"DAVID COMPLAINS TO GOD ABOUT HIS CIRCUMSTANCES BECAUSE HE TRUSTS IN GOD"

Singing: (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 88:1,2
Psalm 44:7,9
Psalm 91:1,5
Psalm 13:1,2,3
Psalm 62:3,4

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

In our Catechism preaching, we are busy now with the Lord’s Prayer, and hence with the question of how to pray and what to pray for. Jesus has given us six petitions that we’re to lay before the throne of grace, requests for this, requests for that. What’s not mentioned in the Lord’s Prayer is complaints. It raises the question: may we complain to God?

On the one hand we all experience that life is not smooth sailing, and certainly not what we would call ‘fair’. Somewhere inside ourselves we feel that we’ve got justified reason to complain. But on the other hand, something tells us that we’re not allowed to complain to God. After all, He’s God, and who are we to tell Him that something He permits in our lives is not good…. The result is that we avoid complaining in our prayers; instead we ask for grace to accept what He puts on our path.

Then we read through the book of Psalms, and lo, here’s a complaint! "How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?" It’s clear: this complaint is a prayer, yes, David has entered God’s holy courts to complain. We wonder: is that right? Should we do that too? Or does David sin against God in speaking to God as he does?

There are, brothers and sisters, quite a number of so-called Complaint Psalms in the Bible; Ps 13 is certainly not the only one. The Holy Spirit has included these psalms in the Scriptures He gave us so that we might learn also to be open with God – also about the miserable things of our lives. But, the Spirit would have us know, even complaining is to be done in faith.

I summarize the sermon with this theme:

From the whole of the psalm, I have chosen to lift out for special attention this morning the first half of vs 5: "But I have trusted in Your mercy." I have done so because those words provide the background to David’s complaint in the first part of the psalm.

David speaks about ‘trust’. Trust is not a vague, fussy, internal feeling; it rather denotes a complete reliance on the Lord. From vss 2 & 4 it’s clear that David has an enemy – whoever that might be. Well now, the word ‘trust’ appears repeatedly in the Bible in a military context, in the context of enemies. The point of the term then is: where do I find security? I think of Sennacherib’s poisoned words to the people of Judah: "Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, ‘Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria’" (Is 37:10). In Sennacherib’s opinion, the Lord is a deceptive source of authority, no more capable of delivering His people from Sennacherib’s hand than the gods of Egypt could save his people. David in our psalm does trust the Lord, and the point is that he feels secure with this God, feels safe with the Lord. Instead of fear, instead of panic, instead of desperation, David is confident of the Lord’s protection and care. To say it in the words of Ps 56: "In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?" (vs 4).

Of course, it’s God’s identity that gives David grounds for his confident trust. Throughout the psalm David has referred to God with the term ‘Lord’. Lord: that’s the God of the covenant. This is the almighty Maker of heaven and earth against whom all men sinned, and who nevertheless established a bond of peace with some people. Lord: this is the almighty and holy God of heaven who claimed that nation of slaves in Egypt for Himself, promised to be their God and they His people. This is the God who came to live with His people Israel in the tabernacle, who gave the sacrifices of animals to foreshadow the washing away of sins through Jesus’ blood, who told His people to call upon Him in all their troubles – who promised always to hear His own and answer them. Lord: the term describes the bond of love that God for Jesus’ sake had placed between Himself and David’s people. Lord: the term got to the heart of the bond of love that God almighty had imposed on David when He had him circumcised on the eighth day of his life. Lord: it catches the wealth of the Baptism Form, the covenant that Father, Son and Holy Spirit made with you and me.

This God, says David, is characterized by ‘mercy’. Mercy: that’s not just an attitude on God’s part toward David (and all His covenant children). No, ‘mercy’ is an action word. The term translated in our text as ‘mercy’ describes God’s powerful actions whereby He comes to the aid of His children-by-covenant. These children-by-covenant do not deserve His assistance, but God has promised it in the covenant, and now flexes His mighty arm to deliver His people in their needs. This has been the Lord’s track record over the years, and David is confident that the Lord has not changed, is merciful still, and so will act to deliver David from his current troubles.

That, congregation, is the backdrop to this psalm. Here is a living faith on David’s part. Shall we say: he has professed the faith and continues to treasure the faith. He loves his God, he trusts in God in all the ups and downs of life. And it’s exactly that faith in God, that trust in His mercy, that drives David now to pour out his complaint to God.

This last point is vitally important for us to understand. The Psalm is a complaint, ie, David has a grievance against the Lord. But David does not raise a fist against God, or accuse God of being unreliable! Were that the case, David would seek his help from other sources, from another king or from some counselors or from the doctor or from some finance company. No, David trusts in God’s mercy, and therefore goes on his knees before God’s throne of grace. In his troubles his trust drives him to prayer!

That brings us to our second point:

What David says to God? Listen: "How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?"

We don’t know what the exact situation was – whether David prayed this prayer when he was fleeing from King Saul (and so was despairing of life itself), or when Absalom conspired against him (and so was glum on account of being betrayed by his own son), or when his son by Bathsheba was dying (and David felt so guilty on account of his sin). All we know is that, regardless of where David looked, he saw no evidence of God’s goodness to him. And it wasn’t something new; it had been this way for quite some time already. This Old Testament child of the covenant had no sense of the nearness of God, no sense of being safely carried in Father’s almighty hands. Forgotten, alone: that’s how David perceived his circumstances.

It’s something we can relate to. We all, I’m sure, have those moments when we feel so alone, God so far away, so uncaring. A mood of glum settles over us, every where we look it’s gray…, and prayer … just doesn’t work…. We want the fog to lift, want some sense of God’s nearness, of His care…, but … it just doesn’t happen…. "How long, O Lord?", we say. "Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?" Inside we cry: ‘Lord, I feel so alone, so forgotten even by You, ignored. And Lord, I can’t stand this! How long will You continue to stay away from me? How long need I have sorrow in my heart, how long must I live in this anguish?? Lord, where are You?! How long, how long?! I call on You, but there is no answer....’

God … gone. That hurts so very much. After all, He’d once said that He would never leave or forsake His own.... More, He had told Aaron the priest, and every priest after him, to lay the blessing on the people of Israel time and time again with these words: "The Lord blesses you and keeps you; The Lord makes His face to shine upon you and is gracious to you; The Lord lifts up His countenance upon you and gives you peace" (Num 6:24ff). In other words: "I am with you always." Those are words that we hear too, regularly. But David did not experience God’s nearness, and we feel the same….

How that hurts the child of God! David says at the end of vs 2 that his enemy was exalting over him. That enemy could be a physical enemy, as King Saul. But it could also be the struggles of his own flesh, the doubts inside: God ignores you, David, because He doesn’t love you anymore. You’ve sinned against Him, you’ve offended Him, and so God has turned away from you altogether…. And we know: precisely that enemy attacks us also, attacks us relentlessly. God gone, ignores us (so we feel), and a little voice inside us whispers his diabolic message in our ear: it’s your own fault. You sinned, remember? Now God hates you, has disowned you, has broken His covenant with you…. That thought adds wicked intensity to our sense of aloneness….

In the midst of our emotions and struggles, brothers and sisters, we need to pay close attention to what David did in the midst of his sense of aloneness. What he did? He prayed! That is: he turned to the very God who (so David felt) had forgotten him. You see: David trusts this God and therefore describes to God the circumstances in which he finds himself.

"How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?" The point of the word ‘forget’ is not simply that God is distracted, so occupied with other things that He doesn’t think of David. Rather, when the Lord made His covenant with David, the Lord promised to be near to David always, always to supply his needs. God could make that promise because He is the almighty, He does not suffer from our human limitations; He is able to keep the promises of His covenant (cf Ps 9:11f). But now David says that God has forgotten him, and not for a couple of minutes but for too long. Do you see, beloved, what David is doing? He is faulting God with breach of His covenant promises! You are the Lord, the God of the covenant! Then how can you forget me?! I trust in Your mercy, but … are You not loyal after all??

David has a second complaint. "How long will You hide Your face from me?" Hide your face. There are various examples in the Old Testament where the notion of turning your face toward somebody indicates that you favor that person. Similarly, when you turn your face away you show disfavor (cf 1 Kings 10:24). That’s what David experiences from God. God won’t listen to David anymore, the channels of communication are cut off…. Yet –and this point needs to be fixed in our minds- David refuses to accept that the lines of communication are broken. For he prays! He may feel that God has turned his face away from him, but David trusts in His mercy and therefore steps over his feelings and speaks to God anyway with his painful question: "How long will You hide Your face from me?"

He has a third complaint. "How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily?" The point is this. Because there was no help from God in David’s struggles, David had to find answers by himself to his problems. So he took counsel in his soul, debated with himself whether to do this or to do that. But all this thinking and his planning don’t help; their failures leads to sorrow in his heart daily. And again: he tells God of his struggles, how he’s battling with his thoughts, tells the very God who appears to be gone.

There’s a fourth complaint. "How long will my enemy be exalted over me?" We don’t know who the enemy is, and so it doesn’t matter. But this much is clear: this enemy looks down upon David. It’s the posture of defeat for David, of victory for the enemy. David: that’s God’s child by covenant, but now some enemy is about to swallow him up. And why? Because God ignores His covenant child! David cries out for help, but the Lord doesn’t hear!! And yet –and this is the critical point- David turns to God in prayer anyway! Such is His trust in the Lord that he doesn’t give up on God even when his enemy stands over him to devour him; he turns to God in prayer, and lays his complaint before God: Lord, where are You?! How long will You be gone?

Four complaints. Four indictments against God, four comments that question whether God is in fact faithful to His promises in the covenant. On top of these four David adds three urgent appeals. Vs 3: "Consider." Literally: "Look!" God’s face was turned away, David had said in vs 1. Turn Your face towards me again, says David, "look" and see my misery! The second appeal –vs 3- is "Hear me!", literally, "Answer me!" That is: do something, O Lord! And the third appeal –again vs 3- is "Enlighten my eyes." The three appeals are motivated by three dangers: "lest I sleep the sleep of death; Lest my enemy say, ‘I have prevailed over him’; Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved." The point of the three motivations: Look, answer, lighten my eyes, lest I collapse in the face of the pressures before me. Lord, it’s all too much, I can’t keep it up, do something!

What, brothers and sisters, do you notice about these complaints? Is it not this: David is forthright with his God? He analyses his circumstances, and tells God exactly how he feels. But: he prays in faith. What drives him to utter his complaints is the conviction of our text: David trusts in the Lord’s mercy. He knows who God is, knows God is faithful to His covenant, and exactly for that reason tells God that in real life he isn’t experiencing God’s nearness. He tells God that what he believes and what he experiences are two different things, and then he doesn’t throw his faith away in favor of his experiences; no, he puts his experiences beside his faith and says to God: Lord, this doesn’t match up! Yet even in this mismatch I believe You are the Lord, I trust in Your mercy, and so I pray: give relief from my experiences, take away this sense of You having forgotten me, take away this sense of Your favor being gone, take away this sense of my enemy triumphing over me. Let me experience, Lord, that my faith in You is not misplaced!

Do you see, beloved, the struggle in the man? Faith vs experience: which will win out? Throw out my faith because it disagrees with what I experience? Or cling to my faith –the Lord is merciful, no matter what!- and therefore tell God how my experience doesn’t match up with my faith? That’s David’s complaint, and that’s a complaint, a style of praying, that we need to learn also. Things don’t always go the way we like in this broken life, and that’s a temptation to discard our faith. But we’re not to abandon that faith; we’re instead to cling to God’s sure promises in Jesus Christ, and lay before Him the problem we have, nl, that our experiences don’t match up with His promises. And so demonstrate our trust in Him!

I come to our third point:

David felt so forgotten, forsaken; what he experienced did not match up to what he believed. So he turned to the very God who –he felt- had rejected him, turned to him precisely because he kept trusting in His mercy. And see now God’s answer to David’s complaint: God encouraged and strengthened him! Look at the second half of vs 5: "My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation." Vs 6 continues with the same sense of certainty: "I will sing to the Lord, Because He has dealt bountifully with me."

How remarkable! In the midst of his difficulties (whatever they were), while his eyes were still dimmed from grief or depression or worries or whatever, he could break forth into singing –why?- because he knew that his trust in the Lord-of-the-covenant would not be put to shame. The God who appeared to desert him would not, did not desert him; this God would most certainly act to deliver his oppressed child from his difficulties. By the grace of God through the Holy Spirit, David knew that his experiences were not the measure of reality, knew that what he was experiencing was not the way things would always be because God does not change. He had established His covenant with sinners and though today He might let the sinner think he was forgotten and alone, God had in fact not forgotten the sinner and tomorrow would shower him again with evidence of His nearness and His favor. Such is David’s faith, more, such is the strength of faith the Lord gives David, that even when he feels alone the Lord upholds and strengthens him. You see, that’s answer to David’s complaint!

We for our part know more of God’s mercy and unchanging faithfulness than David did. We have more of the Bible, including that portion of Scripture that speaks of Jesus being forgotten by God, God’s face turned away from Jesus. David felt ignored, forgotten, but he wasn’t – for God is faithful. With Jesus it was different. Precisely because David’s sins, your sins, my sins, were piled onto Jesus was God’s face in fact turned away from His only Son. In the three hours of darkness Jesus cried out His anguish: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Or, in the words of vs 1: "How long will You hide Your face from me?" But for Jesus it was bitter reality; God’s face was hidden from Jesus, because of our sins. Yet He triumphed, paid for sin, satisfied the justice of God – so that we might be children of this God! This was the gospel David could believe, and it’s the gospel we may believe, yes, it’s the reason we are never forsaken by God, and therefore can always turn to Him even when we feel forsaken.

What, then, do we learn from this Psalm in relation to our prayers? This: be open with God, even about how you feel about God’s nearness and care. Remember: Jesus was forsaken "that we might nevermore be forsaken by Him." By God’s grace we may believe that, even though there are times when we certainly don’t experience that. Very well, tell Him how you feel. You don’t have to be macho about your feelings, as if you have to bury them to be a man, a somebody. No, tell Him how things are. More, ask Him bold questions: "How long, O Lord?" You made Your covenant of grace with me for Jesus’ sake; "will You then forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?"

It all comes together in the words of the apostle Paul: "Be anxious for nothing. In prayer and supplications, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Amen.