Living with Highs and Lows
Psalm 42
Rev. Brian Bill
1/13/08
If you’ve been adversely affected by the flood this week would you please stand so that we can let you know how much we love you and care about you?
Now, if you’re still high and dry after the flood, would you please stand? I want to tell you that everyone standing has just joined the GTLC ministry! That’s right. I’ve been so moved by the amount of love and support that is already flowing from members of this church! You can be seated. Here are some things that we’re going to do.
* We are going to take a special love offering today and next Sunday to help those who are in need. Simply make your check out to PBC and place it in the envelope provided in your bulletin or drop off your check during the week.
* We’re in need of equipment to help people get back in their homes. Please sign up at the Welcome Center if you have a wet-vac, power washer, generator, pumps, etc.
* We’re also putting teams together to help people get back on their feet. There’s another sign-up sheet for this. The need is great and it’s my prayer that the workers will not be few.
* If you’d like to provide meals, could you please sign up as well?
Acts 4:32 – “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had.” Ken Fulkerson is providing administrative support for this endeavor so if you have any questions please see him.
I want to begin by sharing some impressions…
1. This is national news but its personal pain for many of you. The Weather Channel and CNN have made it public but for many of you the pain is so private that you can barely talk about it.
2. I’m praying that this will bring our church and our community together and I believe that God wants Pontiac Bible Church to take the lead. We’ve sent five teams to Biloxi but now in a very real sense, God has sent “Biloxi” to us. I received a phone call on Friday from Roger Bruehl, our missionary with Campus Crusade for Christ. Roger is one of the vice presidents with Crusade and travels all around the world. He heard what happened and called to offer some advice and then he prayed for me. What he said is so good that I want to pass it along:
* Engage and take action. Immediacy is very important.
* Take opportunities and point people to Christ.
* You can’t solve all the problems but you can take some of them and help some people.
* The church working together can accomplish a lot. That reminded me of something we’ve said before around here: No one can do everything but everyone can do something.
3. I love watching people serve – students sandbagging, getting people out, etc. I heard that someone made this comment this week: “I’ve got to do something. I’ve just been crying all day.” Here’s part of an email I received this week from someone who received some help from the PBC family: “I don’t know how to thank PBC for the outpouring of love and support we have received. Complete strangers have called my house to see if they can help or help me find a pump.”
4. This is an opportunity to be a testimony in our community. We received a phone call this week from a PBC member who wanted us to know that her neighbor was grateful for the offer of help from some guys from this church. Here’s a summary of the phone call: “When this family was getting ready to evacuate, this neighbor stopped to talk to her. He asked if she went to the Bible Church and she told him that’s where she goes to church. She said he had tears in his eyes and said how grateful he was for the men from the Bible Church that came down to help.”
5. There has been an outpouring of support from other churches that want to help – Salem Church in Gridley, Calvary Memorial in Oak Park and Trinity Bible Church in Biloxi!
6. This is a wake-up call. I heard one teenager say that she wonders what God is saying to our community. Think about it. She mentioned the lockdown at the high school, the suicide just down the street from here several months ago and now the flooding. The best way to know what God wants to say is by going to Scripture because that’s how He speaks to us today. Please turn to Psalm 42.
Studying-Sharing-Singing
The service today will be a bit different than other Sundays. We’re going to look at Scripture, we’re going to share together and we’re going to sing…and we’re going to do it in two parts.
Note: I’ll be drawing some insight from a sermon I preached over five years ago on this passage.
1. This psalm is a lament. Did you know that there are more psalms of lament than any other kind of psalm? That means that God wants to hear our hurts and that He sympathizes with our struggles. He invites us today to express our agony.
2. Psalm 42 is a “maskil.” This means that it’s a teaching psalm, intended to help us handle horrible things like floods.
3. This is a song by the sons of Korah. Tradition regards that this is a psalm written by David for the sons of Korah who put it to music. The context is when David was forced to evacuate his home because his son Absalom was leading a rebellion against him in 2 Samuel 15-16. David was removed from the throne, his life was threatened, his friends had bailed on him, he was ridiculed and mocked, and he was miles away from the temple where he loved to worship…but he is able to sing…and that’s what we’re going to do as well in a few minutes.
David was piled with problems. He was on the run. He was alone and discouraged. This was his personal “ground zero” and he wasn’t sure when the flood waters would crest. He’s been where many of you are today. Let’s listen in as David longingly desires the Lord in the midst of his discouragement.
[Read Psalm 42]
If you’re looking for some help this morning, David gives us four steps to put into practice.
1 – Seek God with Everything You’ve Got
David begins by stating how much he longs for God in verse 1: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.” When a deer is thirsty, he will run full speed until he finds some water. When he finally finds it, he will stick his face into the cool stream, forgetting everything else around him. This is unusual for deer because they are normally very alert and cautious. But, when they’re panting, they’ll do almost anything to quench their thirst. David is picturing himself like a deer that is on the run in desperate search of refreshment.
Verse 2 tells us that just as a deer can’t wait to quench its thirst, his soul is thirsting “for the living God.” He wants to know God. He’s seeking Him with everything he has. Have you ever been that thirsty spiritually? Does your soul pant for God? Only the living God can quench the thirst of the human heart.
2 – Be Honest When You Can’t
The first step is to seek God with everything you’ve got. The second step is to be honest when you can’t because the spiritual life is not always smooth sailing. We have down times as well. There are seasons in life when we’re hurting. There are times when we wonder why God seems so far away. David can relate. Look at verse 3: “My tears have been my food day and night.” His appetite has vanished because of all his afflictions. His only source of nutrition is the salt from his own tears.
Drop down to verse 7: “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.” As one wave seems to call to the next, so too, the waves of worry and the breakers of bad things have swept over him. His faith is faltering because of the flood of fears. Some of you have felt the same way this week. In verses 9-10, he wonders if God has somehow misplaced him. He’s so low that he feels like he’s dying: “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy? My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’”
A key part of the process of defeating discouragement is to be honest when you’re hurting. You can be real before God and you can be yourself in this church. You don’t have to fake it here.
--> Sharing: What are some things you have felt this week? What has God been teaching you?
--> Offering (mention special love offering)
--> Singing Set
3 – Force Yourself to Remember Truth
Seek God with everything you’ve got and be honest when you can’t. The third part of the process is to force yourself to remember truth. Look at verse 4: “These things I remember as I pour out my soul…” and verse 6: “My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you…” The Hebrew here conveys a strong expression of determination: “I will remember.” When you’re in the pits and you feel like there’s no way out, then resolve to remember what is true.
What is it that David remembers? First of all, he remembers the fellowship he used to have in verse 4: “How I used to go with the multitude…” David is alone and probably afraid. As he thinks back to the times of sweet fellowship he had with other believers, a smile begins to form on his face.
Friend, one of the best things you can do when you’re down is to be with the people of God. I know this is difficult because when we feel low we often want to go it alone. But God has put within each of us the need and desire for community. We’re not meant to function alone. We need one another. If you’ve been disengaging from people, if you’ve been pulling back, then determine to get back in touch with people. Hebrews 10:25 challenges those of us who are not consistent in our church attendance: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Listen carefully. The only way to do the Christian life is to live it in community with others. We’re a team. Turn to the person next to you and picture yourself tied to him or her. When you’re down, ask for help. When you’re up, encourage those who are faint hearted.
Second, David forces himself to remember the sweetness of corporate worship: “…leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.” While it’s important for us to be with each other, we must never forget that we’re together in order to give shouts of joy and thanksgiving to God. We’re one in Christ so that we can worship Christ.
Third, David locks into the fact that He serves a “living God” in verse 2. God is not dead. He’s not sleeping. He’s alive and at work, even when we can’t sense Him. We could say it this way: “He’s God and we’re not.” Listen to these words from Psalm 29:10: “The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD is enthroned as King forever.”
Fourth, David remembers that God loves him. Look at verse 8: “By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me.” The word “day” here refers to prosperity. The expectation of the psalmist was that a time of refreshment would return and the loving-kindness of God would again be manifested to him.
The Hebrew here is very interesting. The tense is not only referring to the past: “I used to go,” it can also refer to the future: “I will go.” He’s making up his mind to trust God and to do what is right, even when he doesn’t feel like it. That leads to the final step: Decide to trust God.
4 – Decide to Trust God
In this psalm David talks to God and he talks to himself. It’s not always bad to talk to yourself. In fact, when we’re down, we often need to force ourselves to remember and trust. In his book, “Spiritual Depression,” Martin Lloyd Jones says this: “The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, and question yourself. You must say to yourself, ‘Why are you cast down? What business have you to be disquieted?’”
In verse 5 and then again in verse 11, David says to himself, “Self, even though you’re depressed it’s time to depend on God.” Follow along as I read: “Why are you downcast, O my soul?” This phrase comes from the picture of a “cast sheep.” A cast sheep was a sheep that was flat on its back and couldn’t get up without help from the shepherd. “Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” This is a decision of the will to put our hope in God even when we can barely eke out the words. We must let our faith conquer our fears and let hope win out over heartache. Hope is not a vain feeling that maybe something better will come; rather it is a certain expectation of faith that God will come through for us.
This is a courageous step to take. Are you willing to wait for God to do His work even when you don’t know how you can even make it through the day? Can you choose to praise him even when your problems have piled up? David says, “I’m going to praise God even though I don’t feel like it. I’m going to count on His character. He’s God and I’m not. He loves me and therefore I can put my hope in Him to do what is right.”
This final step is more fully developed in Psalm 43. According to many Bible scholars, Psalm 42 and Psalm 43 were originally one psalm. You can see that Psalm 43 has no heading and verse 5 is identical to verses 5 and 11 in Psalm 42. While Psalm 42 is a dialogue between David and his soul, in this next psalm David speaks directly to God.
Look at verse 1: “Vindicate me, O God” and verse 2: “You are God my stronghold.” In verse 3 he asks God to “send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.” David then gets to the core. When his faith has flooded out, he makes up his mind in verse 4: “Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God.”
Friends, let’s…
* Seek him with everything we’ve got
* Be honest when we can’t
* Force ourselves to remember what is true
* Decide to trust God
--> Sharing: What passage from the psalms brings you encouragement?
--> Singing
