Psalm 13

Order of Service

• Scripture Reading — Psalm 13
• Sermon
• Pastoral Prayer

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Sermon Title: The Dark Night of the Soul — Finding the Way Out of Spiritual Depression

Scripture: Psalm 13

I. Spiritual Depression — The Long Suffering of the Soul

A. The fourfold cry of "How long?" signals a prolonged, not momentary, trial (Psalm 13:1–2)

B. God hiding His face = the withdrawal of blessing

1. The Aaronic benediction — God's face shining = God blessing (Numbers 6:24–26)
2. David feels the blessings of the Lord have departed from him

C. Inward rumination deepens the suffering

1. Taking counsel in his own soul — going round and round within himself
2. James Montgomery Boice: when we no longer sense God's blessing, we ruminate on failures and fall into an emotional funk
3. This is daily heart pain — the Dark Night of the Soul

D. The enemy exalts over him

1. The enemy (possibly Absalom or Saul) enjoys prolonged success over David
2. Our enemy today is Satan, a roaring lion seeking to devour (1 Peter 5:8)
3. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: the devil uses temperament and physical condition to produce spiritual depression; we must always bear him in mind

II. The Way Out of Spiritual Depression — Three Petitions

A. The hinge: feeling abandoned paradoxically drives David to cry out to God (Psalm 13:3–4)

1. Boice: to feel abandoned, you need someone to be abandoned by — this itself proves the believer knows God is there
2. Though feelings say God is absent, Scripture assures us God still loves and will be faithful

B. Petition 1 — Look: "Consider me" (Psalm 13:3)

1. David asks God to turn His face back and shine blessing upon him
2. Lonely people want to be seen; spiritual depression is no different — Lord, see my misery

C. Petition 2 — Speak: "Answer me"

1. Spiritual depression makes us deaf to God's Word
2. The prayer is not for new inspiration but for illumination — ears to hear God's existing promises
3. The Spirit illumines the heart to understand the deep promises God gives His covenant children

D. Petition 3 — Revive: "Light up my eyes" (Psalm 13:3)

1. Preserve and restore full physical and mental health
2. Spiritual depression leaves believers like dead doornails — no life or vitality to serve God or His people
3. Prayer: Lord, give me spiritual life to move again in the joy of Your salvation

III. The Resolution — Certainty Through Covenant Love

A. David's three petitions bring him to a state of certainty about the future (Psalm 13:5–6)

1. "I have trusted in your steadfast love" — Hebrew hesed, covenant faithfulness
2. "My heart shall rejoice in your salvation"
3. "I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me"

B. Derek Kidner: the choice belongs to the psalmist, not to the enemy; God's covenant remains, so David entrusts himself to pledged love and turns his attention not to the quality of his faith but to its object and outcome

C. The Hebrew of verse 6 leaves room for God's giving to exceed man's asking

1. David prays for restoration, but God may give far more than imagined
2. Paul: the eternal weight of glory far exceeds momentary suffering (Romans 8:18)

D. Speaking of future blessings in the past tense — the certainty of God's covenant promise (Romans 8:30)

1. "You have been justified… called… glorified" — future glorification spoken as settled fact
2. Certainty rests not in the strength of David's faith but in the steadfastness of God's love in Christ

E. The key lesson: spiritual depression is overcome not by looking inward at your faith, but outward at your God

1. Satan drives despair by making you assess God's love through the quality of your own faithfulness
2. Pre-fall temptation: "You will be like God"; post-fall temptation: "You are nothing like God — He must not love you"
3. The therapeutic culture says raise your self-esteem and look inward — Psalm 13 says stop navel-gazing and look upward
4. The antidote is to consider the abundant blessings of the Lord according to His steadfast covenant love — so certain we may speak of them now in the past tense