Steven Furtick - Not As Long As My Song (02/16/2026)
In part 4 of "That's What I Thought," Pastor Steven Furtick preaches from Psalm 13 on moving from "How long, Lord?" cries of despair to declaring "Not as long as my song." He shares how David wrestled with thoughts during hardship but shifted levels by trusting God's love and praising Him, outlasting trouble through worship loops rather than human limits.
Opening Praise and Welcome
Praise the Lord. God is good… all the time. God is good… all the time. In the valley he's good. Say, "Amen." On the mountain he's good. Say, "Amen." In the morning he's good. In the evening he's good. "I will bless the Lord at…" All times. "…and his praise shall…" Continually. "…be in my mouth. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together."
Today, I want to move right into our sermon. I want to move right into the Word of God. Grab your Bible, open your heart, stand up on your feet, and get ready to receive from the Lord. Tell your neighbor, "I'm ready." Tell them, "You need to get ready too. I can't sit next to a lazy neighbor today." Come on. If your neighbor looks hateful, you've still got a minute to move before I start preaching. Let's welcome our global eFam online all around the world. All right. I know you've only got one hand because you're holding your Bible, but clap a little better than that. Come on. Welcome our eFam. God is so good and so faithful.
Prayer Before the Word
I've got one for you today. The Lord has been speaking to me. Do you mind if I pray before I read the Scripture? I don't really care if you mind or not. I'm going to pray before I read the Scripture.
Lord, I enjoyed so much as you showed me this message. It helped me. It ministered to me. It gave me medicine. It helped my mindset. It really gave me something to hang on to in my own life this week and something to encourage those I love with. Now I'm standing before thousands of people that I love with your love. I don't know them personally, most of them, but you know each of them intimately. I pray that you would help me in these moments we have together that are so precious and so rare, just undistracted, unencumbered moments in your presence. Our hearts have been tilled by the truths we've sang through the praise we've lifted to your wonderful name, and now we're ready to receive a word from you. Help me to show them what you showed me. I believe if that happens, they'll be helped. I believe if that happens, they'll be set free. I believe if that happens, strongholds will break in this place. Not just one stronghold, but stronghold after stronghold after stronghold be broken by your Word. I thank you in advance for testimonies that I will receive from this word that you will release through me today. In Jesus' name, amen.
Psalm 13 is our passage for today. We're in part 4 of a series called "That's What I Thought." We're trying to take some of these patterns that are in our lives that are paralyzing us, the patterns that keep causing us needless pain, and to replace those patterns with God's promises and God's processes for our thinking. So far, we've looked at this from several different angles, but today's will be the most practical one so far.
Psalm 13: From Lament to Praise
The psalmist in Psalm 13 has a prayer to lift to God, and it starts like this: "How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, 'I have overcome him,' and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love…" Do you see how that just lifted? This psalm is a lament. It's a cry for help. It's filled with anguish. It's in the tone of sorrow, but there is a lift within the lament. There is a lift within your lament today. When you cry to God, he won't just leave you crying. "For weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes with the morning." Somebody say, "Good morning." "But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord's praise, for he has been good to me."
Go ahead and clap your hands for the Word of God. I want to give you my title in a special way today, and I need you to turn to your neighbor one more time. You don't have to talk to them again after this if you don't want to. But start by asking them a question. It's going to set up my subject for today. Tell your neighbor… First things first. Just tell them, "I know you've been going through some trouble." Look at them and say, "I can tell." Now look back at them and ask, "How long do you think it's going to last?" Are you ready? Now look back at them and answer that question they just asked you. Look them right in their eyes and tell them, "Not as long as my song." That's what I want to preach to you about today: Not as Long as My Song.
Father, make it plain and powerful and personal. In Jesus' name, I give you praise, amen. You may be seated. Give three hugs before you sit down, and then be seated. God is good all the time. God is good.
The Question "How Long?"
Four times in the psalm, the psalmist asked the question that every parent has heard on a road trip: "How long?" We had a pretty rainy week of weather in Charlotte, North Carolina. Holly looked at me Friday and said, "Am I ever going to see the sun again?" "How long, Lord?" It doesn't take long, does it? It doesn't take long for us to get gloomy. It doesn't take long for us to buy into a narrative that's very negative. At least for me, it doesn't take long. I have discovered that even the strongest faith only can hold on so long through certain situations, and I have discovered that the human will has its limits, even when you're in the will of God.
Now, I know I'm starting early, but that would have been worth writing down had you had your notebook ready, had I given you a moment to get situated. Every human will has its limits, even when you're in the will of God. Even when you're doing what God called you to do, there is a place that you hit a wall. So, today, I want to talk from the subject, "How long, Lord?" but I want to talk about three Ls that I think will help you. I'm going to give them to you up front, and we'll review them at the end. You've heard of lions and tigers and bears… Right. This is modeled after that, but it's not exactly that. I want to talk about limits and levels and loops. Limits and levels and loops. Put those in the chat, please, if you're watching online, or the comments. Limits and levels and loops, oh my. Amen. Limits and levels and loops. Amen. You say, "Oh my." I say, "Amen."
Personal Story: Elijah's Trial
My mind went to a personal experience we had this summer, which I mentioned briefly. My oldest son Elijah spent the very first weeks after he graduated college in the hospital. The first part of it was planned, because he had an issue with his spine that we'd been monitoring with the neurosurgeon for five years. Upon the neurosurgeon's advice, we decided he needed to have the surgery. The surgery was not going to be easy. No surgery is minor. No surgery is minor. And this surgery wasn't even billed as minor, so we were expecting a pretty rough recovery. Now, I'm not saying Elijah is not tough, but after his surgery, it was amazing to me how good he kept his attitude. Part of the surgery where they operated on him was at the… I'm about to say stuff I don't really know what it means, but I heard a doctor say it, and I'm regurgitating it to you. It somehow affected his nausea, so for the first four days after his surgery, he was just throwing up. He couldn't eat anything. But he didn't complain much. It was amazing that he didn't complain much, because I've lived with this kid for 20 years. I'm like, "Who are you? From whence cometh this strength and power and self-control and positive mental attitude? Have you been watching David Goggins and reading the Bible or something like that? You're not complaining. You're just thugging it out."
He did that for several days. I tried to keep him company in those days in any way I could think of to spend time with him since he couldn't really eat. We watched entire seasons of Better Call Saul…I mean, The Chosen. Right about the time when it looked like his body was bouncing back, his fever went up. Holly is our family doctor, so she knew, "I think it has become infected." She took him to the ER, and it had become infected at the site of the surgery. So, while we thought we might be able to get him on antibiotics, when he developed… How do you say it, Holly? Bacterial meningitis. They came to get him and said, "We're going to have to do the whole surgery over again." That was the moment where his positive mental attitude left the building. And I got it, because "I thought…" Remember the series? "…that I was getting better, and I thought this was almost over." "I set a clock for myself that I am not going to complain on this clock, but that clock has run out." Even the strongest human will has a limit. Even the strongest resolve has a limit when your when has no end in sight.
Because after the surgery, not only was it worse the second time, but he stayed in the hospital that time for the better part of a week. He went home. They put a PICC line in him to give him his antibiotics, and then what they were putting in his body to keep him from becoming infected and to get the infection out of his body was making him nauseous again. "So now I can't eat again. And when I can't eat, I am not very happy about anything. Don't tell me to praise the Lord, because I praised the Lord for the first week, but I wasn't planning on the second week or to have these tubes for 30 days in my arms." I know there are people who are going through a lot worse than that, and your condition is a lot more serious than what I'm describing, but perhaps we can agree together that even the strongest human will has a limit.
Wrestling with Thoughts Like David
It seems like the person who wrote Psalm 13 has hit his limit. He doesn't start the beginning of the psalm with praise, thanks, "Glory be," or "Hallowed." He says, "How long?" Not "Hallelujah" but "How-long-elujah." It's a different kind of prayer. I'm choosing these psalms throughout our series to show you that you can come to God honestly and sincerely with your problems but not focus on your problems and not remain in the same place that you came when you brought your problems to God. By the way, Elijah is doing so well. He's doing so incredibly well. He's actually working for me now, clipping my sermons for TikTok. That's right. He's on the front row today. They gave him today off, but he said, "If you get preaching too good, I might have to run to the back and clip you real quick."
Now, the interesting thing about the psalmist's complaint that ends in praise but starts with complaint is he says, "How long will you forget me, Lord? How long are you going to hide from me? I can't find you." "Man, it's like you keep telling me, God, to do something, but then I do what I thought you told me to do, and I'm not sure if that's what you told me to do, because I don't feel you. I moved because I thought I was moving in obedience to the will of God for my life." But even when you're in the will of God, the strongest human will can only hold on so long. When you get in that place of "How long? How long?…" I think I should say it like this. You can only be strong for so long. You can only feel forgotten for so long. You can only feel taken for granted for so long. You can only do for others so long and say, "Well, I'm doing it for the Lord. I'm doing it for the Lord. I'm doing it for the Lord. I'm doing it for the Lord. A 'thank you' would be nice, but I'm not doing it for a 'thank you'; I'm doing it for the Lord." And then you explode on us, because even the nicest, most polite, most servant-hearted person can only serve strong for so long before you start wondering, "How long till they reciprocate for me?"
Don't say, "Amen." They'll know you're agitated with them and you're about to explode any minute and they need to duck. "How long will you forget me? How long will you hide from me?" He actually says something that I know we've all felt in here: "How long will my enemy triumph over me?" In other words, "How long till I get a win? I don't feel like I'm winning anywhere." Maybe you felt that way as a husband this week. "If I'm winning as a provider, I'm not winning as a parent. I'm paying for stuff, but I don't have time to play with my kids, because if I play with my kids, I can't pay for the stuff, and they don't want to play with nothing. But if I'm going to pay for it, I've got to work for it, and if I'm working for it, I can't be with them. I can't win anywhere. How long till I can retire? How long, Lord?"
I'm making light of it, although there is nothing light about the feeling, just to bring us into the thought. "How long will you forget me, Lord? How long will you hide from me? How long will it be till I feel you? How long will it be till you confirm for me that this is the right thing to do? How long, Lord, till I get this thing out of my arm? How long till I can eat again, smile again, breathe deeply again, and not feel that shallow, crippling anxiety that I've been managing for three months, and I can't tell anybody? But how long do you expect me to smile at them while I'm stressed inside of myself? How long is my enemy going to win? I know you're mighty, and I know you're great, and I know you're awesome, and I know you're wonderful, but when are you going to do something about what my enemy is doing to me? Do you see how they're talking about me? Do you see how they're taking advantage of me? Do you see how they're walking all over me? How long until you rise up and defend me, Lord? How long?"
But the one that felt so personal to me (and perhaps it will feel personal to you as well) was the one sandwiched right in the middle of all of that, where he said in verse 2… I don't know if you ever had an experience where you thought the Lord wrote a special verse in your Bible because he'd been following you around, and the Lord just took a verse that wasn't there before and put it in there for you. I felt that way when I read Psalm 13:2. "How long must I wrestle with my thoughts?" I totally get that question. "How long will I wrestle with my thoughts?" You know, whoever wrote this psalm must not be very tough, because if he was tough, he would just "buck up, buckaroo." He would just get over it. When life gave him lemons, he would just make some lemonade. He must not be very strong in the Lord, this man. Look in your Bible, not verse 1, but right before verse 1, and you will see above Psalm 13 the attribution of who wrote this psalm. Although it does not mention what the situation was that inspired the psalm, it gives us the name of the person who wrote the psalm, and he's a man named David.
So, I take back everything I just said a minute ago about "He must be a wimp. He must not be very strong." I would never say that about David, and I definitely wouldn't say it to his face. Even if I thought that David was an emotional basket case, I wouldn't say it to David, because if David could find a rock… I might comment it in the YouTube section about David, but I wouldn't say it to his face. Internet courage. That's what some people have. Comment courage. But David had strong courage and strong faith, which is why we are surprised to hear him talking this way. Most scholars tell us that David wrote this at the time of his life that he was no longer a kid but not yet a king, those transitional moments in life. In his specific instance, the king who was king was trying to kill him because he was threatened by him. It is highly likely that David wrote Psalm 13 in this transitional moment of needing to trust God.
But I'm stuck on the fact that it was David, because when he says, "How long must I wrestle with my thoughts?" it occurs to me that David was really good at wrestling. I'll take you to the moment David's name became famous. Now, this is the one that put David on the map. You've heard it. You know it. You love it. It involves an uncircumcised Philistine named Goliath. He hails from Philistia, 9'3" tall, weighing in at 320 pounds, carrying a bronze spear, a javelin, and a shield that's bigger than David. Here comes Goliath, and for 40 days he taunts the nation of Israel (1 Samuel 17). David shows up one day with cheese and bread disguised as a DoorDasher but coming in as a deliverer. Did you hear what I just said? He's disguised like DoorDash, but he's carrying deliverance. He hears the giant taunting the people of God and says, "How long has he been talking to y'all like this? How long are you going to let him keep talking trash when you have the truth?" "Well, see, David, he's a big giant, and you're a little boy." The king that was threatened by David that didn't even really know his name yet says to David, "You can't fight against him. He's too big for you."
Now, I just want to remind you of David's résumé. Pick up in 1 Samuel 17:34. "But David said to Saul…" That's the king. That's the kid talking to the king. "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it, and rescued the sheep from its mouth." Check this phrase: "When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it, and killed it." Do you see what I'm saying? He didn't just kill the lion from a distance or say a prayer over it and God gave it a tumor and it died. He said, "I grabbed it up close, and I wrestled with a lion and tore the sheep out of his mouth." That's David. That's what he did. And when Saul heard what he was capable of doing with the mane of a lion, he sent him to the battle line to fight Goliath, and with one smooth stone…had five ready but only needed one smooth stone…he knocked the giant down, cut off his head, and the Bible says with a sling and not a sword in his hand, he triumphed over the giant, in verse 50.
But the moment I realized that David was very good at dealing with a lion that turned on him is the moment I realized that this time, in Psalm 13, he is not dealing with a lion. He is not dealing with a bear. The problem in Psalm 13 is that David knows what to do with an external threat. "I can rip it apart. Give me a challenge. I'll figure it out. 'If there was a problem, yo, I'll solve it.'" David knew (that's a psalm also), "If there's a lion in front of me, I know what to do with a lion. I have a reliable strategy for a lion. I can beat a bear. But this time," David says, "I am wrestling with my thoughts. I'm not wrestling with a lion this time; I'm wrestling with my mind." "How long can I wrestle with something that isn't coming from the outside? I can deal with that. Not with a to-do list. I can deal with that. Not with a challenge I'm facing that I can plan for in an appointment or something I can prep for with my knowledge, my intellect, and my skill. I've been able to do that on several levels throughout the years. But now I'm dealing with something, and it's not a bear; it's my brain. It's not a lion; it's my mind. So, it begs the question: What do I do when the enemy moves the fight to the inside where I can't leave it at the office, where I can't leave it in a location, where I can't leave it for a nine-to-five?"
He hits his limit, and he says, "How long?" "I could deal with this until they had to operate again. I could deal with it." Do you know what I was saying to the Lord the other week? I said, "I thought I was through with this." Have you ever felt that way about something? "I thought I was through with this." Because you already praised the Lord for all your progress publicly at your eGroup, and you don't really know how to go back and tell the eGroup, "I got bad news. It got infected, and I've got to do it again." "Because the first time, they prayed me through it, but this time they might judge me because of it." Y'all are getting quiet. Preacher is preaching truth. This is Holy-Ghost truth right now. I am on your case right now. "How long? I could deal with it if you just give me a dumbbell. I can curl a dumbbell. But when I am a dumbbell… When I'm dealing with stuff that's happening on the inside…"
Do you remember last week we talked about Paul saying, "I put the ways of childhood behind me"? That's wonderful. You can put certain ways of childhood behind you. I sold all of my wrestling figures, all of my Lex Luger and Sting and Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan. I sold them all. I wish I hadn't. They're worth a lot more money now, but I put all that behind me. But I still wrestle with the ways of childhood. So, it begs the question…What do you do when you hit your limit?
I'm speaking to somebody today. You feel like, "I have hit my limit. I'm a pretty strong person, but I've hit my limit. I can carry a lot, but I have hit my limit. I have dealt with this, and I have coped with this, and I have managed this, and I have managed not to make everybody else crazy around me, but I'm going crazy. I have hit my limit. How long will you forget me? How long will you hide? God, I can go a little while without feeling your presence, but I haven't felt you in months. God, I can go a little while without confirmation and just stay obedient to the last thing I heard, but I need a sign. How long? I can't believe I'm going through this again. I thought I was through with this. I thought I was done with this. Why am I more tempted than ever? Why am I more angry than ever? Why am I having bitterness flashbacks now? I thought I forgave them. I thought they cut it out of me. I thought they fixed it. I went back, and they put me back in the ICU. How long am I going to be here? I can only pretend to be strong so long. I can't wear this uniform home and wear it to work and pretend to be strong."
So, David opens up to the Lord, and he realizes that when you have hit your limit, and you can't kill this with your hands, you can't kill this with your biceps, you can't kill this with your rational thinking, you can't kill this with your college degree, you can't kill this with your willpower, you can't kill this with your focused determination, you can't kill this with your vitamins, and you can't kill this with your collagen, your health routine, and your cold plunge… "I keep doing the stuff I'm supposed to do, but it's not fixing the real problem I have."
David realized that when you hit your limit, it's a sign that you need to change your level. So, whoever I'm preaching to, when you hit your limit, change your level. When you hit your limit, when you feel that in the course of a 24-hour period, in the course of your college career, in the course of you trying to raise your own family, in the course of you feeling your way through the forest of your emotions and your feelings of forsakenness… When you hit your limit, change your level. Limits and levels and loops, oh my! Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Wrestling with my thoughts of depression; wrestling with my thoughts of insecurity; wrestling with my old ways of handling situations; wrestling with things that were passed down to me or exemplified; wrestling with my sin nature, which is crucified with Christ but keeps trying to have a resurrection; wrestling with the things that I thought drowned in the Red Sea, but why are they swimming after me?
When I am wrestling with something I can tear apart with my hands, that's one thing, but sometimes, the Bible says in Ephesians 6:11-12, you have to put on the whole armor of God. The King James says in verse 12, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood…" This is not a lion you're wrestling with. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood…" This is not a bear this time. I'm wrestling with my thoughts. I'm wrestling with some secrets. I'm wrestling with some shame. I'm wrestling with some strong temptation. I'm wrestling with some "Not me." I'm wrestling with some "Why me?" I'm wrestling with some "What about me?" Well, I am not wrestling anymore with flesh and blood, but I am wrestling against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. See, I understand something about wrestling, not because I watched Hulk Hogan but because I have a son who is a wrestler. Not WWF, but the kind of wrestling where they put you on a mat for six minutes and you have to outscore or pin the other person.
Now, in wrestling, I have a little experience because I was a state champion in the eighth grade in a freestyle tournament where there were no other entries in my weight class category, but Graham is pretty good. I took him to see the national championship where all of the greatest college wrestlers were wrestling. Carl Perry was sitting next to me, who was a former national champion. I said, "Tell me what to watch when they wrestle. I don't really know what to watch. I understand wrestling, but not at your level." I said, "What do you look for at your level?" He said, "At this level, all of the guys who are out there know how to change levels." I said, "I know what that means, but pretend like I didn't and explain it to me so I could explain it to somebody else who doesn't know what it means." He said, "Well, when you stay too still too long, you become predictable. But what you've got to do at this level… You've got to change levels so quick that I can't tell if you're about to pop me on my head or pop me on my head to set me up to grab my ankle."
The Devil will come at you so many different ways and have you standing still so long, talking about, "How long am I going to feel like this? How long is it going to be like this? How long are they going to forget about me? How long till they recognize me?" But if you have hit a wall called "How long?" today, and you have hit your limit, and you don't see a way to win this fight, the Spirit of God said, "Change levels." If you've been down too long, stand up and praise the Lord. Wake up the lion inside of your lungs. You've been sitting there 34 minutes thinking about my sermon, but change levels for 10 seconds. Jump up on your feet. Stick your chest out and tell the Devil, "I'm saved." Say it. "I'm saved."
Change levels. For we wrestle not against low things; we wrestle against high things. And if I'm wrestling against a high thing, I know a higher thing that can bring it down. I cast down strongholds. I cast down depression. I cast down fear. I cast down panic. I cast down shame. I cast down suicide. I cast it! Hear the name that is above every name. Help me lift his name! High-five 13 people and say, "I'm changing levels. I'm changing levels." "Oh, there he goes. Oh, there he goes. There he goes. There she goes. I can't predict her. When I think I got her down, she gets back up. When I think she's getting proud, she starts to pray." "I'm changing."
David said, "I don't know how long this is going to last. I don't know how long I'm going to be hurting like this. I don't know how long I'm going to have to push through this without any evidence that God is working. I don't know how long, but I'll tell you one thing: not as long as my song." I talked about lions, I talked about bears, I talked about limits, and I talked about levels, but I want to talk about loops, because when you get to verse 5, David has disrupted his own despair and prayer for deliverance. (Y'all are sitting down like you're not in a hurry to get out of here and go back to whatever hell you've been fighting. Ain't nothing waiting at home but a lion and a bear for you. Huh? You might as well go ahead and get this Bible lesson.) What happens so many times in an experience like this that we won't admit is we get the lesson, we leave, and we don't get in the loop.
Breaking the Loop: From Complaint to Praise
David said something so powerful in verse 4. He says, "If you don't do something soon, God, I'm going to fail, and my foes will rejoice when I fall." Now, I told the Lord I would share this with you if the atmosphere felt open to it, so I will. There was a season of my ministry where Holly and I were so paralyzed by the nature of public ministry, public criticism, in the age of AI when people can make up things you said and make it sound like you say it and make it look like you were standing there with Oscar the Grouch if they want to… It's no longer to Photoshop you into anything.
There was a time where I was so consumed with the fear that something in ministry would cause me to fail or that my best had been behind me and it was only going to get worse from here. So, if you're struggling with that in your own way, the fear of failure or the fear of looking like a fool, listen to what the Lord gave me. It really parallels the thought process of David. Not to compare myself to David, but I do relate to the resistance and the wrestling he felt. I thought for many years that the wrestling meant something was wrong with me. I thought the fact that I wrestle with this means I am this. I thought the wrestling meant that something was wrong with me.
I need to slow down before I show you what I want to show you. In verse 4, he says, "My foes will rejoice when I fall." Do you see that? There was a loop in my mind that went on for months and months and months. "It's going to end in failure. It's going to end in failure. It's going to end in failure." I couldn't pinpoint why. I did see other things that were happening to other people all around me, and I thought, "Oh man! How long can I keep preaching and writing songs and doing ministry? I don't want to do it in the flesh; I want to do it in the Spirit." But sometimes you get tired. Sometimes you get tired too, and you wonder, "Is this going to end in failure?"
So, one day, the Lord gave me a thought, and it busted me out of the prison I was in that came from the loop of thinking I had entertained. "What if it ends in failure? It's going to end in failure. It's going to end in failure. It's going to end in failure." The way he gave it to me was something I could latch on to, and I give it to you exactly as he gave it to me. I wrote it down. He said, "I want you to start confessing this over your life." And I did it out loud every day for a year. "It may end in failure, but I will not live in fear." I've struggled to hold to that, and I've struggled to live it out, but he gave it to me. It was one line he gave me, one line to deal with the lie.
See, the lie I was in… The loop was that if something fails, I'm a failure. But when I realized that he loved me before I started a church… He loved me when y'all got here; he'll love me if you leave. He'll love me if I preach good; he'll love me if I stand up here and stammer and stutter. He knows what I'm trying to say, and he'll even take his Spirit and interpret it. You'll tell me, "Pastor, that was awesome when you said this," and I won't even have said that, and you'll have heard that, because God wanted to get it to you. So, even if it fails… Watch this. "It may end in failure, but I will not live in fear." That has done more for me than all of my resistance. Because you try to wrestle at a certain level. You're like, "Oh, no. Well, I'm going to study, and I'm going to take my creatine, and I'm going to do…" But even that has its limits. So, I changed the level. I changed the level.
David can't figure out how to battle his thoughts, because this is not something he is fighting that is turning on him on the outside; his own mind is turning on him. What do you do when your mind turns on you? And why did David's mind attack him so viciously? Is it possible that the minds that are under the most vicious attack are also carrying the most brilliant potential? Think about what David went on to do. David went on to become not only a king, but he became the designer of the temple that was the house of God for which he gave the plans to his son Solomon. When he gave him the plans for the temple, he said something very interesting in 1 Chronicles 28. He said… Well, that says he gave him the plans for the portico, buildings, storerooms, upper parts, inner rooms, and place of atonement. So, he had all that mapped out. Verse 12: "He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the Lord and all the surrounding rooms, treasuries of the temple of God and treasuries of the dedicated things." It goes on to list in the most specific detail everything God put into David's mind.
Now we understand why, in Psalm 13, he was wrestling with his thoughts, because that mind was under attack by the Enemy, because it was the place that would conceive something awesome for God. That mind from which the temple would come, where the people would worship…that mind, that beautiful, brilliant mind… It wasn't a broken mind; it was a brilliant mind. The level of your battle tells you something about the level God is calling you to build. See, when you have an overactive imagination, you can build a temple, but if you have an overactive imagination, you can also call Bathsheba to come and sleep with you, even though she's not your wife, and make a plan for her husband to get killed on the front lines of battle.
That is why it's important in this season of your life that you win the battle for your mind, because there is something God wants to bring forth from your mind. I'm trying to say that the place of the blueprint is always the place of the battle. I'll say it again. When God is going to give you a blueprint… Some of you are creating generational change. Some of you are doing it different than your family ever did. Some of you are setting a new direction, a new course for everybody with your last name or maiden name in the future. The reason the battle has been so fierce in your mind… There is so much material in your mind. There is so much potential in your mind.
David's mind would go on to lead armies. His mind was capable of navigating through the most arid terrain. He could find water in places that the troops that were chasing him would not even dare to follow him into. That mind… Of course it was under attack. Of course it was a battle. That was the place of a blueprint. Of course you're struggling. Of course you're dealing with issues. There's nothing wrong with you. You're just a real one. You are resisting the Enemy. You are wrestling not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness. Isn't it amazing that the mind that created something so magnificent as the temple experienced so much misery? Doesn't it give you hope to know that the misery you've been going through is just a clue to the magnificence? Let me say it like the Bible says it. "For our light and momentary afflictions are achieving for us a far-exceeding weight of glory." It will outweigh everything you've been through when you see what God builds.
I'll prove it to you right now. Psalm 13 is written by David about a situation that we don't even know what it was. Whatever situation he was going through when he wrote it, the situation is over, but we're still preaching about what he wrote. I said, the situation only lasted so long, but the song was longer than the situation, because I'm standing up in front of you thousands of years after he wrestled, and I'm reading what he wrote because he went through what he went through. I came to tell you that what you are going to see on the other side of this will make what you're going through feel like a short time, a little while, just a little while. And it all starts with verse 5. "I'm wrestling. How long? I'm forgotten. How long? I'm forsaken. How long? You're hiding. How long? I'm losing. How long?" Verse 5 comes out of nowhere: "But I trust…" I trust. "But I trust…" You know how we love to shout in church about "But God"? Yeah. Sometimes it's not "But God" that you're waiting on; it's "But I." Because sometimes, when you're asking God "How long?" he's asking you the same question. I'll see y'all next Sunday.
The Lord wanted you to know, "I've been wondering the same thing. I've been wondering how long you're going to let the Devil just tell you anything he wants to tell you unchallenged before you rebuke him and plead the blood of Jesus for everything concerning your life. How long?" Oh, I love it. I'm happy. Don't think I'm mad. I'm not mad at you. I'm happy for you, because God said he's about to butt in. God said you're wrestling with some stuff that's unclean, unfamiliar, unmanageable, overwhelming. "But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation." (Put me in F sharp.) Verse 6: "I will sing the Lord's praise, for he has been good to me." When you have hit your limit… "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled." When you have hit your limit… "Come to the waters, all you who are thirsty, and buy. Come, buy bread and milk without price." You can get it for free if you come on your knees.
He said, "You need a new loop." You've been in the "How long till it gets better?" loop. "How long till it changes?" loop. "How long am I going to be like this?" loop. "How long are they going to ignore me?" loop. I want to get you in a new loop of how good God has already been to you. Something just shifted in David in verse 5. I can tell it. He realized, "I can't fight this like a lion. I can't fight this like a bear. I can't fight this like my previous fights. I've got to fight this by getting in a new loop, like when I killed the lion and when I killed the bear and I started thinking to myself how great my God was, not how big my giant was. But I trust…" When he said, "But…"
When God butted in… He ends his song not singing about the struggle but singing about the goodness of God. "…for he has been good to me." Sometimes you get this message, sometimes you watch these videos, and sometimes you listen to this podcast, and you get the lesson, but you don't get in the loop. You don't get in the loop. You think worship is over because you've got to get out to your car, and you think you've got to get to your car because you've got to get to your lunch, and you've got to get to your lunch because you've got to get back home and take your nap, and you've got to take your nap so you can still wake up tired and go into another week talking about, "God, how long?" How long?
David said, "I don't know, but not as long as my song, because I'm going to outsing my struggle." Hear me if you can. "I am going to out-praise this problem." Let me go deeper. "I am going to out-trust this trouble." It's a sign that I can't fight it in my own flesh. I wrestle not against flesh and blood. I'm wrestling against a high thing, but I have a higher thing. So, I will sing and praise, for he has… Everybody say, "He has been good to me." You might even get convinced. You might say, "He has been so good to me." In January of 2023, we were having a recording, and we got together to write some songs before the recording. Me and Brandon and Chandler wrote a song one night called "Been So Good." The chorus just said… You have been so good to me, God, I can't believe how you love me, What a friend you have been… Wow. Do you see what happened, how you just started singing it again and you almost can't stop singing it? That's because we wrote it to be a loop.
Here's what that means. The first line of that chorus, which we ripped off from Psalm 13:6, which we got from David, who felt like God had left him, but he sang a song that lasted longer than his trouble… This trouble is not going to last as long as my song. If the Devil thinks he's going to outlast me, he's got another thing coming. Me and the Devil are having a staring contest right now, and I'm looking unto Jesus. I'm taking my eyes off the wind and the waves. I don't know how long this storm is going to last, but somebody shout, "Not as long as my song." So, is it possible that God doesn't always deliver us from it but calls us to decide in it? David said, "But I trust in your unfailing love…" "And I'll sing. If the trouble lasts seven days, I'm going to sing eight. I will sing. If this illness lasts three months, I'll sing three months and 14 hours, because I'm going to outsing this struggle. I'm going to outsing this doubt. I'm going to outsing this issue with my prodigal child. I'm going to out-praise it, you understand, because I'm changing levels."
The way it works is this. The first line of the chorus leads into the last line of the chorus. I'll show you. …how you love me, What a friend you have been… First line. So good to me, God, I can't believe how you love me, What a friend you have been… You can't stop singing, can you? You can't stop praising, can you? Because you got in the loop. See, that's the loop I want you living in this week. Not how hard it has been, but… You have been so good to me, God, I can't believe how you love me… Stop singing just a second. I've got to tell you something. When we sang the song at the recording, it literally went 18 minutes in the room, and the church had never heard it before. You don't believe me. I took a screenshot of the voice memo of the front-of-house mix from the night we recorded. Look at the time stamp on this. I don't know if you can see it. Eighteen minutes and 47 seconds of a song the church had never sung. Why? Because it took a line and made it a loop. That's what needs to happen in your heart, you understand. So, you just start thanking him.
Now, be careful. The Devil will attack your thankfulness. He will attack your gratitude, because if he can keep you down here fighting, he can keep you down here losing and gasping for breath and feeling sorry for yourself. Because if I start thanking him for the new day, I might start thinking I'm going to make it till tomorrow. And if I start thanking him that I'm going to make it till tomorrow, I might start thinking he has a hope and a future for me. And if I start thanking him that he has a hope and a future for me, I might get some friends and make a plan to move my life forward. And if I start thanking him for the new people he brought into my life, I might start thinking I don't have to do this by myself. And if I start thanking him that I'm not in this by myself, I might start praising him at the midnight hour.
Hey, Paul. Hey, Silas. How long are you going to be in this prison? How long is your sentence? Silas said, "I don't know, but not as long as my song." I've got a song at midnight. I've got a song through the ages. Sing it again! Lift your hands! Trust in God! You sing. I don't know how long it's going to last, but sing it again. Not as long… Get that stuck in your head for a minute. See what happens. Say it again. When the doctor's report doesn't look good, and when you don't think you have what it takes to move on, keep singing. If the storm keeps raging, keep singing. And when you start thanking, and you start thinking, don't be surprised if the enemies you see today, you will see them no more. Because when I praise, when I praise, when I praise… Come on, band! I need to sing it one more time. When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, I've got a song. I've got a praise. Keep singing! Keep singing! Keep singing! Through the fire! Through the storm!