Latest / Reformed Thinking / How Long, O Lord? A Cry from Deep Sorrow (Psalm 13) | Charles Spurgeon

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How Long, O Lord? A Cry from Deep Sorrow (Psalm 13) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking, the place where we take
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  scripture and serious spiritual writing, pull it apart and put
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  it back together so you walk away truly informed.
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  Today we're doing a deep dive into Psalm 13.
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  Yes, Psalm 13 is often called the How Long Psalm, and for good
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  reason. It might be the clearest map we
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  have in the whole Psalter of how a believer moves through what
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  through real anguish. That's right.
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  We're going to look at its journey, this progression from a
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  state of almost crippling anxiety into this very
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  deliberate act of prayer, and then how it lands in a place of
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  of just triumphant faith. And it's so concise, just 6
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  verses but they breakdown perfectly.
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  The structure is incredibly clear.
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  Verses 1 and 2, that's the question of anxiety.
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  Then you get verses 3 and 4, the cry of prayer.
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  And it all wraps up with Five and six, the Song of Faith.
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  Exactly. And the sources we're looking
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  at, especially commentators like Spurgeon, they see the Psalm as
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  well as the vocabulary God gives his people for what they call
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  ever returning trials. So it's a blueprint.
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  It's showing you how to feel like God has A and in you
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  without actually falling into despair.
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  That's the core of it, how to process that feeling without
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  letting it break your hope. OK, let's start at the
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  beginning. Then in that downward spiral,
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  because he starts in a really dark place, he.
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  Really does the. First thing that jumps out in
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  verses 1 and 2 is just the repetition, the question how
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  long? Yeah, appears four times
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  back-to-back. Yeah.
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  How long? How long, How long?
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  How long? It's intense.
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  And the sources are clear. This isn't just, you know, a
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  sign of simple impatience. It's deeper than that.
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  Oh, much deeper. It signals this intense desire
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  for deliverance. But it's also a warning.
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  That desire is always, always in danger of of sliding into a
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  murmuring spirit. A spirit that starts questioning
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  God's goodness itself. Precisely.
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  The whole focus becomes the delay, the duration, and that's
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  where the anxiety risks becoming sinful.
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  You know, one of the sources had a really striking name for this
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  Psalm based on that raw emotion, not just the how long Psalm, but
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  the howling Psalm. I love that description because
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  it's so accurate. This isn't polished, polite
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  language you'd use in a formal church service.
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  No, it's a howling, a roar of pain.
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  The grief is just so big that it can't find any other way out,
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  the sources say. The music of the prayer is gone.
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  It's just the voice of our roaring.
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  But the critical point here is that God hears that he's not put
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  off by the rawness. Not at all.
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  He understands it. He's listening for the desire
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  underneath the noise, the work of the spirit, not first some
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  beautiful turn of phrase. And this focus on how long also
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  gets at something else. The sources highlight how
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  suffering just completely warps our sense of time.
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  Oh absolutely. It's a key part of the
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  psychological agony. When things are good and what
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  the sources call the summer days, time just flies right?
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  Gone in a flash. But in the winters of the soul,
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  time doesn't apply it. It flutters painfully.
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  It just drags. The commentators had a great
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  example of this. A week in prison feels longer
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  than a month of freedom. It's so true.
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  The anguish isn't just about the pain, it's about the duration of
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  the pain. And that's what tests your
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  patients more than just about anything else.
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  It's the waiting that breaks you.
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  So with that in mind, the psalmist then builds what our
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  sources call the four walls of his prison of sorrow.
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  He gives 4 shapes to that how long question.
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  Right. And this breakdown is so helpful
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  for understanding just how trapped he feels.
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  The questions cover everything, how it feels to him, what he
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  thinks God is doing, what's happening inside his own head,
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  and what's happening out in the world.
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  So let's take the first one. This is what the source is
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  called the dark thought. The darkest, the first wall is
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  this idea of perceived forgetfulness.
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  He asks, How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, forever?
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  Forever. That's the word that just sends
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  a chill down your spine. It's the ultimate fear for a
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  believer. Not just that God is
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  disciplining you, but that he has literally forgotten you,
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  that this is a permanent abandonment.
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  Why is that specific fear so destructive?
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  Because if God, the source of everything, has forgotten you,
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  well, what hope is there? The sources describe that
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  feeling as being in the suburbs of hell.
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  Wow. It's the closest a believer can
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  get to feeling the horror of being utterly cast off of the
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  covenant bond being broken for good.
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  That little phrase forever shows his anxiety has just taken over.
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  His reason? OK, so that's the first wall,
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  this terrible fear of being forgotten.
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  That then leads to the second question, which is a little
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  different. It's a bit more rational, as the
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  sources say. He pulls back from the edge a
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  little. This is the wall of divine
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  withdrawal, he asks. How long will thou hide thy face
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  from me? So he's not saying God has
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  amnesia anymore, he's saying God is intentionally hiding.
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  Exactly. He recognizes that God is still
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  there, but he's purposefully withholding the light of his
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  countenance, the feeling of his favor.
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  Which for a child of God is still a terrible experience.
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  Oh, it's terrible. If your whole life is built on
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  seeking the Father's smile, having that smile deliberately
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  hidden is a profound one kind of sorrow.
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  It's a calculated test of faith, and it feels.
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  Awful. Then the focus shifts right from
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  God to what's happening inside his own mind.
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  Yes, the 3rd wall. Is this internal ruminating?
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  How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my
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  heart daily? This is the self torture part.
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  It is. The sources call it bitter work.
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  It's your own mind turning on you, just replaying the pain,
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  trying to find an estate, trying to figure out why and coming up
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  with nothing, just unavailing devices.
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  Exhausting. It is, and it keeps the sorrow
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  in the heart daily because you never stop analyzing it.
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  You never give it over to the physician.
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  I thought the analogy the sources use here was just
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  perfect. The idea of chewing A bitter
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  pill. It really is.
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  An affliction is like a pill. It's meant to be swallowed in
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  submission to do its work. But what does he do?
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  He chews on it. He chews on it and it fills his
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  whole mouth, his whole soul with this raw bitterness that was
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  never meant to be tasted like that.
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  He's basically picking at a wound mentally.
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  And then comes the final wall, the external one, the one that
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  often feels like the last straw. Right, the external humiliation.
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  How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
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  This is described as the Wormwood in the gall.
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  Two of the most bitter things imaginable.
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  Exactly. To see the wicked prosper while
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  you suffer, to hear their taunts and their laughter.
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  It just grates horribly on the ears of grief.
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  That public mockery can be the thing that threatens to break
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  your patients completely. So we have this picture of a
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  person just completely boxed in by sorrow.
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  Let's dig into the theology of that first question, though the
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  sources label that cry Wilt thou forget me?
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  As an ungracious question. Yes, and that's not to be cruel
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  to the person suffering. It's a theological diagnosis.
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  The question itself is just. It's structurally unsound.
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  It attacks the very character of God.
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  In what way? Well, 2 main ways.
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  First, it's a denial of God's omniscience.
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  The sources put it very bluntly. Can omniscience fail in memory?
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  I mean, no, it's a logical contradiction.
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  It is. To suggest God just forgot is to
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  shrink him down to our level, to make him finite and flawed.
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  It's an insult to his perfection.
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  And the second error. The second is even more
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  personal. It maligns Jehovah's heart.
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  It questions his covenant affection.
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  The Bible compares God's love for his people to a mother's for
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  her nursing child and says even if she could forget, He will
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  not. So to ask if he's forgotten is
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  to question the most basic reality of the covenant
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  relationship. You're questioning the very
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  tenacity of his eternal love, and from a Reformed viewpoint,
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  this is central. God has a Scripture says graven
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  his people upon the palms of his hands.
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  It's not a distant memory, it's a permanent mark.
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  A permanent active reminder. So this idea that he could cast
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  his people away forever is just it's a foolish question born of
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  grief because it contradicts the very security of his covenant.
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  Which is why the second question about the hidden face is seen as
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  more rational. It's not about forgetfulness,
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  which is impossible, but about divine discipline, which is very
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  real. That's the critical distinction.
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  God hiding His face is a sovereign act.
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  It's intentional and it is absolutely not a sign of a
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  forgetful heart or permanent rejection.
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  It brings to mind that analogy of the pilot in the cockpit
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  well, the passengers in their seat feeling turbulence.
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  The intercom is silent, and they start to panic.
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  They think the pilot has abandoned the cockpit.
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  But the silence doesn't mean absence.
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  The pilot is still there, flying the plane, probably navigating
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  the most difficult part of the flight.
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  That's what God is doing when he seems silent.
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  That is a perfect parallel. The hidden face is an act of
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  love. It's a test to see, as the
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  sources say, what metal they are made of.
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  To see if you'll trust the pilot even when you can't hear his
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  voice. Will you depend on the truth of
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  His promises or only on the feeling of His presence?
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  That's the test, and it's essential for spiritual growth.
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  So this brings us back to the duration of the trial.
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  If the trial is a test, what does a long trial signify?
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  If we keep crying, how long? What did that suggest about us?
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  This is a really sobering point. In the commentaries, they argue
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  that long sorrow seems to argue abounding corruption in the
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  sufferer. So the length of the trial is
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  directly related to the depth of the impurity that needs to be
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  dealt with. That's the idea.
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  It forces a very deep self examination.
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  God isn't just trying to fix your circumstances, He's trying
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  to fix you and. The image for that is the
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  Goldsmith, right? Yes.
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  Think of gold in a furnace. If the Goldsmith leaves it in
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  the fire for a long time, what does that mean?
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  It means there's a lot of dross, a lot of impurity that needs to
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  be burned away. Exactly.
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  So the very length of the trial, the fact that you keep asking
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  how long suggests that the spiritual dross, maybe it's
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  pride, maybe self-reliance, is deep seated.
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  God isn't doing a quick surface level Polish, He's doing a deep,
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  thorough purification. The long trial is actually a
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  sign of his meticulous care, not his neglect.
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  And that understanding seems to be what allows for the pivot.
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  This is the moment in the Psalm where everything changes.
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  Right at verse 3, stops looking in and starts looking up.
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  It is the absolute turning point.
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  The sources describe it so well. They say prayer lifteth up her
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  voice like the watchman who proclaims the Daybreak.
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  The Long Night is ending. Yes, the tide is turning.
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  This is where you see that truth, that prayer is the life
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  of hope and the death of despair.
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  He literally stops the bitter work of taking counsel in his
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  own soul and cries out. Consider and hear me, O Lord my
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  God. That word consider feels very
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  direct, almost demanding. It is, but it's a demands based
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  on the covenant. He's not telling God something
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  he doesn't know. He's asking God to apply his
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  known character and promises to his specific situation.
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  He's saying you are my God, so please act like it for your own
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  glory. So prayer isn't just asking for
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  help, it's actually the mechanism of restoration.
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  The sources talk about it as a kind of ventilation.
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  I find that analogy so helpful. Prayer is the Saints exercise
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  field. Think about physical exercise.
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  It makes you sweat, and that sweat clears out toxins.
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  A kindly sweat they call. It right In the same way, the
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  exertion of prayer allows the believer to breathe out the
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  malignity of his disease. You articulate the doubt, the
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  fear, the despair, and in doing so, you expel it.
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  The spiritual fever breaks. You're no longer a passive
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  victim. You're an active participant in
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  your own healing. And the specific request he
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  makes is lighten my eyes. That's the immediate antidote
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  he's asking for. It is because deep sorrow, as
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  the commentaries note, doesn't just hurt your heart.
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  It causes a faintness and dimness of vision.
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  You become spiritually lethargic.
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  It leads to what they call the sleep of death.
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  A very dangerous place to be. Spiritual darkness makes the
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  eyelids heavy, and if that sleep continues, you're just one step
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  away from giving up hope completely.
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  So light in mine eyes is a prayer for survival.
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  It's a plea to not go under. It is, but it's also a prayer
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  for perception. Notice he's not primarily asking
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  for the darkness around him to be removed.
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  He's asking for the eye of faith to be clear so he can see in the
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  dark. So he can see God's reality even
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  when he can't feel God's presence.
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  That's it. It's a prayer for illumination,
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  for spiritual clarity. And this is where that metaphor
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  of the smothered fire comes in. Right where sorrow and anxiety
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  are like ashes choking the coals.
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  And prayer is the bellows. It blows away those ashes and
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  lets the hidden flame of faith catch again.
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  It's about restoring that inner spiritual vitality, even if the
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  external situation hasn't changed one bit.
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  Once he's on that firmer ground, he immediately makes a strategic
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  argument in his prayer. He basically uses his enemy as
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  leverage. Yes, this shows a real spiritual
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  maturity kicking in. He shifts the argument away from
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  his own pain and onto God's reputation.
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  The argument being, if I'm defeated, my enemies will
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  celebrate and their celebration will dishonor you.
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  Exactly. They won't just be mocking
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  David, they'll be mocking David's God.
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  So he links his own safety directly to God's glory.
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  And in doing that, he strengthens his own assurance
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  that God will act. It's a brilliant move.
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  He turns the very thing that was causing him humiliation into the
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  reason for his deliverance. It forces the enemy to, as one
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  source, put it, grind in our mill.
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  You use their own cruel arrogance as an argument in your
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  prayer. It's a God centered plea and
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  that's a prayer God is always inclined to hear.
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  OK, so that brings us to the final 2 verses.
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  And the shift in tone is just it's breathtaking.
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  The whiplash is so fast, one commentator said.
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  It's like the Psalm was written by two men of a contrary humor.
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  It really is that dramatic, and it shows that the prayer of
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  verses 3 and 4 was answered immediately, not with a change
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  in circumstances, but with a change of heart.
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  The mercy seat, as they say. Refresh the Weeper and he clears
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  his throat for a song. And this is where we see what
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  faith really is. It lays the cloth for a feast
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  before the food has even arrived.
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  He hasn't seen the victory yet, but he's already celebrating.
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  Let's talk about that, this idea of joy before victory, it runs
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  so counter to how we normally operate.
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  It's the very definition of faith in action, he says.
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  But I have trusted in thy mercy. The verb tense there is key.
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  It's a settled fact. His joy isn't based on a
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  feeling. It's based on the unchanging
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  character of God's mercy. So he's rejoicing in the
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  salvation he knows is coming, even before it's visible.
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  Yes, he's triumphing before the victory.
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  It shows the sure confidence that God's promise is as good.
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  What is the fulfillment itself? The sources use the image of a
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  shipwrecked mariner. A powerful image.
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  The storm is still raging. The waves are crashing over the
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  deck, but he is clinging to the mast.
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  He will not let go. Because he trusts the structural
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  integrity of the ship. He trusts the mast, and for
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  David, that mast is God's mercy. He is sure of his faith, and his
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  faith makes him sure. The trial didn't crush his
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  faith. It forced him to look only to
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  God's nature for his stability. So now looking back, what was
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  the point of the delay? If God was never really gone?
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  What was the spiritual gain from all that suffering?
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  The delay was absolutely purposeful.
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  The sources say that God's temporary departures are
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  designed to gather great mercies.
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  Like a spiritual winter. Exactly.
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  The land looks dead, but it's not.
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  It's a fallow season, gathering SAP and resources for a much
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  better crop later on. We often do our most important
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  growing in the dark. And the experience of the
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  darkness makes the light that much brighter when it returns.
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  Because the calm after the storm is so much more peaceful,
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  Because you remember The Tempest sorrows, remembered sweet and
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  present joy. The peace he feels now is so
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  intense precisely because the misery he felt before was so
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  deep. And this is where he realizes
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  that even when he was accusing God of neglect, God was actually
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  dealing kindly with him the whole time.
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  Yes. And that brings us to the final
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  verse, which is this incredible, joyful retraction of his initial
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  complaint. It brings everything full
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  circle. Completely.
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  The man who started by screaming.
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  How long wilt thou forget me? Ends by declaring with total
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  certainty He hath dealt bountifully with me.
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  It's like a plaintiff in a courtroom suddenly dropping the
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  case and publicly praising the defendant.
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  That's a perfect way to put it. He realizes that while he was
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  mourning, God was working. He was being brought out of his
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  own black nature and secured in the covenant.
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  The bounty wasn't just deliverance, it was the faith
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  that got him through the darkness.
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  The bounty was the preservation of his soul.
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  So wrapping this all up, what does this deep dive into Psalm
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  13 mean for you listening right now?
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  It really gives us a theological map for our own pain, doesn't
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  it? It does.
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  It shows the path from that self torture of taking counsel in
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  your own soul all the way to the clear sight of faith.
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  And the engine that moves you along that path is that active,
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  ventilating cry of prayer. The Psalm makes the anguish feel
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  legitimate, but it also gives a very clear escape route.
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  A clear escape route. And it reminds us that the
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  biggest problem in our trials usually isn't God's absence,
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  because he's never absent. It's our own obscured spiritual
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  vision. Caused by looking inward for too
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  long. Exactly.
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  The solution is to stop looking at the problem and to pray that
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  simple direct prayer lighten mine eyes.
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  The crisis breaks when you shift your focus from the length of
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  your pain to the certainty of God's covenant love.
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  And here's a final thought for you to take away from these
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  commentaries. If long sorrow seems to argue a
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  bounding corruption that needs to be consumed, then what
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  specific spiritual dross might the persistence of your how long
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  be designed to burn away? What does the duration of your
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  current trial teach you about the specific, careful work God
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  is doing in your heart right now?
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  Thanks for joining us for this deep dive.