Well, this is our time where we all pray together. So join me as we pray and we'll pray some scripture that you know, but there's so much on our hearts to pray. God says, if my people who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then you know the rest. Is this on? Lights on, you know the rest of that first. So we want to pray and humble ourselves and seek and turn from any wicked way that there would be in us. Join me. Let's pray before the father. Lord, we have so much on our mind to pray, to ask you for, to ask you about. And yet you've taught us, Lord, in your prayer, in the Father's prayer, how to pray. And so we don't want to step too quickly. For you said our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We don't want to leave that right yet, Lord. Your name is hallowed. You have a name that is above every name. And that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow. What a privilege we have to bow before you because we love you and because we want to, not because we have to. So Father, we bow before you today. We acknowledge you. We worship you, Lord. We love you. We acknowledge who you are, the king of kings and the Lord of Lords. And because you are who you are, you hear our prayer today. Give us this day our daily bread. You've been so good to us. Not one of us in here, Father, can can look around and not acknowledge that every good thing we have comes from you. And so we go to you, Lord, when we have things that are on our hearts. We pray for every person that's on that prayer list, Lord. Those that with COVID, those that are facing possibility of COVID, even in this body. So much is going on, so many things that are going, some we understand, some we don't. So we just seek your face in this. Lord, for those that are on our prayer list, you know them better than we do. And we just ask you to be the I am of their life right where they are. Because you are the one who meets their needs better than we ever could. So we pray for them. We pray for your church, Lord. We pray for every church around us today that is lifting up the name of Jesus. Would you anoint them with your power and your spirit so that lives are changed and people don't walk out of there without coming face to face with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And we pray for this service, Lord, that you would anoint our pastor here, that we would hear what you have, not the good words that he says, though they're good, but we would hear the message that you have for us. Open our hearts to receive that message. And already, Lord, we're praying for next week, a special weekend, a time of fellowship and hard work. but a time to meet other believers and get to know them and people who have sacrificially given to this body of believers here. And we pray for John that your anointing would be on him as he delivers this message on this special adoption Sunday that's coming up. Already we're looking forward to what you're gonna do. And so we thank you. We pray for our country, our nation, how we need a move of your spirit. We pray for our leaders, our president and those that you surround him or just speak into their lives. Let him look to you for guidance and not to the craziness that seems to be going on. Just give us more wisdom and understanding as we see these things. And then, Lord, we ask you to forgive us of our debts. We know we're forgiven past, present, future positionally. We know that what you've done for us. But in our daily lives, Lord, we just we don't want we don't want sin. We don't want to harbor it. So help us to confess to you and you forgive us as we forgive our debtors. Give us a forgiving heart are so easy for us to seek forgiveness from you and not be willing to give other forgive others. So work in our lives there and Lord lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one for greater in us than is in the world. And so we you have clothed us. You have given us your armor. And so we just stand on the rock Lord as we face the enemy for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. We believe that Lord, because you said if we do those things, I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. What a great God you are. How blessed we are to be able to come before you today knowing that you here knowing that you act, knowing we can trust you. Lord, we just honor you, not only with marvelous singing that we've heard, but with your word preached and with our lives made me go out of here today, changed people, even more changed than when we came in. looking for an opportunity to share Jesus this weekend, this week. So just be with us, Lord. We honor you, we praise you, we bless your holy name. And we pray this in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Amen. Yes, and amen. Well, I invite you to open your Bibles, if you will. Turn with me to Psalm 42. Psalm 42 and 43. I had to text Ron last night, late, and apologize to him because he asked me, what's the text this week? And I told him it's Psalm 42. And then I got into study and he did all the bulletin information based on everything I told him. And the more I got into study, the more it became clear that Psalm 42 and 43 probably belonged together in the original. And so I became more convinced as the week went on until finally it convinced me yesterday that we need to do both. And so I had to apologize to Ron because that's why the bulletin says 42, but we're doing 42 and 43. So this is buy one, get one Sunday. And Ron again, I'm sorry, brother. Giving you the run around there. 42, this opens book two of the Psalms. There's five books in the Psalms. And we just, 41 through 41 is book one, and this begins book two. And this is God's word. To the choir master, a mascal of the sons of Korah. As a deer, pants for flowing streams. So pants my soul for you, oh God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude-keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me, therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon and from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls. All your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the Lord commands his steadfast love and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me while they say to me all the day long, where is your God? Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God. For I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people. From the deceitful and unjust man, deliver me. For you are the God in whom I take refuge. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Send out your light and your truth and let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. May God bless the preaching of His Word in our midst this morning. Well, I don't know how many of you have been keeping up with the Olympics this round. It's been kind of odd. I mean, you have a 2020 Olympics and 2021, but we've still been trying to, despite all kind of the oddities of this Olympics, we've been trying to keep a little bit of what's going on. And if you have never heard the name Sydney McLaughlin, do yourself a favor and Google her. She is not only, she's on the US hurdles team. Not only is she a phenomenal world-class runner, she set a world record at the trials. She's also a strong witness for Christ, so do yourself a favor and get to know Sydney McLaughlin. I'm enjoying watching her run. But so far, the biggest story in these Olympics games, and you've probably heard it, is who is not competing. Four-time Olympic champion Simone Biles pulled out of the competition because she's dealing with what's known in the gymnast world as the twisties. That's a word I'd never heard before. Twisty sounds like a snack you'd normally enjoy. I had no idea that was a thing, but apparently it is. It's a real thing and it can be dangerous because it's a mental block that makes you second guess and falter even on what are normally routine skills, things that you could do in your sleep. And Biles describes what that feels like to have this kind of block. This is what it feels like, she says. It's honestly petrifying to do a skill but not having your mind and body in sync. Literally cannot tell up from down and have no idea where I'm going to land." That's how she described the feelings of when she's like approaching a vault or something. And they say that the only way to recover from a case of the twisties is to go back to the very basics. To repeat and rehearse what you already know. I mean, she's Olympic champion. She already knows these things. And yet she has to go back to the very beginning and rehearse and repeat them again and again and again until she starts to trust it again. That's how you recover from a case of the twisties. To rehearse what you already know is the only way to regain your form. I doubt any of us have ever gone through a case of that. Maybe you have and you can tell me about it afterwards. But I dare say that these last few years have felt like a case of the twisties, haven't they? It just kind of felt like that. You're just not exactly sure where we're going to land. We're in the air, and we're not sure where this is going, always. It's disorienting. It's absolutely petrifying, as she describes it. At one level or another, this last few years has been a disorienting season. for all of us. We've all dealing with it. So what are we supposed to do in these kinds of seasons? These kinds of moments? After the punches have landed, how are we supposed to get back up and regain our footing? How are we supposed to have our confidence and our joy and our peace restored in Christ Jesus? Well, I think these two Psalms, this two chapter lament is there to give us an answer. It's there to point us in the right direction, to say that there's something that's meant to reach out and deliver us from every dark trial that we face. Because the only way that we can recover, like this singer, that we can recover our song, is to rehearse over and over and over again what it is that we already know. That's how we deal with our own case of the twisties. As you may have noticed in the reading, there's a three-part rhythm that this flows. Each part opens with a lament, and then it's capped off with the same refrain over and over again, three times. And so that three-act presentation is going to form our structure this morning. There's three different parts. Psalm 42, verses one to five, it's kind of one section. We're gonna call that, this scene, we're gonna call the panting deer. And then in verses 6 to 11 of chapter 42, we see the second section, where he goes back through this same process. And we're going to call that act the crashing breakers. And then in Psalm 43, we see in verses 1 to 5, the final piece in this particular Psalm. So that's our three parts. And we're going to call that last piece in Psalm 43, the rising confidence. So there's the panting deer, the crashing breakers, and the rising confidence. And once again, as has been the case with every psalm we've looked at so far, imagery rules the day. And again, it's spectacular imagery. On this occasion, the psalm opens up. So many of these psalms, you've noticed, right, they open with a picture. That's how they begin. They just grab our attention that way. And this one opens up with the illustration of a deer. And it's a deer that's severely weakened by heat and drought, desperately frantically needing water. And the psalmist says that image, that feeling that we've seen before, we're familiar with that kind of scene in Texas, that image perfectly captures his experience. That's what he feels like himself, and we don't know exactly who he is, We don't know the circumstances that he is facing, and perhaps that's for good reason. So oftentimes when we actually know the circumstances, we can begin to compare circumstances. And that's not the point of this particular psalm. The point is to invite us into what he's walking through. And he gives us enough information to do just that. This is a godly man we saw has been forced to suffer unjustly. His suffering is an unjust And we saw in the title there that he's the son of Korah. And I mentioned he's likely a royal musician, a royal singer. That's what this particular group of people, when they served in the temple, that's how they served the people. They led in singing. They led out in praise and in festival celebrations. And he references that in this opening section. Now it appears that all of those things are a distant memory for this particular psalmist. They're way in the past. They're the good old days. So he's lost his position, his home, his friends. There's no clear way forward. He has no idea when this trial will end. And to top it all off, rather than having the congregation of God's people around him singing, Now he's surrounded by his enemies who are only interested in tearing him down. That's his situation. So suffice it to say that this particular poor brother knows something about the fog of dealing with more than one hurt at a time. One hurt at a time, sometimes we can walk through. You deal with a bunch of them, you just line them up, there's a fog that starts to roll in. And that's what he's dealing with. But over all of that, over all of that, what he's most aware of in this season is just how distant God feels. That's what he's most aware of. Under the old covenant, you know this, the blessing of being in God's presence was a physical location. It was in Jerusalem at the temple. So your access to God and being in God's presence and intimate fellowship with him was tied to physically actually being able to be at the temple. And he's not able to be there. And so it feels like he's so far removed from God's presence. And that for him is the deepest cut in all of this. The feeling of being abandoned. cut off from God. That's what he's dealing with the most, and that's the main focus of this particular image. The faltering animal certainly needs a lot of things, right? There's a lot of things this animal needs, but there's only one thing that he's truly panting for, and he wants the living streams. The streams are all that can quench his thirst. And just like the deer, For this psalmist, only the refreshing streams of being back in God's presence, being back with God's people is going to bring his soul from the brink. It's going to deliver him. His longing here, this longing is a longing for God. And in many ways, there's a hidden blessing in that because in times of plenty, and I can testify to this, when there's a lot of things going on, we have a lot of things that we like to choose from. It's good. But there are moments in life when all of those things can be stripped down, one by one. And more than anything else, when that happens, the cry of a true believer's heart begins to rise to the surface. What we really, really want. One of my favorite preachers, Charles Spurgeon, puts it this way. By day, there are many things that a Christian will desire besides his Lord. But in the night, he wants nothing but his God. I cannot understand how it is, unless it is to be accounted for by the corruption of our spirit. That when everything goes well with us, we are setting our affection first on this object, and then on another, and then on another. And that desire, which is as insatiable as death and as deep as hell, never rests satisfied. We are always wanting something, always desiring a yet beyond. But if you place a Christian in trouble, you will find that he does not want gold then, that he does not want carnal honor. Then, he wants his God. We don't always know. what God is doing in the midst of our trials, but perhaps this is one of the greatest blessings that God can bring us in those moments, those dark seasons when it feels like we've lost. Maybe the gain that he intends for us to have is a greater thirst for him. Maybe that's his intention. The feelings of loss and withdrawal of God's presence, the dark night of the soul as the Puritans would often describe it, those are seasons that are meant to draw out our longings for Him, our panting after Him in even greater ways. There's a blessing even in that, even as difficult as it is. And despite how weak we feel in those moments, and we certainly do feel weak, we certainly feel weak, thirsting for God is actually a place of untold strength. That's the ironic thing about this scene. His enemies are taunting him. It seems like they're in the place of strength. Here he is longing for God. And he is the one, even in his darkest hour, who is in this place of strength. And so rather than questioning God in his situation, look at what he does. He questions himself, actually. He questions himself. He says, why are you cast down, O my soul? The question is not pointed up to God, although He will ask God questions later. The question is to Himself. Why are you cast down? And why are you in turmoil? Why are you stirred up within me, hoping God? I'm going to again praise Him. He's my salvation and He's my God. In the midst of sorrow, we see this hidden mercy in talking back. We're always told not to talk back, right? The psalmist is talking back rather than listening to himself. That's what he's doing in this moment. It's counterintuitive because we're often told to follow our hearts. Listen to your heart. This is a true North Star for you. But the psalmist thinks that's terrible advice. He says instead of doing that, we need to have our hearts bent towards what God has promised. That's what we most need, to have our hearts. And the only way to do that, for all of us, at different moments, is to preach to our feelings. To preach to our own feelings. Some of the best messages in church history were never delivered from a pulpit. They were never delivered from a pulpit. They were from believers in their own wrestling feeling their way through this fallen world, rehearsing, preaching to themselves what they already know. Those are some of the best messages that have ever been delivered. and our longings for God, those that were brought to the surface, that the trials bring to the surface, those are going to be satisfied. This is what he's telling himself. Those longings are going to be satisfied. You know this in the best possible way. You know this, soul. You already know this is true. And that's why this opening That's what this opening refrain is, him telling himself again. You know those longings. This is your feeling. You know what's coming. But as we see next, the fight of faith is not like the commercials tell us. We can't just set it and forget it. Remember those commercials? Just set it and forget it. That's not the fight of faith. This is going to be an ongoing argument. And as any of you have been in heavyweight bouts, you know that they're rarely settled in one round. It's usually multiple rounds that you have to go if you're going to go with the big boys. And that's what we discover in the second chapter of chapter 42. The crashing breakers. The crashing breakers. Once again, and I love this dichotomy even in verse 6 itself. Here's the truth that he knows in verse 5. And there's the reality of the feelings that he has in verse six. Both of them are residing in him simultaneously. Do you see those two verses back to back? It's this astonishing picture that both of those things are happening at the same time, and yet it's somehow refreshing all at once. He just finished rebuking his soul for being cast down. Why are you cast down, right? It's in verse five. And then immediately, he turns around in verse six, and he says, what? My soul is cast down. They're just, they're right beside each other. And can't we relate to that experience? Can't we relate to that experience? I know it's true. I know, I know the right answer. I know the right answer here. I know that's the case. And yet I can't quite grasp it just yet for my situation, for my circumstance. Haven't we all experienced that even, even really in these last few months? between verse five and verse six. That's where we live a lot of times, isn't it? Back and forth, back and forth. But notice there's something different this time. There's a difference. And even this slight progress is important to note. Perhaps God isn't as far removed as it first appears. Psalmist describes his place of exile as the land of Hermon. which was a mountainous region. That's where the headwaters of the Jordan River form and come down. And as many of you know from the Rocky Mountains, when water's coming out of the mountains, it's not coming slow. It's making its way down. And so the picture of waters, which was at first a gentle, life-giving brook in verse 1, now switches, and it goes over to a thundering torrent. It's possible, some commentators think it's possible he was actually sitting, physically watching that water flow down as he's writing. The water that's descending from those heights, though, it's anything but peaceful. It's overwhelming. The picture here is deep calling to deep, roaring waterfalls, breakers and waves crashing. except now he sees God's sovereign hand orchestrating every bit of what he's going through. That's crucial to see. This is no uncontrollable sea. This is no random. This is not randomness. He calls them your breakers, your waves. And it's a stunning, even difficult revelation to take in. God God is the one behind it all. As hard as it was for the psalmist to consider that, it's no less difficult for us today to consider the same truth. It's still hard, isn't it, to reconcile being absolutely pummeled and to also hang on to our deep conviction that God is fully in control. That's the battle. That's the hard part. It's one of the greatest struggles that we will ever face. If this is God's doing, then why am I on the wrong end of it? And yet that's what we must come to terms with. God is in charge of every single hard, unexplained, out of control, confusing, hurt, and disappointment. That's the reality. The waves are not random. They are His breakers. And they crash when and where He wants them to. And that sometimes means including over us. And when that happens, the battle begins, doesn't it? I remember wrestling with that truth. These are God's waves for over a year in my own life. Wasn't a one-time thing. It was an ongoing series of skirmishes between me and the Lord. Lots of conversations, very similar to this psalmist. But in the midst of that mighty struggle, the hope of verse eight becomes sweeter. It holds out a branch for us to grab ahold of. We can easily read right past verse eight. But the name that the psalmist uses for God in verse 8 shifts. You're supposed to notice that. You saw that he's been saying the name God, which is Elohim in Hebrew. That's what most translations have. That's what he's consistently saying over and over again. God, God, God. In fact, book 2 that Psalm 42 opens, actually is considered that the name Elohim, that's what it's one of the trademarks of this particular book, that this references God as Elohim over and over again. And so that's the pattern of how he addresses the Lord. And yet, in verse eight, when he changes from referencing God as Elohim, he switches over to reference Him as Lord there. You see that in verse eight, that's meant to stand out. It's a pronounced change. There's an emphasis in that change. And you probably know that the all caps translation LORD there is from the Hebrew, God's special covenant name of Yahweh. Yahweh is the name that he only revealed to Israel. The name that he chose, he revealed to his chosen people because they were his people and he was their Yahweh. There's a special covenant relationship that goes along with that name. God has committed himself to these people. And so in verse eight, when he talks about the Lord's steadfast love, we start to see the point. Even as he is the sovereign God who brings the storm, he is also the covenant-keeping Lord who is present in those storms to be a refuge for his people. That's the same, one and the same I am. Perhaps, just perhaps, the Lord is not nearly as far away as we so often think and feel. Maybe he's not only present in the temple feasts and the happy occasions. Maybe he's actually right there in the midst of the waves, keeping us afloat and keeping every one of his promises. That's certainly the conclusion a psalmist is beginning to circle in on. Even while tears have been his daily food, the Lord has been commanding steadfast love. Even as he is missing the songs of the temple, the song of the Lord is beginning to resound at night with this particular psalmist. And yet, even as these first rays of hope appear on the horizon, this scene, one of the things I like about these psalms, this scene is no fairy tale. This is real life. And the isolation, and the taunts, and the oppression, they don't just magically disappear for the psalmist. They don't just poof. Verse 10 conveys how angry his adversaries are. The Hebrew expression used there for a deadly wound, it literally means that if they could get their hands on me, they fully intend to murder me. That's how much they hate him. And they hate him because he hopes in God. That's the taunt. Where is your God? This is outright persecution in its plain and simplest form. And we need to heed this warning because that's the kind of animosity that isn't limited to the psalmist experience. Indeed, Paul told Timothy that all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. That is, the psalmist experience will be our experience. That's a guarantee, and so it shouldn't surprise us when we actually see that happening in our own day. In this life, we will experience a type of mourning that comes from people openly mocking our faith. Maybe it's something that we see in the media, maybe it's from a friend, maybe it's from a family member, but we will experience that type of mourning. We too are going to hear the same biting question coming right at us with venom, where is your God? That's coming for us, in all who desire to live a godly life. And yet, yet again, the psalmist isn't deterred. He doesn't listen to their continual onslaught. That's not his focus. Instead, he cuts them off. He puts them on mute and he once again instructs himself in the same manner that he did before. We see that in verse 11, right? That's how this chapter 42 ends. He goes back to where he was before and he rehearses his refrain one more time. Why are you downcast? Oh, my soul. And why are you in turmoil within me?" He's not listening to their voices in this moment. He's stopping that and he's talking to himself pretty directly. Why are you downcast? Hope in God, I shall again praise Him. The psalmist knows he doesn't need a new solution in this moment. He needs to remember what it is that he already knows. That's what he needs more than anything else. And when the breakers crash, Originality is not our friend. Originality is not our friend. We need the good old-fashioned shore. That's what we need. And that's what we begin to see start to appear in this final section. For the psalmist, there is a rising confidence. The waves have crashed. His loss is great. And yet there is a rising confidence. Yes, he's still dealing with disorienting emotions, difficult opposition, but slowly those things are being squeezed out by an awareness of God's salvation. It's an awareness that began in the previous section and then comes to full fruition and it grows here. Look at his requests again in verse one of chapter 43. Vindicate me, O God. defend my cause against an ungodly people, from their deceitful and unjust men. Deliver me." And he begins to ask the Lord actively. He goes on the offensive, deliver me. And notice that verse 2, when we get to verse 2, it's nearly verbatim to verse 9. It's very, very similar. In verse 9, he called God his rock. And here in verse 2 he calls the Lord his refuge. In verse 9 he asks, why have you forgotten me? And here in verse 2 he asks, why have you rejected me? Those are almost the same thing. Forgetting and rejection in the Hebrew understanding would have been the same thing. And then there's an identical ending to both of those. Why do I go about mourning? Because of the oppression of the enemy. Just like the parable. We see in this repetition, it's just like the parable that Jesus talked about. The persistent widow who kept knocking. That's what this psalmist is doing. He's knocking again. Brothers and sisters, God has zero problem with our honest questions. And he is not annoyed hearing the same cry again and again. That is good news because sometimes that's all we have to bring, isn't it? Questions. and the same request we brought yesterday. That's what the psalmist is showing us. And then the deliverance the psalm has been thirsting for this whole time comes into view. Except this time, there's a ring of confidence beginning to break in. Send out. Instead of being cut off, the solution starts to show up. If I can't go there, You send out here. Send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill. I can't get there, but let them bring me to your holy hill. and to your dwelling." His humiliation and his suffering are not the final say. And the reason he understands that now is he's beginning to see that God is ascending God. He is ascending God. Wherever we are, whatever situation we're dealing with, He comes to find us. He comes to deliver us. He comes to where we are. We may be miles away with no way back, surrounded by enemies in the depths of night. But the God we serve, that's who He is. He's not set up in a temple, unable to get out. Those are the idols. We have a sending God, and this is what He does for His people. This is how He responds. And so when the psalmist begins to understand that, he starts looking forward. When that day comes then, and it's coming. There's a celebration that's gonna far exceed even the former days. Look at the confidence that's now throbbing out of verse four. Then, then, not if, but then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, oh God, my God. The lyres will not stay silent forever. The song will not be quiet. The psalmist's voice is going to be heard in the sanctuary again. He is going to make it home. That is his future and he knows it. And the rising confidence of Psalm 43 is not misplaced. You see, the repetition of these verses is not wishful thinking, as if the psalmist is somehow speaking his future into existence. You just say it enough times and eventually it'll happen. That's not what's going on here. It's not some magical formula. What's happening is he's being connected to the deliverance of God that was never in question. You see what's happening in this psalm? God's deliverance was always coming. Guess who's being made aware of this throughout this whole process? Guess who sees it in ways he didn't see it before? God's bringing him, God's already delivering him. God's already bringing him out, even through this experience. He's using this experience, this way, this breaker. Everyone is drawing him into this awareness. Because the deliverance of God was never in question. It was always coming. In fact, it was already on the way. Because we know that God truly did send forth. He heard this poor man's cry and the cry of every soul. Every one of His people who've walked through the darkness of night, God truly did send forth His light and His truth. And it came in the historical person of Jesus Christ. Like the psalmist, he too had enjoyed the sweetest fellowship, the sweetest communion with the Father. Except his communion wasn't in the earthly temple, it was literally in the heavenly one. And he knew what it was like to be far from home, panting for God's presence out in the desert. He knew what that was like. And Jesus, though, he wasn't forced into exile. He happily chose to come. He exposed himself fully to the wounds of this world. He didn't have to. And even these precious words of these psalms, which are so rich, they're only a slight echo of the anguish that the suffering servant came to endure. And we can almost see his continuous tears as he approached Jerusalem. In these words, we can see his tortured soul and complete agony within him as he lay face down in the garden. We can see Him there standing on trial, all alone, abandoned by all of His companions with no one to speak up for Him. And we can see Him there on the cross, not just feeling abandoned by God, actually being abandoned by God. And we can see His thirst in those long hours for just one brief, We can see all of God's waves crashing over him, one after another after another, sweeping him under until no one could hear his cries. Can we hear the taunts of his enemies, pointing and laughing as he hangs there? He trusts in God, let God deliver him. He saved others, but he can't even save himself. Come down if you're the son of God. If God really, really, really loves you, then you won't have to go through this. Come down and then we'll believe. And you can hear the jeering of Satan in his ear. Where is your God now? That question has never roared louder in a human soul than it did that day. Truly deep calls to deep. But if we lean in a little closer, we can hear him whispering in utter darkness. torn from his father in unimaginable pain. We can hear him even still reminding himself what he already knows, rehearsing it one more time as he hangs there. Why are you cast down? Oh, my soul. Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God." You see, for our sake, it was for our sake that Christ descended into the lowest valley of the shadow of death, and He did it reminding Himself of what was true. That's how He walked through it, and it's here, here in the triumph of the Lamb. that we find our answer, that we find our answer. No, we have no footing on our own. We have no footing on our own, but that blood-soaked hill, that empty tomb, those are the firmest ground this world has ever known. When everything else collapses, it will still stand. And He has become our exceeding joy. He is truly become my salvation and my God, the risen savior of our souls. And so we preach this morning, we preach to ourselves over and over and over again. And we preach it one more time yet again. This is how we respond. This is how we begin to recover. This is how we see Him for who He is. We begin to ask ourselves some questions. Why? Why are you cast down on my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Look to the cross, hope in God. He has become my hope. He has become my salvation. And my song, my song is going to be in the congregation again. Church, that, that is how we begin. gain our footing again, to rehearse this wonderful truth that Jesus took our place and that our God, brothers and sisters, our God is ascending. God, wherever you are, whatever you're dealing with, He sends. He sent His Son, He sent His Spirit, and soon to send His angels to bring us home. And that is our hope. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we again, freshly stand in awe of who you are. Your word never fails to reveal just how gracious, how good, how loving, how faithful, how stabilizing your presence is, even in the darkest hour, even in the most confusing circumstances, even in dealing with uncertainty, on top of uncertainty, on top of pain, Lord, all the things that we don't know how to handle, Lord, help us. Help us, Lord, I pray that even this week you would cause us, bring to mind often, whether it be a song or whether it be whatever it is, Lord, that would help us to rehearse and remind ourselves again what it is that you have done for us in the person of Jesus and that you are with us in all circumstances. Lord, I pray for that soul right here, right now, this morning that feels abandoned by you in their circumstances, in their situation. Lord, I pray that this song would give them words would allow them to just come to you honestly with these questions, with these struggles, and yet at the same time with faith, looking to you. Lord, I pray that you would equip your saints with this song. And Lord, I pray for those who don't know you, who have never trusted in Jesus. I pray that even this morning they would turn their gaze to look to the crucified Savior in their place, and they would say, that is my hope. That is my salvation. I pray that you would save people that don't know you, even this morning, if there's anyone here. And may our singing and our song be the sound of people who have been rescued and redeemed and delivered. May you receive all the glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.