East Baptist Church – Denison, TX

When God Goes Silent

Psalm 13:1-6 (NASB) ¹ How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? ² How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? ³ Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, ⁴ And my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken. ⁵ But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. ⁶ I will sing to the LORD, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.

Church, there are seasons when the hardest part of faith isn’t believing that God can answer. The hardest part is waiting while God seems not to be saying anything at all.

I think that we need to understand that most of us will have those times in life where we have to wait on God to answer our need to hear and be confronted by His presence, and it is hard when He in His wisdom withholds His fellowship from us. Today we will look at when King David the man God calls a “Man after His own heart”, did not hear anything from God but silence.

David, the shepherd who became king, reminds us that being anointed by God does not exempt us from anguish. It does not shield us from seasons of uncertainty or moments when heaven appears silent. In the life of Israel, to lament was never viewed as weak faith. Lament was faith refusing to suffer in silence. It was the covenant child bringing an honest heart into the presence of a faithful God, believing that the One who seemed silent was still listening.

From the Book A Tale of Three Kings on the day that David was anointed, the young man did not take the throne but had to endure a decade of agony and suffering. On that day David was enrolled, not into a lineage of royalty but into the school of waiting and brokenness that shaped him into the best king God’s people had in the flesh. 

This is where we see David the chosen King of God’s chosen people bearing his heart in grief and despair to the Creator God. In the first two verses of six in this small chapter, we see the pain of not hearing from God makes him repeat four times, “How Long?” This expresses despair rather than requesting information. ¹How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? ²How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

Let me introduce you to a truth teaching we find in what we call Lament Psalms. Bro. Brett’s Definition of Biblical lament: It is an intentional prayer where you pour out grief, sorrow , or regret to God, often crying and sobbing and turning to God and trusting in His promises that are not evident in the moment and time of suffering.

My beloved please know and keep upfront a thing that is very hard to grasp in the spirit and harder to live out in the soul is “greater honesty with God cultivates greater intimacy with Him.”

I think we all need to see upfront what David did not do. He does not stop praying. He does not curse God. He does not walk away from his faith. Instead, he carries every question into the presence of the very God he cannot seem to hear. That is genuine faith. Genuine faith does not pretend everything is fine. Genuine faith refuses to let go of God even when it cannot see or feel His hand.

But the devil is a liar. Silence is not abandonment. Silence is not rejection. Silence is not the cancellation of God’s promises. There are seasons when God is doing His deepest work beneath the surface, long before you ever see the first evidence of His hand. The Teacher is often silent during the test, but His silence never means He has left the classroom.

My beloved, your feelings may change. Your fears may grow louder. Your faith may tremble. But your God remains faithful. The silence is real. The waiting is real. The tears are real. But so is God. Your pain is real. Your questions are real. Your uncertainty is real. But God does not change. Repeat with me: God does not change. God does not change.

David does not remain trapped in the pain of verses one and two. He moves from complaint to petition. He moves from anguish to appeal. He moves from asking, “How long?” to pleading, “Hear me now.” Psalm 13:3-4 declares, “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.” David is still hurting, but he is still praying. David is still surrounded, but he is still seeking. David is still waiting, but he has not stopped reaching for God. That is one of the greatest marks of authentic faith. Faith may stagger, but it keeps talking to God. Faith may limp, but it keeps calling on God. Faith may weep, but it keeps believing God hears every tear before it ever falls.

My fellow saints, Satan cannot steal your salvation, so he tries to silence your prayer life. Because he knows that a believer who keeps praying is a believer who still has hope. Prayer is the sound of faith still breathing. Prayer is the evidence that despair has not won. Prayer is not proof that you have all the answers. Prayer is proof that you still know where the answers come from.

Faith Chooses Praise Before the Answer. By the time we arrive at verses five and six, something remarkable has happened. The circumstances have not changed, but David has. The enemy has not disappeared. The battle has not ended. Heaven has not interrupted the silence with an audible answer. Yet David says, Psalm 13:5-6 (NASB) ⁵ But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. ⁶ I will sing to the LORD, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.

Christian do you see what David is doing? He remembers yesterday’s mercy so he can trust God with tomorrow, and because of both, he chooses to praise God today. Yesterday gave him confidence. Tomorrow gives him hope. Today becomes an act of worship.

Please do not walk out of this place of worship without seeing Someone greater than David went through the silence of heaven. David experienced seasons when heaven seemed silent, but Jesus Christ experienced the greatest silence the world has ever known. David cried, “How long, O Lord?” But on a lonely Friday afternoon, Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” David felt abandoned. Jesus was forsaken in our place. David feared death. Jesus conquered death. David prayed for deliverance. Jesus became our Deliverer. Everything David experienced in shadow, Jesus fulfilled in a public display of God’s faithful answer to silence that endures.