When I’m not feeling it | Psalm 13

This summer our church is taking nine weeks to focus our heart, soul, and mind on worship. For the summer we’re going to focus our attention on worshipping God. We’re going to submit ourselves to the creator of the universe and see what Scripture teaches us about worship. For this series we’ll look at a variety of passages that teach us about worship. For this series I will write some of the small group questions that go along with each sermon. It seemed like a waste to leave them in a file on my computer and not share them with everyone.

Small Group Questions | When I’m not feeling it | Psalm 13

It’s hard to worship when we’re not feeling God in our daily life. The Bible teaches us how to deal with distressing situations in our life and turn them into worship. The struggle in our lives happen when we want to praise God but we just can’t. We can be grateful for the honesty of the Psalmists who experienced difficult times and wrote about them. We’re going to look at how to worship God when it seems like God has hidden His face from us. We’ll figure out how to ask God to look on us and how to respond in praise. There are times in our lives when it feels like God has hidden Himself from us. 

1) Neal shared a story about losing his dad, his stepdad, and his mom having a traumatic brain injury in the span of seven months. Can you think of a time in your life when it seemed like your world was falling apart?  

2) Read Psalm 13:1-2. You can see David’s struggle in the fact he writes, “How long…” four different times. Read Numbers 6:22-27, Psalm 11:7, Psalm 17:15 and Psalm 27:4. Describe what it feels like for God to hide His face from our daily life. 

3) In our dark moments we tend to wrestle with the thoughts in our mind. One struggle we have can be listening to God’s word but not applying it (read James 1:22-25). How do you manage your emotions during dark times? 

4) Read Psalm 13:3-4. David asks God to look on him and answer. There is a powerful aspect of our human life when people actually see us (read Genesis 16:13, Psalm 80:14, and Matthew 8:5-13). Talk about the power of God seeing us. 

5) David’s fear was that his enemies would gain the victory if he were to pass away. This is not a selfish request but a request for the mighty power of God to be known. Think of ways that God can be, and is, glorified when He acts on our behalf. 

6) No matter the situation, David will trust in God. David has known God’s faithfulness for generations. Read Psalm 13:5-6. Share about how you’ve seen God's faithfulness in your life and how you can trust Him moving forward. 

7) The final invitation, or application, of this Psalm is to praise God. What is your favorite worship song? How does that song invoke a lifestyle of praise for you? Where would you like to praise Jesus more in your life? 

Close your time in prayer. Pray for strength to invite a friend to meet Jesus.