembers the core truth. 5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. There are at least three points here. 1) God’s Love is Steadfast, 2) He (David) has been saved, and 3) This gives him a reason to rejoice.
2-He remembers God’s faithfulness & blessing--and praises God for them! 6 I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me."
TAKEAWAYS
1. Be honest with God about your struggles. Olyott made an excellent point when preaching on this psalm. He said we see David taking both his questions and his fears to God. Man, this is a huge point to grab ahold of. Having moments of doubt and fear are not in themselves un-Christian. But, how you deal with those struggles will show a lot about your faith. Have you ever been confronted by a passage of Scripture you don’t understand, or been challenged by a nonbeliever about a particular issue to which you had no response? Sadly, being afraid of these two issues stops many people from really studying their Bibles or sharing their faith. Rather than being paralyzed by fear, take those concerns to Jesus. He knows a thing or two about His Word☺️! When you’re struggling, be it in spiritual or physical fear, take it to Him. Lay it out. Don’t sugarcoat it. Don’t mince words. He’s your Heavenly Father. Pour out your heart! Tell Him what’s bothering you and trust that He’s still faithful and true despite it!
2. Give God credit for your joy. On the flipside, don’t cry to Him in despair and then forget Him in times of more evident blessing. Give God the credit for your joy that you might glory in Him rather than in those circumstances or accomplishments, and that you may not forget the reality of your circumstances--”He has dealt bountifully”. Sometimes in our despair we forget that we are greatly loved and how much He has demonstrated that to us.
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