God Will Come Through

God Will Come Through

I. OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

We have a saying in English when we hear children speak with words of wisdom: "Out of the mouths of babes" (Psalm 8).

There was an atheist. In his drawing room he had written in big letters: “God is nowhere.”

His small son was playing one day while he was reading his newspaper. The small son was trying, was learning how to read, so he tried to read the sentence on the wall: “God is nowhere.” But nowhere was a big word, so he broke it into two. He read, “God is now here.”

The father was shocked. He had never read the sentence that way. The whole gestalt changed: “God is nowhere,” and the child was reading, “God is now here.” There is great difference between “nowhere” and “now here”! For the first time he read that sentence with the vision of a child, with the innocence of a child.

It is said that since that day he could not read the old sentence in the old way: “God is nowhere.” Whenever he would look he had to read, “God is now here.” It became something fixed – such was the impact of the child.

II. TEXT:

Psalm 42-43 are a meditation that begins with a plea by an individual (or group) who were longing for the Presence of God. Most people remember it from the classic KJV:

Psalm 42-43

To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah.

1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?

4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.

5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.

6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.

7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.

8 Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.

9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

10 As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?

11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

1 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

2 For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

3 O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.

4 Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.

5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

The Psalmist starts out wondering where God is and ends believing that God will be there soon. It was a process to get to the hope that drug him out of despair, but ultimately he came to the place where he believed that "God will come through."

III. BACKGROUND OF TEXT:

The book of Psalms is a Spirit-inspired compilation of the songs of Israel from various periods of their history. The Psalter contains the expression of the entire range of human emotion. You should read it sometime.

"One reason for the Old Testament's importance today is that it starts from where men [and women] are. Our world has little awareness of God, while the church and the individual Christian, too, sometimes find themselves (perhaps because they have to live in this same world) in turn losing their awareness of God. God does not seem to make His Presence felt. He seems difficult to find." (John Goldingay, Songs from a Strange Land: Psalms 42-51, pg. 26).