How Long?

June 14, 2020
Pastor Clint Ziemer

Audio of the sermon for June 14, 2020, for Cable Community Church, Sherrard, IL

Episode Notes

How Long?

Psalm 13


I don’t like this!  Something’s wrong!  Somebody DO something!

This is either the plea of the brokenhearted or the cry of a three year old:  Sometimes it is both.  

Some examples.  Groups of people are allowed to gather by the hundreds to riot and protest while believers are banned from gathering together to worship and pray in groups larger than ten.  I don’t like it!  Something’s wrong!  Somebody DO something!

Some days... many days... the treatment for cancer seems to be worse than the disease.  When will it end?  I don’t like it!  Something’s wrong!  Somebody DO something!

My big sister just took my favorite toy.  I don’t like it!  Something’s wrong!  Somebody DO something!

What’s the solution when we see or hear something that doesn’t sit right with us?  What do we say when injustice rules the day and solutions are difficult if not nearly impossible?  We can cry out for Somebody to DO something, but WHO… do WHAT?


Today I’d like to take you through a process from the Bible called the Lament.  It’s similar to crying, but more powerful; more focused; and - dare I say it?  More impactful.  


There is a wrong way to cry, an insufficient way to cry. In the Bible, Judas cried, Esau cried, and their crying just made them worst! They say that crying is good – it gives you a release; but biblical crying - lamenting - is better – as we will see.


Jesus lamented.  According to Hebrews 5:7, “He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear.” The Bible has an entire book called Lamentations, written by Jeremiah, the so called “weeping prophet.”  One third of the Psalms are lament songs, more than any other type of Psalm.  Today we will look into just one of those Psalms; Psalm 13.  There we will discover the pain of dealing with a disturbing situation; the plea for things to be restored to how they’re supposed to be; and the profession that no matter what happens, we’ll hold firm to trust.

  1. Body
    1. The Pain (vv. 1-2) 
        1. I don’t like this
      1. How Long? 
        1. Notice that David cries out four times, “How long?” 
        2. Charles Spurgeon calls Psalm 13 the “How Long Psalm.” Commenting on the cry “How long?” he goes on to ask, “Does not the oft-repeated cry become a very HOWLING?”
      2. I’m alone
        1. I feel forgotten
        2. I feel abandoned
      3. Illustration:  one month in the hospital,  75 miles from home
      4. It hurts
        1. I wrestle with my thoughts
        2. My heart aches
        3. My foes are exalted
        4. “How long shall I take counsel in my soul” has been translated “How long must I wrestle with my thoughts,” in the NIV, which suggests turmoil in the mind. Feeling like he was left to himself, David tried to devise various ways to overcome the enemy (wrestle with my thoughts), but nothing seemed to satisfy him.
      5. Illustration — David Brainerd was born in 1718, he died at the age of 29 in 1747. He was a missionary to the Native Americans, and had a very fruitful ministry. He died at the home of Jonathan Edwards. Edwards published a book titled, The Life of David Brainerd, which was basically David Brainerd’s dairy. One entry reads as follows: “Lord’s Day, January 23…. None knows, but those that feel it, what the soul endures that is sensibly shut out from the presence of God: Alas, ’tis more bitter than death!” This kind of comment is repeated over and over throughout his dairy.The Plea (vv. 3-4)
        1. This is not how it’s supposed to be
      6. Consider - the opposite of abandonment and alienation
        1. David prays.  “Consider and answer me, O Lord my God.” David addressed God directly. He wanted a response to the spiritual despair he felt in verse 1. David wanted God to consider and answer him by remembering him and giving David a clear sense of his presence again.
        2. When you are discouraged and depressed, it is hard to pray. But pray you must!
        3. Joseph Scriven was born in 1819 in Ireland. He graduated from college in 1842. He was engaged to be married the following year, but his fiancée accidentally drowned on the night before their wedding. Two years later, Scriven left Ireland to go and live in Canada. In 1855, Scriven received news that his mother in Ireland was very ill. He wrote her a poem to comfort her that he called “Pray Without Ceasing.” Scriven never intended for his poem to be published, but years later it was. It has become a favorite hymn among millions of Christians, and was renamed, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”
        4. Listen to the first stanza: “What a Friend we have in Jesus,/All our sins and griefs to bear;/What a privilege to carry/Ev’rything to God in prayer./O what peace we often forfeit,/O what needless pain we bear,/All because we do not carry/Ev’rything to God in prayer.”
        5. We, too, must take everything to God in prayer.
      7. Hear/Answer - respond favorably to my plea
      8. Enlighten - remove the feeling of darkness and despairThe Profession (vv. 5-6)
        1. God, I trust you
      9. The last lines are words of trust and praise.  These final words of Psalm 13 are one of the characteristic features of the lament psalms. David discloses that even though he has been complaining to God, he has not lost his faith in him.  This is what Godly lamenting does - it brings us back to the One who can DO something about our troubles.
      10. Looking Back
        1. God provides what is not deserved 
        2. Mercy
      11. Looking Forward 
        1. God provides everything that is required 
        2. Salvation (Grace)
      12. Looking Up. 
        1. God provides from an abundance of love 
        2. Bountifully
      13. When we lament, we experience healing from God; we trust the unfailing love of God and keep coming back to that. We hold on even in the face of discouragement and temptation to give up, and we also look ahead to the day when God brings resolution
  2. Conclusion 
    1. We are often easily tempted by the feeling that we are forgotten by God when we are in trouble and deep sorrow. But God does not forget us. We should hold on to the truth that God is merciful to the poor, to one who cries out for help and deliverance. Surely God listens to the cries of his people. If we humble ourselves before Him, and are not deceived about our own waywardness, his help will never be broken off.
    2. One of the earliest and the most outstanding intellectuals, leaders and defenders of the Christian faith was Augustine, the fourth century writer of the “Confessions of Saint Augustine,” one of the most famous tell-all autobiographies written. Young Augustine was a hedonist, a philosopher, an agnostic, and a rebel, but his mother Monica was a godly, persistent, and resourceful woman.
    3. Augustine often laughed at her mother’s pious ways, mocked her faith, and deliberately defied her continual pleading for him to repent of his pagan lifestyle, to convert to Christ, and to live an exemplary life.
    4. When Augustine wanted to leave the shores of Carthage, North Africa, for the bright lights of Rome, his mother feared the worst for her son, dreaded the outcome of his leaving, and often fled to the church for solace, prayer, and advice. In her despair, she would often weep uncontrollably for her son. One day a minister noticed her painful cries, and asked her why she was so bitter. She told him of his wayward son, but the bishop assured her with these words: “Go in peace; as you live, it cannot be that the son of these tears should perish.”
    5. Augustine avoided his mother as much as possible and ignored her warnings time and again, but he could not escape her continuous prayers. Monica lamented before the Lord.  She painstakingly prayed, wept, and looked for her son for 30 years until finally, Augustine surrendered his life to Christ.  Monica cried out for her son, “God, I don’t like this!  It’s not how it’s supposed to be.  Yet, even now, I will trust you.
    6. What about you?  For who or what are you crying?
      1. Racial reconciliation? - a mending of the hurtful past?
      2. Economic Justice? - a wise allocation of limited resources?
      3. Peace in our land? - a setting aside of hatred?
      4. Maybe your cries are more personal;
        1. Crying our over a lost son or daughter?
        2. A much needed job?
        3. Long awaited healing?
      5. Remember Who to turn to with your lament.  Trust Him.

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