MPC 1st July 2007.July 1 - Psalm 13 - "How Long, O Lord?"
Derek Hanna MPC 1st July 2007.
You can't live in this world and not suffer.
In comparison to most of the world, I have suffered very little... but I have suffered enough to know that it's something I want to avoid.
On one end of the suffering spectrum, I know what it's like to suffer because in Rugby League I go for the Cronulla Sharks. They have never won a premiership, and my suspicion is that they never will win a premiership in my lifetime.
But on the other end of the scale, I know what it's like to lose friends and family. I know what it's like to see someone who was at some stage so full of life reduced to a shell of what they formerly were. I know what it's like to sit by the bed of someone who you know hasn't got long to live.
The pain of loss, separation, the knowledge that you're never going to see them again.
But different people will respond to suffering in different ways.
I have known people that will crack at the thought of having a filling... but I have known others who have withstood the hardship with grace and dignitry, the news of hearing they have 3 months to live.
Martin Luther King Jr. said that,
The ultimate measure of a person is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand at times of challenge and controversy.
What do you think about that quote? True?
That you really can only tell the measure of someone when you see them stretched and pushed and experience hardship and challenges.
Well, I think as we look through Psalm 13 today, we're going to see the measure of David who wrote this Psalm as he responds to suffering.
And we're going to see that the way in which we respond to suffering shows our understanding of and our relationship to God.
Let me show you what I mean, because here in Psalm 13, we have the writings of a model Israelite. In fact, even better than that, we have the writings of the greatest King Israel ever produced, David. A man who longs for the very heart of God himself.
But he didn't live his life wrapped in cotton wool. In fact David suffered quite a considerable amount; for a while in his life he lived like an animal in the wilderness, when King Saul was trying to murder him out of jealousy.
He must have suffered unbelievable mental and emotional anguish when he was confronted by the prophet Nathan for committing adultery with Bathsheba and killing her husband, and even more so when he found out that his Son would now die as a direct result of his inability to keep his eyes and his hands to himself.
And later in his life as he watched his family and kingdom seemingly fall apart. Brothers fighting brothers, incest within his own family, his own son's rising up against him...
David knew what it meant to suffer.
And so when David cries out "How Long, O Lord," he doesn't do it from the safety of a comfortable life, but from the experience of the hardships of living in a fallen world.
But have a look at what he asks for in these series of questions in verses 1-2:
How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Now notice what it is that David is calling out to God for:
He wants to know how long until God gives him an answer for the suffering he's going through.
He wants to know how long he's going to have to live with this uncertainty, guilt and sorrow.
He wants to know how long God is going to allow those who aren't God's people, who are in fact hostile to God to triumph over David who is God's chosen one.
You see what David really wants here in these verses it seems is to be a fly on the wall. He wants to be privy to the counsel and the will of God, and understand what God's plans are and why things look so ugly at the moment.
I watch a show called the West Wing, which sadly just finished up on TV a few months ago.
Now if you don't know the West Wing, it's a show about the goings on inside the White House, about the President and his staff.
And I love it, because just for a brief moment, you get invited into the oval office, and you get to stand beside Leo and CJ and Toby and Josh as they advise the president.
And you get to go into the Situation Room in moments of crisis and look over the President's shoulder as he makes decisions about whether to bomb another country...
And it may be my over-active imagination, but I think the President actually values my presence and input...
But you see it's that very thing that David is crying out for in these first two verses.
How Long Lord? Have you forgotten the situation that I'm in? What are your plans for me? Is there some timeframe in which you plan for my guilt and suffering to go down? Are you going to let those who mock you triumph over me who serves you?
It's not an unreasonable question is it?
I know a few years ago when one of my friend's baby died, and I remember sitting in the hospital waiting for them and thinking - what good can come out of this God? What plans can you possibly have that could justify this?
In our suffering, we want to know what God is doing, where he's taking us and when it'll be over - and David is no different.
How Long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
But when you have a look in v.3-4 you see the issue behind David's anguish.
David is in pain, and is hurting, but he's in pain and hurting because God's enemies are closing in around Him, and it seems as if God is ignoring his situation.
Have a look at verses 3-4 with me:
Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed over him," lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
So while David's enemies close in around Him, he calls on God to not forget him, to look upon him and give him an answer.
And David then has three sayings that emphasise his reason for wanting God to answer him, and the NIV translation doesn't bring this out so well, but these three sayings all start with the same thing:
You can see there the issue behind the anguish that David expresses in v.1-2.
For David, it's not just suffering in general. David wants God to heed his voice and give him answers because God's enemies are triumphing where God's chosen one is not.
And so for David, I think that he sees his reputation as so integrally tied up with God's reputation, that when the enemies of God triumph over David, it reflects back on God himself. If God can not save his chosen King, then what kind of God is he?
And now that's not a new idea for us really is it? The media picked up on this idea ages ago. Want to undermine the credibility of God? Point out the fault, hypocrisy and failure of those who follow him. And the people of God are easy targets because they fail so often, and often so spectacularly:
Now I don't know if you saw late last year the story that was picked up and beamed world wide about the American Pastor Ted Haggard who had such a spectacular fall from grace. Pastor of a huge Church, well known throughout America, and he was caught visiting a male prostitute.
Now, for what it's worth, I think that Ted Haggard is a Christian, but one who just happened to be in the spotlight and make a huge mistake. But his mistake reflects on God... and the media picked up on that. Such hypocrisy they said, such double standards. Christians are no better than anyone else. Their God is no better than any other god...
And that is precisely the reason that David calls out to God here. Because God is not some distant God that may or may not answer David. He is His God, see there in v.3 - "Look on me and answer, O Lord my God."
It is a personal relationship that he has with His God, so when enemies close in around God's chosen King, one of God's people - those enemies close in around God.
And when enemies triumph over God's chosen King, it would appear as if they have had some sort of triumph over God himself.
So David's issue in this instance is not suffering in general - it's suffering brought about because he is one of God's people.
What are your options at this point?
Abandon God, side with those persecuting you and avoid the suffering?
Stick with God, but become bitter and angry because while he says he loves you, the things that have happened in your life indicate otherwise...
Well, David takes neither of those options. Have a look where he ends up.
But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.
It's a pretty amazing conclusion because it didn't really look the direction he was heading.
He doesn't say that he'll wait until God lets him into his Situation Room to lay out the plans before Him, so he can understand why he's suffering as he does.
He doesn't say that he'll wait for God to deliver him from his enemies.
The resolution that David comes to is that God's unfailing love to me in the past has never come up short.
And so there is no reason to doubt that salvation (in whatever form) will come to me in due time.
David's reaction is quite remarkable. He questions God and questions God, and seems at points to be demanding of God an answer. He calls desperately on God to give him hope and to deliver Him from those that surround Him.
But, in all of this questioning and all of this demanding, in all the anguish he's experiencing - his behaviour in the here and now is that he will trust His God who has proven his faithfulness time and again, and will have a glad heart because he knows that while he doesn't understand, and while things seem out of control - God will save him.
So while there is a great distance between King David and us, David here provides a template for how it is that God's people must respond in suffering.
But it's simply not that easy is it?
When we are in the midst of suffering, it's near on impossible to be objective and just say that God has his purposes.
And you ask the question, if God loves you, why would he allow this to happen? You wouldn't do this to someone you love, so why would God?
If he's powerful enough to stop it, why doesn't he?
Why didn't he stop the Boxing Day Tsunami? Why didn't he stop September 11? Why doesn't he stop the massacre in the Sudan? Why didn't he stop my friend getting cancer?
But the fact of the matter is that God does not answer to us, but we answer to Him. But that doesn't mean he's left us in the dark.
Because there is one act in history where injustice and suffering occur... and God lets us into the Situation Room, he spreads out his purposes in front of us, and we get to see why he allows it to happen. And when that happens, you want to sit up and take notice.
So the act is of one innocent man, Jesus Christ, betrayed by his friends, mocked, condemned, spat-on, tortured by his enemies and eventually put to death in the most inhumane and excruciating way.
And if you were to observe it without God's explanation, the only conclusions you could come to would be that God is either not a good God for letting this happen or he wasn't powerful enough to stop it or there is some other reason and purpose that we don't know.
But for this event we don't have to guess, because we have God's explanation.
You see, he is a good and loving God. It was love that drove God to send Jesus Christ into the world so that through him the world might have hope.
And it wasn't that at any point God lost control of the situation. In fact, this had been the plan from before the beginning of time, and was the climax of God's plan for the world.
God's explanation of this horrific event is that it was through this one act that God brought back a world that stood in defiance against Him.
So what is God's comment?
How do we see a loving God in this act? Well, it was love that drove God to send Christ into the world, and it was love that drove Christ to obedience.
And how do we see a God who hasn't lost control? Well, it's clear as we read through the Gospels that he brought about the circumstances that climaxed in the death and resurrection of Christ.
So while we would love to have God explain the purpose of every piece of suffering and hardship we experience, he provides no promise for that...
But that doesn't mean he's not good and loving, and it doesn't mean he's lost control, and it doesn't mean there isn't a purpose.
But in the cross of Christ he shows us once for all that he loves us, that he is powerful enough to accomplish his purposes, and that his purposes are for our good.
And so in the act he explains, this needs to be the guide by which we understanding that which is not explained.
The cross of Christ is the grid through which we need to understand and relate to God.
I was watching a TV show the other night, and it seems to me that every marriage on TV has a good element of suspicion in them. Each partner is constantly on the look out for clues that the other might be cheating on them.
So this man's child happened to see his wife with another man talking somewhere. Instead of asking her straight out, he laid an elaborate series of questions designed to test her loyalty to him, and see whether she was hiding anything.
Now tell me, how would it be if every time Jacqueline was home later than when she said I suspected her of cheating on me? How would it be if every time I rang her mobile phone and she didn't answer I suspected she was with someone else?
What would that say about me? Well, it's pretty clear that I don't trust her.
What does it say about her? Well, obviously she's done something in the past that should make me suspicious. She's obviously untrustworthy.
But the thing is, that I am not suspicious when Jacqueline is home later than she said. And I am not suspicious when her mobile is turned off, because she has never given me any reason not to trust her, in fact every action from the moment we met, up until this point has indicated her faithfulness to me.
Well, let me ask you then, why is it that we doubt God's goodness and faithfulness to us?
I am not saying that suffering should be easy. I'm saying that God has proven himself faithful and loving and powerful in the events of the cross, so why is it that we doubt his goodness to us in other circumstances in life?
He has shown you that he loves you without reservation. He has shown you that he has the power to save you from even death itself.
And furthermore, we have the promise that in every situation, God is working for the good of those who love Him. So you're not going to understand the purpose behind every piece of suffering you go through in this life. But we let that which is explained help us to understand that which is not.
We know that God is good and loving. We know that he is in control. And we know that his purpose for us is that we would be like Christ... but we don't always know or enjoy how it happens.
But the thing that sets God's people apart is that they suffer with hope. They do not hope blindly, they hope with the sure knowledge of a loving and powerful God.
So we follow the example of our saviour in this. A man who as God's enemies closed around Him, humbled himself to the will and purposes of God, and so was beaten, humiliated, tortured and crucified. A man who prayed, "Father if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done."
So while David may have provided the template for how we should suffer, Jesus Christ gave us the example. This was a man who as his death approached, did not just pray the end of Psalm 13, but lived it.
And it is through his faithfulness that means you can be one of God's people, and experience the love and promises of God for this life and the next.
And so what will your response be when you suffer?
How will you respond when people seek to tear you down because you call yourself a Christian and that offends them?
Change your behaviour to minimise your suffering?
Bear with it, but become bitter at God for making you go through it?
How will you respond when those you love become sick and suffer, and you can not see the light at the end of the tunnel?
Will you throw in the towel? Will you become angry at God?
How will you respond when it seems that everything you do falls apart? You're struggling in your marriage, in being single, in losing your job, in hating your job...
How you respond when you suffer is what will mark you out in this world.
I heard a story a while ago of a lady who went to a prayer meeting a Church to pray for someone who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and had a very short time to live.
Apparently they were praying in a largish group with all those praying for healing for the lady dying, and that God would do the miraculous and restore her to full health even though she was old and full of years.
And after hearing these same prayers go around time and again, this particular lady prayed shortly and simply.
"Lord, we pray that she dies well."
Now let me be perfectly clear that I am not praying that you die, nor that you suffer - I hope you have long and productive lives.
But I do pray that when you suffer (and there is no doubt you will), that you do it well. That you do it with your Saviour's name on your lips, and the knowledge of God's goodness in your heart.
I know many of you here today suffer. And I know many of you have been suffering for a long time. And I praise God that in you we see Christ.
Friends, people will see how we suffer, and through it, they will see our God. In your suffering, do not end your question of "How Long, O Lord?" with bitterness and anger, but with the words of Psalm 13:5-6.