He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

Beauty. Hallelujah. We love you. We praise you, Jesus. We praise you. We praise you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Thank you for worshiping with us. We're going to be going to the book of Psalms, chapter 13, for our reading today. And preparing this, I titled my sermon: He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not. He loves me. He loves me not. Psalms 13. It's a short psalm. It's only six verses. David is pending these words. He says: how long will thou forget me, O Lord, forever? 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 my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O Lord my God. Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. Lest my enemy say, I have prevailed against him, and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me. He loves me. He loves me not.

Jesus, bless this service today. Anoint me to deliver your word to your church. Your word is already anointed, but I pray that you anoint our minds and our hearts to receive it. In Jesus name we pray, and amen.

On December 26, 2004, the third largest earthquake ever recorded by a seismograph erupted 10 miles beneath the Indian Ocean. It generated the energy equivalent of 23,000 atomic bombs. It produced shock waves and a tsunami that measured over a hundred feet in height. It was traveling at over 500 mile an hour, and it reached a radius of 3,000 miles. Many of you may remember in 2004 when this tsunami hit and all that was going on. That earthquake tragically claimed over 227,000 lies. But there was one group of people that survived without a single casualty. Very unique: the Moken people. They live in the ocean seas from birth to death. They are known as a sea based nomadic people. Their boats are their home. Their children learn to swim before they ever learn to walk. It is said that they can see twice as well underwater as we do. And as you would imagine, they have an intimacy acknowledge of the ocean. They can — they can read its tithes. It can read its ways, the way you and I read the book, read books and pages in a book. And it was on that day in the Indian Ocean, when that earthquake hit, that there was an amateur photographer out of Bangkok that was taking pictures and working on an article about the Moken people. And there was a moment when he noticed that there seemed to be a disturbance amongst the people. When he was trying to figure out what was going on — and what was taking place was, they were sensing that something was going on in the ocean, because of their knowledge, because of their relationship, because of their understanding of tides and changes. As they were seeing the ocean recede, they knew what to do. Those that were a little further out in the ocean fishing realized there was no way for them to make it back to shore. So instead, they, they turned their boats and they headed deeper and deeper into the sea, to be able to survive the tsunami's wave that was coming in. Those that were close enough to shore immediately beached their boats and got off of them, and made it to the highest ground on whatever island they were on. And they were able to survive, because they knew how to look. They knew how to listen, to listen to the ocean's waters and what it was saying to them.

As people who follow after Jesus Christ, with so much going on in our world around us, and even still dealing with all of the fallout from this pandemic, I think it's important that we are always tuned in to what God's Spirit is trying to do around us, that we don't get distracted, that we don't get lost in the noise of the day, and we miss out on when God is directing, moving, guiding you and I to what he wants us to do.

As I was reading in an opening passage, these words that David was writing in Psalms 13 — David is known for his extensive writings. And as you read Psalms 13 more than once, you pick up on the fact that David is not having a good day. You can sense and feel the anxiety and depression that he is facing. He's using language. He's asking the question, because he is feeling forgotten. He's saying: does God love me, or does God not love me? He had what seems to be a no one seems to care syndrome. I'm all by myself. I'm, I'm all alone. David was in a state of despair. He feels miserable. Is there anybody maybe listening to me today that can identify with what David was feeling? You too have felt this way. Maybe you have that same feeling right now. Maybe you've been feeling it this week, or this month, or maybe for almost a year now, since the beginning of all that's going on in this coveted pandemic, that you feel like David. You feel by yourself. The Psalms, at least this psalm, doesn't tell us why David is feeling this way. But I don't feel like it's very hard for you and I to read through First Samuel in the Bible, and we can take an educated guess as to why David may be feeling and experiencing this loneliness, this sense of abandonment in his life.

I think you and I are aware of the story of David. He kills Goliath. He becomes the man of the hour. He's, he's the hero in Israel. And King Saul rewards him handsomely for what he has done, and lavishes gifts upon him. But it's not long until this hero wins the hearts of the people over in Israel, and they begin to sing songs about David and his great victories. And, and for a while everything's okay, until Saul listens to the words of the songs that's being sung about David and not about him, that David has killed his ten thousands, and Saul's only killed his thousands. And, and jealousy sets in, because David is being praised more than the king. This provokes Saul's jealousy, and what went from liking and even maybe loving David led to jealousy, led to outrage, led to outright hatred for David. The end result was attempted murder. David feeling and running for his life for the next dozen years or so, as he has been hunted like a dog by the king, by King Saul. These were not easy years for David. Things were not going well. Let us remember that David at this point has been anointed to be the next king. He is to be the successor. He is to follow after Saul. But at present time, in this moment, that's not what's taking place. Instead, he's, he's living in the wilderness. He's dwelling in caves. He's around people that, that are not the most savory of, of characters. And, and we see and can understand how David could be pinning these words: how long, God, will you stay away from me? How long am I going to feel like I'm completely alone and all by myself? He had no place to go. He had no home. He felt hunger, danger, abandonment, discouragement, and anxiety. In such a situation, I think you and I could also understand why despair and doubt and discouragement and depression would be on his mind. And it's against this kind of setting that David pens those words of Psalm 13.

Have you felt despair lately? I feel and sense so much of this is going on in our world today. So many things are, are out of our control. So much of what we're dealing with is not what we want. We don't like feeling the isolation. We don't like the frustration, we're life not being normal. We want things to return to normal. We want to go back to the way it used to be, but it's not. I don't know if it ever will go back to what you and I viewed as normal before. You may find yourself today asking: does God care? Does God love me? Does he love me? Does he love me not? Swapped by the burdens and trials of life. Here in Psalms 13, I feel like you and I can pick up on four expressions of David's misery and depression. The first one that seems to stand out to me, you can pick up right there in verse number one of chapter 13: how long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, forever?

Have you ever been forgotten before? Have anybody ever forgotten something important, or just outright forgot you all together? I remember a story that Roger Blackburn told me a few years ago. Some of you may remember Brother Blackburn. He was in with us a few years ago when we're in the old sanctuary. He's a, he's a big, big guy, big personality, down in Texas. He was telling us a story about when he and his wife were in their early years of ministry, and he was evangelizing across the great state of Texas. And he was left one Sunday, and heading for a revival service, and he was driving through the night. And he got to the wee hours in the morning, and he got to where he just couldn't drive any further. So he asked his wife Rita — he said, he woke her up and said: you're going to have to drive for me. There's no way that I can continue to go forward. I'm going to end up killing this. So she agreed and said okay. And he got out, pulled the car over the side of the road. And he, he said: we're in literally in the middle of nowhere, pitch black a night. He said: I get out of the car, and she comes over around the car, the driver's side. And he said: I just wanted to take my shoes off and get in the back see the car and just relax. So I went ahead and took my shoes off, and I was standing outside the car. He said: I shut the door from my wife, and opened the back door. He goes: I throw my shoes in the floorboard on that side. I shut the door, and I'll go around the back of the car to get in the other side. And he goes: and my wife just takes off. He goes: I don't know what's going on. He said: I'm watching and thinking she's just pulling a joke on me, because they're, you know, have that kind of relationship where they kind of prank each other a little bit. He said: but there goes the taillights in the distance. I keep going and watching, further and further. He goes: I'm standing here in the middle of a road out in the backwoods country, Texas, with no shoes on, standing there as my wife drove off. And he said she didn't realize I wasn't in the car until she got to the next town. And when she turned around and came back, he goes: there I was, just sitting on the side of the road right where she left me. She had thought, when I threw the shoes in the floorboard and shut the door, that I had gotten in. That's why she took off. It's kind of a funny story, but at the same time, I can't imagine that lonely feeling coming over you, being in the middle of nowhere, and the only ride you had drives off. That feeling of loneliness.

Now that's a funny story. But there's no doubt in my mind, somebody listening to me today have — he felt that same sting of loneliness, that same sting of abandonment in your life. Maybe you feel it right now. Maybe you feel like nobody cares about you, that no one is called to check on you. Nobody uh seems to have any awareness that you are lonely, are you hurting, or you are in desperate need just to have some kind of companionship. Maybe you even feel like God has left you, and that God doesn't care. How long, God, are you going to stay away from me? Maybe you can identify with these words that David is saying here in Psalms 13. You feel just like David: God, is it going to just be forever? Nobody likes that feeling. Nobody likes being forgotten. And this is how David is feeling today. So many people are lonely in our world, stuck at home because of cove, and unable to get out and see their family, and friends. Some people are lonely inside of a marriage. You have people around you all the time. You have family around you. Yet because of the dysfunction inside the family, the dysfunction inside the relationship, you find yourself feeling lonely and abandoned and all by yourself. Or maybe some of you today, you feel like death has robbed you of someone you love, and there's a void there that just won't go away. And sometimes it feel like — it feels like it's much more than you can even bear. How long, O Lord? How long will you forget me? God, is it going to be forever?

I know there are some in our church family who have gone through tough times and tense situations, and in the midst of those circumstances, you felt forsaken by everybody. Everybody seems to have turned their back on you. And even in the worst possible moments of life, when everybody has seemed to have forsaken you, usually we can comfort ourselves with the thought that God is there. But maybe for some of you, that's even a struggle today. I don't know. I just, a sense in my spirit — and yesterday, as I was praying and I was working on this message, that somebody today needed this word. Somebody's feeling like even God has some — somehow turned his back from you, that his face is not towards you right now, and you feel all alone and by yourself. But is that the truth? Does God forsake us? That's not what the Bible tells us. That's not what is in the word of God. Deuteronomy 31 and 6 says: be strong of good courage. Fear not, nor be afraid of them. For the Lord thy God, he it is that doeth go with thee. For he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Somebody needs to hang on to those words today. God has not forsaken you.

I got more, I'm going to get into this message. But I feel pause — just, just kind of pump the breaks for just a minute — to tell somebody that God has not forgotten you. I don't know where you are. I don't know what you're going through. I don't know the darkness you're facing. I don't know the feelings you're going through right now. But I'm telling you a truth that is in the Scriptures: God doesn't leave you. God doesn't forsake you. I'll promise you, if you could just breathe his name right now, in this moment, you could feel his presence. He will be near to you.

David has been tested for so long. At this moment, I'm quite sure he's wondering and contemplating: has God abandoned him? David has gone so long without any hope of relief that he wonders if God has deserted him. How long, O Lord, will you forgive me? These words of David are nothing less than perplexing. I say this because time and time, after time, God is presented on pages of Scripture as being faithful. Even the apostle Paul penned some words that bring comfort to us when we are feeling this way, in Romans chapter 8 verse 35: who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or pear, or sword? As it is written: for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. Listen to these words: for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height or depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ladies and gentlemen, nothing can separate you from God's love. No bad decision. No, no relationship that's gone bad. No circumstances beyond your control. Nothing can separate you from the love of God.

I don't know where you're at right now. I don't know what you're facing. I don't know what lies the enemy's trying to tell you. I don't know why darkness is clouding your mind. I don't know what kind of oppression you're going through right now. But I'm praying in the name of Jesus Christ that you can feel the presence of God in that room right now, where you are, in that car, wherever you're at listening to these words. In Jesus name I pray that you could feel his presence surround you in this moment. Don't allow the darkness to overcome you. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. No bad decision. No thought. No, no wayward trial. Nothing can separate you from God's love.

When I think about the story of David, never once did God fail to live up to what he was supposed to do. When we look through Scriptures and examples we have there, we see time and time again where God was faithful, and God kept his word. When Israel cried out to God because of the cruel bondage of suffrage in Egypt, God heard. God sent his, his deliverer in there to lead them out to where they needed to be. When they found himself in a hopeless situation between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army, one more time God showed up and provided a way for them to escape, and delivered them from their enemies. But here in the wilderness — David knew these stories. David understood the history. David knew where he came from. But still, there's something about being caught in a moment of being uncomfortable, a moment where you feel desperate, a moment where you feel loneliness, where it seems as though all those memories seem to fade away. And here we see David's being chased. He's being hounded by King Saul. David feels abandoned and forsaken. Which leads us up to the second thing that David deals with: he begins to complain that God doesn't care about him. Look at verse one again: how long will thou forget me, O Lord, forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? Not only does David feel abandoned, but David feels that God has lost all interest in him, that God doesn't care about what he's going through, that God has no concern about his circumstances or his situation, that David's not even a thought on God's mind. You said you would take care of me, God. That you would bear my burdens, that you would lift my loads. But it doesn't seem as though that's what's taking place in my life. It seems you're so far away from me. As far as David is concerned, God wants nothing to do with him. And David begins to wallow in self-pity. And man, do we ever feel down and out when we start acting this way. Let's be honest. I think every one of us have the potential to do this. And if we're really honest, every one of us, at some point in our life, have acted the way that David's acted. Things haven't gone our way, haven't turned out the way we had imagined them or dreamed them to be in our mind. And all of a sudden we start becoming people who become consumed with self-pity. It's a very dangerous place to be, when all of a sudden all you are is concerned with self.

The third thing that David complains about is that he's going to have to work things out on his own. Because that's what happens when you begin to be consumed with self-pity. You all of a sudden rule out that there's any other option out of this situation except whatever you can come up with on your own. Look at verse number two: how long shall I take counsel in my soul? The, the NIV translate that phrase is: how long must I wrestle with my thoughts? That word that's being translated wrestle there means to plan. David had begun to wrestle. David had begun to come up with his own plan, to find his own way out of this situation. Because in his mind, God doesn't care anymore. In his mind, God has just forgotten him. And in his mind, he's all by himself. He has no friends. He has no family. He has no one that's concerned. Even God doesn't care about what he's going through. So he's going to have to do it on his own. He's going to be forced to take matters into his own hands.

So let me ask you a question: is this what we're supposed to do? Is this a biblical response? Is this the biblical way of dealing with adversity? Is this how someone who calls himself a follower of Jesus Christ — is this how we're supposed to deal with the troubles of life? Are we to just help ourselves? It would do us good to be reminded of what I preached about last week, what the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 3, verse number 5 and 6: trust in the Lord with all that heart, and lean not into that own understanding. And all thy ways — in all those ways, not in part, not in the good times, but in all thou ways — acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy past. Proverbs 14 12 says: there is a way which seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. As in all of life, in times of trouble, we too are to depend upon God.

David was allowing his self pity. David was allowing him, himself to just wallow in his misery and his sorrow. And somehow he was forgetting what it was he was supposed to be doing. What happens when we — when you and I, like David, take matters into our own hands? Take a look at what the second part of verse 2 says: having sorrow in my heart daily. Ladies and gentlemen, that's what happens when you try to do everything on your own. When you are convinced that if you don't do it, it's not going to happen. When you take that mindset up — if, if I don't do it, if I don't make it happen, it's not going to happen, even God has forgotten me — you end up living and wallowing in just having sorrow in your heart every day. You get frustrated. You, you, you worry. You, you deal with all these things, because you're trying to bear the entirety of it on your own. Instead of helping ourselves, instead of being consumed with just self-effort, we must depend and turn these things over to God. Dependence upon anyone else, including ourselves, will always end up leading to disappointment. But how many times, how many times can you say that God has disappointed you? I look at my life. There have been times, even the people that are the closest to me that have disappointed me. And if I'm going to be completely transparent and honest, I have disappointed myself so many times, I, I don't even have a number. But God — but God has been faithful. God has been good. There's things I haven't understood. There's been timetables that I was uncomfortable with. But when I look back across my life, when I look back across the 45 years that I've been here on this earth, I can tell you that God has been faithful to me. God has been faithful to me. Things didn't always go the way I thought they were going to go. But I can tell you this with everything in me: my God has been faithful. My God is trustworthy. My God has not forsaken me. My God has not abandoned me. And I'm speaking to somebody right now. I don't know where you are. I don't know what you're dealing with. But I want to tell you a truth today: God is faithful. God is faithful. Maybe you don't see it. Maybe, maybe it's been a while since you felt it. But I want to maybe just spark and fan a little flame of hope inside of you, and tell you that my God is faithful today.

The fourth thing that I see that David complains about is that he's being humiliated. Listen to these words: how long shall my enemy be exalted over me? You know what this is? This is David's pride speaking. Old pride is an ugly thing. Pride is something that we have to be mindful of. David's pride is speaking. And boy, we've got to be careful. He has been anointed to be king. So why is he in the wilderness? He's anointed to be king. Why is he running from his life? He's anointed by the prophet to be king, yet he's being hunted like a wild animal. Four times in verses one and two, David asked: how long? But it becomes clear that it's not the trial itself, but it's the length of the trial that is given to getting to David. I don't know where you are, what you're going through. Maybe it's not the trial. Maybe it's just how long it's been since you felt like — God doesn't care. That David is under the gun, and he, he's under it for such a, a long time, he's beginning to grow weary and tired. And there's been times and things I've went through in my own life, and I have grown weary, and I have grown tired. But that did not negate God's faithfulness and goodness.

There's nothing new about this cry: how long, God? Have you ever asked God: how long? I know I have. I know there's been times in my life where I, I just poured it all out on, on my prayer altar and I said: God, I don't get this. I don't understand. I feel like I've done everything that I was supposed to do. I feel like I've made the changes. I feel like that you have pointed out stuff I was supposed to do differently. Every one of those, I've tried, to the best of my ability, to do everything I knew you wanted me to do. But God, it still seems like I'm facing these same things. I'm going through this same trial. How long, God, do I have to go through this in my life? David's right in asking God the question. You see, God not only designs the depths of our trials, but he also designs the length as well. We know this. We see this in Psalms 31 verse 15: my times are in your hand. David understood: God, you, you control time. My future — one version says — is in your hand. Lord, you know. You know the things that I don't know. You know how long I'm going to have to deal with this.

There's nothing wrong with asking God the question: how long? Just understand, God doesn't have the right to tell you the answer. You're not always going to get that back. When we read the Psalms, we notice that something has happened, at least in my mind. As, as we start off in verse 1 and 2, we see God — or we see David and his desperate cry out: how long, God? How long am I going to face this? How long am I going to go through this? Why am I going through this? Why are my enemies being exalted? Why am I being — why am I being disregarded, and everybody else seems to be blessed and everything going their way? But something happens between verse number two and verse number three that causes David to change his tune. Perhaps he re-read the words that he was pinning down on the parchment, and begin to think to himself: doesn't sound so nice, how I'm speaking right now. Maybe, maybe one of his friends took him to the side and told him that he needed to stop feeling sorry for himself, and get out of that pity party that he was in. But it comes to my mind, at least, that there are a few changes that are apparent as we read verse three and four.

The first thing that I noticed that, that happens here is, instead of viewing the Lord as being distant and unconcerned — Psalms 13 and 3 says: consider and hear me, O Lord my God. Did you pick up on that? Did you, did you see what was right there? All of a sudden he became my God. It seems as though David no longer feels that the Lord has abandoned him, that this is personal now. He's bringing back in and having a, a right mindset and a right perspective on God. It is my God.

The second thing I see here is, David asked the Lord to lighten my eyes. I'm hurt — I'm, I'm quite sure that you've heard this said before, that, that the, the, the eyes are the gateway to the soul. When you and I are feeling overwhelmed and, and, and things are not the way we want to be, or we're tired, quite often it's our eyes that give it away. How many times have you seen your children, or your spouse, or a friend, or a family member, and you can just tell by looking at them that they're going through something? They have a smile on their face. They, their, their, their, their demeanor seems okay. But there's something in their eyes that just let you know something's not right. And I feel like David has recognized this inside himself when he, he begins to say: Lord, to lighten my eyes. Lord, I need to have some inner joy come back inside, so that, that I'm able to shine in my eyes one more time.

And the third thing I see here is that instead of worrying about the enemy, David now releases his enemy over to the Lord. Verse number four: lest my enemy say, I have prevailed against him, and those that trouble me rejoice when I move. Notice David, in his prayer, puts his enemy into God's hands. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, how much better life would be if you and I would just to learn to always bring our problems and our troubles and our struggles and our enemies, and just place those things into the hands of God. How, how, how much a heartache and pain could we save ourself, if we would quit hanging onto those things and trying to figure it out on our own, but understand: God, this is bigger than me. This is more than I can do. The only thing I know to do is to run to you and put this in your hand. Somebody listening to me needs to learn the reality of turning your enemy over into the hands of God, to place your trouble in his hands, and hang on to the hope that only God can give you.

David is in the process of reminding himself that my God is faithful. I was having a pity party. I was caught up, feeling all alone and by myself. But I started to remember that God is a good God. He is a faithful God. He is a trustworthy God. So why would I hang on to this stuff by myself? But instead, I'm going to encourage myself to bring my trouble, to bring my trial, to bring my problems, to the hands of the one who I know has the ability to do something about where I am. Who — I feel the Holy Ghost moving on me right now. I'm speaking to somebody. I don't know what you're going through, but I'm here to give you an encouraging word: to take that problem, to take that trial, to take that circumstance, and put it into the hands of a God who loves you. He has not abandoned you. He has not forgotten you. He knows what you're going through. He knows right where you are in this moment. And I'm asking you for — to trust him just one more time. Oh, in Jesus name, to trust him just one more time.

I see, as we continue on, the David, in this change in his mindset, as he's shifting his focus away from his problems and his troubles and his trials, he shifts it, and all of a sudden it alerts us to something that's welling up inside of him. David was complaining. He was despairing. He was desperate. He was depressed. His eyes had lost their shine. But, but suddenly he remembers the goodness of God. He remembers the times in past where God has proven himself to be faithful. You see, David was familiar in being in the presence of God, like the, the Moken people that I talked about in that story to start this sermon. He was familiar and realized that God's presence was beginning to change and shift. And he was sensitive enough to recognize that what I'm doing right now is not going to be positive. It's not going to be productive. I have to not wallow in self-pity, but instead I have to remind myself of the goodness of God. There are times, ladies and gentlemen, where you're going to have to remind yourself of the times that God's been good to you, to, to bring back to remembrance what God has done in the past — those victories, those healings, those miracles, those, those times went — out of nowhere, God showed up and he was the provider. He was the waymaker. He was, he was the miracle worker in your life. Go back and remember those things, because it brings back not only encouragement, but it also restores the joy back inside your life. It may not change the circumstance, but it changes your outlook on what you're going through.

This is what David was doing. Look at verse number five: but I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me. He has been good to me. What was David doing? Has anything about David's circumstances changed? No. King Saul is still chasing him. He's still living in a cave. He's still with a bunch of, a bunch of misfits, just trying to live life the best way he can. But there was something happening inside of David when he began to remember the faithfulness and the goodness of God. All of a sudden, a song came back inside his heart. Oh, have you lost your song today? Have you lost your song? I'm here to encourage you to bring back those memories. Go back to those past victories and times where God has showed up, and you'll find that joy will come back into your heart, and it brings back a song. It brings back a melody.

To me, as I see David pen these words, all of a sudden he got a little bit lighter in this step. Something in him seemed to change. His countenance was, was different, because he realized that God has been so good to me. David's conscious was totally the opposite about what he complained about. His attitude, his outlook were putting him on the wrong path, and destruction and despair was there. But he was sensitive to the situation. Listen to me, child of God: this is a time to be sensitive and what the presence of God is trying to do around you right now. For those of you who, who feel despair and discouragement, depression and anxiety, you feel the hurt and the pain and the loneliness, for whatever the reason, whatever life has brought you right now — I'm praying for you to engage that Holy Ghost right now. Bring back the remembrance. Bring back the memories of where God has been and what he has brought you through, this faithfulness and his goodness in your life. When you do so, you can be like David. You can say: the Lord has been good to me. The, the God that I serve has been generous to me in my life. What a change that has happened in David's outlook. And this took place in David's heart. It began to take place when David shifted his focus and began to look upwards rather than outwards. When he began to look upwards rather than outwards. When he began to look upwards, where God was, instead of outwards, where his circumstances were. Oh, I encourage you today to look up. Look up. As he said in other Psalms: I look up to the heels from which cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord. I don't know what's around you right now in the room. I don't know what's around you right now in your life. But look up, child. Look up, child of God. Look up to where your help comes from. Your God is still there, and he is not short in his power. He is still on the throne. He is still alive and well. And he is still able to deliver you, and bring you through whatever you're facing in your life.

What was true for David is true for you and I. But you and I, we must learn how to change our focus under the reality of what God is doing for us. He purchased our salvation on Calvary. He paid the price of redemption. Our God specializes in putting lives back together. He gives beauty for ashes. So don't have a pity party today. Don't feel sorry for yourself. Don't go around saying and asking the question: does he love me? Does he love me not? Because when you look and, and, and you try to focus on anything else but Jesus, you're going to get discouraged at some points. You're going to be disappointed at some point. It's going to let you down at some point. It's going to fail you. But God doesn't. This reminds me of why God allows trials to happen in our life. He allows them. They come to us for a reason. Trials are designed for you and I, not for our surroundings. I'mma say that again: trials are designed for you and I. They're not designed for our surroundings. God uses them to train us, and to modest, and to make us grow into who it is he wants us to be. When it comes to trials, we have not learned what God wants us to learn until we can say: I will sing unto the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

In my own personal Bible reading this week, I was going through and reading Psalms 119. I like what it says in Psalms 119, especially when it comes to suffering and trial. Psalms 119-71 says: it is good for me that I have been afflicted. Now you read that right. You see it on your screen right there. The psalmist says: it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statute. Psalms 1 19 75: I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hath afflicted me. Did you catch this? You can't skim past this. There's a reason why the psalmist wrote the word this way. Trials are good for you and I. They're good for us.

Remember when the apostle Paul come to realize this — he is struggling. He called it his thorn in the flesh. He tells God and is asking: please, would you remove this from me? We, we get this picture as he's writing to the church in Corinth, in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12, verse 9 and 10: and he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore I would rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, and reproaches, and necessities, and persecutions, and distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I'm getting ready to bring this message to a close. But let those words ring true in your ears right now. Listen to the apostle. He says: for when I am weak, then I am strong. I feel deep inside my spirit that somebody listened to me today, that you needed this word of encouragement, that God laid it upon me to deliver this word, so that you could have this reminder one more time: that God has not forgotten you. He knows where you are. He knows what you're facing. He knows what you're going through. You don't have to sit around and cry out: does he love me? Does he love me not? How long, God, will I have to go through this? How long will you keep your face turned away from me? There's nothing wrong with asking those questions. But you can't allow those things to turn your countenance, to, to allow your focus to be on the circumstances and not on the God who controls the circumstances in your life. You and I, we're going to face trials. We're going to face hardships. It's a part of life. Sorrow just comes. But it seems as though it's easier to get caught up in complaining. It's easier to, to just accept that this is my life, and it's not going to be any better, and then get overwhelmed and become anxious and depressed, and, and have our, our eyes lose their shine. But this, this little psalm there, Psalms 13 — maybe, maybe you just mark it in your Bible. Maybe you — it's smart, it's six verses, you can commit it to memory. That David realized, right, that God, you're away from me, that things aren't the way I want them to be. But he was also familiar enough with God to know: I can't allow myself to stay here. I can't be in this moment where all I'm focused on is that everything is, is not going the way I want it to. I can't just throw a pity party. But David remembered the goodness and the faithfulness of his God. And I'm calling somebody today to remember the goodness and the faithfulness of your God. He won't leave you. He won't forsake you. He is right there. He's simply as close as the mention of his name.

I'm gonna get ready to pray for you. And I feel God moving in my spirit, and I know he's moving where you are right now, as he's dealing with you. As you look at this example of how we're to handle ourselves — David was smart enough to know that I can't get hung up in despair, that I must focus back on the God who always delivers. And what I'm hoping today is that your song comes back. There's something special about the song of the redeemed. There's something, something so special about those that, in the midst of trials and tribulations, in the midst of struggles, in the midst of overwhelming circumstances, that yet they still have a song. They still have a faith in their God. They still have a hope that God will bring them through, even when it doesn't make sense, and even when it doesn't seem to be no way out. They have a song. They have a hope. They have a commitment in the faithfulness of their God. And I want to, I want to pray today that God will restore your song back. Will you pray with me?

Jesus, I delivered your word today. God, I pray that it will go and accomplish the will that you have intended for it. Lord, I know that somebody listening to me right now has felt your presence in the tug at their heart. Lord, they've been overwhelmed with life. They've been overwhelmed with loneliness. They've been overwhelmed with anxiety and fear. But God, I pray that there would be a memory come back of your goodness and your faithfulness in their life, that they would all of a sudden have the light come back in their eyes, that they would remember just how good you are, that, that, that flame of hope would begin to flicker and burn one more time. God, that you would restore their song, let their soul magnify you, that prays well up inside of them, that they could sing that you have dealt bountifully with them. In Jesus name I pray this. In Jesus name.