A Road Map for Life | Beginning With GodSample

TURNING A SIGH INTO A SONG (Psalm 13)

Do you ever find yourself in circumstances and wonder how long they will last? Perhaps you are thinking, “How long am I going to have to live through this? How long will I have to put up with this?”

You are not alone. In fact, David, when he wrote Psalm 13, had that exact question on his lips. He wrote those exact words with his pen. Listen to the first two verses.

“How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?”

In those few words, he asked no fewer than four times, “How long, Lord, how long?”

We do not know exactly where this particular psalm fits in David's life. Some people have even surmised that it was written and inspired by the Babylonian captivity. But we know it is a psalm of David, so that doesn’t make exact sense. I believe it would have to be during some time in David’s personal experience. Perhaps it was inserted during the Babylonian captivity and that was when they started taking it up and singing it.

But it was inspired by something deeply personal. And aren’t those the most difficult things to deal with? Not the things that touch the whole nation, but the things that touch you, your family, those who you most deeply love. Those are the things that make you keep asking, “How long?”

It is interesting that the psalm progresses from how the writer feels to what he knows for sure. In verse 1 he referred to the Lord forgetting, but did that really happen? No. The Lord never forgets anything. The Lord doesn't forget anyone. He knows right where you are. His face may have been hidden where David could not see it, but He could still see David.

These words were simply an expression of how David felt. They should also be a reminder to us that when we are in deep emotion, we should guard what we say to other people. My pastor used to say that discouraged people always overstate their problems. That is so true. It is very easy for us to get so overwhelmed and overcome with something that we just say something we shouldn’t say.

Verse 2 refers to the fact that we have daily struggles, daily troubles and daily trials. I want to challenge you to exercise daily faith. Spend time in daily prayer. Have some daily time in the Word. For every challenge, there is also a daily resource.

We notice the shift in verses 3-4. “Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.”

This leads us to the first thing you can do when wondering “how long”:

1.Talk to God about it. None of us want to be known as complainers, but we all have this tendency to complain to the people around us. They cannot do anything to change it. Complain to the only person who can do something about it, and that is God.

Turn your complaint to prayer. If you have a complaint today, send it heavenward. I promise you that if you come to God in simple prayer, He will hear your cry.

Verse 5: “But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.” Not only should you pray, but you should also...

2.Rehearse who God is and how you have trusted Him. Notice the past tense (“I have trusted”). I think he went back and rehearsed how good God had been to him — how all along the journey, he found that God’s mercy was new every morning.

This is part of the reason I keep a personal journal. Sometimes when I get low, I like to pull out one of those old journals and read it. I’ll see a day where I was struggling, having a hard time, and then when I turn the page I find that at some point God broke through and answered my prayer. I am reminded that if I trusted in His mercy then, I can trust Him with my latest need.

The second part of the verse is future tense, where he expects to rejoice in what God will do ("my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation"). When you are having trouble, it is easy to get stuck where you are just looking at your circumstances and at the past. That is when you wonder, “How long is this going to last?” But hope comes when you start looking to the future.

There is a great shift in tone in this psalm, from a mood of complaining to one of, “You know, I believe I am going to rejoice. God is going to do something. He will come through and save me out of this circumstance.”

That attitude continues in verse 6. “I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.” After you pray and think about what God has done, you can...

3. Begin to hope for the future. Once you’ve done that, you can praise God right where you are. Don’t wait for the circumstances to change, for the night to break or the sun to shine again. David thought, “I may not feel like it, but God has been good to me. So I am going to sing.”

I have found that there are mornings when I wake up and don’t feel like singing, but those are the very days I most need to sing. When I make myself just begin to rejoice and give God glory and praise, the most amazing thing happens. God begins to turn my spirit and my heart toward Him.

Let me challenge you to sing today to the Lord. You may think you are not much of a singer, but that is all right. He is the one who gave you your singing voice, and He is not listening to how beautiful it is. He is listening to your heart.

Give Him praise and glory because He has been good to you. If you do, you will sing your way through the night hours, through this period of time. After beginning with a sigh, you will continue with a song.

This psalm begins with a sigh, asking, “How long?” over and over again. But instead of sighing through the day, you can choose to sing your way through it.

Choose a great hymn, some song about the Lord that does your heart good and warms your spirit, and just sing to the Lord through this day. That may be exactly what the doctor ordered (in this case, the Great Physician) to get you through this particular season.

Whatever it is, it will not last forever. The sun will shine again. You will come out on the other side in victory, but you will have greater victory in the midst of it if you begin to sing and give God praise.