Good morning. Please open your Bibles to Psalm 42. Psalm 42. Now Psalm 42 and 43 are actually meant to be sung together. I'm only gonna be in Psalm 42 today for lack of time. But you'll notice that Psalm 43 includes the same refrain that Psalm 42 does, if you have to take the time to read through there. But we're just gonna be in Psalm 42 today. 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 shall I 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? 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, oh my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we think of these words that the psalmist has written. We think of how he poured out his soul to you. We pray that you would teach us, teach us by your word today to take comfort and rest in our rock and our Redeemer. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. As I began to study this passage, there is some disagreement over whether or not the sons of Korah actually wrote the psalm or if the psalm was written for them to sing, whether or not it was David or the sons of Korah. But whoever wrote it, He's expressing deep sorrow in his heart, the kind where you lose the desire to eat. Maybe you've been there before, where the most amazing food that you want to eat doesn't even taste good to you. That is the kind of sorrow that the psalmist is expressing. He's apparently been exiled. from, we assume, from Jerusalem or from his people. He says that he's in the land of Jordan or beyond the Jordan. He's near Mount Hermon, which is northeast, I believe. I know some of you have been to Israel many times. Forgive me for my ignorance. He asked God, actually the first verse of chapter 43 says, vindicate me O God, defend my cause. He's asking the Lord for vindication. This fits actually well with the time when David had to flee from Jerusalem, from his son Absalom who had usurped the throne. He had to flee across the Jordan into Gilead. It's possible that David wrote these words for the sons of Korah to perform in the tabernacle. What do we know about the sons of Korah? You remember Korah in Numbers 15, the man who rebelled against Moses and Aaron, thinking that he and his family should be the priests in the temple. And what happened to Korah and his friends? They were swallowed up whole. The ground opened and swallowed them up. But here we see this psalm attributed to the sons of Korah. His sons apparently survived. And God used them to perform psalms in the temple and to write them. Consider the grace of God, brothers and sisters, All of us, all of us are sinners. None of us deserve to be in the household of God worshiping Him. But here we are, because He has called us by His grace. The psalmist endures waves of sorrow and you can see that as he expresses his sorrow and then he goes back into the refrain. Why are you cast down on my soul? I imagine someone being tossed around in the ocean or maybe in a roaring river. Just when it seems that he will go under, he's reminded of his hope. Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him. Despite the distress of the circumstances of where he is, seems to be exiled from his people. What is the greatest distress of his soul? In verse one. As a deer pants for the flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, oh God. My soul thirsts for you. for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? He's apparently longing to be in worship in the tabernacle with God's people. His soul is parched like a deer panting for water. I've never seen a deer panting. I looked on even on YouTube to see if I could find a video of a deer panting, but I couldn't find one. I imagine maybe some of you deer hunters, maybe Caleb, I don't know. If you've set up a deer blind next to a river, maybe you could see a deer panting. He sees himself in the deer, panting. Maybe the deer is running from him and his friends, and he's out of breath, and he's out of water. And he comes, he needs the stream. And he sees himself in this deer. He's being hunted by people that hate him, by people that hate his God. The psalmist is like the deer, desperate for living water. Desperate for God. God is our living water. Don't seek living water from this world. The Lord God, the living God, is our only water that will satisfy His people. This psalm, he is repeatedly comforted by the hope of God. This morning, I would like to give you four encouragements from the psalm, and I'm sure that if this psalm is precious to you as it is to me, there's probably things in here that you're gonna say, Mark, why didn't you mention this? Well, I don't have time, so I apologize for that. But I'm gonna give you four encouragements that I saw clearly as I was going through this passage. It's my hope today that you will leave with your feet more firmly planted in God's love and his grace. Encouragement number one. Born again believers deeply desire holiness and closeness to God, and this can lead to discouragement. It can lead to discouragement that you want God so badly. When our souls are cast down, It is encouraging for us amidst the grief to recognize the fruit of the Spirit within us. The Spirit wells up within us like a natural spring bubbling up out of dry ground in our souls. It is very encouraging for us to recognize that this is the fruit of the Spirit and that you are a child of God. This is normal for a child of God. This means that you have a spiritual pulse. In a world filled with people who do not know God, God has put his spirit within you. And because you have his spirit within you, you long for him. For the born again soul, the anxiety of being far from God can actually be worse than the things that you're experiencing. Think about what Jesus said when he was on the cross. experiencing physically some of the pain that nobody in this room will ever experience. And as he hung there, dying for our sins that he did not commit, what did he say with a loud voice? He cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That was the agony of his heart. And if you belong to Christ, and if you're going through a trial, physical trial, maybe you've lost somebody, maybe you're sick, some of the worst agony you will feel in your soul is when your heart drifts away from God and you feel numb. And you think, how far am I drifted from God? This is what the psalmist is expressing. but that in itself can be an encouragement to you that you belong to Him. Take comfort in that. Christ was willingly made sin for us. That is the reason for His affliction, why God turned His face from Him. But the Lord will never turn His face from you because your sins have been laid on Christ. Take comfort in that. He has said in Hebrews 13, I will never leave you nor forsake you so that you may confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? When you're tempted to think that your suffering proves that you don't love, that he doesn't love you or that he has left, remember this twofold comfort, that his sheep, only his sheep mourn when he's far away. The world does not mourn when God is far away. They want him far away, but his sheep mourn when he feels far away. but he is actually never far away from any of us. It only feels that way, but he is never far away. He will never leave you nor forsake you. In verse three, he says, 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. I'll talk about verse five in a minute, skip down to verse six. 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. My soul is cast down within me. Therefore, I remember you from the land of Herman and Jordan and of Herman, of Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls, all of your breakers and your waves, your waves and your billows. A breaker of those huge waves that crash on the shore. And if you've ever stood in front of those and tried to stand up, you will know that you will not stand very long. It will plant your face in the sand. which is about how the psalmist feels in this moment. Encouragement number two. It is God's will for you to pour out your soul to him. He's not annoyed when you come to him and pour your soul out to him in great detail. People might get annoyed with that, but God doesn't. He says, deep calls to deep. I used to wonder what this means and I read a book once where someone said that God wants us to be deep thinkers. I don't think that that's what this means. In scriptures, the deep refers to the sea, the ocean. He's saying, he's saying wave after wave is pounding him. Deep calls to deep. It's unrelenting. His sorrow seems to be unrelenting. The roar of your waterfalls. I don't know if he's in the part of the Jordan, maybe he's observing the Jordan River where the rivers at the headwaters are very strong and powerful. And maybe he's thinking about this and he's thinking about how the Lord's trials are washing over him like these roaring waterfalls and waves. Deep groaning, he's holding nothing back. Brothers and sisters, when you need to go before the Lord, go to him in private. Pour your heart out to him. Why did the Lord hear Hannah when she was asking for his son? Eli thought she was drunk. The Lord heard her prayer. Vain repetition and shallow thoughts will not do. We're not necessarily called to pray like this at the dinner table. I'm not saying that. Okay, this is when you are alone with God. All of us need to be alone with Him. There are prayers and other times that we pray, but this is speaking about the times when we need to pour out our hearts to God. Spurgeon commented on the raw expression of the Psalm. He said, it is well to tell the Lord how we feel, and the more plain the confession, the better. David talks like a sick child to his mother, and we should learn to imitate him. He's not reading a list either. That's not what pouring your soul out looks like. He's speaking, he's not speaking in some kind of memorized magical prayer or a mantra. He's not speaking to God like a genie in a bottle. Like God will do what he wants if he just says the right words. God desires that we pour out our souls to him. Pour your soul out until there is nothing left. And you will know when there's nothing left because you will have peace in your heart that you have poured out everything. In the days of his flesh, the Lord offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverence. Hebrews 5-7. The Lord not only was dying for our sins and fulfilling all righteousness, he was giving us an example that we should follow. There are some who would say to us that we need to come before the Lord and empty our minds before him. By this they mean not to think about anything at all. This is called contemplative prayer or centering prayer. Anyone ever heard of this? It is thought that we may experience the presence of God if we empty our minds of distracting thoughts. But brothers and sisters, how wrong this is. How opposite this is of the example of Christ himself, who poured out his soul before God. And he says in Matthew 6, when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do. Don't sit there and repeat the same thing over and over. For they think that they will be heard because of their many words. God wants you to be real. Tell him the truth. The psalmist doesn't hold anything back and he's actually accusing God of things here in this psalm. All your waves and your billows have come over me. Do you want your soul to be at peace? God is telling you to do the opposite of what these false teachers say. Tell him exactly what your anxieties are. There are others who say that we should teach something, we should practice something called positive confession. This is the teaching that you shouldn't say that you're sick out loud or else you might become more sick. You shouldn't say that you need more money in your bank account or you will have more less money in your bank account. As if you have the power over heaven and earth as Jesus does with his words. They say that we are little gods. Brothers and sisters, this is blasphemy. We are not called to be little gods. We are called to get on our knees before God. Come to Him. Come to Him and pour out our souls to Him. When our healing doesn't come about when we practice this, they will say that we didn't have enough faith to bring it about. Think about the bondage this is for well-meaning Christians. True healing is not dependent upon us or on our sincerity, but upon God alone. Jesus healed that man at the pool of Bethesda. He didn't even know who Jesus was. Jesus walked up to him and healed him. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties upon him, for he cares for you. all your anxieties, every single one. Pour them out. It's not wrong. This is an observation we can grab from Psalm 42. It is not wrong to be burdened by the troubles of this life. The troubles of this life are many. And we act like we're not burdened by them. We're lying. We need to come before the Lord and pour out those anxieties to him. The world is filled with sin, death, and suffering. What is remarkable to the world is not that we are like able to enter this feeling of nirvana in this world. What's remarkable is that we go through sorrows and sufferings and yet we have peace in the midst of them. That's what's remarkable. Last week I listened to the story about this young woman. She may have been 20. She endured 20 years of physical and mental abuse from her father and her mother. She couldn't even barely walk by her mother without her saying, I hate you. I hate the sight of you. You're so ugly. And this, her parents, her father is a well-known preacher. She testified to unspeakable suffering. I don't even want to talk about it from the pulpit. But what was remarkable was not her suffering. It was the peace that she had in her heart as she spoke about her parents whom she forgave. That's what was remarkable. And she was speaking to a complete unbeliever. This is the kind of peace that makes the world come to us and say, tell me the reason for the hope that's within you. The world has no explanation for that peace because it's a miracle. None of us can create that in ourselves. We can't create faith and we can't create peace. The God of peace gives it to us. The world is without hope and so they have to cope. And forgive me for being a little bit humorous here, but I thought of Eeyore and Tigger. Because Eeyore and Tigger are, I think the writers saw, those are the typical kinds of ways that people deal with stress. You can be an Eeyore, I'm more of an Eeyore. I've been called an Eeyore before. Eeyore represents a kind of cynical hopelessness. If you say it's sunny out, Eeyore's gonna tell you that there's a cloud front coming in soon. Negative Nancy, Debbie Downer, The thing about Eeyores is that they're not wrong. They're actually being truthful a lot of the time. Some of the time they're way over the top. But a lot of times they are being truthful. Eeyores are just people that don't have hope. They don't have Christ. And so the waves and the billows, the real waves and billows of this life crash over them. And they have nothing, they have no answer for it. So they try to cope with the pain. A lot of them turn to alcohol, sex, drugs. They have to dull the pain somehow. They need Christ. The consequences of those things can drag them down even further. If you are a Christian and you're an Eeyore by nature like me, It is your temptation to forget God's comforts. Your tears often become your food. It becomes more of a delight to you sometimes than even going before the Lord. We have to be reminded to come to Him. Listen to the psalmist, hope in God, for yet you will praise Him. That's a fact. Whether you do in this life, I don't know. But you will in glory because you've been redeemed. And you will stand before His throne and you will worship Him with a big smile on your face for all of eternity. And nothing can take that from you. And that is a rock, a foundation you can stand on no matter how you feel. The tiggers of this world represent a kind of empty, baseless optimism. Maybe you are an optimistic person, and that's wonderful. I love to be around optimistic people, because I am not one. But when I'm feeling really Eeyore-ish, it kind of annoys me, if I'm honest. But when a tigger bounces into the room, it lights up the room, and you forget your problems for a while. I have a friend who is a tigger. He's one of my dearest friends. I love spending time with him, and I love how he makes me feel. He tells me how great I am, which is not even true, but he does that. His optimism actually gets him in trouble. He's so optimistic that he drove his business into the ground because he ignored all the problems because that's his nature. Putting a happy spin on a hopeless situation doesn't solve our problems. A positive outlook on life may keep them from going insane, but it doesn't reconcile them with a holy God. Godless optimism is like being drunk on board the Titanic while it's sinking. It may dull the pain while it's going down, but it doesn't stop the ship from sinking. Brothers and sisters, don't think like the world does. Don't think that your optimism is gonna save you. And don't think that your eeyore-ness is gonna save you either. Bring your troubles to God. Your tear-stained prayers are precious to Him. Have you ever considered that your troubles are a means that God uses to drive you to Him? Notice that the psalmist himself is not in sin. He's not suffering because he's sinned that we know of. He has troubles because he's following the Lord. God is working in you through the troubles to drive you to him. Paul felt profound anxiety for all the churches. Was Paul sinning because he felt anxiety? He would have been sinning if he sat there and said, woe is me, with a cloud over his head and never went to God. That's not what he did. He went to the Lord in prayer, poured out his anxieties to the Lord. It drove him to his knees, and it drove him to a closer communion with his Savior. Blessed is the pounding wave of discouragement that drives you to Christ. It turns our dullness, which is often what we feel when everything's going right, You know that's true. You start feeling dull. And then an anxiety comes along. And what happens? It drives you right back to him. Throws you again upon your knees. Cynicism and sentimentalism are two sides of the same coin. They both short circuit the purpose of God's waves and billows. They keep you distant from God. Now we look at verse five. The refrain of the psalmist, it was just the whole point of the psalm. We just sang as a deer pants for the water. I don't remember the exact line of that psalm, but it was of the song that we just sang, but it was right on the money. Why are you cast down on my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God. Hope in God. For I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. That is the point of this psalm. That is the point of it. Encouragement number three. God is worthy of your hope. He is worthy of your hope. Unbelievers mock us for hoping in God, don't they? And that's part of the anguish that the psalmist is struggling with. Where is your God, they say? The psalmist is asking a rhetorical question to himself, and we should learn to do this. When you're feeling down, learn to start saying to yourself, why are you cast down, oh my soul? Oh my soul, why are you in turmoil within me? What's the answer? Hope in God. For yet shall I praise him, my salvation and my God. Did God not speak all creation into existence by his own power? Does not God hold all things together by the word of his power? I think Dick said that this morning. Did he not deliver Israel from Egypt? Did he not part the Red Sea? Can you part the Red Sea? Can you send 10 plagues upon Israel? Did he not raise the Lord Jesus from the dead on the third day exactly as he said he would? Did he not appear to more than 500 people at one time? And did he not ascend into heaven where he's sitting on his throne in glory? He is worthy to be trusted. He keeps his word, unlike us. Let the world hope in nothing, but we will hope in the living God. Amen. When you're discouraged and your soul is in turmoil within you, when you are tumbling down the river, trying to keep your head above the water, remember the rock. Cling to him. Set your feet upon his promises and stand boldly, knowing that he will keep his promise to you. All who hope in him will not be moved. Remember that it is he who sent the waves. In Hebrews 11, it mentions the old saints. Toward the end of the chapter, it talks about them being tortured. It talks about some of them being sawn in two, being stoned, living in exile, living in caves, having to live in the skins of animals. As John Owen reflected on this. He said, than when it is at the greatest peace and prosperity. To see faith and love to God working effectually under them all, to see comforts retained, consolations abound, and holiness promoted, God glorified, the world condemned, the souls of men profited, and at length triumphant over all. This is beautiful and glorious. Who can read through Fox's Book of Martyrs and not glorify God? When you hear about people being sewn into the skins of wild animals and eaten alive and not denying Christ, we have to give praise to the Lord. That is a miracle, brothers and sisters. None of us have the strength in us to endure that kind of suffering, but God working in them caused them to do it. And the same is true of each one of us. If we have to face that, maybe not face it today. I don't have the strength for it today, but on the day that that happens, the Lord will give you strength and he will make you stand. Jeremiah Burroughs says, how do I know? But if it had not been for this affliction, I would have been undone. Perhaps prosperity and good health would have tempted our hearts to forget him and we would have walked away. By this, by prosperity, many are undone. And God sends afflictions. Don't curse God for his afflictions. He loves everyone whom he chastens. Verse eight, by day the Lord commands his steadfast love. He commands his steadfast love. Think about that phrase. And at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. Encouragement number four, In the midst of our suffering, He commands His steadfast love over you personally, night and day. He commands it. Why does He have to command His love? Is He commanding Himself? He's commanding all creation. Everything that we go through in this life is His sovereign command, and everything works together for the counsel of His will, and He does it because He loves you. His loving kindness is applied to everyone, day and night. I can't do anything at night, I don't know about you, but when I'm sleeping, I can't do anything. God is continually working. loving us constantly day and night. And God's love isn't a sentiment. It's not just a warm, fuzzy feeling. He's actually accomplishing in you his purpose because of his love for you. Our trials are not a testament of his lack of love. And it's really tempting to think that when we're suffering, isn't it? To think that God doesn't love me because I'm suffering and this guy isn't. It is not a testimony of his lack of love. none of your tears are unnoticed or forgotten. In Psalm 56 8, the psalmist says, you number my wanderings, put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? In other words, he keeps track of our tears. They're written in a book. There's nothing that we suffer in this life that is not for a purpose. And God will reward you for your faith as you trust Him in it. Matthew 10, 29 through 31, Jesus said, but even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore. You are of more value than many sparrows. Not only is he aware of our sorrows, he comforts us in our affliction. Second Corinthians one, three through four. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. who comforts us in our affliction. Notice He doesn't remove us in order to comfort us. He comforts us in our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction. I had back surgery years ago. Every time I encounter someone who had back surgery, I am immediately, I feel compassion for them because I know what that's like. When God puts us through trials and sorrows, he puts compassion in our hearts that we might comfort others who are in affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. He puts that in us and He drives us to do it through His love. What if we forget He's there? You ever been there before when you're suffering? What if we forget He's there? Or what if we resent Him in our afflictions? Is He gonna turn His back on us? Will He forget us? What if we accuse Him of not caring? Will He forsake us? It should comfort us that this psalm is in the Bible. He says, I say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? God hasn't forgotten him, but he feels like he has. Your feelings are not sinful in this way. When you, when you're pouring out your soul to him, he hears you. He wants to hear. Why do I go on 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? The psalmist struggles with these same questions we do. These are inspired by the Holy Spirit for us to take note of and to be taught by. His enemies see his weakness and they taunt him. Where is your God? I remember back in the 80s, the Tigers had a catcher that used to strike out a lot. He also hit a lot of home runs. And he would always praise God when he hit a home run. And Sparky Anderson, not a believer, would say to him, did God also help you when you struck out? This is the heart of unbelief. But all of us are prone to this kind of thinking in our flesh. And we can see that in the psalmist. What is the remedy? Verse 11, why are you cast down on my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him. My salvation and my God. Remember who it is that saved your soul. Hope in God. It's not always gonna look pretty when we're going through trials, is it? It's never pretty. Like rolling in the enormous waves of the ocean or in a raging river, we find ourselves cast down, but the Spirit comes and he grabs us like Jesus grabbed Peter, sinking into the deep and he pulls us back up and he reminds us to hope in God. We have the Spirit of God within us. This is not all up to you, dear ones. The Holy Spirit draws us back, and he reminds us to hope in God. For you will yet praise him. There's much more I could say about these things. And I would encourage you to meditate on them. I'm sorry if I've missed anything precious to you as we've gone through this. In closing, there's one more scripture I want to leave you with. Toward the end of Philippians, as Paul was comforting a suffering church, Paul said this in Philippians four, verse six, the Lord is at hand. Meaning, the Lord is with us, he's not left us, and he is on his throne. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. My exhortation to you is this, Let's put this into practice, this verse. The Lord is at hand. He has redeemed us with his blood. When we are going through trials first, even if you're just annoyed with something. I've been talking about big things today, but if you're like me, it's the little things that really get to me. Do you know what I'm talking about? Flat tire, whatever it is. Give thanks in all things. You know, it doesn't mean you should be thankful that lightning struck your house and burn it down. Be thankful that God is good and that He will bring good out of the evil that has happened. My exhortation is first, let the waves of anxiety that sweep over you drive you to your knees. instead of complaining. Let it drive you to your knees, and secondly, give thanks in all things, because Christ cares for you. And He will use this circumstance that is so difficult, and He will use it for good in your life. And you will praise God for all of eternity, remembering what He has done. By faith, let us obey His voice. and the God of peace, the living God, has promised. Notice that he promised that he will personally guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. It is not all up to you to be at peace. Cast your cares upon him, give thanks to him, and he will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Let's go by faith to our Lord and God and trust him. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the psalm that you've given us. We thank you for the instruction. We thank you for the living hope that we have because you are alive. You are in glory. You are reigning over all things. You are worthy of our trust. You have promised amazing blessings. That even when we are under very difficult trials, that you will comfort our hearts. Lord, help us to trust you with this. Let us not be like Eeyores or like Tiggers. Let us put our hope in you, not in our own power. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.