Remember Your Hope
To all the Kid’s here this morning, I know Sunday school doesn’t start for a couple of weeks, but I’d like to start by talking to you.
This morning we’re going to be looking at Psalms 42 and 43, and these Psalms are about a man who is crying. So we’re going to talk about crying.
Can you try to remember the last time you got hurt and cried? Maybe you fell riding your bike, or jumping on the trampoline, or maybe someone at school said or did something really mean to you: whatever it was, it hurt so much that you cried. Now, if I had to guess who you cried to, my guess, is that most of you went to your mom or dad, and cried to them. You cried to your mom or your dad, because you trust them. You trust their care for you and that they know how to make it better.
The first thing I want to remind you of, is that you did the right thing. It is good to cry to your mom or dad when you get hurt. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. God made us in a way that we cry, and he gave us a mom and dad we can trust to cry to.
The Second, is that your crying is a kind of practice for what we’re going to be learning from the psalms this morning. Because we all get hurt, in different ways (adults and kids), ways that can make us really, really sad. And the right thing to do (and what these Psalms show us how to do) is to run to God, to our father – and cry. We need to learn how to cry to him, to tell him what's wrong and what hurts, because we trust him. We trust his care for us and that he knows how to make it better, sort of like you trust your mom and dad when you're hurt.
So next time you get hurt and need to cry, remember, it is good to cry to your mom and dad when you're hurt; because you trust them. And when you do cry to them, it is good to tell them everything: to tell them about your hurt and ask for their help. And your parents, will not only help you through that hurt, but will also help teach you to take your crying to God, our heavenly father: to learn to run crying to him, to tell him your hurt, and to trust him for his help. That is something we all need.
And the special word for that, and one we’ll hear a lot today, is called: LAMENT.
So let’s pray, and then we’ll turn to Psalms 42 and 43.
Lord, this is your Word, and we need it. Prepare our hearts through your word, prepare us to walk through pain and suffering well. Teach us to bring our tears to you, because we trust in you. And remind us Lord, of our glorious hope in you, this morning. We ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Today’s text is on Psalm 42 and 43. The reason it’s both is because they were most likely originally one Song. They share a common theme, and continue the same storyline, and Psalm 43 resolves many of the questions raised 42. They also share a common refrain – or “chorus” repeated in both Psalms.
And so our best guess is that they were one Psalm that was later split up to have some flexibility in the Liturgy. That way, the Levites – the ancient worship leaders could choose between the full version or the individual abridged versions.
So these psalms were a song, and the genre of this song is a LAMENT
And if you remember back to pastor Ryan’s sermon a few weeks ago, at the most basic level, a lament is a prayer in pain that leads to trust. It’s a sort of boomerang: a crying out, that brings you back to your trust in God. So these Psalms were a song that taught God’s people how to pray when they are in deep pain. And it’s not the only one. Over 1/3 of the 150 psalms are Laments. And these laments have the same two central components: pouring out your pain before God and reinforcing your trust in him. And these laments were regularly prayed and sung by God’s people.
Now as 21st century American Christians I have a suspicion that this is a bit foreign to us. These are not the kinds of prayers we tend to pray, and especially not the kinds of songs we tend to sing. In fact, if you had to guess how many of today’s 150 most popular worship songs are Laments, what would you guess? – It’s Zero. None of them. And that’s tragic. We NEED laments for our pain and suffering no less than God’s people throughout history have needed laments. We need the language and the guidance to process and walk through our deepest pain and suffering and to bring us back to Hope in God.
So, as we study this psalmist’s Lament through his deep pain in Psalm 42 and 43, my hope is that it would serve as a guide: to help us learn how to lament: to help us learn to run to our father and cry.
So if you turn to Psalm 42, we meet a man weeping in pain:
And from the very first verse we see that he’s a Godly man. “As the deer pants for flowing streams so pants my soul for you, O God my soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” Those are words of a man who longs for God deeply. His most desperate desire is for his God. He looks for God’s presence like a thirsty deer looking for water. And that’s an important thing to note before we move into the despair he feels right now, because they are not mutually exclusive. We also see that he was also a religious leader, whose work included leading processions in the temple. And he loved his work because his work brought him close to the presence of God and to the joyful worship of God’s people. Those were the good old days, but sadly they’re gone now. We see the good days in verse 4 as just a brief flashback. And a lot has happened since then.
There have been overwhelming attacks from evil and deceitful enemies. He had been mercilessly accused, attacked and oppressed unfairly by ungodly people. In fact, it got so bad that he had to flee from his home to far-away mountains, where he finds himself now, hiding for his life, and spending a lot of time weeping.
That’s where this Godly man is at in these Psalms, in the middle of nowhere – having just gone through extreme suffering, and with no relief in sight. We see this captured in verse 7 with the image of wave after wave crashing over him, in what seems like struggle to just stay afloat.
And in the midst of all this, the most painful sting is his enemies’ mocking question that feels like salt in his wounds: “where is your God?” They’ve struck him where it hurts most: Because he loves God deeply, and it looks like God has abandoned him. And their punch lands hard: because he does feel abandoned by God - at the very moment his pain and suffering are at their worst and he needs God the most, God feels far away. And so his heart is torn as he struggles to hope in God.
And so if this is where you find yourself this morning: Downcast: discouraged, depressed, struggling to stay afloat, you’ve come to the right place. This text is for you.
And, if you’re not there this morning, praise God! This text is also for you. There will be times when you do find yourself here, and we need to know how to walk through it well. But also because we have brothers and sisters there right now in our church body, in our small groups, and so we need to be prepared to care for, weep with and pray for one another well.
The overarching question that these Psalms set out to answer is:
Q: What do you do when you’re so downcast, discouraged, depressed, that it’s a struggle to hope in God?
The Psalmists response is two things he does in these Psalms, that will serve as the outline of today’s sermon.
1. He Prays: (and it’s a prayer of lament) – and were going to walk through the 4 steps that make up his prayer
2. He Preaches to Himself: to rekindle his Hope in God (v.5-6)
And so now turn with me to Psalm 43:
Vindicate me O God and defend my cause against an ungodly people, From the deceitful and unjust man deliver me. For you are the God in whom I take refuge, why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Send out your light and your truth, let them lead me Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy. And I will praise you with the Lyre o God my God! Why are you cast down o my soul and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God for I shall again praise Him: my salvation and my God
The First thing the Psalmist does is he Prays to his God. And the prayer is a prayer of Lament, because that’s where he is right now.
1) The first step in his lament is: He shares all his pain with God and pleads for help.
We see the this in verse 1 of Psalm 43
v.1 - Vindicate me O God and defend my cause against an ungodly people.
From the deceitful and unjust man deliver me.
This is the most natural starting point, and it’s a good starting point: Something terrible has happened and the first thing he does is to run, crying to his father: he shares his pain and pleads for help.
“God I’m in serious trouble, I’m surrounded by evil people who have hurt me, who have oppressed me, who have treated me unfairly. Vindicate me! Defend me! Get me out of this!”
We need this, - there is an acknowledgement here of just how dependent he is on God: he is helpless without him. “You are my salvation” Only God can help him in his distress. The Psalmist doesn’t get stuck in his head, working on his own solutions, but first he lays it all out - his pain and suffering before God and pleads for his help.
“God I know you Hate Evil and they’ve committed evil against me, I know you Hate Oppression and I am being oppressed by them, I know you Hate Deceit, they have acted deceitfully against me.
But the Psalmist doesn’t stop there, after sharing his painful circumstance: he goes deeper. His focus turns to something even more personal and painful: his own downcast and divided heart.
As one author puts it: “(Suffering is) … spiritual warfare. Suffering is never just a matter of the body but is always also a matter of the heart. When you suffer, your heart is under attack. Suffering takes us to the borders of our faith. It leads us to think about things we’ve never thought about before and maybe even question things we thought were settled in our hearts.”
The psalmist feels this war for his heart: His heart is caught in the middle of this battle and he’s loosing ground: The enemies lie that God has rejected him is starting to take hold in his heart: We see it in v.2
v.2 – you are the God in whom I take refuge, why have you rejected me?
We feel his deepest pain: “why do I feel rejected by you?” why does it feel like you’re so far away? Why does it feel like you’ve abandoned me? Where are you, God?”
To this man, no pain is deeper than the pain of being rejected by the one he loves most deeply. And yet that’s what he feels right now. He feels rejected by God. And he doesn’t hide it, he pours out his whole downcast soul before God.
2. The second thing he does in this lament is: He asks for God’s light and truth to guide him
Darkness distorts our vision - and the psalmist knows this. He doesn’t trust what he feels right now as ultimate. He knows he doesn’t have the full picture, especially in this dark cloud of suffering. There is a theme and language of darkness - like he’s stumbling around in a dark room looking for the light switch so he can see. And so he asks God for guidance.
v.3a - Send out your light and your truth, let them lead me
“God I need YOUR light and your truth to see clearly! Help me see! Show me where to go! Lead me! And here again we’re reminded of this man’s trust in and reliance on his God: even now, in his despair. Even though it feels like God is far away and has rejected him, he knows it’s not true. His heart needs help finding its way back to the nearness of God he remembers having delighted in before.
He asks for God’s light and truth. What does that mean? Where do we find it?
Well, another Psalm, Psalm 119 talks a lot about light and truth, and can help us fill out the meaning of this: Listen to these words from Ps. 119:
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.
The sum of your word is truth.
Then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me, for I trust in your word.
And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in your rules.
Over and over in Psalm 119 we see that God’s Word is the Truth we can count on for guidance. God’s word is the light to illuminate our path.
Brothers and sisters, our God is not silent. He is a God who speaks. His Words are our guide us, especially when we’re in darkness. And that’s where the Psalmist turns to guide his downcast heart through his darkness. Do we ask God for this in our pain? Do we saturate our hearts and minds in his word on our bright days to prepare us for our dark nights?
There is still a disconnect between the darkness his heart feels and the truth he Believes. His heart still feels forgotten by God, and yet there is a deep shift as he looks to God’s truth for guidance rather than the words of his enemies, or the doubts in his own divided heart.
3. He goes to the Altar to remember his hope.
If you look at Verse 3, there’s a sort of geographic zooming-in that lands on the Altar.
v.3 Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy
It starts with the holy hill (that the temple was), -> then closer, to the temple itself (or God’s dwelling place),-> and then finally zooms all the way in to the altar of God, where he finds God.
Now of all the places he could look, why the altar? The altar was a gruesome place… it was bloody business! At the altar, animal after animal was slaughtered to cover the sins of God’s people. Remember, the question the psalmist is wrestling with is “where is your God?” He needs to know that God is not far away, that God has not rejected him.
And he has good reason for his questions. There is an infinite divide between a perfect and holy (set apart) God and sinful rebellious human people. He does not take God’s presence for granted. He knows he deserves nothing more than God’s rejection. And yet, he knew, God was at the altar. The altar is where that infinite space between God and man had been bridged. Not only was God present there, but God had made a way for the sins of God’s people to be atoned for (covered) through the sacrifice of a spotless lamb. The altar was where he could be reconciled with a Holy and perfect God.
There at the altar, he is reminded of his hope:
Rather than being rejected by God, he was reconciled with God.
Rather than God being far off, God is present, he is with you.
And this is where we see his joy begin to be restored.
Because if nothing is more painful than being rejected by the God you love deeply, likewise, nothing is sweeter and more joyful than knowing That you are reconciled with God. And being reminded that he is present, he is with you, even now, in the darkest valley.
And we see the evidence of God’s presence with him throughout these Psalms, not only in the joyful days of temple worship, but even now, when he is downcast
Look at Psalm 42:8
“By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me”
Even now, hiding in the mountains, downcast and weeping, his God has not left him. He is right there beside him, sustaining him through his steadfast love. And so he begins to recover his joy. Now that doesn’t mean he suddenly feels joyful all the time, or even now for that matter, but there is a confidence of who his exceeding joy is. God is his exceeding joy, A God who is with him always, who will never leave or forsake him. A God who is present through the deepest valleys, and darkest nights.
“even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for you are with me”
“Because he is at my right hand…my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices.”
So after:
He shares all his pain with God and pleads for help.
He asks for God’s light and truth to guide him
He goes to the Altar to remember his hope (we see him finish his lament with)
Future Hope: I will again praise you.
And I will praise you with the Lyre o God my God!
There’s still some tension here: because he’s praying about future praise. We don’t know that there’s been any sudden transformation to joyfulness (from what we can tell in the next verse, he is still downcast, he is still wrestling and in turnoil) and yet we see the deep reorientation in his soul as he looks to future hope. God’s word has disarmed the lies of his enemies and his heart. The altar has reminded him of the presence and salvation of his God. He has reason to hope. When he is too downcast to praise he looks to future praise: because that’s where he's at right now: He’s still got his jumper cables out trying to turn his praise engine over. But he is not stranded, he has full confidence in the one who is besides him. And so he ends his prayer looking ahead to the joy that is to come: “I will again praise you.” I will be full of joy that overflows in praise, because you are my God.
And so, closing his prayer then he turns back to himself and: He preaches to himself
v6. Why are you cast down o my soul and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God for I shall again praise Him: my salvation and my God
As pastor Martin Lloyd Jones put it, “Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? … Now this man’s treatment was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, “Self, listen for moment, I will speak to you.”
So he preaches to his downcast, divided soul – reminding himself of his Hope in God
And oh how much more clear this hope is to us, on this side of the cross! We too were hopelessly separated from God in our sin and rebellion, we deserved nothing more than his complete rejection. And yet: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus Christ, God incarnate, bridged the infinite distance between God and man. He was the spotless lamb the altar pointed to. The only one who could once and for all pay the price for our sin with his blood. And on that darkest night, when Jesus suffered the full wrath for our sins and rebellion, when the full wrath of the rejection we deserved was poured out on him, He cried out once and for all “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” – so that you and I would never have to.
Brothers and sisters we have received the ultimate reconciliation by the blood of Jesus! There is no more need for altars and sacrifice: Jesus died on the cross to end our separation from God! Christian, you are NOT rejected by God, He is your salvation! Downcast Christian, Depressed Christian, Suffering Christian, God is not far away, he is with you, always present.
Do not listen to the lies and the doubts, Preach! Preach to your soul of the gospel hope you have in God, as you look to the joy to come.
And that brings us to the table, because the table is where we remind our hearts of our hope in God. Where we preach to ourselves the good news: That Jesus Christ, took our sins upon himself and died in our place. And Rose from the grave so that we who put our trust in him will not be rejected by God. But can look to the hope at the end of the story: in Revelation 21:
“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And if you are here, and you have not yet trusted in Jesus. If you’re stumbling through darkness without hope, remember: There is hope when you turn from your sins and put your trust in Jesus. And you too can Hope in God.
