Psalm 42-43 - Talking To Yourself And Depressed Psalmists

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. We are beginning our new study, and we are going through Book 2 of the Book of Psalms, as we went over back many, many, many months ago now when we began going through Book 1 of Psalms.

I mentioned that Psalms is made up of five books, and at least in some sense, it seems to be a new Torah.

So as the Old Testament scriptures started off with the books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, now the Psalms compiled after the events of Babylon.

Written in pieces from David all the way back when, I think there's even a Psalm or two with some words from Moses.

So over the course of Israel's history, now this song book, this book of prayers to God, this book of declarations from God's people and cries of their hearts, all of it is combined into this new Pentateuch, this new Torah where the people of God are

saying, Hey God, we know that we have left you and abandoned you, but we are not going to do it again. Like we know who you are. We know what you've done for us. We'll see that even with some of the Psalms in this Book 2 of Psalms as we go forward.

But this Book covers Psalm 42 to Psalm 72. And so we're going to be in this. It'll probably be about six weeks or so.

And we've got one kind of interesting fun thing today as we look at Psalm 42 and Psalm 43. And you might say, why are you doing that?

It's because actually several Hebrew manuscripts that we have, very, very old ones that have been found, they connect Psalm 42 and 43. And the same types of questions and declarative statements that we read in Psalm 42 continue on in Psalm 43.

And almost every single Psalm in Book 2 of Psalms, except for, I believe it's Psalm 71 or 72, every other Psalm in Book 2 has a title. And Psalm 43 is the only other one that doesn't.

And because manuscripts join them together, because they're asking the exact same questions and making the exact same declarations with the exact same language, many people believe that this was initially one combined psalm.

And so that's how we're going to do it today. And you'll see some more of the why as we walk through. So Psalm 42 and 43.

The inspired text reads this. For the choir director, a masqueal of the sons of Korah. The sons of Korah were some of those that were kind of gatekeepers at the temple, and they worshiped the Lord.

They, over time, began to be associated with the singing and music of the temple, and that was kind of one of their tasks that they did. So this is something that this particular singing group was going to sing.

Psalmist says, As a deer longs for flowing streams, so I long for you, God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God?

My tears have been my food day and night, while all day long people say to me, Where is your God? I remember this as I pour out my heart, how I walked with many, leading the festive procession to the house of God, with joyful and thankful shouts.

I'm going to stop there and then we'll continue on. So here, the psalmist describes himself as the deer, like a deer longs for these flowing streams. This is how this person wants to long for God.

He says that there is a realization that without you, without your presence, without your blessing, my life is pointless and God, I need you. A great song written, I think it was in the early 80s, is a song that's included in many hymnals.

As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after thee. And that phrase always comes up as I look at this. So this person is saying, I want to come to God.

He says, I thirst for God, the living God. I want His presence. I want His blessing.

He says, when can I come and appear before God? If I'm able to be in the presence of the Lord, my life will be benefitted. And then he says, here's why I'm wanting this in particular is because, verse 3, my tears have been my food day and night.

All I've had to eat is my tears. There's just profuse sadness. As you look at your life, maybe there are times where you feel like this psalmist, and you're like, yeah, all I've had to eat today is my tears.

Like, I am sad. We can come to God with this sort of language to be able to say, like, Lord, I am going through it. And it feels like nothing's going my way.

And what I need is your presence. I need your answer. I need your resolution to what is going on in my life.

And I'm thankful for verses like this that give us a ability to say back to God in his inspired words. Like, God, I really desperately need you because I have been crying day and night. The end of the verse.

Well, all day long, people say to me, where is your God? He wants to be able to tell them, God is with me. God is sustaining me.

God is helping me. And this is his heart's cry.

And he says, I remember this as I pour out my heart, like as I'm just laying it all in front of God and saying, hey, do you remember when I led the procession like for these festival times into the temple, when I rejoiced with the people of God, and

I was so happy to be going to where your name and your presence is. Then verse 5, why, my soul, are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God.

So here he's doing some self-talk, but instead of just saying like, hey, you're great, you're wonderful, anyone that talks down about you, they just don't know what they're talking about.

Here in his self-talk, he's saying, the answer to my dejection, the answer to my sadness, my turmoil, is to put my hope in God. To not say, I really think that the circumstance is just going to right itself.

My hope is that the Lord is the one who is my Savior. He is the one that is in control of my life. He is my God.

And so as a result, I can put my hope in him. I can praise him because I know that whether circumstances are good or bad, God is good. I know that whether or not this life brings me happiness or tears, that for all of eternity, I am the Lord's.

And so he says, so I will still praise him. Verse number 6. I am deeply depressed.

Therefore, I remember you from the land of Jordan and the peaks of Hermon from Mount Mazar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls. All your breakers and your billows have swept over me.

The Lord will send his faithful love by day. His song will be with me in the night, a prayer to the God of my life.

So here he says, God, I realize where I am at and I'm remembering you from here, he says, the land of Jordan and the peaks of Hermon from Mount Mazar. This would be kind of where the Jordan River originates.

This would be in the far north of Israel, where the tribe of Dan would be. This was also, Mount Hermon was a place super, super renowned by the Canaanites and then later by the northern tribe of Israel for wickedness, for sacrifice to false gods.

This would be one of the places, I think I actually mentioned it in our study in Mark. This may have been the place where Jesus was transfigured, that he shown out his glory.

Hermon is often mentioned as a place where the demons and the false gods, where they have like a stronghold, where people worship them and God over and over in the Psalms declares like, hey, Mount Hermon is going to be mine.

These places that were set aside for false deities, now they are going to be used for the worship of Yahweh.

So the Psalm writer says, hey, I remember you from these places where there's these waters coming out that would then later become the Jordan, these places where demons and depression and darkness, all of this stuff is here.

And verse 7, he says, deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls.

He says, even as I notice this beginning of the Jordan River, it makes me think about the fact that your breakers, God, your billows have swept over me, that Yahweh will send his faithful love by day and a song will be with me in the night, a prayer

to the God of my life. He says, in these circumstances, God, I remember who you are. I remember that what you have given me is your love, your covenant love, your chasad that does not leave me, it does not abandon me. It is a steadfast love.

And not only that, you've also given me songs, you've given me ways to express my heart for you and my sadnesses. All of it, I have. Verse number 9, I will say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me?

Why must I go about in sorrow because of the enemy's oppression? My adversaries taunt me as of crushing my bones while all day long they say to me, where is your God? Why, my soul, are you so dejected?

Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God. Here he prays the exact same prayer that David prayed in Psalm 22, that Jesus would pray on the cross.

God, it feels like you have forgotten me. I know you haven't. I know you are my Savior.

I know you are my God. I know I can put my hope in you. I know that I can praise you because the enemies, the adversaries that are oppressing me, that are crushing me down, that are saying, hey, where is God's help in your life?

He says, I know that what I'm going through right now is not the end. Even if I die, it's not the end. And so I can praise God because I know that God has not forgotten me.

But for you to come raw and honestly to God, to say, God, it feels right now like you have left me alone, like you have abandoned me, like I'm not hearing from you. Say that to God. He wants you to say it.

He says it multiple times just in this one chapter of scripture, that this is something that we can bring to him. Bring to him your concerns, your feelings of failure and inadequacy and of abandonment. Bring it to God because he wants to hear it.

So then, Psalm 43 in verse 1, Vindicate me, God, and champion my cause against an unfaithful nation. Rescue me from the deceitful and unjust person. For you are the God of my refuge.

Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about in sorrow because of the enemy's oppression? So here he's saying, God, is there taunting me?

Is there saying, there's no God to help you? You are hopeless. There's no benefit to you and your life.

He says, God, like vindicate me. Prove that I am right through your help. You are the one that I take refuge in, that I have safety in.

Verse number three, send your light and your truth. Let them lead me. This is a call for God's word to lead this person.

Psalm 119, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I think of John 17, 17, where Jesus in his prayer to the Father says, sanctify them, set them apart, make them holy through your truth. Your word is truth.

So he says, send me your word, your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Show me what I need to do and where I need to go through your word.

He says, let them bring me to your holy mountain, to Jerusalem, to where this temple is. He says, to your dwelling place. I want to be where God is.

He says, verse number 4, then I will come to the altar of God, to God, my greatest joy. I will praise you with the liar, God, my God. Then he ends, why my soul, are you so dejected?

Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God. What a wonderful portion of scripture.

I want to maybe grab just a couple of takeaways that we can have. Here, as the psalmist is bringing these worries, we can notice that because he says, all of these people keep taunting me, where is your God?

That this person, like Job, is still having a faith that he is expressing in the Lord, even in the middle of his trials and circumstances.

And I'd encourage you, have that same heart, that even when you are going through the difficulties of your life, that those around you would know, yeah, I'm still praying to God. I'm still going to church. I'm still meeting with my small group.

I am still engaging in discipleship. I am still reading my Bible because I know that in God is my answer. Forsaking God won't get me anything.

Then I'm just all on my own. And there is no hope in me because if it was up to me, I wouldn't be in this circumstance to begin with.

So my only recourse is to turn to the God of Scripture and make that known through your interactions with people, just as this psalmist made it known even to his enemies that he was trusting in God. Let's say this.

When you're going through hard times, number one, be real and honest with God. Bring your emotions. Bring it truthfully.

But then, like, ravenously, dive into Scripture to find out, okay, God, what do you want me to do in this circumstance? Like, I'm looking to you for my hope, but what does that look like? What does it look like when God vindicates you?

What does it look like when God is your Savior, your help in times of depression and sadness and struggles? Find out from God's Word.

And maybe if it might be that you might need someone to come alongside you and to be able to recommend some passages for you to look at or recommend some books of Scripture to say, hey, these are the portions of God's Word that really deal with the

kind of thing that you're battling right now. And if that might be someone like me, I would love to come alongside you and help in that way.

Then I think also one other thing that we can think is this dogged determination to continue to follow after God is not something that I don't think we often come to just in the moment, like we're in the trial, we're in the depression, and then we

decide, oh yeah, I guess I'm going to keep with the Lord. I'd encourage you, before you get into the trial, before you get into the struggle or the circumstance, pray to the Lord.

Like, tell him, God, no matter what comes, I'm going to be faithful to you. And maybe, and this might be a scary thought for some of us, I know even as I thought of it, it was a scary thought for me.

Talk to God and say, God, if I lose this loved one, I'm going to remain faithful to you. If I lose my job, or if my hours get cut, or if I'm undergoing difficulties with coworkers, God, I'm still going to follow you.

God, if this circumstance in my life falls through, just because it's more recent here, God, if my house floods, I'm still going to trust you. I'm still going to believe in you.

Determine beforehand, before the trial comes, that you're going to follow God. That way, when the trial comes, you can go to the Lord and say, God, we talked about this, and I told you that I'm going to follow you no matter the circumstance.

And so, God, help me to be true to what I promised you. Help me to be faithful to you even in these difficult circumstances. I love, as the Psalmist writes these three times, this phrase, why, my soul, are you so dejected?

Talk to yourself. Don't listen to yourself. You might tell yourself, man, there is no hope.

I need to, you know, kind of give up on the whole God thing. It's not really working. You might tell yourself that you need to sequester away from other people.

You might tell yourself tons of things. Tell yourself what is true from God's word. Why, my soul, are you so dejected?

Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God. Jesus has saved you.

And here, what the Psalmist desires, which is to be in God's presence, to be in his temple, to be with his people again, to know that God is with him. You have that through the Holy Spirit who lives in your life. So, be joyful about it.

Have a comfort in your dejection, your depression, your turmoil, realizing that God is with you. He has not abandoned you.

And so turn to him, asking for his strength, pursuing in his word that light and that truth that will lead you to where you need to be in your relationship with God. Thanks for tuning in, looking forward to Psalm 44 tomorrow.