Now, if everyone would please stand and turn in your Bibles to Psalm 42. And as we welcome Kerry, he'll be preaching from Psalm 42 and 43. Thank you. Kind of feels like open mic night at Christ Covenant. I don't know why I'm so nervous. If there were hundreds of strangers out there, I wouldn't be nervous at all. I've done that. But with my family, it's different. Well, these two psalms, Psalm 42 and 43, were most likely written as one psalm. And as we read them, you'll probably see why. If not a single psalm, they're surely meant to be read together. Like many of the psalms, this psalm is a deeply personal prayer that shows us how to live out our theology and the truth that we believe. This is God's holy and inerrant word. Please give it your full attention, for it is no empty word for you but your very lives. Hear it and love it as it's read. To the choir master, a maskal of the sons of Korah. As a deer pants for flowing streams, 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? 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, 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, hoping 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. 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. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord God, for the privilege of worshiping you this day. Despite the weakness of the preacher, use the preaching of your word to edify your people. Now may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. For Jesus' sake, amen. You may be seated. Well, I almost changed my sermon to Psalm 63. I was at first alarmed when I heard Craig's excellent sermon this morning because there's a lot of overlap. And so a lot of what he said I'll be saying as well. And that's probably not without good reason. There are no coincidences in God's providence, are there? Well, these two Psalms, taken together with beautiful symmetry, This psalm contains three stanzas of five verses, all ending with the identical refrain, Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. Perhaps you're familiar with the different types or genres of psalms. Psalm 42-43 is considered a lament, which is defined as a passionate expression of sorrow or grief. But despite being a lament, the overarching message of the psalm is hope. As we proceed, note that there are three levels on which to apply this psalm. First, private or individual faith through suffering or persecution. And then second, corporate or public worship of God's people, it's important. And then finally, and thirdly, is a picture of salvation, is the gospel. And remember, the overarching message is hope. The author of the psalm is unknown, a nobody like us. Not a famous king like David, who authored so many of the psalms, including Psalm 63, from which Craig preached this morning. This is a psalm by an ordinary person made extraordinary by a gracious and loving and personal God. To this we should relate. Well, the text is already divided into three stanzas, so I have three subtitles corresponding to the three stanzas. Part one, I call it the drought. That's verses one through five. Part two, the depths, verses six through 11. Part three, lead me home, the five verses of Psalm 43. The drought, the depths, and lead me home. The drought, verses one through five, I won't read that again. The first two verses are probably the most familiar to us and the reason for the title, The Drought. This is important because the illustration from Psalm 42 indicates that this is more than someone who is merely longing or desiring God's presence, as many of the Psalms do often express. But there is a deeper intensity to what the psalmist is communicating. To better understand the meaning of these verses, let's read the grim depiction of a drought found in Jeremiah chapter 14, one through six. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah concerning the drought. Judah mourns and her gates languish. Her people lament on the ground and the cry of Jerusalem goes up. Her nobles send her servants for water. They come to the cisterns, they return with their vessels empty. They are ashamed and confounded and cover their heads. Because of the ground that is dismayed, since there is no rain in the land, the farmers are ashamed. They cover their heads. Even the doe in the field forsakes her newborn fawn because there is no grass. The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights. They pant for air like jackals. Their eyes fail because there is no vegetation. Have you ever gone without water to the point of extreme illness? Once as a grad student in my mid-twenties, I ran out of water while hiking in the Chihuahua Desert on an unbelievably hot day in mid-July. A 15-mile hike turned into an all-day ordeal and almost a nightmare. I have never been as thirsty as I was that day. My two buddies and I were fortunate to escape with only heat exhaustion and severe dehydration, from what we now refer to as the Chihuahua Death March. But I can now relate to the psalmist's words, panting for flowing streams. The picture is one of a deer aimlessly wandering in the desert, searching desperately for water. So thirsty that she is panting out of weakness, yet knowing that water at once will revive and save her. The psalmist, perhaps a temple singer, but nonetheless a nobody, is apparently exiled in the land to the north, near the headwaters of the Jordan River, far away from the Jerusalem temple. Exiled from God, if you will. He longs to be back at God's house, worshiping with God's people. The enjoyment of communion with God was an urgent need of the psalmist's soul. This need is not viewed as a luxury or desire, but as an absolute necessity. Like water to a deer, like me on the Chihuahua death march, drink or die. The psalmist must have God or die. His soul, his very being, his life, is insatiable for the divine presence. In our day, it's easy to confuse what we need with what we want. Kathy loves the mountains and wants to be in them as often as she can, but she doesn't need them. She won't die if she doesn't experience them. You can fill in the blank with any number of things you want and think you need, but you need God. and need to worship him. Without him, you will die. Charles Spurgeon, the great 19th century preacher, commented on this psalm, the next best thing to living in the light of the Lord's love is to be unhappy until we have it and to pant hourly after it. In verse two, as we've noted, The need for God is more than mere hunger. It is thirst, for one can go longer without food than thirst. Furthermore, the thirst is not only for a God, but for the living God. He qualifies it, doesn't he? The word for God or gods here is Elohim, which can be used in a general way, but the psalmist thirsts for the living Elohim. the one true God. There are gods galore in our world that are as dead as a doorknob. All other gods are mere dead idols, no matter what name they are given. May we never pant for dead idols. In the second half of verse two, the psalmist asks, when shall I come and appear before God? And in verse four, when he reminisces about being with the multitude or throng, leading them to the house of God with songs of praise, the psalmist is referring specifically to corporate worship and fellowship with other believers. This is where he finds God, where God is worshiped and adored in the assemblies of God's people. The psalmist, like King David, was not content in private worship or family worship, nor should we. He desires the corporate gathering. Do you? Or would you rather be somewhere else this evening, maybe watching a game or your favorite TV show? Spurgeon said that it is a mark of God's grace in us when we view corporate worship as appearances before God. This is where we see the face of God and are seen by him. And this is why we here at Christ Covenant have long ago decided that it's best for all of us to begin and end the day in corporate worship. We have two worship services, not to give you an option to attend one or the other for your convenience, but so you can be with God and his people for longer than a mere hour every Lord's Day. Corporate worship is important to your sanctification, discipleship, and to your soul. Corporate worship is important to God and his glory. Well, verse five, the refrain, is an important one. Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? It's one of the few times that talking to yourself is considered sane. This self-dialogue is repeated in verse 11, and again in the last verse of Psalm 43. The psalmist passionately demonstrates with his drought metaphor that he is in distress, but at the same time a person of conviction, possessing a deep knowledge and dependence on God. No matter the sorrow, the fear, disease, persecution, financial or relationship problems, or whatever, there is always hope. There is always hope. God is unchangeable. Therefore, his grace is ground for unshakable hope and substance for enduring anything that may come our way. So our psalmist ends the first stanza confidently, hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. This brings us to the second part, the depths. Let me just read this very quickly again. It's such a powerful stanza. My soul is cast down within me. Therefore, I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon from Mount Mizor. 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? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God." Well, here is a picture of all that is overwhelming in life. Wave after wave of trial is submerging the psalmist. Yet his faith keeps asserting itself by remembering the enjoyment of the Lord's presence in worship and all that is true about God's character. In verse 8, he is as deeply assured of God's presence as he is hurt by God's apparent absence in verse 9. There is no easing of the distress, but the emotions now have the background of strong convictions. The psalmist recognizes, and we should too, that the overwhelming waterfalls and waves in his life are the Lord's waterfalls and waves, sent to achieve his providential designs. Still, the psalmist is overcome with troubles and grief. In verse 9 the enemy likened to an excruciatingly painful wound or illness taunts him, where is your God? Trying to shake his faith with doubts. We cannot help but think of Job or maybe Joseph or perhaps ourselves at some time or another. But we should also and more importantly think of Jesus. Remember Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion when he went to pray, his disciples keeping watch? Matthew tells us in chapter 26 that Jesus began to be filled with sorrow and anguish. Jesus even tells his disciples that he is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. All the waves and waterfalls of distress come pouring over Jesus. Judas was approaching. Peter would deny him. The Sanhedrin would condemn him. Pilate sentenced him. His enemies would mock him. Soldiers crucify him. He was being driven more and more into isolation as many of his followers left him and his disciples forsook him. Worst of all, In just a few hours he would be crying on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? William Hendrickson comments on this passage in Matthew. Quote, Jesus had been a curse bearer throughout the days of his humiliation but now he was becoming overwhelmed with the curse and this consciousness would not again leave him until he was able to say it is finished. He knew that he was giving his life as a ransom for many, that he, the sinless one, was being made sin, that is, the object of God's wrath." End quote. A short poem by Ben Price, I think, says it well. It was alone the Savior prayed in dark Gethsemane. Alone he drained the bitter cup and suffered there for me. Alone, alone, he bore it all alone. He gave himself to save his own. He suffered, bled, and died alone, alone. What a wonderful God and Savior we have. Not only did he save us, but he's able to sympathize with our deepest sorrow and anguish. Our weaknesses that tempt us to doubt. Our weaknesses that tempt us to doubt God himself. When we hear the voice of our enemy taunting us, where is your God? Well, verse 8, each new day the Lord commands his steadfast love. And that word there in the Hebrew is chesed. And if you've been to my Sunday school classes over the years, you know I speak of that word a lot. But chesed, translated steadfast love or loving kindness, is God's special covenant love for his people and his people alone. His chesed He commands us, he said, to bring hope, strength, even joy with a song in one's heart. The psalmist, in a moment of weakness and doubt, poses the question to God, his rock, why have you forgotten me? At that very moment, it seems, though in real life it doesn't always come so quickly, the cry of confidence and faith wells up and in him, and out of his mouth, Hope in God. This same type of faith is memorably and powerfully expressed in Lamentations chapter 3. I'll read verses 16 through 24, but the entire chapter epitomizes this type of faith. He has made my teeth grind on gravel and made me cower in ashes. My soul is bereft of peace. I have forgotten what happiness is. So I say, my endurance has perished, so has my hope from the Lord. Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall. My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love that has said of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore, I will hope in him." Well, that brings us to part three, lead me home. And once again, I'll read this part again. 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. 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. 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 a 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." The psalmist's distress continues in the first two verses. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning? At the same time his desire, no it's really more than desire isn't it, his prayer, his prayer to God is expressed not only beautifully but poignantly in verse three. Send out your light and your truth, let them lead me, let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. This cry, this prayer to be led home to God is pregnant with meaning for the psalmist in his personal exile from Jerusalem. First, note that his desire is to be with a fellowship of believers, worshiping the Lord together, praying together, hearing God's word together. This is what is meant by God's holy hill in his dwelling. It is the fellowship of believers, God's church, Christ's bride. Secondly, the psalmist asks God to send his light and truth to lead the way back home. Perhaps he doesn't know the way back home or he is unable to escape his captors, but whatever the case, he is crying out to God, save me, save me from this deceitful and unjust enemy. God is his only hope. His only hope. God answered his prayer. And for you, beloved of God, who were once exiled from God, you who were lost and thirsty, wandering aimlessly in the desert of your sins, oppressed, enslaved, and deceived by the enemy. He did it. He did it. He sent his light and truth into the world, defeated our enemy, and led you home, and there he quenched your thirst eternally. As Christians, we can hear I can't really help but hear Jesus's words echoing in this song. I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. In my Father's house are many rooms. I go to prepare a place for you, and you know the way to where I'm going. I am the light, the truth. I am the way, the light, and the truth. And remember Jesus speaking to the Samaritan woman in John chapter four. Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. In John seven. Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Any repentant sinner, any repentant sinner whose hope is in Christ is no longer separated from God in exile. no longer in shackles to sin, no longer lost in groping about in darkness, but knows the way, the way, because the path is bright with light and shimmering with truth from God's Word. Our thirst has been quenched with rivers of living water. There's an irony here. Only after Christ has given us this water to eternally quench our thirst. Are we able to thirst for God like the psalmist? It is a perpetual appetite, this longing of one's heart after God. When it is as natural for us to long for God as it is for a deer to thirst, It is then when, as Charles Wesley put it in his great hymn, it is well with my soul. Psalm 43 ends with the same verse used twice before in Psalm 42. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me, hoping God? For I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. As I stated before, despite being a lament, the primary message of Psalm 42, 43 is hope. Have you ever thought about hope and just how important it is to your lives? Can you imagine not having hope? What is hope? Scientists sometimes define two diametrically opposed but related concepts simply as one being the absence of the other. For example, the simplest definition of darkness is, darkness is the absence of light, or we can define cold as the absence of heat. Darkness is not something that can be added to a brightly lit room to make it dark. Nor can it be removed to make a dark room light. Light has to be removed and added in order for there to be darkness or light. Hope and despair have a similar relationship. So that we can define or have a definition like this. Despair is the absence of hope. Despair is the absence of hope. And this is, in a sense, our base state of being. It seems that a person who has experienced utter darkness knows more profoundly the benefits of light. And one who has experienced extreme cold basks in warmth with more pleasure. So it is with hope and despair. If any one of you has ever experienced deep despair, you know how precious hope is. Hope inspires our minds with confidence in the midst of the greatest of troubles. John Calvin said that hope has the effect of elevating our thoughts to the contemplation of the grace of God when it is hidden from our view. Hebrews 11.1 defines faith as being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see meaning faith is not possible without hope and vice versa. In Romans 8 the Apostle Paul says that hope that is seen is no hope at all so it seems apparent that at least part of what hope is has to do with what we cannot see, what has not yet happened. The psalmist is still in exile, yet he is confident, he has hope that he will again be in God's presence and God will save him. He tells us and himself, hope in God. Paul in 1 Timothy says that Christ is our hope. And the author of Hebrews tells us that this hope, referring to Jesus, is an anchor for our souls. With that being said, I think we must modify the definition of despair stated previously, that despair is the absence of hope. Perhaps more correct, though one won't find it in Webster's dictionary, is this. Despair is the absence of Christ. Despair is the absence of Christ. Beloved, the unbelieving world is in the deepest despair. If your hope, if your hope is in anyone or anything other than Christ, it is false hope, mere wishful thinking. Why are you cast down, oh my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? hope in Christ, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day of worship and rest that you have so graciously given to us. We thank you for Jesus, who is indeed the anchor of our souls. Thank you that He, our suffering servant, can sympathize with all of our weaknesses. Thank you, Lord, for this great gift that we have. May we pant and long for you continually each day. We pray that your spirit would enable us to live this way. In Jesus' name, amen.