If you've got a copy of the Scripture this morning
and you want to follow along, it will be in the
Old Testament, the book of Psalms, chapter 42.
As we look into the Psalms, 150 chapters in all,
this book served as the hymn book and the prayer
book for Israel. You may be familiar with the
introductory verse of Psalm 42. We looked at
it this morning as we were called to worship.
But as we get into this psalm a little more,
we see it is very deep and it is very complex.
And we're going to be challenged by the text,
I believe, this morning on our desires for God,
on our worship, and what life looks like during
hard seasons of suffering and hardship. A little
background and context to this psalm before we
get into it. The occasion of Psalm 42 is unknown,
and that's not rare in the psalms. There's some
thought that it could have been written by David
as he was exiled. fleeing from Absalom during
his rebellion. And then it was given to the sons
of Korah, as your superscription would read.
There's some that feel it's just a representative
of an exiled Israel, as they're in Babylon. Lastly,
the sons of Korah themselves could have written
it. They longed to be in God's house, in His
presence, but they cannot be due to exile. They're
removed from Jerusalem. regardless of who actually
wrote it, the situation we'll see is very intense.
It's very hard, and we see some severe mocking
also throughout the entire psalm. Derek Kinder
is one of the most regarded commentators on the
book of psalms, and he says this in his commentary.
He says, this psalm, Psalm 42, is one of the
most sadly beautiful in all of Psalter. This
psalm is several things. It is a mass kill. There's
only 13 psalms out of 150 that are such. And
that's a psalm that is instructive, a psalm that
is meant to impart wisdom, to teach God's people
how to think and believe and respond faithfully
to similar circumstances in our lives. But it's
also a psalm of lament. And to lament is a prayer
in pain that leads to trust. And when we think
about lament, that is the language that we speak
to God in our sorrow. Lament is a linkage between
a holy God and a fallen world. And as we think
about lament psalms, of which there's 56, we
see that we are not, as believers, we are not
to repress grief. Rather, faith brings grief
honestly before God while continuing to trust
His covenant. And this is the language, this
language of lament that believers speak as we
refuse to let go of God even when we cannot understand
His providence. We'll start here in chapter 42.
This is actually the beginning of book 2 in the
Psalms. You'll see on the slide real quick, there's
actually five different books of Psalms and how
they're broken apart. But we'll start here in
the second book of chapter 42. And the way this
Psalm is broken up, verses 1 to 4, we see a longing
for God. There's then a refrain. Verses 6 to
10, we see suffering and hope. And in verse 11,
we see that refrain again. So let's look firstly
in that longing for God, verses 1 and 2. It says,
As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants
my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God. When shall I come and appear
before God? Now we're going to see two different
uses this morning of powerful water imagery to
express the psalmist's need for God and this
feeling of being removed from his presence. Here
we find the first. And we find it in this deer
panting for the water brooks. And as we look
into the text, this idea of searching endlessly
until they find that water. The immediate picture
here is like an accident. Agonizing thirst during
a drought. The next line though, so pants my
soul. And the word soul often in the Bible refers
to the whole person when we see that. What is
the psalmist's chief desire that we see here
in verses 1 and 2? A longing for fellowship with
God. He's distressed by a dry soul that is very
distant from the Lord's presence. In fact, in
verse 2 it says, my soul thirsts for God, for
the living God. a God of all creation, a God
that this psalmist has known intimately. God
is the source of life, and in the Bible, many
times His salvation is described as living waters.
But what does it mean to long for God, as we
see the psalmist speak of here? I mean, these
verses are very encouraging, but they're also
very convicting to us at the same time. The psalmist
seeks deep fellowship. with God as a necessity
for his very existence. It's not some sort of
optional luxury, but something that he is concluding
is absolutely necessary. This deep fellowship,
this intimate communion with God. But how often,
though, in our own personal lives... Do we almost
see God as optional? Life gets very busy in the
hustle and bustle. We work and we plan and we
do. We've got very busy schedules. And we put
some time in where we can, where it fits. Maybe
tomorrow I'll get more intentional. Maybe tomorrow
I'll go deeper. And maybe someday. I can be more
intentional with my walk with God. We can be
very passive if we're not careful. Just a sermon
a week is good. I made it to church. I did that.
Check the box. I was moved by something I saw
on socials. But that's not what we see expressed
in these first two verses. As much as one longs
to have their thirst quenched after walking through
a dry and arid land, so it is the desire of the
child of God to have regular rhythms of spiritual
food and living water. To fellowship and commune
with God regularly. The living God, the psalmist
says, through the means which He has provided
us. Prayer, reading God's Word, taking the sacraments,
and gathering together for the regular preaching
of God's Word. Verse 3, the psalmist says, My
tears have been my food day and night. While
they continually say to me, where is your God?
We start to see the lament part of this psalm
now. And we see language like this used all throughout
psalms of lament. My tears have been my food
day and night. And we are no different from the
writer here, and I think that's very important
to say. Most godly believers who have been saved
for any length of time will go through times
of spiritual distress and suffering in this life.
My suffering will look different than your suffering.
Yours may be more severe than mine. There are
different levels and varying ways. But the psalmist
here expresses that he can't even hardly eat.
because of the amount of suffering and anguish
and pain that he is feeling at this moment. And
he says he's even been mocked. That some have
questioned, in all this going on, where is your
God now? Where is your God in all this if you
are afflicted in this way? And we may have some
of those same questions at various points in
our lives. Times that we show up and find out
we don't have a job anymore, that that's been
removed from us, a place that we've maybe even
dedicated our lives to and given so much time,
they just don't need us anymore. Maybe it's when
a loved one or someone near to us is suffering
from a long -term illness. Maybe when a loved
one passes very suddenly, or we experience a
myriad of life's challenges. But when we begin
to experience hardship, It is in that moment
that we must cling to Christ. Charles Spurgeon
said it this way, the wicked know that the worst
misfortune, that our worst misfortune would be
to lose God's favor. Hence, their diabolical
malice leads them to declare that such is the
case. Now, we have a spiritual enemy, right?
His name is Satan. We know who he is. Knowing
that he cannot destroy God's children, often
he uses such tactics as Spurgeon commented here
to discourage believers. And knowing that and
anticipating this, we should be very alert to
not allow mocking, hard as it may be. Imagine
this psalmist, where is your God now? In all
this trouble and all this hardship, why would
your God let this happen to you if He is the
Creator and if His reign is from everlasting
to everlasting as you've said? Where is your
God in all this? But it's during those times
that we don't allow those mockings to affect
us or allow them to come into us as such thoughts
that we've been abandoned by God. Even if in
our person we feel that way, It's not true. And
we can't allow those things to take up our headspace.
In our life, life is very hard. And we can begin
to ask in particular seasons of our life, where
is God in all of this that's going on right now?
Because this is not what I planned. This is not
what I envisioned. This is very hard. Paul reminds
us of this in Romans 8, 38 and 39. And Paul reminds
us of the trust that we must cling to during
the very hard seasons of our lives. He said,
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor
angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation. will be able to
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Paul writes this in the first century.
And what I love when I read this verse is towards
the end there, he says, nor anything else in
all creation. Nothing in time or space or something
that may have not even been invented yet in the
first century. Even that, nothing will be able
to separate God's children from Him. The writer
here feeling very overwhelmed in trials. I said
we are much the same. We do good in our humanity
to feel the weightiness of those hard sufferings
when they come upon us. We can't help but feel
them. We carry that. And it can almost get like
we don't know how we're going to make it from
day to day. That we just don't know what to expect
next. That there's something behind every turn.
And it is in those seasons that we must hold
fast to God's goodness and the doctrine of that.
And we have to affirm that both things can be
true at the same time. That God has been good.
That God is good in the present. That God will
be good to His children in the future. But life
is also very hard for me right now. And it's
good theology to affirm that both of those things
can be true simultaneously and at the exact same
time. But we must understand that when hardship
comes into our lives, providence has declared
it, and we must submit. Verse 4, the writer says,
When I remember these things, I pour out my soul
within me, for I used to go with a multitude.
I went with them to the house of God, with the
voice of joy and praise, with the multitude that
kept a pilgrim feast. Now you see some language
there. First of all, it says, when I remember.
Now that remember is not you and I remember.
The Old Testament wasn't written in English.
That I remember is not just a recall. It is the
beginning of a prayer arising from memories of
worship in the past. And the writer says, I remember
and I pour out my soul, yielding to the tears
of deep grief. We must pour ourselves out before
an almighty God. And it is... Good that we do
so, that we lay ourselves out bare before the
Lord because you or I are not self -sufficient.
God did not create us to carry the burdens of
this life on our own. I'm not able to do it.
You are not able to do it. When we try, that
is when we start to break apart and fall apart
because we cannot carry the loads that come on
us in particular seasons of life. God is our
creator. He has made us. Who else could we lay
ourselves bare before and tell Him all of the
goings on in our hearts? He knows them already.
We're not going to hide anything from the Lord.
We're not just going to pull ourselves up by
our bootstraps and say, I'm going to make it
through this hardship. I'm going to make it through
this sickness of a loved one. You're not. And
I'm not either. Our God is more than just a sounding
board. Praise Him for that. The Psalms are clear.
He is a refuge. He is a strong tower. He is a
place of shelter. One more important thing to
notice here is that the psalmist talking about
walking with so many people and going to feasts
at the house of God and thinking about all these
things, which are good. He's drawing on fellowship
and all those things are good. But the heart
of the matter in this particular verse and in
this whole psalm, in the matter of public worship,
was the presence of God Himself. It wasn't just
about the building. It wasn't just about the
people. It wasn't just about the fellowship.
It was primarily about being in God's presence
Himself. When we gather here on top of this hill,
here at Mamre Baptist Church, on a Lord's Day
morning, we need to be keenly aware that we are
coming together as God's people. Not just as
individuals, not just as nuclear family groups
any longer, but as we... Come into this church.
This is a building. And what's beautiful is as
we do come in as individuals and we do come in
as nuclear families, we begin to comprise Mamre
Baptist Church as each person is seated in this
congregation. And we are brothers and sisters
in Christ, no longer individuals and nuclear
families who just happen to be in one particular
building. And as we do so, we come in with intentionality
and with purpose. That we worship the one...
true, holy God. And Pastor Ryan and I would both
say we have a very high view of worship. Why?
Because the elements of worship are only of value
if they purpose to fix our hearts on Christ.
God is made known in His church. And Christ is
present by His Spirit through His Word. In verses
1 -4, the psalmist has expressed a yearning to
know God in Christ. in the context of His gathered
and rejoicing people. Look at verse 5. This is
the first refrain that we come to. It says, Why
are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you disquieted
within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise
Him for the help of His countenance. This is
the first refrain we see. We'll actually see
it repeated in verse 11. But we first of all
see a biblical model here in verse 5 to minister
to our own downcast hearts. And there are descriptive
words here used to express one who is restless,
one who is unable to settle, one who is deeply
troubled. And the question would be, what do
we do when we're faced with these kinds of fears
and emotions and life is very hard? It's almost
as if we preach to ourselves. We preach the things
we know to be true about God. The promises that
He has made to His people through His Word, we
then preach them to ourselves. Our culture attempts
to encourage us by phrases such as this. Don't
worry. Everything will be fine. Don't worry.
Everything's going to work out. Or this one.
You can handle it. It's okay. You're strong.
You can do this. You can handle it. You can't
handle it. I can't either. Why? Because we are
finite. We are finite, limited beings. And as
believers, we endure to find true north by preaching
the truth of God to ourselves over and over and
over again. We pray it, we preach it, we speak
it to ourselves. The sovereign God, we take hope
in this, the sovereign God is not fazed by the
powers of our world. God is faithful and steadfast
in deliverance. Richard Phillips put it this
way. When we appeal to God, we obtain almighty
help that is undaunted by any dangers in this
world. The more terrible storm, the more necessary
the anchor is. We're also exhorted also to hope
in God, in verse 5, to sit our hope, which is
a hope that there is no waiver. You and I use
the word hope very casually. I hope it doesn't
rain the rest of the day. I hope... maybe this
might work out. When we see the word hope in
the Bible, it is not that way. There is no waiver
in it, which is why the psalmist could say, set
your hope in the covenant promise and revealed
faithfulness of God that we see all throughout
the Scriptures. Regardless of how we feel now,
regardless of how you came in today, you may
have had the best week of your life or it could
have been extremely hard. Both of those are okay.
I am glad you are here. Even though life can
be very real and it can be very hard, we must
hope in God. Why? Because He has been ever faithful
to His people throughout all times. There has
never been a day where God was not faithful to
His people. Look at verses 6 and 7. Here we start
the second section of suffering and hope. The
psalmist says, Oh my God, my soul is cast down
within me. More lament there. Therefore I will
remember you from the land of Jordan. and from
the heights of Mount Hermon, from the hill Mizar,
deep calls to deep, and the noise of your waterfalls,
all your waves and billows have gone over me.
Here's that second powerful water imagery that
we see specifically in verse 7. But we see first
these words, I will remember framing better times.
Then there's this longing for worship in God's
house that we see in verse 6. But the writer's
far away, drawing on memories of communion and
fellowship that he was able to once enjoy. But
we see this other water image in verse 7. But
this one's of a dark connotation. The first one
was quite pleasant. Remember the deer panning
after the water. But here we see, deep calls
unto deep. All your waves and billows have gone
over me. I mean, that's pretty dark. And the
writer here expresses that he feels that all
of God's waves have gone over him. I want you
for just a moment to kind of imagine something
with me. If you've had the privilege of being
in the ocean, you know exactly what this feels
like. You walk out in the water, and you begin
to feel waves. First, they're at your ankles.
They come crashing in, and eventually you get
up to about your knees, something like that.
You get to your waist, and before too long, depending
on the beach you're at, you can get out. quite
deep and that water's risen to a point that you
can't even jump out of those waves anymore as
they're crashing and they start to go over your
head and then you're reminded that salt water
isn't as pleasant as you'd remembered maybe however
long ago you were at the beach and it gets up
your nose and you start to you know you're looking
for breath and all these things and you almost
feel terrified because you've wandered out too
far your feet are barely touching the bottom
and that's what the psalmist is expressing here
he's in deep water and waves are crashing over
his head and he said It's not just one wave,
it's plural waves over and over again. And the
question we find ourselves asking is, what is
someone who professes faith in Jesus Christ to
do when the waves of life wash over them over
and over again? And at such moments, in our flesh,
there is a battle going on between our flesh
and the spiritual side of our humanness. And
we're tempted to drift towards coldness of heart
instead of seeking true depth. with God. It is
in these moments where we feel so conflicted
that we run to Christ. The one who has his arms
outstretched for his people, the one who said,
come unto me and I will give you rest. My yoke
is easy, my burden is light. Look deeper into
that question in verse 8. The psalmist said,
the Lord will command his loving kindness in
the daytime and in the night his song shall be
with me. A prayer to the God of my life. Now
something wonderful happens here in verse 8.
It's very subtle. But if you notice with me,
up until this point in the psalm, you have seen
God, translated God, over and over and over again
in verses 1 -7. That word there is Elohim. normally
you would see the word Elohim in God's role as
creator, as ruler over his creation. But here
in verse 8, you'll notice you see the word LORD,
all caps in your Bible, L -O -R -D. And the writer
shifts from referring to God as Elohim to now
referring to him as his covenant name, Yahweh.
And why is that important? Because we've shifted
from just emphasizing God who is the ruler over
all creation, the one who has all things in his
hand, to now the covenant keeping, covenant.
promise -keeping God, the one whom believers
are in covenant with. And he says, what will
Yahweh do? He commands his steadfast love. Why
is that so rich? Because verse 8 didn't say his
sometimes love. It was very tactful, the way
the writer did this. It didn't say God would
send his love when all was going well. It said
he would send his steadfast love to his people.
In the West, where we live here in America, we
are somewhat conditioned to believe that If things
are good, that means all is well in our life.
That there's money in the bank, that the house
looks good, the pantry's full of groceries, things
are good at work. Everything good in my life
is as good as it could possibly be, but that
has no biblical merit. God's people have suffered
and suffered long throughout history. But God's
love for His people is steadfast. It is unmovable.
It is unchanging despite the individual circumstances
in our lives. And that is powerful. Because when
we're overcome with grief, when we're overcome
with emotion, when we're overcome with sorrow,
we start to believe these lies whispered in our
ears. Where is your God now? The psalmist has
written. And the reality is He's right where
He's always been. Working on our behalf. for
the good of His people. God has promised mercy
on those who call on Him through Jesus Christ.
His grace for believers is as certain as the
fixed order of the seasons. It cannot be undone.
God has covenanted Himself to save and uphold
all who have believed in the name of the Son
of God, and because so, He commands His steadfast
love in accordance with His sovereign promise
in Christ. You say, what does that mean? It means
that God's reign is from everlasting to everlasting.
And as a sovereign, he will with authority command
mercy be reserved for his children. All those
who have called on the name of Christ will find
refuge under his wings. When we are tempted to
doubt, we have to remind ourselves of who God
is. what He has done, and what He has pledged
Himself to do. God has been faithful in every
generation. He has been faithful in the past.
No matter what is going on in your life right
now, God is faithful in the present, and He has
promised He will be faithful in the future. He
has given His children, those who have trusted
Him in faith, a means of grace to seek a ministry
of God's Word, to seek the altar of grace in
prayer, to look forward again to gathering with
God's people for worship, and saving grace is
secure in Jesus Christ. Look at verse 9 and 10.
The psalmist says, I will say, God, my rock,
why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of my enemy? It's as
with the breaking of my bones. My enemies reproach
me, and while they say to me all the day long,
where is your God? Now we see despair again,
and we also see hope, both of which contrasts
here in verses 9 and 10. Why do I go mourning?
The question's posed. The oppression is so severe,
the psalmist says it's as if his bones are breaking
at the reproach of his enemies. And they echo
the same chant as earlier we saw in Psalm. Where
is your God in all this? Where is your God? How
could God who says he loves you let all this
happen? But I love this. We see the honesty and
sincerity of the psalmist in these verses. In
the midst of judgment, he does cling to God and
says, I will say to God, my rock. Not just any
God, it's very personal. My rock. While the writer
admits his own doubts about everything going
on around him, fears and even some complaints,
he said, God, why have you forgotten me? Why
have you left me in this? This should encourage
authenticity in our prayer lives. God knows how
we're feeling. And we should be able to express
ourselves very openly and transparently to Him.
But as He's called My Rock, He remembers that
God is His Creator. And in the midst of all life's
hardships, we are to turn our hearts to Him in
an attitude of faith and trust that what we can't
see, God is ultimately working out for our good.
But there is great despair in this verse. Have
you forgotten me? I am oppressed. My bones feel
as if they are breaking. I mean, that's a severe
pain that I think is fully hard to comprehend
unless you've walked some of life's hardest roads.
It says, My enemies reproach me. But does any
of this language sound familiar? My bones feel
like they're breaking. I'm oppressed. Where is
your God now? What is all this? Think back to
the Garden of Gethsemane. God's Son, Jesus Christ,
was overcome with great grief. He was all alone
in the garden. In fact, he would say that his
soul was distressed. He told his disciples, my
soul is very sorrowful, even unto death, he said.
But he entered into our sorrows in order to deliver
us. And the truth is, we will never be alone.
We will never be forsaken by God. Why? Where
do we see Christ in the text? Because Christ
was alone on the cross. Going through agony and
shame, he cried out, Abba, Father, why have you
forsaken me? As he hung there, carrying the sins
of all who would ever come to him in true, genuine
faith, because Christ endured hardship, suffering,
pain, and separation. We will never know that
feeling of being forsaken by God because it was
Christ who has already suffered it on our behalf.
And because He was forsaken on the cross, you
will never be so as a child of God. And that
is heavy. And that is deep theology. If we are
saved, we are God's children by the Spirit of
adoption. And not even the devil himself can
separate us from the love of God and the presence
of His Holy Spirit abiding in our hearts. Last
verse, verse 11. We see this refrain again. Why
are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you
disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall
yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and
my God. Now this refrain is the same as verse
5, but it's also a great assurance for us. When
we consider Israel's history, the ancient Israelites
had waited many times for God. They waited in
Egypt. For hundreds of years. For his deliverance
from slavery in the wilderness, they wandered
around for 40 years as they waited to go into
the promised land. In exile in Babylon, 70 years,
they waited to return to Jerusalem and to the
presence of God and to rebuild the temple. And
when we find ourselves in circumstances where
it almost seems like God is absent, when our
very being feels as though the weight of the
world is upon us, May we be able to speak these
words of refrain in verse 5 and 11. Wait for
God, for I will again praise Him. You say, this
is really good, but what about us? What are the
takeaways here today? Church, because Christ
has bridged the chasm between a holy God and
fallen man by His cross, we can rejoice even
in the darkness of the cross. Jesus rejoiced
in the hope of God's resurrection promise. And
this is a promise that we share, that if we have
trusted in Christ, He pledges that nothing will
be able to separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord. Christ's saving work should
lift up our downcast souls from any form of distress,
hard though as our day -to -day may be. The psalmist
said, I shall again praise Him, my salvation
and my God. It's personal. Not just a God, not
one of many gods, but the one true God who has
delivered you as an individual from many untold
circumstances. The one true God in whom you have
seen work miracles in your very own lives, in
the lives of your children, in the lives of your
family. the one to whom we praise for even just
the small ways, that we see God show up in our
mundane lives from day to day. That is the God
who will never forsake us and raise us up on
the last day. The promises of the gospel are
this. And they are what we must preach to ourselves
as a psalmist did when he said, why are you so
downcast, O my soul? We have to realize that
this life is hard. And it can be very hard. There
are going to be some seasons that are much harder
than others. There are also going to be seasons
of celebration. Celebration of joy in your life.
If you look back on it, there were many seasons
where children were born and the house was expanding
and things were so good. But there are hard seasons
also. But these hard seasons are temporary. They
will not last forever. They feel like it now
because it's your constant reality. And there
are some saints who have suffered long and suffered
hard. And even as I say that, some people might
even be coming in to your memory. Yet the moment
they left this life, all those afflictions ceased
as they experienced ultimate glorification, seeing
the one who they have served face to face. We
see in this psalm that the whole point of lament
is not to get rid of grief, but to draw near
to God. Why? Because it's in lamenting that we
draw strength, courage, and refuge in the midst
of our grief. Now that does not mean that life
circumstances are not hard, but it does mean
that we will never walk through any hard season
alone. God is always gone before us. There is
nowhere His children will go that He has not
already went out before them. Paul David Tripp
said this, Our suffering does not belong to us.
It belongs to the Lord's purposes. Our purpose
is to glorify God, to worship Him through our
deeds, our thoughts, our heart, and to love our
neighbor as ourselves, even when we don't feel
it. There are so many days when we don't just
feel it, when life is hard. And in those days
when we don't feel it, We must profess and believe
that God has been good, is good, and will continue
to be good to His people. That every hard thing
that enters our lives was not by chance. There
is no chance, there are no accidents, but by
His hand of providence. And so we learn to speak
the language of lament as a church body. To cry
out to God, to trust Him deeper than we ever
have before. Because church, God has shown great
grace. To each and every one of us. Sending his
own son to bear and remove the curse of our sin.
Because of that, let us long for fellowship.
Let us long for communion and worship with him.
And may we with fervor echo the passion we saw
expressed in verse 1. As the deer pants for flowing
streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. Amen,
church. The word of the Lord. May he be greatly
praised. We come to this time at the end of our
service each week here at Mamre that we set aside
to come together and engage in a means of grace
that God has given to His church that will come
to the table and take these sacraments, the bread
and the cup. And we certainly invite you to that
table with us this morning. It is the Lord's
table. As we do so, we see this as a memorial,
but also as we engage in a common means of grace
looking forward to the return of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And as we invite you to partake, we just
ask that the qualifications the Lord has given
us...