Jesus, the name that calms our fears and bids our sorrows cease. We love to sing that, Lord, but we know that there's a lot more to that than just saying the name Jesus. There's times when our sorrows and our fears are massive, they're gripping, they get hold of us, and they won't let us go ten seconds without stirring something up in our heart that's painful. especially relationship problems and hurts that bring us down to the depths. And we know, Lord, it's not just a matter of just saying the name Jesus and we feel better. Jesus is the name that charms our fears and bids our sorrows cease, but there's a process to it. And there's a lot of components, and Lord, You're teaching us those in this, these two Psalms. And so we, again, we pray, Lord, please send your spirit. Come upon us in power this morning that we might have our eyes opened, that you would send forth your light and your truth to lead us into your dwelling place. We need that light now, right now in this hour. We can look at these words and we can hear this message and the lights won't go on if not for your spirit. Send your spirit, show us the way. We pray it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Does anybody remember that song by Margaret Becker, Deep, Calling Deep? Anybody ever heard that song? I actually had a clip, I was gonna play it and I forgot to bring it, but I used to love that song. young whippersnappers want to know what contemporary Christian music was like back in the mid-90s, just dial that up on YouTube and listen to Deep Calling. Actually, it wasn't the whole song I liked, that was just the chorus. This little 20-second segment of the song that I just like the way she sang it. Deep calling deep. The rest of the song is kind of boring musically actually. But that whole song is based on, it comes from Psalm 42 that we've been studying these last few weeks. and the chorus and the title of the song, Deep Calling Deep, comes from verse 7. So look at verse 7 of Psalm 42. He says, he says, deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls. Now this is what happens when you listen to a contemporary Christian song before you study the Bible is you end up with sometimes some wrong interpretations. Turns out the only part of the song that I liked was the only part of the song that's actually a misinterpretation of scripture. she took the phrase deep calling deep to mean something like something deep down in my soul cries out to the depths of God's soul and actually that's not a bad idea, that's actually a pretty good summary of what Psalm 42 is all about. I just don't think that's what this particular phrase means because look at the context, look at the immediate context, verse 7. It says, deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls all your waves and breakers have swept over me." This is in the midst of a lament. In the ancient Jewish mind, the word deep was a very foreboding, scary word. The Jews were not a seagoing people at all and so they thought of the ocean as the place that's just utterly inhospitable to man. It's a place of danger and chaos and darkness and death and so that word, deep, is very often used in Scripture in context of judgment. God's judgment, or to describe the severity of God in dealing with men. That word is what developed into the New Testament concept of the abyss. When you see the word abyss in the New Testament, it's this word. And so the idea of the depths of the abyss calling out to even deeper, darker reaches of the abyss, coupled with the idea of waves and breakers and waterfalls crashing over and sweeping over him. These are all images that the psalmist is using to describe the magnitude of his dark, miserable, terrifying, hopeless situation in just the strongest terms that he can think of. Our man here is deeply depressed. Now, in these weeks you might have seen this, it's like, well, if he's such a godly man, you know, he's exemplary, he's in the Bible as an example for us, If he's such a godly man, why didn't he just consider it pure joy? Right? Doesn't he know about James? Well, I guess he doesn't know about James, but he would know the principle, right? Isn't Scripture all full of information about the value of trials and suffering? Why doesn't he consider it pure joy, knowing that the testing of our faith develops perseverance? Here's why. He could do that if it were just hardships. If it were just a matter of undergoing painful circumstances, yeah, he could count it all joy in his suffering. But that can't happen here, because not only is this guy suffering, but he's suffering in a position distanced from the presence of God. If he had the presence of God nearby to give him joy and strength and peace, then sure, he could consider it pure joy. He could rejoice all through his suffering. He could have joy greater than his sorrow. but he's having to go through this suffering without that, and that's unbearable. And so he's striving with everything, and he knows that's the problem, so he's striving with everything in him to find the presence of God. That's the theme of the psalm, everything he can do to find God. And so he pours out his soul to God with this prayer that's a, like I said, it's a lament, it's a complaint. And sometimes you see complaints in the psalms, you think, now again, I thought, didn't the Bible say complaining is bad? We're not supposed to complain. We're a culture of encouragement, right? Isn't the church supposed to be a place that's a grumble-free zone in the midst of a grumbling world? Haven't we learned that? Yeah, it is. It is. Most complaining is strictly forbidden in Scripture because it dishonors God. But there's one kind of complaining that's allowed. There's one kind of complaining that actually glorifies God, honors God, pleases God. He likes it when we do that, and so he allows that kind of complaining. The one and only thing that we are allowed to complain about in this life is not enough nearness to the presence of God. You can do that all day long. God, I don't have enough of you. I don't have enough of you right now. If you don't have enough of the nearness of God's presence, enough grace from God, enough of His face turning toward you, and so you cry out to Him to give you those things, that honors Him, that glorifies Him, because that points to Him as the great treasure of your heart, right? That's what this guy is doing, and so God took His prayer, put it in the Bible as an example for all the saints throughout the ages of this is the way out of the darkness of depression and discouragement, back to joy. And it really does teach us a lot. I mean, there's so many principles in these Psalms that we've seen so far. And we've grouped them under, just to kind of organize them, we've grouped them under three main headings, just so we can think them through. The main, the way to gain joy, get your joy back, when your soul is downcast, is these three things. Remember PEP, P-E-P, pray for help, enjoy the presence of God, and preach to your soul. The first one, prayer, he teaches us that by example. That's what this psalm is, it's a prayer, it's what he's doing. He calls it that in verse 8 of 42, a prayer to the God of my life. And it's an especially fervent, passionate, heartfelt prayer. 42.4, he says, these things I remember as I pour out my soul. So that's the first P in PEP, pray. E stands for enjoy God's presence, that's one of the most Again, that's the prominent theme throughout the prayer, and we're spending most of our time on that. How do you enjoy God's presence? Well, remember last week, first, get thirsty. Work up an appetite for God by interpreting all the suffering and sorrow in your life as cravings for Him. Next, go to the altar. When you're hungry and thirsty enough, you'll start seeking after God, and that begins at the altar. You have to deal with your sin through confession and repentance and then trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. What he did on the cross is the only way to deal with sin. You've got to start there. You cannot approach the presence of God while there's still sin in your life that's not dealt with. So preach the gospel to yourself over and over. And then next, immerse yourself in the light and truth that he sent forth in his word. Go back to scripture. And that's where we left off last time. Go back to scripture. Remember a few weeks back, at the end of James, we talked about Elijah and his depression. He got so discouraged and he went off by himself and asked God to take his life. That's how discouraged he was. How did God bring Elijah out of that darkness, out of that depression, to where he wanted to just die? Well, we could really spend a lot of time on that, but just briefly, look at 1 Kings 19.4. He says, This is Elijah praying. He says, God, I've had enough. I've had enough. Take my life. In verse 5, then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. All at once, an angel touched him and said, get up and eat. And he looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, a jar of water. And he ate, drank, and he lay down again. So that's pretty amazing. He goes a day's journey into the desert, all by himself, middle of the desert, middle of nowhere, wilderness, lays down to die, wakes up and he's at the old country buffet all of a sudden. This is all his food. And so he eats the food, goes back to sleep. Verse 7, the angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you. And so he got up and he ate and drank again. So what was God's solution? That's God's solution? Food and rest? It's not very spiritual. Actually, that's absolutely a good solution. We understand there's a very strong connection between the body and the soul, right? We understand that. And so when your body is weak, it is much, much harder for you to fight for joy, to do the spiritual things you need to do to fight for joy, when your body is weak. If you're struggling emotionally, the first thing you do, try getting eight hours of sleep. I know one counselor who has just said that. Could people come to me? I tell them, get eight hours of sleep for a week, every night for a week, then come back and see if you still have this problem. And then eat a healthy diet. Get your body strong. Amazing how much more strength you'll have spiritually when you're stronger physically. If you're depressed, if you're really depressed, go to a doctor. Go to a medical doctor. Find out if there's a medical problem. So that's a good thing to do. So yeah, first step was to restore Elijah's strength physically with some good rest and nourishment and refreshment and all that. That's not the only thing God did. One of the dangers in our current culture right now, our psychotherapy culture, is they want to reduce everything down to only physical issues. Depression is just physical, that's all it is. Just chemicals, messed up, imbalanced, and you just get that balanced out, you'll be fine. They think that joy and lack of joy is mainly a matter of just chemicals. And what they fail to realize is that Just as your body can have an effect on your emotions, it can go the other way around too. Your emotions and your spirit and what's going on in your soul has an effect on your body. Bad thoughts can produce bad chemicals. And right thoughts about God can reverse chemical problems in the brain. Depression isn't mainly something that happens to your brain or your body. It also happens to your spirit. So even if there are some physical factors that got you into depression, and there are some physical things that you can do to lift yourself back out, there's also some spiritual things that need to happen. Sometimes you can't do anything about the physical problem. But the spiritual remedies are always there. Joy in God can help you out of even a physically induced depression. So let's look at what God does next. First, He just gets them rested up and well-fed. twice, and then after getting him all set and hydrated and nourished and everything, he tells Elijah, all right, now get up and go and travel another 200 miles on foot, after he's already gone 100 miles, 200 more miles out of the country to Mount Horeb. Now Horeb, that's just another name for Sinai. That's where Moses met God. That's where Moses encountered God and received what? He received the Word, right? He got the law. He got God's Word. on Mount Sinai. So this means something. He's telling this prophet, okay, now go travel down to Sinai, down to Horeb. And then in 1 Kings 19, 11, the Lord said, go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. Then a great powerful wind tore the mountain apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave." Now, what's the point of all that? Let's go back to why Elijah was depressed. Remember when we talked about that? He was depressed because even after all the amazing, spectacular displays of divine, miraculous power, the sending fire down from heaven, burning up the altar, burning up the rocks, everything else, licking up the water, the big showdown on Mount Carmel with Baal and humiliating Baal and everything. After all that, nothing happened. No impact. The queen, the king, all they want to do is kill Yahweh's prophet. They're not converted. They still reject Yahweh. And so it seems like, to Yahweh's prophet Elijah, it seems like his life's a failure, right? His whole ministry's a complete failure. And so he's discouraged. So what does God do? He tells him, go get up on this mountain. Then he sends this mountain where God met with his man, Moses. And then God brings fire and wind and earthquake and these huge, spectacular, miraculous displays. And Elijah does not encounter God in those miracles. When does he encounter God? The Holman translation here is the most literal rendering of verse 12. In verse 12 it says, literally, after the fire there was a voice, a gentle whisper. So the emphasis isn't on the softness of it, the emphasis is on the fact that it was a voice. It was a voice. The word voice comes first, which means that's where the emphasis is in the Hebrew. The point isn't so much that when God speaks, sometimes people read this passage and think, oh, what this means is when God speaks, it's quiet, not loud. I don't think that's the point. The point is that if you want to encounter God, it's not going to happen through his miracles, it's going to happen through his word, through his voice speaking. That's where you encounter God. The most profound encounter you can have with the presence of God is going to come through his voice. Yeah, Elijah, fire came down from heaven, burn up the altar, all that stuff, and that didn't reach their hearts. Yeah, that's true, but there's something more powerful even than fire from heaven. There's something more powerful and profound even than miracles. God's voice. And the hearts, if hearts are going to change, that's how it's going to happen. And Jesus verified that too, by the way, didn't he? You don't see a whole lot of hearts being won over through his miracles. People were amazed at his miracles, but their hearts were won over by his words. So the writer of Psalm 43 understands that. Instead of asking God to send a whole bunch of signs and wonders and blast his enemies and everything else, he says, give me light and truth. Show me the way into your presence. All of this is still under the heading, just go back to the word of God. That's the way out. When you're depressed, strive to encounter God in the scriptures. And I realize that's way easier said than done. I understand that. Because depression takes away your motivation. Digging into the Word of God is hard work, and the last thing you have the motivation to do when you're depressed is any hard work. I remember a time in my life when I was so broken and crushed emotionally, and so much pain, that I was actually lying on my bed, face down. In college this happened to me, and I was just soaking my bed with tears. And my Bible was on the bed, within arm's reach, right there on my bed. And I honestly felt like I did not have the strength to reach my hand over one foot and open it up. I couldn't do it. I mean, I wrestled to do that, I don't know how long, for a considerable amount of time, just trying to work up the strength just to open that thing up. Major battle. Thankfully, I finally got it open, and by God's grace, it happened to open to Job 38, just exactly what I needed at that time. I just read Job 38, 39, 40, and it was just what I needed to show me the way into God's presence, and before long I was back up on my feet. So I know, I know it's not easy to get into the Scriptures when you feel this way. I counseled one woman who was probably the most depressed person I've ever counseled. She could barely walk. She'd come into the counseling room and the whole time her head is laying on the table. I mean, she was almost like she was catatonic. She was barely even conscious, it seemed. And I knew there's no way she's ever going to just, if I gave her an assignment to go home and read the Bible, she's not going to read it. So I went and got a cheap MP3 player at Walmart, and I just filled it, loaded it full of scriptures and psalms and encouraging, uplifting sermons and Johnny Erickson Tata's book about suffering, her audio book. And I just said, just put that by your bedside when you wake up in the morning, You just got to get the strength to reach over and put those earbuds in your ear and just hit play. You just get that far and just lay there. Just let it sink in. And she did that. And she did that and it's amazing because she'd struggled this way her whole life and within a few weeks she was completely recovered from her depression and was full of joy. And to this day is doing well. And that doesn't say anything about my counseling. It says everything about the power of God's Word, right? That's what gets you there. So all that to say, I know it's hard, but it's essential. You've got to find your way into that place where God's smile can melt the icicles that have formed around your heart. And you've got to find that place. And the only GPS that can get you there is the Word of God. Those icicles will melt when you're close to Him, when you have communion with Him, fellowship with Him through the day. And when I talk about fellowship with God, experiencing His presence, communion with Him. Don't think I'm talking about some weird mystical religious experience that happens once in a blue moon. Experiencing God's presence can and should happen all day long. All day long, all through the ordinary, regular situations as you interpret those situations through the lens of the truth of Scripture. When you look through those lenses of God's truth, and you look at everything that happens to you all through the day, through those lenses, then you can turn every act of the day into a little act of fellowship with God. Everything you're doing all through the day. So you do your work, and you experience His presence by viewing your work through the lens of scripture, thinking about it biblically. I'm a tool in God's hand right now. You know, when you're at your job and you're working, you're doing, send an email, you're doing whatever you're doing, and you're just like, God called me to this. I'm a tool in God's hand. He's running this whole planet and He's using me right here. I'm carrying out His purposes. Or your role in your family. I'm being a wife, a mother, a son, a sister, a child, whatever, and you're a tool in God's hands doing what He wants done in that family from your role. God put, at that moment, God put His hand on your shoulder and said, you, you, I'm entrusting you with this part of my administration of this world. Do this for me. Go, do it. And when you see it that way, and you're alert to the fact that that's what's happening, you can have a moment of just enjoying the feeling of being a tool in God's hand at that moment, and that enjoyment right there, that's experiencing the presence of God. That's it. It's as simple as that. There's so many different ways that you can do that all through the day. You can have communion with God. You can experience His presence by being enlightened by Him as you submissively learn at His feet. by being listened to by Him as you lift up your hands to Him in prayer like a child in His lap. You can have communion by being sheltered and protected by Him as you run to Him as your refuge. You can have communion with Him by being provided for by Him as you take a seat at His bountiful table. You can do it by being strengthened by Him as you feel his power through your trials, when he takes you by the hand, you just have the ability to handle something. That's him. That's his presence strengthening you. You can enjoy his presence by being thrilled by his glory, kneeling before his throne in praise, or by being used by him as a tool in his hand and a fountainhead through which his grace flows to people. You can do it by being close to him as you walk by his side, having the same affections and desires and loves that he has and hates. You see something evil and you say, I hate that. God hates that. Ah, we're together. And you're just walking by his side, having the same affections. You can do it by being chastised by him as you walk with him to the woodshed. That's still his love. He's right there with you. By being healed and restored by him as you lie on his operating table. by being sanctified and made holy by Him as you're being shaped by the potter's wheel, and by suffering with the Lord Jesus Christ as you join Him by carrying your cross. So many ways to draw near to God's presence and most of it simply boils down to just simply being aware of what He's doing and enjoying it. Enjoying the fact this is a perfect God doing this. Look at every detail of life through the lens of what the Bible says about God. That's why it's so important for us to understand what God is like. So much of the solution to being depressed and discouraged is just simply look upward instead of downward, right? I mean, that's the problem. Three times in these psalms he says, Why are you downcast, O my soul? Depression is both the cause and a result of a downward gaze. You look only at his world. You look only at your trouble, only at these people that are hurting you, only at this crisis that happens, and you stop looking up at God. You're like Peter, he stops looking at Christ on the water when he's walking on the water. And the solution, when that happens, is to just simply stop looking down and start looking up again. Why are you down, Casto? That's what he says to his soul. Why are you down, Casto? My soul, put your hope in God. Look up, up, up. Look back up. Get your eyes back up on him. If the problem is being downcast, then the solution is to be upcast. Now, I know this kind of sounds like a cliche. Oh, you're depressed? Look up. Just look up. That would be a shallow cliche if all it meant was, well, think happy thoughts instead of sad ones. But it goes so much deeper than that. Scripture teaches that the gaze of the soul causes you to be conformed to what it is you're gazing at. So when we look at God's glory, it transforms us. It has an effect. Changes you. And failure to do it will kill you. Now last week I did the best I could to make the point that your conception of God is going to determine the trajectory of your life. What you believe about God. Your way of thinking about what God is like determines how your whole life will go. And I try to make that point. It can push you down into discouragement, lift you up into joy. That statement, I'm worried about it. I'm worried about it, because it's one of those statements that sounds good in a religious setting, you know, sitting in here, and it's just really a sermon kind of a thing, but when it comes to the real practical nuts and bolts of living day-to-day life, it just doesn't really seem to be true. Your conception of God determines trajectory of your life. I mean, if somebody has a list of beliefs about God, and they have these beliefs instead of those beliefs, you know, I mean, how is that going to make any real difference in real-life situations like someone in your house keeps making a mess and expecting you to clean it up? Or someone's making fun of you at school, or your spouse keeps spending money that you do not have, or or you keep forgetting important things, and you're paying late fees, and you know, whatever, and you've got these problems, all these problems in your life. Your conceptions about theology, how's that going to help any of that? Most people think that their beliefs about God are just matters of opinion, and it's just, it's like, it has no more impact on the matters of day-to-day life than your opinions about Plato, or Aristotle, or you know, whatever. So I just want to take the time this morning to point you to just two attributes of God. There's hundreds of them, but let's just take two and show you, because they're the two that really show up in this psalm the most, and I want to show you how your conception about just those two attributes of God can change everything about the way you live life and the way you feel. Your understanding of these two attributes of God will determine how you react to the hardships of life, and we'll see it in this psalm. Just imagine somebody who's never heard of God, reading this psalm. They don't even know who God is, what God is, what the word means, anything. And they start reading this psalm. Imagine how perplexed they would be. I mean, the psalmist describes these horrible circumstances in his life, these terrible, terrible things, and he describes them as God's waves and breakers and waterfalls sweeping over him. They're from God. He sees all of his suffering, no question, he sees all of his suffering is coming from God. And yet, The deepest longing of this guy's heart is to draw near to this God who's hurting him. To meet with this God who's sending all this catastrophe into his life and calamity that he's going through. He longs to meet with the one who's hurting him. How do you explain that? Has this guy lost his mind? If God's sending the pain, how is the solution to the pain getting closer to God? Well, he hasn't lost his mind and his words make perfect sense if you understand these two crucial attributes of God. Number one, God is sovereign. Number two, God is good. Very often the reason we get depressed or we get jammed up in a number of different ways in our spiritual life is because of wrong responses to suffering. and almost all wrong responses to suffering are due to getting confused on one of those two points. So let's take a look at how the psalmist thought about these two points. First, the sovereignty of God. Sometimes people will come up with doctrines that say that God has nothing to do with hardships that come our way. what they want to do is protect God. They're building a theology to protect God from being guilty of sending bad stuff into life. And so they just can't stand the thought of this excruciating thing that happened to me, this horrific thing that's happened in my life, came from the hand of my God. I can't, no, I don't want to think that. I don't want to think that. And so they come up with a theology that says somehow that piece was just out of God's hands. He's not at fault for that. It's out of his hands. It's free will. It's something. Because what they think is, there's no way that God could be loving and be the one who sent this calamity. There's just no way. They just can't go together. And I know he's loving, therefore this trial can't be coming from him. That's their reasoning. When you draw that conclusion, Okay, how can God be loving? Oh, He's just not in charge of this stuff that's coming my way. As soon as you make that conclusion, congratulations, you just made all the suffering and all the trials in your life completely meaningless. If you think God just takes His hands off and just says, well, I'm just gonna let evil people do whatever they want with their free will, I'm not gonna intervene and all the terrible things, if that's true, then all these horrific things that happen in your life are absolutely meaningless, purposeless, random events. Your child gets killed by a drunk driver? Meaningless. Died for nothing. Romans 8, 28 doesn't apply if some evil person's free will is involved. Doesn't apply. Not everything works together for good for you. And since almost everything that happens in your life that's a problem involves some evil person somewhere, then almost everything in your life is completely meaningless. This is not the way to go. And that's not what scripture teaches. It's certainly not what this guy believed. I mean, he knew what the ultimate source of his suffering was. Look at 43.7. Again, I just want to show you. Deep calls to deep in the roar of, and you can circle it, your waterfalls. And all your waves and breakers have swept over me. It's very clear. He believes this is coming from God. Now, what was happening? What were the hardships that were happening to this guy? Well, he's being oppressed and treated unjustly by deceitful and wicked men. That's what he says in the psalm. That's the problem. Bad people are doing really bad things to him and he interprets that as God's waterfalls and God's waves and breakers. That's how he interprets it. These devastating waves crashing over his head, one right after another, are God's waves and breaks. How can that be? If God is never the author of evil, which he's not, right? He's not, then how can I say that he's the one behind the sin that's happening to me, that this evil person is perpetrating on me? How can that be? If he's not an author of sin, how can he be behind the sin that's happening to me? How can that be? Answer? I don't know. It's a mystery. It's a mystery. But the fact that it's hard to understand doesn't make it any less true. It's true. God does not cause evil, but he is the one that decides whether the evil is going to be allowed to happen and whether it's going to be allowed to touch your life. And sometimes he says, no, it won't. And sometimes he says, yeah, it will. God can prevent anything. And He often does prevent evil people from doing evil things, but other times He lets it happen, and when He does, it's accurate to say that it came from God. That's the way the Bible speaks. That's the way Job spoke. All these horrible things happened to Job. What did he say? Job 121, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Who's taken away? The Lord. You say, wait, hasn't Job read the book of Job? It was Satan. Wasn't it Satan who took everything away from Job? Yes, it was. It was. But who gave Satan the green light to do that? God did. And so it's accurate. In chapter 2, verse 10, he says, shall we accept good from God and not trouble? We've got to accept trouble from God. This trouble is from God. And then he makes a point. The writer makes a point. Job did not sin in saying this. He was right. Both good and trouble come from God. And then the end of the book, 42.11, they comforted him, consoled him over all the trouble that who? The Lord had brought upon him." So the narrator of the book under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says, it was the Lord. It was the Lord. This is all over scripture. Lamentations 3.38, is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come? It all comes from God. Amos 3.6, when disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it? Ecclesiastes 7.14, when times are good, be happy, but when they're bad, consider God has made the one as well as the other. Both come from God. First Samuel, even death. First Samuel 2.6, the Lord brings death and he makes alive. He brings down to the grave and he raises up. Somebody dies, that was the Lord. That was the Lord's decision. Isaiah 45.7, I form the light and create the darkness. I bring prosperity and create disaster. I, the Lord, do all these things. And you might think, well, okay, that applies only to like natural disasters and stuff, but not when human free will. I mean, when human free will, that's, then God backs off. So the scripture says, what happened with Joseph? When Joseph's brothers committed the sin of selling him into slavery, Joseph said, Genesis 50, 20, you intended it for evil, but God, now what's this next word? What did God do? Intended. Intended. What does that mean? He meant it. He intended. That means he did it. He did it. That involves human free will. Is God guilty of sin? No, but he intended this. Even the most wicked sin that's ever even been committed, the murder of the Son of God. Is God behind that? Acts 4, 28. They're praying to God and they say these people that murdered Jesus, they did what your power and will decided beforehand should happen. It's right there. Do I need to keep going? Because I could. We could do this all day. It's everywhere in Scripture. The assumption that God is sovereign over absolutely every single thing that ever happens, the bad, the good, that permeates every chapter in Scripture. It's just the underlying assumption. We need to know this fact about God way down at the controlling level, like we talked about last week, like your belief in gravity, to where it's just unshakable. You just assume it. Every single thing that ever happens, your heart just automatically sees it as coming from God. It's the way we've got to live. You'll get along so much better with the people, your spouse or your family, you'll get along so much better if you see the things they do wrong as coming from God, they're tests from God, from a loving God. I mean that's, we have to look at life through that lens. So that's one truth about God, that's one attribute. The other truth about God that we need to know deep down at the controlling level is that God is good. The kindness and goodness of God. Now again, natural human reasoning can't figure out how can God be sovereign and be the one sending all this trouble and also be good and never the author of evil? How can that be when there's evil in the world? and they can't figure it out and so again they latch onto one truth or the other and reject the opposite one because they can't fit them together and so some people say well God can't be loving and sovereign and I know he's loving therefore he's not sovereign and we saw that doesn't work biblically but there's other people who go the other way there's other people that they take it the other direction they say I know God is sovereign because I just read all those verses I just read I mean it all comes from him he's sovereign I know he's in control everything's coming from him I know this trouble in my life came from God, but I don't see how that can be compatible with God being loving. Therefore, He's not loving towards me. He's not for me in this instance. Generally, He's loving towards me, but in this instance, He's not really loving me. These kind of people figure that God is carrying out His program, and that's what He mainly is concerned about, His own glory. And so whenever His program and His glory conflicts with my interest, then His program wins and I lose. God does whatever's best for his own glory and he doesn't always do what's best for me. I can't run to him as a shelter because sheltering me might not fit with his agenda in a particular instance. And so these people have the attitude that God's just not really for them. Maybe it's because of their theories about sovereignty. that they think that way, or maybe it's because they feel like God is just irritated with them all the time because they fail so often. But for one reason or another, they just don't think God is on their side, that He's for them. He might be against them, or He might just be indifferent about them, He doesn't care, but He's not for them. This psalmist won't let us think that way. I mean, he didn't think that way at all. Remember what came out last week in all the ways that he addresses God through this whole prayer? My Savior, my God, the God of my life, God my rock, God my stronghold, God the gladness of my rejoicing. This is the way he refers in a little two-minute prayer. He just refers to God as all this stuff. Even when it felt like God had rejected him, he talks this way. He knew that God was for him and not against him. One verse that really stands out in these two Psalms is verse 8. Take a look at 42.8. And I say it stands out because throughout the whole prayer, he's gone back and forth between talking to God about himself and talking to himself about God. It's back and forth, back and forth, all through those two things. Four times he speaks to God about himself, three times he speaks to himself about God. But there's one verse that's unique, verse 8, This one verse stands out because this is the only place in the psalm where instead of talking to God about himself or himself about God, he stops and speaks to us about God. He just stops and it's different from all the other statements in the whole psalm. It's a different character. He interrupts his prayer to God and preaching to himself. He interrupts that, turns to us, looks us square in the eye, and makes this declarative statement about what God is like. Verse 8. Here's what he's like, by day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me. That's meant to stand out in the psalm because it's different, it's unique. The word directs, just as the normal Hebrew word for commands. God commands his love. That word is often used of commissioning. Sending someone, sending a servant or employee or something to go do a task. Like if you had a subordinate at work and you said, here, go do this for me and then report back. God does that with his love. He gives orders to his love. God says to his own love, love, do you see my child down there? Do you see her? Do you see her struggling? Do you see her starting to drown in the abyss under the waves and breakers that I sent into her life? Do you see that? I want you to go down there and wrap your arms around her and let her feel my approval and my love. Your job, love, is to go down there and put some joy into her heart. Now go! Do it! Now, he's giving orders to his love. That's what God is like. He commissions his love to wrap its arms around me. Just like Psalm 23, where it says, Surely his goodness and love will follow me, pursue me, hunt me down, chase me down, all the days of my life." God sends His love. He does that by day. And then at night, His song is with me. Earlier in the psalm, He said, His tears are running day and night. Day and night, they're hurting me. Day and night, my tears are running. Well, this is the complement to that. Day and night also, God's love is coming to Him. Day and night. The lines are parallel, so His song is with me, is parallel with He sends His love, He commands His love. So God loves me in such a way as to give me a reason to sing. The main purpose of singing is to express joy in the heart. That's what singing is for. So the idea is that God has loved me in such a way as to give me a reason to sing, to feel good. Anyone of you ever have your mom or dad tell you, stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about? Anybody ever get that one? Yeah. I did. I like God's approach better. He says, stop crying because I'm about to give you something to sing about. That's what he's saying. So this declarative statement about what God is like in verse 8 stands right in the center of the prayer. It's like he's just driving a stake into the ground and saying, this is what God is like. Yes, trouble comes from the waves and breakers. They come from God, yes. But that trouble will never, ever, ever be allowed to conflict with God's love for you. He hasn't promised that to unbelievers. They might get trouble that ruins them. it's ultimately bad for them but for us Romans 828 it's still in the book we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him for the good all things not not when it works out all things works everything for our greatest good Jeremiah 2911 for I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper you not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future and God could say that to the Old Testament covenant saints how much more to the sons and daughters who are in Christ. God's plans and designs for you are not to harm you, but to benefit you. All of them. You say, I can't, it won't compute, it won't compute. This painful thing to benefit me, it doesn't compute. You gotta believe this. It's what the Bible says. So why does this guy want to meet with the very God who's sending all these horrific hardships his way? Because he knows, deep, deep down inside, he knows that God loves him and is for him. That's what creates his appetite for God's presence. So in his mind, the only solution to his problems is the presence of God. That's the only solution. Relief won't even do it. The only cure he sees for his depression is hope in God, the God who is both sovereign and loving. He's looking at all the suffering through those two lenses, see? It's essential we do that, because as soon as one of those starts to slip, one of those starts to slip, then that's when you get in trouble. Psalm 62 to 11 brings these two things. One thing, God has spoken. Two things, I have heard, that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O God, are loving. I gotta keep them both. makes a mess in your house and expects you to clean it up. That's from God. That's from God. Your spouse snaps at you, makes a belittling remark. That's from God. Your desk is such a mess due to your poor discipline habits that you lose some really important papers and you got a trouble. That's from God. Are you responsible? Yeah. But still, ultimately it's from God. You get the flu? That's from God. You get a flat tire? God. Mold in your bathroom? God. Bad news from the IRS? From God. It all comes from God. And it all comes from a God who does nothing but loving, beneficial things for you. He's the perfect God who does no wrong, Deuteronomy 32 for. Perfect God. That letter from the IRS, the only reason it could possibly come is if God decides that's what's good for you at this time. Mold in your bathroom, flat tire, flu, all gracious gifts from God sent from a loving God to benefit you. That cutting remark from your co-worker, the kids at school laughing at you, every single one of those is a trial carefully crafted by God fit to the exact specs of what your Creator knows you need right now, and exactly what will build your faith and bring you to the point where He wants you to be, and accomplish all kinds of marvelous things that He has planned for you. If the devil tries to bring some hardship in your life, which he does, just like with Job, he's trying to hurt you, whenever the devil does that, if that trial doesn't meet his exact specs for what you need, nope, it won't happen. will not happen. It's all ultimately from God and it's all love. It's all for your good. Last week Harry was really sick. Some of you know. Ended up in the hospital with a really painful sickness and then at the end of that he posts on Facebook or while he's there I guess he posts on Facebook this list of various ways God could be saying I love you to Harry. How can he do that when you're in the midst of pain in the hospital? It's because he was looking at his illness through these lenses. He was looking up instead of down. It's not trite. It's not a cliche. If your problem is downcast, you've got to get upcast. Painful things happen. You don't look at those painful things through these two lenses of these two attributes of God. Your emotions are going to take a pounding. And when you suffer again, they're going to take another pounding. And you suffer again and again. And before long you're going to get pounded down to a downcast state where joy is just gone. And then what do you do? You've got to look back up to God. And put your glasses back on and see these truths accurately. See everything through the lens. Every hardship reaffirms His love for you. It's the only way your emotions are going to recover from that pounding so that you can feel His love. feel his hand on your shoulder a hundred times a day through every gift, every blessing, and every trial. Let's pray. Oh Lord, let it be. When we talk about believing something about you way down at the controlling level, like the way that we believe in gravity, it's... Oh Lord, this is hard. especially if we've gone our whole life looking at it the other way. If we just find out what we thought was north is actually south, and we have to make this adjustment, only your spirit can do that. Lord, please enable us to see things as they really are. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.