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When it feels dark, we need the well trod paths of God’s Word to strengthen us so we don’t lose hope.
The following study questions are AI generated and may contain errors.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
What’s your favorite cave you’ve ever been to? I’d imagine most of us have been in different caves over the years, and maybe you’re planning to go on a trip this summer and you’ll find yourself going into a cave again. It can be spectacular as you look at all the different rock formations, the underwater streams, and all those different elements that form this whole hidden world underground. But there are a few things about caves that are both fascinating and maybe a little intimidating.
We go into caves typically that are meant for tourists. They’ve put down concrete paths to walk on so that we don’t slip and also don’t damage the natural wonder. They put in lighting so you can see the formations with dramatic shadows and, importantly, also see where you’re going.
Hi, welcome to Steadfast. I am so glad to be with you tonight. If you are here live or if you’re watching a replay, either way, would you hit like and share? Let someone else join us as we’re going through this tonight. Here’s what I want you to do after you hit like or share: Go into the chat and mention your favorite cave. Did you have one that you just loved going into?
I can say I’ve been through a number of our caves here in Missouri and loved them. I’ve never gone into one though that wasn’t meant for tourists. I didn’t want to go into one with a flashlight or a helmet with a light on it and try to find my way around. Why? Because we know it’s dangerous. We know you need special skills. You might have to crawl into little spots; you might get stuck. All kinds of different things can happen. It’s not necessarily what we want to do, and the people that do, well, they spend a lot of time preparing for it.
But if you went on that cave tour, if you go on that cave tour, what often happens? You go to maybe the largest room in the cave. It looks spectacular, and then the tour guide does what? He says, “Well, let me show you what it’s really like here underground.” And they turn off all the electricity for a moment at least. You see what it’s like in complete darkness because there aren’t windows. There isn’t a doorway just down the way with light shining through. It’s just dark, right?
And even if you know it’s coming, it feels disorienting. Why? Because we don’t really know where we are. It’s disorienting enough if, for example, the power goes out in your own house and you’re in, say, the bathroom or another place that doesn’t have windows or it’s night, and suddenly it’s just pitch black and you have to go back to your memory and think, “Okay, where’s the door handle? Where’s the next turn so I don’t bump into the wall?” But with memory, with a place that’s familiar, unlike a cave, we can find our way.
People die in caves because they don’t know their way. We don’t typically die if we’re at one end of our house when the power goes out and we need to get to the other end because we do know the way. And when we think about how we live this life, the question is, do we want to live like we’re in a cave we’ve never been in before or in a familiar house that we know the ropes to get around?
God’s word is challenging us to turn and say, “I want the second,” and I can have the second because God’s going to show me the way. It doesn’t say He’s never going to allow us to be in a time when the lights go out, whether they’re being turned off intentionally or the power goes out because of some disaster, whatever it might be. It doesn’t say that. But He says you don’t have to die stuck in some small crevice because you didn’t know where you were going. I’m going to show you the way.
Let’s pray tonight that we can understand that better and that this can encourage us as we go into the summer and into the rest of our lives to be those who know where the door handle is because God’s going to show us. Would you pray with me, please? Father, thank you for this evening. Thank you for your word. We do pray that you would guide us and help us to understand what is truly important, to run after it, to run to your truth and to hold on to it because we don’t want to be stuck in a dark cave, not knowing where to go. We want the lights on.
And when the lights do feel like they’re off in life, Lord, we want it to be the familiarity of a room we’ve been in so many times we can still reach and know exactly where to grab for the door handle because you’ve shown us. Would you help us, Lord, with that? We pray in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
So we are wrapping up Psalm 13 tonight. We’re going to turn to the next verse here. Here’s what we see in verse 5: “But I trust in your faithfulness; may I rejoice because of your deliverance.” David says, I’ve just listed all the things that are going wrong. That’s what we looked at the first two weeks in Psalm 13 and part of what we saw in Psalm 12 as well. But he says, I trust in your deliverance. Why? Because I know who you are.
David uses a familiar word here. If you don’t know Hebrew, you probably still know this word because we toss it around as Christians sometimes. It’s chesed. And I don’t usually mention Hebrew words or Greek words, but I mention that one because it is one that has become somewhat familiar in many church circles. And it’s a good one to have as familiar because what does it mean? It means steadfast love. It means even more than that. It means God’s love that isn’t going to fail, that is right there.
But I trust in your faithfulness; may I rejoice because of your deliverance. David says, I trust in that steadfast love that you have. That’s the name of our Monday night livestream, right? Steadfast. We’re celebrating God’s steadfastness, His faithfulness. And David says, that’s why I can rejoice. It’s dark. The lights are out. And I don’t entirely know whether I’m in a familiar room or if I’m in that unfamiliar cave, but whatever the case, I know you’re going to show me the way. You’re going to make it familiar. You’re going to show me where the door handle is so I can turn it. And so the response is to trust.
David trusts that God is going to provide deliverance because he knows that God delivers. He doesn’t know exactly how, right? And we’ve seen that over the last few weeks. We don’t necessarily know how. It doesn’t always mean he’s going to do it exactly how we wish he would, but it means he’s going to do it. And when we really, really know that, surprisingly, that’s enough.
Because if we think it could happen in a very preferable way, but it might not, or it may not happen exactly how we wish, but it will absolutely happen. Which one’s better? Of course, it’s the one where we know it absolutely will happen. It doesn’t change the reality. It’s still dark. But even as that reality is true, it actually does, in one way, change the reality. Because we know what the ultimate reality is.
It might be dark right now, and it might remain dark for a while. But the ultimate reality that changes because of God’s steadfastness is that it won’t remain dark forever. Hope is in His salvation. Now, sometimes it also means immediate change. It very well can. But the real hope for David, the real hope for all the psalmists, the real hope that we see over and over again in Scripture isn’t that immediate deliverance but ultimate deliverance.
It might be preferable if it happens right now, right? We’d like that. We don’t want to suffer. But what we can trust, and this is why David can have confidence, he knows what’s ultimately going to happen. Because sometimes immediate deliverance doesn’t last, but God’s ultimate deliverance always is permanent.
It doesn’t mean we don’t pray for deliverance right now. What does Jesus say in Matthew 7 verse 11? “If then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him?”
Salvation doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care about our daily needs right now. A couple chapters before, what does Jesus have us doing? He has us praying for our daily bread, the Lord’s Prayer. Why? Because we can actually come to God and say, would you provide what I need right now? And we can know that God is the God who does provide those things right now. But that’s not where our hope is.
See, the key difference isn’t whether we hope that God will interact with the daily challenges of life or not, but where we’re placing our trust and our hope. And David says here, okay, right now it’s not going how I wish. And if David were living on the basis that, “What has God done for me lately? What has God done for me in this particular moment? Has he delivered me from this particular enemy, this particular worry?” Then his answer might be, well, I guess I should try something else.
And over and over again in the Old Testament, that’s exactly what we see happens. How many of the Old Testament people see God’s faithfulness is going pretty well for a moment or two or years, then it doesn’t go well, and it’s immediately, well, I guess maybe I should try a different God because God isn’t providing.
That’s our temptation over and over again, even today. God provides, God is faithful. It doesn’t go quite right, we say, well, maybe I need to help out God by going a different way. But that’s not what Scripture calls us to do. Do we reflect on if we’re really going the way God’s called us when things aren’t going well? Yes, that’s a great thing. Do we compromise when things aren’t going the way that God’s called us to go? No, never, ever, period. You have to trust in the bigger plan that we can’t always see.
Maybe you decided to do a little farming this spring and you went and planted some potatoes in your garden. Great, please let me know when they’re ready to harvest. I’d love to try some of your potatoes. That would be really, really fun. But note the crucial thing there, as I said, when they’re ready to harvest.
If you have planted them before or you decide to do something wild this year and you plant some potatoes, you bury them in the ground, and then you read about what you’re supposed to do, you know you’re not supposed to dig them up immediately, right? You don’t plant them in the spring and then dig them up at the end of spring. No, you let them grow all summer and you dig them up in the early fall.
Now, imagine you say, well, I want to know if my potatoes are really growing well. And yeah, I see some little leafy green surface stuff, but obviously I don’t want that. It’s not even safe to eat that leafy surface vegetation. I want the potato underneath. Maybe in May and June and July, every month, I’ll dig it up and see how they’re looking.
How do you think that’d go? Well, it wouldn’t go well at all. You’d disturb the plant. You’d probably end up killing the plant. You wouldn’t have potatoes at the end of the season. You’d break the roots. The little different tubers that were growing out that would become wonderful potatoes to enjoy wouldn’t. No.
You know where it’s going. You know that’s what the potato is going to do. And you trust the fact that even though you can’t see what’s happening, it’s going to happen. And you let it grow. What David says here is, I know, God, you’ve planted the potatoes of blessing. They’re in the ground, those blessing potatoes.
I can’t see it right now. In fact, I don’t even see any leafy green vegetation. But I know you’re faithful. I know you’re more faithful than that potato is faithful. I know that your blessing will come. And so, even if I can’t see it, I’m not going to try to dig it up and short-circuit it and find a shortcut, because that’s just going to get in the way of what you’re doing.
And of course, we can’t stop what God’s doing ultimately, but we can certainly reduce our ability to rest in Him and enjoy His blessing by seeking out blessing rather than seeking out being faithful to Him. David says, you know, I know it’s coming this fall, so I’m going to trust in your steadfast love, your chesed. I’m going to trust in that because I know it’s going to happen.
By basing my trust in God on what’s going to happen tomorrow, what’s going to happen forever. Am I basing my trust on if I can dig up the potatoes in June and have something, or if I can wait till the fall and there’s going to be the promised harvest? There’s a promised harvest in Scripture, and so we trust, even when it’s dark.
Verse 6: “I will sing praises to the Lord when He vindicates me.” That’s the last part of David’s trust here, and I think it’s really telling because David’s already thinking about what he’s going to do when God does what God’s promised to do. God’s going to vindicate him. There will be salvation. There will be a good end. It might not come tomorrow. It might not be exactly when he wants, but he already knows, I will sing. I am going to do this.
We’re going to experience God’s love in the light of His presence. It will be there. And so when we’re in that waiting period, when we’re experiencing His love in the wait, when we’re in the dark and we’re having to go back to our memory, we hold on to that memory because we know what’s going to happen in the future, even if things have been rough.
There are two key things if we’re going to follow our Lord through life. The first is we hold on to the past. That’s what we’ve been talking about, right? David can see God’s track record. He always has been faithful. But then the other part that we’ve been hitting on is crucial too, and this is where David can plan. I will sing because I know of the future.
Past? Look at God’s word. Map out the map in your mind of the room, right? If you never pay attention to where anything is in your house and the power goes out, it’s going to be really hard, but it would be almost impossible to do.
We do that naturally, right? I don’t think, well, I’m going to memorize where the door handles are. No, I just know where they are because over time they are in my brain. I know.
When we read God’s word and over and over again encounter His faithfulness, the door handles to work our way around when it’s dark in life also are apparent to us. When we just say, I’m going to remember some of God’s faithfulness. I’m going to intentionally remember it, and I’ll be good. It’s not going to work, right? If you drop me in a new house and say, remember where all the door handles are. We’re going to turn off the power in an hour. It’s not going to work. I’m probably going to fumble all over the place.
If we only come to God’s word because we say, I need a bullet list of God’s faithfulness. I’m going to hold on to that, and then I’m going to move on. I don’t really need to come back to it. It’s not going to work.
We need that worn-in path in our brain of God’s faithfulness being told over and over again. That’s what David has. That’s why he can say, I will sing, because he spent his whole life meditating on God’s faithfulness. And so while it doesn’t feel like it right now, he already knows where the door handle of God’s faithfulness is.
Yes, it’s dark. Opening the door doesn’t necessarily help that, but you can keep moving along on the path God wants him on because he knows where it is.
We’re trying to understand how to have present contentment. It really boils down to a simple formula in this psalm: Present contentment equals past faithfulness of God and His future faithfulness that is coming. His future promises and His past faithfulness equals present contentment. It does every time. It’s a perfect equation. It’ll never fail us because He’s always been faithful in the past and He always will be.
And in the present, if we’re looking at, can I add it all up right now, we’re going to say, nah, I don’t think I can. Maybe He’s not really there with me. Maybe I should be distressed. Maybe I shouldn’t be content. Maybe I should seek a different solution.
But if we actually hold on to the fact that God is faithful in the past and those future promises are good, we’re going to find that place of present contentment where, like David, we can say, I will sing. I will sing. I will sing of God’s faithfulness because I know it’s coming. I know what is ahead, even though right now it doesn’t feel like it.
You’ve probably had this experience. You plan something big. Maybe it’s a big project at work that you actually volunteered for because you thought it was a good career move. Maybe it was just something that you thought was something that was in your area of responsibility and you ought to do it. Maybe it was something at home. Maybe you invited a bunch of friends and family over and you’re getting ready for it.
Whatever the big thing is, it can often be stressful in the preparation. I know when we have a big event at Little Hills like Faithtoberfest or one of the prayer walks, when it’s far off in the distance, I think, “That would be a really nice thing. I’m excited.” But then as we get pretty close to it but not all the way there, I have to say at times, a lot of the time, I think, “Why am I doing this? Is this really the thing I should be doing?” Because it’s so stressful, right? There’s so much to coordinate.
Something like Faithtoberfest, there are so many moving parts. We’re already talking about this year’s Faithtoberfest. Why? Because there’s so much to plan. And you get into that last sprint towards it, and it’s so stressful and there’s so much going on.
And I’ll think inevitably every year, should we really be doing this? Maybe we should do something else. There’s so much to worry about here. How do you get to the point where you actually do it?
Well, I think back to, well, how did we feel last year when it was going on? When we were in that room and the ceiling felt like it was about to blow up because everyone’s singing so loudly, how did it feel then? It felt wonderful. It felt meaningful. It felt God-glorifying. It felt like something that we were supposed to be doing that God had called us to do.
And you know what? The fact that a day or two before that I was saying, “Why in the world are we doing this?” I wasn’t thinking that then. I wasn’t thinking that the day after, the day after.
And I look at that past faithfulness where God’s worked through that, and it’s a way of being encouraged to keep going when it feels kind of like, “Why in the world? Why are we doing this?” Because I know that God’s going to work again, that when we gather together and we praise Him, it’s going to be a wonderful blessing, that this is worthwhile to do.
I know there’s that future, even if it doesn’t feel like it right now. And again, maybe you felt that. You plan a family get-together and you think, “Why am I trying to coordinate everyone’s schedule and trying to prepare all the food and try to get all the place settings and trying to do all the stuff? Why am I doing that?”
And then when everyone’s actually together and it’s good and wonderful, you think, “Oh, I know why I was trying to do that.” God’s saying we can trust something even better. Because, you know, if we plan an event, there are going to be times where we say, “You know, I was right to ask why I was doing this because it didn’t actually work out.”
I planned this get-together and everyone was arguing at it. Everyone was miserable. Everyone was sick. It was horrible.
That’s not going to happen with God. So what we need to do is look at that past. We know what’s happened in the past. And the past of God’s work was always good, right? It’s never been that disappointing event. He’s always been faithful.
And His future is going to be faithful. And so we say, “Okay, let’s keep going.” What small things do we force ourselves to keep going on because we know that it’s going to be worth it?
Well, how much better the big thing of being in God’s presence, of serving Him, of being a part of His kingdom, of experiencing eternal life? How much bigger are those things?
And God says, “Trust I am going to be faithful. I do have that steadfast love.” It doesn’t matter the language you use. Hold on to that steadfast love. Toss around the word or we can choose not to. But the meaning of it, God’s faithfulness, is something we absolutely should hold on to.
God says, do this with the rest of life. When it’s dark, when it’s uncertain, when you’re trying to feel for those door handles, look back to the memory you have from being in my word and know where the door handle is.
If you don’t yet know those door handles because you haven’t been in His word, start now, right? Then when the power goes back on, if you should have known where something was, you might say, “Okay, I’m going to know now.”
Right now is a great time to start learning the door handles. Where’s God’s faithfulness? Just start anywhere in the Bible. Maybe start in the Gospel of John if you haven’t read the Bible before. If you have but you want to get a bigger picture, start in Genesis and force yourself to go all the way through.
Even the parts, whatever parts don’t resonate with you, just keep going because you know what? It’s often the parts that don’t initially resonate with us. A lot of people get stuck saying Leviticus or Numbers, and then later on you think, “Wow, but what about that story in the middle of Leviticus? It really feels like it resonates with me right now.”
We don’t always know why we need to know a particular door handle, but God says, know my word. Actually read through it. It’s not about how well you can remember the exact chapter and verse. It’s about knowing the well-worn paths. Going through it, wearing it into your brain so that when you need it, it’s there.
Because here’s the thing it tells us very clearly: God’s future for us is certain. God’s future is a future we can trust in. We can trust in it every day, and we can trust it especially when it feels least like we can. Because He’s always faithful. He’s always good. He’s always the God who does.
Would you pray with me please? Father, thank you for your faithfulness that we know that you are the one with steadfast love. Would you help us to hold on to that love? Would you wear it into our minds that we can’t lose sight of it when we feel most downtrodden, most beat up, most uncertain? Lord, would you help us to feel it, to know it, and to live in it? For you are good and faithful, and we thank you for that love, and we pray this in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
If you haven’t already, make today the day that you know God’s love. You can always use our texting line at 833-356-4032, or the comments below. Ask for prayer if you’re trying to work out something, trying to figure out a part of what that means. Same, comments or the texting line.
And make today the day that you know God’s love. Start wearing in that well-worn path. And if you feel like you have, but it’s kind of feeling covered over right now because you’re just discouraged, again, write in for prayer. But just keep wearing it in afresh.
Sometimes we get so discombobulated when it’s dark, the things we already know where they are, we still can’t find them. But stop and think about God’s faithfulness, and He will guide us. It’s all about wearing in His wisdom.
And that’s why we’re going to start a brand new series next week that doesn’t feel particularly brand new because it’s our old summer friend. Yes, proverbially speaking, it is back for the year, starting next Monday night. We’ll be back in the Book of Proverbs as we do every summer.
I’m looking forward to going there with you. And so please plan to be here. Invite someone else who says, “I hear about these proverbs, but what do I do with them?” We’re going to think about more of them. We’re going to unpack them. We’re going to enjoy God’s wisdom over the next little bit. So I can’t wait to share that with you.
Hope you have a wonderful and blessed week. I can’t wait to see you again very soon. So until next time, have a great week.
Bye.
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