Podcast Introduction

Our reading today is Psalms 12-14, and I’m calling the episode “I Will Sing To the Lord”. We’ll be reading about_David’s Prayers for help and how he overcame depression and feeling as if he had been abandoned by God_. We’ll do our “On This Day In Church History” segment, and a boostagram from someone who got a kick out of yesterday’s episode. And I have a praise in our prayer time.

Thoughts on Psalms 12-13

Chapter 12

In this Psalm, which is truly a prayer, David is crying out to God. Those who had been faithful to him have become gossipers and liars, and being unable to stop the lies, he asks God to cut them off…to stop them in their tracks as it were.

And these liars even bragged that they could not be stopped. They said, “We are great speakers.No one else has a chance.”

Sounds a bit like today, doesn’t it? We hear lies from politicians, from the media (both main stream and social), even from sources that at one time were seemingly bulwarks of truth: the medical and scientific communities. They all seem to think that they can lie with impunity. 

God heard the liars, and He said, “I will do something! The poor are mistreated and helpless people moan. I’ll rescue all who suffer.”

When God said, “I’ll rescue all who suffer,” David believed that God was also speaking to him. 

And Family, I believe God is speaking to us today. The Bible is not a dusty old book about what happened thousands of years ago. It is the vibrant, living Word of God. 

Listen to the next verse: Our Lord, you are true to your promises, and your word is like silver heated seven times in a fiery furnace. 

Here David declares first that God always keeps His promises, and that unlike the words of the liars, God’s word is pure and true, as silver is after being purified in the fire seven times.

Again I say, the Bible is not a dusty old book about what happened thousands of years ago. It is the vibrant, living Word of God. Beloved, the Bible has withstood the test of time. God HAS preserved it through the centuries. No other manuscript has as many ancient copies as does the Bible. It is trustworthy. It is true. It is God’s Word. Unchanging. Reliable. True. 

James Montgomery Boice wrote that “The French atheist Voltaire…once said, ‘In twenty years Christianity will be no more. My single hand shall destroy the edifice it took twelve apostles to rear.’ He wrote that in fifty years no one would remember Christianity. But in the year he wrote that, the British Museum paid the Russian government five hundred thousand dollars for a Bible manuscript while one of Voltaire’s books was selling in the London book stalls for just eight cents.” 

Charles Spurgeon said, “Give up no line of God’s revelation. Brethren, we cannot endure this shifty theology. May God send us a race of men who have backbones! Men who believe something, and would die for what they believe. This Book deserves the sacrifice of our all for the maintenance of every line of it.” 

Beloved, we could use some people like that today, don’t you think? People with backbone who speak truth, and willing to die for their beliefs. People who’s God is the Lord, not the lies that are so prevalent today. 

Chapter 13

We find David in prayer again. Four times in the first two verses David asks “How long?”

1How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? 2How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

Have you ever felt like that? Have you prayed a similar prayer? Probably most of us who are believers have.

Listen again to the words of Spurgeon: “Whenever you look into David’s Psalms, you may somewhere or another see yourselves. You never get into a corner but you find David in that corner. I think that I was never so low that I could not find that David was lower; and I never climbed so high that I could not find that David was up above me, ready to sing his song upon his stringed instrument, even as I could sing mine.” 

Yes, even David, who is referred to twice in the Bible as “a man after God’s own heart” felt abandoned by God.

But listen, beloved. God will never forget you. Isaiah 49:14-16 tells us, “But Zion said, ‘The LORD has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands.”

So God tells us that He will not forget us. David felt as if God had forgotten him, that God had hidden His face from him. But feelings are not necessarily reliable indicators of truth. 

Why had David gotten so despondent and hopeless? The next verse tells us:

2How long must I worry and feel sad in my heart all day? (NCV)

2How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day? (NASB)

Well there’s your problem! He was looking inside himself. He was going over his problems and sorrows in his head. The more you do that, the bigger the problems seem. Haven’t you found that the be true?

Turning again to Spurgeon. He thought of doing a sermon on David’s words “How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day?” Spurgeon’s proposed sermon points were, “Self-torture, its cause, curse, crime, and cure.”

But David was wise enough to stop looking inside. Instead, he looked up. He prayed:

3Lord, look at me. Answer me, my God; NCV

Better translation:

3Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; Enlighten my eyes, NASB

David was smart enough to know that he was not seeing things properly. His spiritual vision was limited, so he asked God to enlighten his eyes. All of us need God to give us more light, more wisdom. Especially in times of trouble.

David ends his prayer with these words:

5But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. 6I will sing to the Lord, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.

Notice, his closing begins with the word “But….”

But …. regardless of circumstances, regardless of how I feel.

After God enlightened his eyes, David remembers that “I have trusted in Your lovingkindness…”

And despite his feelings, David DECIDES…

My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord…

In the beginning of this Psalm, David felt depressed and abandoned by God. Now he is singing joyfully to the Lord.

 “The fact that we feel abandoned itself means that we really know God is there. To be abandoned you need somebody to be abandoned by. Because we are Christians and have been taught by God in the Scriptures, we know that God still loves us and will be faithful to us, regardless of our feelings.” (James Montgomery Boice)

“Because He has dealt bountifully with me.”

David’s new outlook is not without reason. With his enlightened eyes, he sees that indeed, God has been good to him.

In just six short verses, we have seen David go from utter despair to having a heart that sings with joy. How did this dramatic change happen? He changed his focus from himself to God. Beloved, I can tell you from my own experience that this is the formula that works. Don’t look within, look up.

Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 5-6 GNT

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SoCal Harvest 2021

This event will be on October 3, 2021 at 7pm (Pacific Time) at Angel Stadium, Anaheim CA. They’ll be live-streaming at Harvest’s website. I’ll be there live.

Bring someone who doesn’t know Jesus to the event, or invite them to your place to watch the live stream with you!