The following sermon was preached at Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Redlands, California. For more information, please visit our website at hopeprc.org. We read the Word of God this evening in two Psalms, Psalm 42 and 43. The text is taken from the 5th and the 11th verses of Psalm 42 and the 5th verse of Psalm 43. Scripture reading is both of these Psalms. Before I read, three things. First, notice that the title at the heading of Psalm 42 is, To the Chief Musician, Maskeel for the Sons of Korah. If you look across the page in the Psalms that precede 42, You notice that the ones that you can page to very quickly anyway are all Psalms of David. Psalm 42 begins a different section of the Psalms, and a section where, at least the first one, is for the sons of Korah. Now that's significant because Korah, along with Dathan and Abiram, were involved in a revolution in the Old Testament, in a rebellion. And even the children remember that Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, along with their families, perished under the judgment of God. God sent fire to destroy them, and an earthquake opened up and swallowed them up, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and their children, with the exception of the children of Korah. You don't read that in the history in Numbers 16, but you read that in the recounting of the survivors in Numbers 26. But now that becomes significant because the descendants of this rebel have Psalms written for them because they became some of the temple singers and musicians in God's church. That will come up in the course of the sermon briefly. Secondly, notice that Psalm 43 does not have a title. 44 does, 45 does, and that is an indication that if 42 and 43 were not originally one psalm, likely not, at least they were intended to go together, and that's why we read them together this evening. And besides that, the three verses in 42 and 43 are kinds of chorus A kind of chorus for these psalms. Why art thou cast down? Why art thou cast down? Why art thou cast down? A repeated chorus in the middle of 42, at the end of 42, and then at the end of 43. And finally, before we read, notice when I read that chorus, the difference, the slight difference between the verses or among those three verses. And perhaps as I read the one, you may follow along with the other in order to see that difference. This is the Word of God in Psalm 42. As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me, for I had gone with the multitude. I went with them to the house of God with a voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day. Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. Oh my soul, oh my God, my soul is cast down within me. Therefore, while I remember thee from the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites and from the hill Mizar, deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water spouts, all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me in my prayer unto the God of my life, I will say unto God, my rock, why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me while they say daily unto me, where is thy God? Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God. For I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance and my God." Psalm 43. Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. For Thou art the God of my strength. Why dost Thou cast me off? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? O send out Thy light and Thy truth, let them lead me, let them bring me into Thy holy hill and to Thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, and to God my exceeding joy, yea, upon the harp will I praise Thee, O God, my God. Why art Thou cast down, O my soul, and why art Thou disquieted within me? in God, for I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance and my God." That's the reading of the Holy Scripture. Let me read one of the verses of the text, and that's the different one, the fifth verse of Psalm 42. Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. I'm not the first one to say it to you tonight. You've probably heard that many times, that the Psalms express all of the emotions, high and low, of God's people. You might even challenge yourself sometime to imagine an emotion of the highest high or the lowest low or anywhere in between that you cannot find expressed in the Psalms. I thank God, and we all thank God together, for the Psalms that we may read and that we may sing. This psalm and these psalms, 42 and 43, could be considered classic psalms that expressed one of the lowest of the lows of the emotions of God's people. Some have called psalms 42 and 43 classic expressions of depression. A textbook case of depression. Now that would be wrong to call them a textbook case of depression because the Bible is not a textbook and we ought not look at it that way. It's not a textbook of psychology anymore than it's a textbook of theology. That is, it's not the kind of book that you would find in a college course. where systematically and with the kind of Western logic everything has its place and is in its place where we might expect it. A college psychology textbook, for example, that would have the first half normal psychology. and of all of the definitions of the different elements of man's internal life, mind and will and soul and emotions. And then the second half of the book, abnormal psychology and definitions of all of the problems that men and women face and perhaps with each problem a case study and so forth. The Bible isn't such a textbook. And yet, I thank God and we may thank God together for His wisdom to give us in His Word and in these Psalms such beautiful testimonies of all of the emotions of the people of God by inspiration, not analytically, not clinically, but with the inspired cries. Think about that, the inspired cries, the agonizing cries of the people of God. Oh, my soul. Why art thou cast down?" Sometimes in the Psalms, the psalmist struggles with God, and you'll find that here, too. Sometimes in the Psalms, the psalmists struggle with others, and that's not absent in this psalm. But rarely does the psalmist struggle with himself, and that's what's prominent in this psalm. He speaks to his own soul and asks himself, why? Why art thou cast down? Have you ever heard that echo back to yourself? Are you familiar with this cry that you have spoken? Perhaps not personally, but perhaps you've heard that cry from a spouse or a brother or sister or a son or a daughter. Whatever the case may be, whether you've expressed this because you've been so cast down or you've heard it from someone else, Hear this word of God tonight that addresses such a downcast believer and says to that downcast believer, turn your attention to God. That's the theme of the sermon this evening, the downcast believer looking up to God. And then, very simply, three points in the sermon. Notice in the first place his downcast soul, and in the second place his sure relief, or you could say his upward look. First is the downcast soul, second his upward look, and then in the third place his rich, rich hope. He, at the same time that He is looking up, He is looking forward. That's hope. His downcast soul, His sure relief, and His rich, rich hope. Is it possible for a preacher to do justice to a text like this? That is, to say it? in the way in which the psalmist himself must have said it originally. You can't do it. You want to try, but I can't duplicate that. Oh, my soul! And that immediately is artificial because this is not where my soul is now, but you want to try to sense the agony that came out of the heart and the soul of this child of God at this time. There was a pain inside him, not outside of him. It was not a pain in his body, although the pain in his body may have contributed to the pain in his soul, or the pain in his soul may have cause some pain in the body, but he is not expressing here anything with regard to a pain in his body. He is speaking of what is inside him. Notice that. It's obvious. But notice that in Psalm 42, in verse 1, he speaks of his soul. And in verse 2, my soul. And then again in verse 4, I pour out my soul. And then you come to our text in verse 5, my soul, and it's repeated again in verse 6, my soul. He's speaking of his inner life. That's why he says also in the text that it's what's within him that hurts. And I won't call your attention to exactly where that is. That's not the difference between 5 and 11 in Psalm 42, in me or within me. That's the same in the original. But that's what he's referring to, what's inside him. And then notice that he is not making a distinction between his soul and his spirit. as two different aspects of his internal life. The New Testament does that sometimes and makes three distinctions for us, our bodies and our souls and our spirits. When the New Testament does that, it refers to our soul as our inner life that looks horizontal and our spirit as that same inner life as it looks upward. The New Testament makes that distinction. That's not the distinction here. When the psalmist speaks of his soul, he's speaking about everything in him, both as it looks outward and as it looks upward. His mind, and his thinking, his will, and his heart, and desires, and emotions, and his feelings, everything. Oh my soul! Downcast, the scripture says, disquieted. The Scripture says, the one is what you might see, his soul was stooped, and the other is what you might hear, disquieted, groans and sighs because it's dejected. There wasn't any peace or quiet in his soul. And now maybe this sounds more familiar. His mind was a turmoil. It wouldn't shut off. It was busy. Busy, busy thinking and thinking and turning over those thoughts that he couldn't shut off. His will was numb as it were. He could not make decisions. Perhaps he knew he must, or she, but he couldn't. That's what's happening. His thoughts were mixed and confused, and with regard to his mood, it was dark, and now not dark in the sense of angry, but dark in the sense of discouraged and maybe even despondent. That comes out in the psalm when in verse 9 the word mourned, why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy, means at its root, dark. O my soul." Although the psalmist was speaking about what was within him, what was within him did manifest itself outwardly, and we mustn't fail to see that either. It's especially in verse 3 of Psalm 42. that that comes out when he says, my tears have been my meat day and night. My tears have been my meat. Often the depressed person just cries and cries and cries and can't stop crying. And that applies not just to women who are depressed, but to men also. And don't fail to see that. This was a man who was crying continually. And with the crying, he isn't hungry, so he doesn't eat. My tears are what I've eaten. And that fits with depression too. Sometimes the child of God who's depressed can't eat. And other times the child of God who's depressed only wants to eat. And it can go both ways, you understand. And then, he couldn't sleep. My tears have been my meat day and night. When he wants to sleep, he can't. Sometimes it goes so in depression. And other times, he can only sleep, or she, and only wants to sleep. But it's not the tears, or the eating, or the sleep habits that stand out in the psalm as to how depression is manifested outwardly. It's the face. You can see it in the child of God's face. That's not my assessment. That's the assessment of the psalm. And now you children need to learn a new word if you did not know this word before. If you look at verse 11 of Psalm 42 and verse 5 of Psalm 43, at the end of those verses, the psalmist asks for the health of his countenance. He needs help. for his face." Countenance is face. His face needed help. because His face was a reflection of what was in Him. And everyone could see when they looked at Him that there was something wrong going on inside of Him. And that's because God has made our face as a marvelous manifestation of our soul. That's true even of the animal creation. You children know that when you go to the zoo and you see that gorilla on the other side of those bars, and the look of hostility in the face of that gorilla, you're very thankful that those bars separate you from that animal. And you children also know that before you extend your hand to pet a dog, you better look at the face of that dog to see what that dog's soul is indicating through his face. And what's true with regard to the animal creation is so much more true for the pinnacle of God's creatures, mankind. When you look at someone, you can see, most of the time, what's inside them. Now, I say most of the time because there are exceptions, but the exceptions, as they say, only prove the rule, don't they? There are people who've learned, perhaps a gambler, you've read about gamblers, they have a poker face, they call it. And that's a face where they do not express any emotion on their face because they want no one to know that they have such a good card or such a bad card and they lose the poker game. And sometimes they even, because they know they cannot hide it, put on these big sunglasses and a hat to hide everything. There are exceptions. The sad exceptions, though, are when Children grow up in the homes knowing that if they betray at all in their face what they're feeling, there's more trouble to come, so they learn to show nothing. And then they grow up that way and there's damage in their souls that needs to be healed because the way God made us is that what is in us is going to show. If you're married, you know that immediately. You say, what? because you've seen that littlest change in the eyes and in the face. You know the happy mood, you know the doubting face, you know the questioning face, you know the displeased face, and all of the other faces, which is why in texting and e-mails the computers have all of the different emoticons, because there are times when you write a text and you want them to know that you're not serious, so you put a little wink, and you're not angry, so you put a smile, and a thousand others probably expressions of a face. But they'll never do justice to the complexity of the face that God has given to us to reflect what's in our soul, and that's the text. His face showed His depression. He asks for health of His countenance. That word health is interesting. It's the word that's used in the rest of the Scripture, both Old and New Testament. And that comes out in the names Joshua, even, and Jesus. He asks for the salvation of His face. Not because our faces somehow need to be saved, but because, by a metaphor, What needs to be saved comes out here. God, save me in my face. The burden of the psalm, though, is not to describe what depression looks like, but to ask the question, why? And that comes out in each of the choruses. Why? Why? Why? Twice in each chorus. Why cast down? Why disquieted? Why cast down? Why disquieted? That's the question. Why? That's the question we always ask if a family member is cast down or we are. Why? Is it physical? Is it spiritual? Is it nature? Is it nurture? Is it part of my genes that my parents gave to me so that I'm susceptible by birth to this affliction, or is it a lifestyle that I learned? Those are the questions. Is the devil involved, or he has nothing to do with it? There are so many possibilities that sometimes it becomes a complicated, tangled mess, and we come up with no answer or solution. The text helps us in that regard. and points out four related difficulties, not all involved in all depression, but about which when we talk we say how recognizable. Number one is the mockery and misunderstanding of neighbors. That's why Psalm 42, verse 3 says, they continually say unto me, where is thy God? And verse 10, as with a sword in my bones mine enemies reproach me while they say daily unto me, where is thy God? And the same thing comes out then in 43 at the beginning. There are deceitful and unjust men, and I am mourning because of the oppression of the enemy. The enemy may say, you, a Christian? If you were a Christian, God would not allow this to happen to you. And then we begin believing those things. And that's like a sword in our bones. The devil's sharp barbs may pierce you with those kinds of attacks. He'll be your enemy. But others may as well misunderstand your condition and ask all kinds of foolish questions and make all kinds of wrong kinds of comments. It's all in your head. Just snap out of it. You ought not be thinking that way and be impatient. It reminds you of what Luther, both Luther and Spurgeon, those great men of God that God used in the church, suffered themselves severely in depression. And both Luther and Spurgeon said something like this. I quote now Spurgeon, It may be in my imagination but it is not imaginary." And you understand the difference. It may be here in a place that you cannot see, and we call that our imagination, but it is not imaginary. It is real. It is real. Or perhaps it's the taunts that would come something like this, You, a member of the church, when I know your ancestry and I know the conduct of your father or of your grandfather, Korah, huh? Sons of Korah. I think I remember who Korah was from catechism and history and school. Korah was that man, wasn't he, who rebelled and God destroyed him and all of the families. And you have that name? You? And you expect to have a place in the church of Christ? And it's for that reason, I believe, if not for others, but if for that reason only, that there are Psalms in the Scripture with this title, For the Sons of Korah, to underline and emphasize the reality that your history in your generations does not determine your place in the church of Christ. who your father was, whatever bad name he may have had or have, does not mean that you may not have a place in the church, an important place in the church. And even if you have no name that anyone recognizes, you don't have family in the church, you can't trace your... none of that makes any difference. The Word of God says believers. not those with this or that last name. So, that's one of the related difficulties. There are enemies who mock or misunderstand. Maybe that depression involves memory of when times were better. That comes out in the Psalm too. When I remember going down with a multitude, and it reminds you of what one of the church fathers said, one of the Christian poets of the Middle Ages, not very well known, when he wrote, there's no greater sorrow than to recall in misery the time when we were happy. you can understand how that would go. Or maybe, in the third place, it's because of the reality that it's not seven to ten days, drink plenty of fluids, take some aspirins, rest for a while, and you'll get better. Depression isn't like the flu or the common cold where you can predict or take some medicine and everything's going to be better sometimes. It goes on and on and on and on. involved in the fourth place is that it relates to our ability or inability to worship. That comes out in the psalm when he says, when shall I come and appear before God? There's the focus right at the beginning when the psalmist in his discouragement thinks back to the day that he was able to worship in the church. For the depressed child of God, maybe it's because he can't that He's cast down and that reminds us to visit those who are shut-ins or ill for a long time. They cannot be here. That's a cause or an occasion for depression. And maybe because of depression, the child of God says, I can't. I simply cannot. I cannot get out of bed. I cannot get up. I cannot function. I cannot face the people of God. Whatever you may say about that assessment of themselves, there's reality there. But the great difficulty is not those, the great difficulty is this. He thinks about God and he says, he's not mine anymore. I thought he was, but he is not. God has rejected me. God has put me away. All of these waves and billows that are coming upon me are God's judgment of me. I am not a child of God. Now you understand why his face has fallen. Now you see why he can't stop crying. Now you understand why he cannot eat and has no peace in his soul. His mood is dark and troubled. He's convinced that he is not a child of God. And the end of that is that he has no hope. No hope. Think of what the New Testament says in the book of Ephesians about the Gentiles from whom the converted Christians came. They're without God and without hope. Without God always means you have no hope. No hope. Remember, children, hope. Hope means that you look forward. And when you look forward, number two, you think of good things in the days and weeks and years to come. And when you look forward and think of these good things, you're confident that they're going to come to you. And when they don't come to you right away, that is when succor is delayed, That's why I called attention to that expression in the psalm. Sometimes succor is delayed. That is, sometimes help doesn't come right away. You say, I'm going to wait. I'm going to have patience. Hope looks forward. Hope looks forward to something good. Hope is confident that that good is going to come. And when that good does not come immediately, that is when succor is delayed, we say, I will not fear, help shall come." This man has no hope. No hope. The end of his tunnel has no light, which explains why sometimes members of the church can come to such distress that they say, I can't live any longer. Life isn't worth living, there's nothing to look forward to. When you try to convince me that this is going to pass someday, even if it's a year, you can't convince me that this is going to pass. It will not pass. I must end it. And though that's not a pleasant thing to talk about, the temptation to commit suicide, it comes up in the scripture. Without hope, a man or woman does not want to live. And then the Word of God that comes to them in that hopelessness is not just this. You may not commit suicide and end your life because that's a violation of the sixth commandment. God forbids self-murder, although that must be said too, but especially this. You must not, because there is hope for the child of God even in these darkest, darkest days. There is hope for the child of God in deep, deep, long-standing depression. Hope in God. Hope in God. There's relief, people of God, there is. And though I may say that with a tone that is somewhat flat, you can't do justice to the emotion that needs to be put into that either. You cannot duplicate the cry of the child of God here in His agony, but neither can a man do justice, though he tries, to the power of the Word of God that says, there is hope. There is hope. There is, when you look to the future, good. You may be confident that in the days and months and years to come, there is good. God is there in the future. And look at Him and find your hope and help in Him. The Word of God that comes to you in this second point starts with some cautions with regard to the help and the relief that the child of God has. Some cautions. Cautions that come something like this. Be careful. Three of them. Be careful. Number one, be careful that you do not conclude that unless you find the root of your sorrows, you'll never get better. I say again, be careful that you do not conclude that unless you find the reason for your being cast down, you'll never get better. That's not true. Now, there are times when we may find the root of our depression. There are medical conditions that can cause depression, postpartum depression, even illnesses like diabetes, chronic pain. or other things like the loss of a husband or a wife or a parent or a child or a wayward son or daughter or family member, or even lack of work. The psalmist couldn't work. He could not do what he wanted to do to be useful. You picture him on a chain gang, being carried away by an enemy, bringing him to a land that did not have a temple to worship, and his function was a servant of God in the temple. However that may be, it's possible that at times we can find the reason for our being cast down, and then the minister and the elders And parents and friends, bring us the Word of God. Address us in those circumstances, and the Lord will help us in them. Once in a while, the heavy hand of God's judgment, we recognize, too, in our depression comes because of sin, sometimes plainly understood sin. Think of what David said in the Psalms when for a whole year he said, my bones waxed old and my roaring all of the day. I was miserable. He couldn't eat then and sleep then either until he confessed transgression. Then God forgave him. He got up out of bed and was able to sing again. He was able to trace his depression to a specific sin and sins. And there are times when sin relates to depression when, and that comes usually with the help of someone like a minister who's able to ask lots of good questions. The sin, we're hardly aware is sin because we've been brought up to respond to difficulties in such a way that From age 3 or 4 or 5, we were taught to respond to difficulties in that wrong way and no one ever taught that it was a wrong response to sin and a pattern has developed in our lives. That's wrong. And God does not bless those kinds of patterns. And then by the grace of God, we learn. different ways of thinking and different ways of responding. And even there, we say, I understand there's a root here, and I'm going to get at that root. But here's the caution. Be careful that you don't say, I must find it, and if I don't find it, I'm never going to be better. And that comes from the psalm too, because really, as much as I have expressed some hints as to the reasons, the psalm is not clear as to why this man was so cast down. And you probably all know people who've been depressed, cast down, who've been counseled by the minister, by elders, by friends, and even by professional counselors, and nothing happened. Nothing got better until at the end of six or nine or 12 months, it lifted. And if you would ask them what was the reason for the improvement, they will not know. And that's the caution. Do not conclude that unless you know, you won't get better. Be careful. Number two, and now much more briefly, be careful That you do not judge the attitude of God toward you by the circumstances that you find yourself in. Imagine if the psalmist had done that. Judged the attitude of God on the basis of his outward miserable circumstances. I'm on a chain gang, I can't do my work in the temple, worship God, I'm being taken prisoner, therefore God is angry with me. That's not biblical logic, and you must not conclude that because your spouse died, or a son, or someone else is wayward, or you become ill, that that's the judgments of God upon you. We know that. Be careful. And then, in the third place, be careful that you do not judge reality on the basis of how you feel. Now that gets more at a depressed child of God who feels miserable, always feels miserable. They're always thinking about how they feel. They feel bad. Their soul is cast down. They feel squeezed in whatever else you may describe depression as. Though the psalmist's feelings were very, very low, he did not let them govern his life. He did not let them determine his conclusions about his spiritual state. He fought against them. And the caution for us is, if we focus only on how we feel, admittedly miserable, then the temptation is going to do everything we can and anything we can to get rid of those feelings, including things that we ought not do. to get rid of bad feelings, legal or illegal. Do not focus on how you feel. That's not to say that medicine sometimes isn't what God can use partly to help us. But all of that, with regard to be careful, now look at the Word of God in the text. When I explain this Word of God here, I mustn't leave the impression that The child of God who's cast down like this, if only he follows a checklist, and perhaps by listening to a sermon like this, and he ticks all of the boxes on this checklist, then at the end, he's going to be better. Do not allow this sermon to leave that impression. It must not. But this sermon and the explanation of this Word of God will help us get a big picture perspective as to how we ought to respond to this situation. In the first place, now generally, notice that the psalmist takes hold of himself. He takes control. He does something. He does not simply sit back and respond. or not respond to all of these troubles. He does not give in. If the psalmist had not contended, he would have sunk lower and lower and lower. He fought. And that is what you must do also when you are in such straits. Fight. Second, fight by speaking. Look at what God gives to us as a textbook example, if you want to call it that. This man was depressed. What did he do? He took himself in hand. He didn't passively let this happen to him. He fought, and in his fighting he spoke, and in his speaking he spoke to himself and said to himself some pretty serious things. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God. He gave instruction to himself. He rebuked himself. And third notice generally, he made it public. There's a psalm here. And I imagine that whoever it was that wrote this psalm, writing it as he did by experience, came back to the temple choir and said, We're going to sing this. You're going to sing it with me. This is about what I experienced. You may know that was me. He wasn't embarrassed to admit that he cried. He was not embarrassed to admit that he was so down he couldn't function. He was dark and confused and numb. He said, you need to know this about me. And that means that sometimes what we want least, anyone else to know, we might need most. Someone and someone's else to know. Even you men. And women, and young people, and children, do not be embarrassed to admit to someone, and do not bind the minister or the elders to secrecy about your being cast down. The people of God need to help you, and pray for you, and minister to you, and lift you up. But we need to zero in on the main thing that the text teaches, and that is this. What you say to yourself is so fundamental, you must say it over and over and over again. Hope thou in God, I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. That's verse 5 of Psalm 42. Hope thou in God, I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance." That is, very simply, the solution for, not the cure, but what help you need is to turn your attention and your downcast face up so that you see the countenance of God Himself. That's what you need. It's very simple. I said to some of you children this morning that I was going to preach tonight about your chin. Now I explain what I meant. Look at me, children. This is what you must do and what your dad and mom must do, too, when they're cast down. Take their thumb, put it under their chin, and turn your face up so that looking up, you don't see the ceiling of the church, but you see the face of God. Put your thumb under your chin, lift up your chin, so you see the face of God. That's the text. You see the difference between the two verses? One talks about my cast-down face, the other talks about the health, that is, the help of His face. See the face of God. And that is what your soul and my soul needs when my soul is cast down. And looking at the face of God, I understand His attitude toward me and His love for me. Do not look at the waves. Do not look at that wayward child or family member. Do not look at your other circumstances. Take your chin and turn it up and see the face of God. And if your children now ask, how do you see the face of God? Listen to Moses. Remember, Moses spoke to God and said, God, are you going to deliver us or not? And God said, I'm going to deliver you. I'm going to go with you. And Moses kept pressing God. And finally, Moses said, let me see your face. Let me see your face. Think about that. He wanted to see. what God looked like in his face toward him and not just hear what God's mouth said to him. And then Moses went up to the top of the mountain and God hid him in the cliff to that rock and God showed him in the Old Testament, not his face, but his backside. But even his backside was enough to give Moses an indication that God's words were true. And then you read in Exodus 33 and 34 what God said to him. That's how you look at God's face. But what God did not permit Moses to see in the Old Testament, He permits us to see when He sent His own Son, who said what? What did Jesus say when He came? And people said, show us the Father. Jesus said, look at Me. And if you've seen Me, you've seen the Father. Look at Jesus, children. When you look up, that is spiritually, and you turn your heart up to see the face of God, look in the face of Jesus. Paul said that, 1 Corinthians 4, verse 6, God, who commanded to shine out of darkness, the light has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You want to see God? Look in the face of Christ. You want to see the face of Christ? You don't need a time machine to bring you back 2,000 years in history to see that man. You need to read about that man in every page of Scripture. And when you see in every page of Scripture, you may start in the New Testament and read about his life and learn about Jesus, and ask yourself what that young man must have looked like, maybe even ask yourself what his face must have appeared like. And I guess, and I believe that that's accurate, that he didn't smile very often, He probably didn't laugh very often, and I guess that he didn't tell very many jokes, because the Bible said, even at age 12, he said, I must be about my father's business. And my father's business is this, to take on all of the sins of all those whom God gave me unto myself, and bear responsibility for them, so that the word of God says, He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Imagine what his face must have looked like bearing all your sins and the responsibility of the punishment of every one of them. That man, look at him, see him, see his face. And then look at him by listening. You can see with your ears and hear that man at the end of his life described in the book of Hebrews, chapter 5 and verse 7. when he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard and that he feared. That grown man, crying aloud, and I can't believe anything other than that his disciples at a distance woke up. when they heard Him crying, a man, a grown man crying. Why was He crying? Because He was pressed down with the weight of the wrath of God on account of your sins and my sins. Look up. Look up. Put your face up to see the face of God and the face of Christ. And don't take your attention off that face of Christ. See Him in all of His works and all of His worth, and you will see in His face God's attitude toward you. He's not against you. He's for you. Look at the face of God. And if you ask one more question, where do I see His face most clearly? It's not out there. It's not out there. It's right here. Read the psalm. Where did the psalmist want to go most earnestly? When he said, I want to see thy face, he said, you can read that at the end of Psalm 43, I can't wait to go back up that hill and go to that tabernacle. And when I am in that tabernacle, I am going to make a beeline for the altar. And at that altar, I am going to see the face of God in the face of Christ. The sacrifice that was offered there is what I need to see, the payment that's made for my sins I need to see, which means that you, in your being cast down, must not find solution here and there, hither and yon, you must find your solution here. And listen to the minister, speak of Jesus And every week, listen for the voice of Jesus, which voice will say to you, this is what I look like, and this is my attitude toward you. I love you, and I am going to care for you. And when you hear that and see that, then your countenance will change. He asks, to see the face of God and have the help of the face of God so that there may be health for his face. That's his hope. Someday my face will change. Someday I'll be able to smile again. I will. I must tell myself that, I can't feel it, I don't understand it, but with the heart of faith I believe it. I shall yet praise Him with a face that indicates to the others that I'm not down any longer. I shall yet praise Him. That's second. First, my hope is, looking forward, my face will change. My hope second is that I shall yet praise Him. And when that is, I cannot tell you. No one knows but God Himself. But listen to this word of God. You shall. You shall be able, again, to get out of bed. Get in your car and come here and praise Him because, you see, that second, because the real goal of us in this is not our happiness, but God's praise. And I need more than anything else to be here in order to praise God. And this is what I say to myself, I shall yet praise Him. There comes a day And maybe that day is after I die, so be it. There comes a day when I shall yet praise Him. And third, my hope in the future is that I see Him now, but I'm going to see Him in a way that I never saw Him before. I'll see Him face to face. When I awake in righteousness, and open my eyes, the first one that I am going to look for is not my spouse, is not my parent, is not my best friend, is not my child that I lost. The one I'm going to look for is Jesus, and see His face, and in His face, see the face of God in His love toward me. And once I see that face, I'm going to say, the half wasn't told me of how beautiful it is. I don't want to see anything else, really. And when I go see my loved ones and visit the saints made perfect, every time I see them, I'm going to see in them the face of God and the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not Banff and Jasper. all of the other beauties in creation that I want to see, though I pray that we'll be able to see the new heavens and the new earth, where righteousness dwells and the beauty of God shines forth even in them. But I'm interested not in those things, I'm interested in this, and you are too, to see again. Now in perfection, not through a glass darkly, not by the voice of a man, and the medium of a preacher, but face to face. And when you see him, you'll say, now, now, I'm satisfied. And forever and ever, and ever and ever, and world without end, you will be praising him, praising him, praising him, thanking him, and knowing how much he loves you. He does. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank Thee for Thy Word, spoken to us from the Scripture, and we believe to be a power every Sabbath to work faith in us and strengthen faith and dispel darkness and give light and quicken hope and energize us in a way that we're able now to open up the psalm book and sing from our hearts. God enable us to do that tonight and tomorrow and all of the days to come. And use us to lift up those that are cast down and to point them and to point ourselves to the face of the Lord Jesus Christ in whom shines thy light in our darkness. Amen.