Samuel Smiles said, quote, hope is like the sun, which as we journey towards it casts the shadow of our burden behind us, unquote. Well, as you know, we've crossed over from 2021 into 2022. It's a new year. But you know, as I thought back, and as we can think back to 2020, we remember that we were kind of cautiously optimistic that we were going to come into 2021, we're going to be able to forget about COVID hopefully early on and then return to normal. Well, Look around, you know that that didn't happen. At least not to our expectation and certainly not to our satisfaction. In fact, we kind of find ourselves in a similar position still. But with that said, we do have a lot to be thankful for and we have much to be hopeful about as we move through 2022. Yeah, COVID has made things very challenging and frustrating for us and some more than others. But yet, and excuse me, and even the outlook right now, if you're listening to the news, doesn't appear to be all that encouraging. But this morning, I want us to gaze and turn our eyes towards heaven and towards Jesus Christ who is sitting on his throne. And let me just emphasize that, that he is sitting on his throne. You know, on more than one occasion, King David found himself in desperate places. And Psalm 42 is one of those examples. And it gives us a glimpse into David's heart as he needed encouragement and we can gain encouragement from it as well. And my desire this morning that we would all be encouraged today, but not just today, but we would be able to take away from this and be able to look towards it even throughout this year. One thing about hope, hope lightens our load. Hope gives us the ability to continue walking forward when we're in difficult places, or when we're lonely, and when we're desperate for renewal, and we want and need God to be near us. But what is our response when God doesn't appear to be near us, or he appears to be distant? Well, look with me again as I read these first five verses from Psalm 42 as we consider our first point this morning, which is David's desperate desire for the presence of God and the fellowship of other believers. As the deer pants pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, where is your God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me, for I used to go with the multitude. I went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. So David is providing us a wonderful word picture here of how he's feeling at this particular point in time of his life. He's thirsty. Or better yet, he's desperate for water. But he's not desperate for water from a well, but he's desperate for spiritual water. He's thirsting for God. And he likens it to a deer that has run a long distance and is now panting and in need of water. David is thirsting for the living God. And he asked the question, when can I appear before God? And this is a reference to the temple in Jerusalem. It was God's house. That's where God's presence was located. It was in the temple. And that is where David wanted to be. And he continues in verse 3 to state that his tears have been his food day and night. And what he really wants and what he really needs is the food that comes from the Word of God. Do you remember what Jesus said to his disciples when they returned to the well after Jesus had spoken to the Samaritan woman? They asked him about food and his response to them was, I have food to eat of which you do not know. And that was a little bit confusing to them. But what he was referring to and what David is referring to is the scriptures are food for the soul. And David would rather feast on scripture than actually eat a meal. And David, at this time, he's been on the run from his enemies. And his enemies are continually hounding him and asking and bothering him with this question, where is your God? They're basically saying to David, if your God is real, why isn't he helping you? But what David's enemies don't realize is that when God does show up to deliver David, or us for all that matters, They're going to be on the losing end of that fight. David finds himself with what we would call a dry mouth, spiritually speaking. And he's longing for God to give him that drink, that drink of living water. And that's what he would receive when he would go to the temple and meet with the throng of people that he would go with, this living water. And he would go into the temple with great joy and would be praising God with everything of his being. And he's remembering these days. with longing, and he's desperate for those days to be had again, when he can go and be in the temple. And so I ask you again, thinking back to 2020, when we had to close our doors, when we weren't able to come and worship together as a church family, did you have that same longing and desperation to be here as David is having in the mountains, in the wilderness that he finds himself in? I hope you did. I hope you did. Matthew Henry makes this observation, quote, Sometimes God teaches us effectually to know the worth of mercies by the want of them, and he whets our appetite for the means of grace by cutting us short in those means, unquote. And then of course Psalm 84 10 tells us, For a day in your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. And then we look at verse 5 and we see David begins to interrogate himself. He starts asking questions of himself. And the first question he asks is, why are you cast down on my soul? And then the second is, why are you disquieted within me? So when we find ourselves in those dark places, a place of depression or loneliness, do we allow ourselves to continue to wallow in the mud, muck, and mire, or do we do as David is doing here, and he's stopping, and he's asking himself, why? The questions he's asking are very specific. If I can put him another way, he's saying, why am I depressed? Or, why is my spirit disturbed? But notice how David answers his questions. The first thing he does, and what we should do, is direct our thoughts to the true and only source of relief, and that is God himself. And we see that David did this because of three words in the text, hope in God. He realizes that hope is not going to be found in his friends. It's not going to be found in wherever he's located at this moment. It's not going to be found in whatever possession he owns. It's only going to be found in God. He's the source of all good things. And even though David's situation has caused him great sadness, He remembered that the covenant that God made with Abraham, and he knew that God's promises remained firm. The second thing is he determined to praise God in his difficulty. Did you catch that? In his difficulty. He didn't wait to praise God when everything was rosy again, and neither can we. Consider these lyrics from that song by Casting Crowns, praise you in this storm. I was sure by now, God, you would have reached down and wiped our tears away, stepped in and saved the day. And once again, I say, amen, and it's still raining. But as the thunder rolls, I barely hear you whisper through the rain, I'm with you. And as your mercy falls, I'll raise my hands and praise the God who gives and takes away. And I'll praise you in this storm, and I will lift my hands, for you are who you are, no matter where I am. And every tear I've cried, you hold in your hand. You never left my side, and though my heart is torn, I will praise you in this storm." See, David had learned to praise God in his difficulties, and we need to do the same. But then David remembered something else. He remembered that God's countenance toward him. So notice that last line in verse 5, for the help of his countenance. So the countenance of God was David's help. And I can just imagine David remembering that priestly blessing that God instructed Aaron to speak over the nation of Israel back in Numbers chapter six, verse 24. Familiar words. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Man, what peace comes over us when we realize that the Almighty God has lifted up his face or his countenance toward us. And we certainly can't forget that David's experiences as a shepherd in the fields and caring for the flocks and those years that he was on the run from Saul and others, God was all he had. And David learned to find his hope in God alone. And again, so should we. And this brings us to our second point this morning, where we discuss David's desperate desire for spiritual renewal, verses 6 through 8. Draw your attention to verse 6. Oh my God, my soul is cast down within me. Therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, and from the heights of Hermon, and from the hill Mizar. Deep calls unto deep at the noise of your waterfalls, and all your waves and billows have gone over me. The Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, a prayer to the God of my life." So David not only directed his thoughts to the only source of hope. But now he's crying out to that same source. He's crying out to God concerning his crushed spirit. Look at the first part of verse 6 again, where he cries out, Oh my God, my soul is cast down within me. David is dejected. He feels alone and parched in spirit. But he also knows that feelings are deceptive, and so he follows up that statement with, I will remember you. And so David took time to purposely search his memory for God's past blessings and past deliverances. I don't know what he was thinking or what went through his mind, but how about we consider some of these things? Such as how God condescended to him when he was poor and needy. or how he experienced God's loving kindness to him in the past, especially when he would meet God in the temple. David knew that God was his God, meaning God saw him, he knew him, and he cared for him, and that God's promise to be faithful to his own. Henry March makes this statement, quote, oh how happy, even in the midst of their unhappiness are they who in their trials can thus take shelter in God, unquote. But David also goes on to mention three very specific locations where God's faithfulness was experienced by the people of Israel. The first is the land of the Jordan, and I wonder if he was referring to when the Israelites crossed the Jordan River on dry ground. And then he thought about the heights of Hermon, and that's where God defeated two kings, King Sihon and King Og, because of their ill-treatment of the nation of Israel. And then lastly, the hill Mizor, which means little, and many believe that this hill is near Mount Sinai, which is where God gave the law to Moses. And then David continues in verse 7 to communicate just how overwhelmed he's feeling. Look at verse 7 where David says, David's tired. He doesn't feel like he has much strength left, and out of those very depths of deep sorrow, he is crying out to God for God's deepest mercies. And of course, we remember from Psalm 136, that repeated refrain, actually 26 times in the chapter, his mercy endures forever. See, God's mercy is ever-present, even in our deepest depression. and God's mercy was underneath David. And so even at David's deepest point of sorrow, God's mercy was deeper, it was underneath him. And John Bunyan had this to say concerning God's mercy, quote, do of thy compassions, open those everlasting arms and catch him that has no help or stay in himself, unquote. So what a wonderful hope that we have that God will open up his everlasting arms and catch us before we hit bottom. But notice this, notice that the waves, the billows, and the waterfalls, they're all attributed to God. Look again at verse seven where we read, your waterfalls and all your waves and billows. God had designed these trials and these difficulties for David and he does the same even for us because he's trying to grow us in our faith. He's trying to teach us that we need to depend upon the living God and draw closer to him and to be more like him. And then David continues in verse 8 to encourage himself by stating two things, two facts. And the first is this, Jehovah will command his loving kindness in the daytime. Command. That's a word of authority. God is going to preserve David by his love, his mercy, and his grace all through this desert time of his soul. And then secondly, David says that God is going to be his song in the night. And one commenter suggests that the happiest time for the godly person is actually at night. Because in the daytime, our minds are being bombarded with all this stuff of the day, but at night, in those night hours, we can say, as Job said, have our delight in the Almighty and lift up our faith to God, Job 22, 26. And then David concludes his psalm with what is our third point, his desperate desire for God to remember him. And that's verses 9 through 11. I will say to God my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do I go on mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with the breaking of my bones, my enemies reproach me. While they say to me all day long, where is your God? Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, the help of my countenance and my God. So David is desperate for God to remember him, but yet at the same time he refers to God as my rock in verse 9. So this doesn't sound like somebody who's actually been forgotten. In fact, don't interpret David's words to mean that he's been forgotten or abandoned by God, because he hasn't. God has not abandoned David. Rather, David is expressing how he feels. He feels like God has forgotten him, but he knows better. Deep in his soul, he knows better. So as we consider David's present circumstances when he's writing this, he says that he's mourning because of the oppression of the enemy, and specifically, he says that the reproach of his enemy is like the breaking of my bones. The King James Version says, with a sword in my bones. But either way you want to phrase it, David is communicating that he is, as Plummer said, in excruciating pain. And then there's that continued taunting of, where is your God? See, these oppressions that are on David are heavy, and they continue day after day after day, and there doesn't appear to be any relief or any deliverance. And so we can kind of get an understanding why David may feel like he's been forgotten. But Hebrews 13.5 reminds us something very important, in that God will never leave you or forsake you. Now David concludes this psalm by repeating the refrain that we saw in verse 5. However, the last phrase is slightly different. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, the help of my countenance and my God. Since we've already talked about the refrain from verse five, I'm not gonna go through it again, but I do want to focus our attention on the end of this verse, the help of my countenance. See, our countenance is the window to our soul. It tells a lot about how we're feeling and what's going on inside of us. In fact, our facial expressions will also give us a clue of whether we're sad, happy, joyful, and so on. And David understood that his countenance was down. He knew that he appeared dejected and he also knew that he needed to change his perspective. He needed a new viewpoint. And so, how did he get that new viewpoint? Well, I think we have a clue. If you look ahead with me at chapter 43 and verse 3, I think we get a little indication of how David encouraged himself. Listen as I read verse 3. Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your tabernacle. David understood that getting to the actual tabernacle or the temple in Jerusalem probably wasn't going to happen anytime soon. But if God would send out his light and his truth, it would transport him, spiritually speaking, to the temple, to God's mountain. And in doing so, David would once again experience the joy of God's presence. So look back with me again at verse 11. In those last two words of the verse, it says, my God, at the end. And it's not without meaning. David had his hope firmly established in God. He knew that God was his God, and he had total confidence that God was going to restore him at the right time. And so, basically, this is how David could answer the enemy's taunting of, where is your God? Because David could say that God is right here with me, right now. See, David had good reason to hope in God. God had already proven his faithfulness to David in his early days, tending the sheep, and through his continued protection from Saul and his other enemies. So as we draw to a close this morning, I want us to follow David's example. When things are looking dark, turn your eyes upon Jesus, as the old chorus says. Again Plummer writes, quote, although the Lord for time shall neither remove the outward affliction nor inwardly give comfort, yet faith will sustain itself by the covenant and lay its whole weight upon it, unquote. So when you find yourself in those difficult times, you're lonely, you're depressed, you're hurting, Cry out to God, ask him to reveal himself in a fresh new way to you through his word. See, God may at times seem to be distant, but he's not. When he seems that way, it's for a reason, it's for a purpose. It's because he wants us to love him with all our heart, soul, and mind, as Matthew 22, 37 reminds us. See, our hearts get encumbered with so many things. And when that happens, we begin to get our focus off of the Lord. So then God will begin to orchestrate circumstances and things in our life that will release our hearts from those encumbrances and get our focus back on Him once again. And one of the ways this morning that we can get our focused turn back to Christ is to consider his sacrifice on the cross for our sins. Listen to what Jesus said in John 15, 13. He says, no greater love has one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. And that's exactly what Jesus did for us. That was why he was born. That's why we celebrate Christmas. Jesus suffered the absolute worst that Satan could throw at him. And at one point, while Christ was hanging on the cross, he yelled out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? See, God had turned away from Christ when the sin of the world was placed upon him. But Christ wasn't abandoned. Oh, no. On the third day, God raised him up. He was victorious over death, hell, and the grave. Amen? Amen. So let's conclude this morning with David's refrain once again. Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God. Let me repeat those last few words. Hope in God. Let those three words be your rallying cry throughout 2022 when you find yourself in difficult ways. Hope in God. With that, let's pray this morning.