Faithfully Responding to Suffering
Psalm 13
Main Idea: We can respond faithfully in suffering through honest complaint, bold prayer, and choosing to trust.
Lament is how we bring our pain and sorrow to God. It is how we live between the reality of our hard life and our trust in God’s goodness.
Lament is a neglected dimension of the Christian life for many Christians today. We need to recover the practice of honest spiritual struggle that gives us permission to vocalize our pain and wrestle with our sorrow. Lament avoids trite answers and quick solutions, progressively moving us toward deeper worship and trust.”
- Mark Vroegop, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy
I. Honest Complaint (13:1-2)
We can honestly and transparently come to God with our pain. Our pain and suffering are real. We do not need to “suffer in silence” before God. God gives us permission to lament.
We bring our complaints to God, because we seek to move “upward and inward”, to move further towards Him. So, our complaint actually opens the door to the next part of lament, and that is prayer.
II. Bold Prayer (13:3-4)
We should not hesitate to ask God specific, bold requests in our suffering.
The various trials of life can become a platform to reaffirm our dependence upon the Lord. The requests of lament can become the place where we celebrate our need for God’s help. In this way, our requests become more than just expressions of need. These petitions are prayers of faith anchored in what we believe about God . . . . The point of those requests is not only to meet a need. The point is to rely upon God.
- Mark Vroegop, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy
Pray boldly and specifically. Don’t give up. We pray because we are not self-sufficient. By our prayers we show that we depend on God – He is worthy of that trust.
III. Choosing to Trust (13:5-6)
Rather than focus on his perceptions of God’s neglect – David chooses to trust in the reality of God’s salvation.
Our hope in suffering is not because we know when our suffering will end, or even if it will end in this life, but because we know and trust the character of God.
It is not “my faith” that is my strength and my salvation; it is my God. It is not the strength of my belief; it is the strength of the One in whom I believe.
Three things about God that David places his faith in:
1. David places his faith in God’s character
Hesed is translated by different versions as: faithfulness, lovingkindness, steadfast love, mercy, unfailing love, faithful love.
Exodus 34:6-7: “The LORD passed before him [Moses] and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”
2. David places his faith in God’s covenant promises
Exodus 6:5-8: Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD.’”
But, God is not interested in a market transaction, a contract whereby He will do something if only we will do something. Instead, God is interested in the relationship, the covenant that he has already established with us. And, our response to His covenant with us, in the midst of suffering, is not to look to our performance, but to trust in His grace.
3. David places his faith in God as the true and ultimate source of his salvation
