SPEAKER_01: I invite you to open your copy of God's Word to Psalms 42.
SPEAKER_01: To the choir master, a mascell of the sons of Korah.
SPEAKER_01: As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
SPEAKER_01: My soul thirsts for you, God, for the living God.
SPEAKER_01: When shall I come and appear before God?
SPEAKER_01: My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, Where is your God?
SPEAKER_01: These things I remember as I pour out my soul.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?
SPEAKER_01: Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
SPEAKER_01: My soul is cast down within me.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon from Mount Miser.
SPEAKER_01: Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls.
SPEAKER_01: All your breakers and your waves have gone over me.
SPEAKER_01: By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me.
SPEAKER_01: A prayer to the God of my life.
SPEAKER_01: I say to God, My rock, why have you forgotten me?
SPEAKER_01: Why do I go on mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
SPEAKER_01: As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me.
SPEAKER_01: While they say to me all the day long, Where is your God?
SPEAKER_01: Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?
SPEAKER_01: Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
SPEAKER_01: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Father God, we're so thankful, Lord, for your word.
SPEAKER_00: We're so thankful that you know us the way you know us, Lord, that you bring your messages to us just at the right time.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we pray that today that your word as a sword would pierce our heart, Lord, that that you would uh just help us in our heart, in our mind, in our soul, Lord, to just hear you and reach out to you and be changed by you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Also let us feel just your presence, Lord, and this word that brother Robert will bring to us, Lord, just help it to be almost like a good fruit, Lord, just pleasing to our soul and to where we are in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we just pray that uh Robert be a vessel, Lord, for your word today, Lord, that he would be out of the way, Lord, and that uh you would just flow through him to all those who can hear.
SPEAKER_00: And all those who hear, Lord, be changed.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray in Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Good morning.
SPEAKER_03: You can be seated.
SPEAKER_03: Let me add my welcome to whoever is has greeted you this morning.
SPEAKER_02: This is a little bit of a side.
SPEAKER_02: I may be wiping my nose a bunch today.
SPEAKER_02: I've I've reached the age where my nose hairs grow faster than the hairs on my head, so my nose is tickling this morning.
SPEAKER_02: I think it's just hair, but uh just in case I might wipe it a few times.
SPEAKER_02: Welcome, glad that you are here.
SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, team, I I apologize.
SPEAKER_02: Uh I apologize.
SPEAKER_02: Just trying to be honest with you.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, glad that you're here.
SPEAKER_02: It's great, uh, grateful to be in the house of the Lord with you this morning and all of the things that we get to celebrate uh from uh faithful graduates who are being sent out.
SPEAKER_03: I love that we use that language, sent out.
SPEAKER_03: Uh guys, we every morning when we wake up, regardless of the door we walk out of, in that morning, whether it be a college dorm room or it be the uh at your home or you on travel somewhere, you are walking out the door, sent out with the gospel.
SPEAKER_03: So we certainly pray for those dear brothers and sisters as they they do that.
SPEAKER_03: And this morning we got to celebrate baptism.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, what a celebration that is.
SPEAKER_03: And now we are looking at a passage with uh just hope for those who are in despair.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus Christ is a friend of sinners, and he calls the weary and heavy laden to lay their burdens upon him.
SPEAKER_03: In the name of Jesus Christ, we welcome you to the Sunday gathering at Heartland Church.
SPEAKER_03: You are welcome in the name of the one who provides healing to the broken, strength to the weak, hope to the hopeless, and grace to the one who feels as though they are unforgivable.
SPEAKER_03: It is by his grace that we gather, it is in whom it is in he whom we worship.
SPEAKER_03: Brothers and sisters, saints of Heartland, friends, family, guests, the gathering of God's people isn't just for the people who are happy.
SPEAKER_03: The gathering of God's people is for the broken and it is for the hurting.
SPEAKER_03: Seasons of darkness, as we see in this psalm that we just read, are a reality not just in the life of the lost, but seasons of darkness are a reality in the life of the godly.
SPEAKER_03: The psalm who the psalmist who pins this chapter is experiencing grave darkness, as we're going to see.
SPEAKER_03: His enemies taunt him, right?
SPEAKER_03: His soul is in despair.
SPEAKER_03: He is depressed, he is in turmoil, and he's not just in turmoil on the outside, he is in turmoil on the inside.
SPEAKER_03: The words that I read a moment ago that welcomed you to Heartland are the words that are on the front of our bulletin each and every week.
SPEAKER_03: Those words are there on purpose.
SPEAKER_03: They have purpose, and the truth that they reveal is beautiful, and it is truth that is found in God's word.
SPEAKER_03: We don't know everything about this psalmist condition, but we do know that his soul was depressed and that his external realities were difficult.
SPEAKER_03: He was depressed and his realities were difficult.
SPEAKER_03: We see in verse three that the brother wasn't eating, nor was he sleeping.
SPEAKER_03: We see in verse 3 and in verse 9, and even in verse 10, we see that his enemies were oppressing him.
SPEAKER_03: We see in verse 3 that he was on the verge of tears, not just all day, but also all night as well.
SPEAKER_03: He was depressed and he communicates to his own soul, talking to his own soul.
SPEAKER_03: Why are you cast down?
SPEAKER_03: There are multiple evidences of the reality that he was depressed, and we don't know exactly what led to that depression, that spiritual depression that he is experiencing.
SPEAKER_03: But regardless of what led to it, we know that it was a reality.
SPEAKER_03: And we also know from scripture that some people just have a natural disposition to be depressed.
SPEAKER_03: I would go so far to put myself in that category, and I've shared some of that with you guys before.
SPEAKER_03: And I would also say when you think biblically, we have to think about guys like David, who had this natural disposition.
SPEAKER_03: When church history, we have to think about guys like Charles Spurgeon, the preacher of preachers, once said this: I suppose that some brethren either have much elevation or depression.
SPEAKER_03: I could almost wish to share their peaceful life, for I am tossed up and down.
SPEAKER_03: And although my joy is greater than most of men, my depression of spirit is such as few can have any idea of it.
SPEAKER_03: You know that Charles Spurgeon, a guy that we often read and quote, who is considered a titan of the faith, experienced his first spiritual uh his first extreme season of depression, rather, at age 24 in 1858.
SPEAKER_03: And that brother continued to preach until 1891, for years after his first experience, and there were many other experiences after that.
SPEAKER_03: I would encourage you to go read about his bouts of depression.
SPEAKER_03: It's fascinating.
SPEAKER_03: All that to say, if you walked in this morning feeling the weight of your own internal despair, you are you are heavy laden, you are depressed, you are experiencing what many would call the dark night of the soul, and you're filled with the idea that I am handcuffed by my current realities, I want you to take heart.
SPEAKER_03: I want you to take heart because regardless of what you are experiencing, regardless of what your depression feels like or what the cause of it is, the gospel tells us to not lose hearts and do not lose hope.
SPEAKER_03: And we see the same communicated here in Psalms as well.
SPEAKER_03: Because in moments of intense spiritual depression, in the dark nights of our soul, the tendency can be to say something like, I am throwing in the towel, I give up, I am tired of fighting for the restoration of my soul.
SPEAKER_03: I'm going to flee from the Lord and I'm going to flee from his church.
SPEAKER_03: That's what our flesh tells us.
SPEAKER_03: But brothers and sisters, if that is you, let me encourage you and challenge you, please resist that temptation and fight in the ways that the psalmist communicates to us to fight.
SPEAKER_03: You see that the psalmist here, he doesn't just point to his condition.
SPEAKER_03: He doesn't just point to this internal despair.
SPEAKER_03: He doesn't just point to a soul that was cast down.
SPEAKER_03: He also points to what his response is in that moment.
SPEAKER_03: And this morning, we're going to work through what his response was.
SPEAKER_03: And we, I want you to be encouraged, if you are in that season and challenge, to make that your response as well.
SPEAKER_03: However, I do want to pause here at the beginning before we get into the text to ensure that I communicate something about this.
SPEAKER_03: There are multiple aspects of depression, right?
SPEAKER_03: He's talking here most foundationally about spiritual depression.
SPEAKER_03: And Martin Lloyd Jones has a fantastic book on this chapter of the Psalms called Spiritual Depression that would encourage you to read.
SPEAKER_03: But there are multiple aspects of it.
SPEAKER_03: You have spiritual, you have physical, you have emotional, you have medical, just to name a few.
SPEAKER_03: So don't hear me discount that.
SPEAKER_03: I was on three different medications at one point for depression.
SPEAKER_03: So don't hear me discount that.
SPEAKER_03: But however, you can have the best psychiatrist in the world and you can have the perfect balance of medication in the world.
SPEAKER_03: And you may feel better for a moment, but your eternity will be in despair.
SPEAKER_03: It will be in despair.
SPEAKER_03: You may need medication, but you always need his word, is a simple way to say that.
SPEAKER_03: Therefore, regardless of if your depression is just a simple, small season of the dark night of the soul, regardless if it is spiritual, physical, emotional, medical, or something else, fill in the blank.
SPEAKER_03: Let me encourage you to do what the psalmist does here and lean into his word.
SPEAKER_03: And we're going to work through five ways that he does that.
SPEAKER_03: Thirst, cry, sing, preach, hope.
SPEAKER_03: Right?
SPEAKER_03: Thirst, cry, sing, preach hope.
SPEAKER_03: Thirst for God in the drought, cry to God in your pain, sing to God his praises, preach to yourself God's truth and hope in God's sovereignty.
SPEAKER_03: Let's begin with thirst for God in the drought.
SPEAKER_03: As we begin, I want to set the context for droughts for you for a moment.
SPEAKER_03: You see, at the very beginning of this text, he he uses a deer to illustrate his point.
SPEAKER_03: And as a guy who enjoys hunting, when I think of a deer panting, I think of a deer sprinting through the woods who is thirsty, parched, looking for water.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe it's November and he's chasing after something that he desires, right?
SPEAKER_03: And he's thirsty and he's he's looking for water, which would make us naturally think of a short season, right?
SPEAKER_03: A short season of man, I'm thirsty here in the moment.
SPEAKER_03: But the psalmist seems to point to a different type of thirst, a thirst that is less associated with a short sprint and more associated with a long, sustained season.
SPEAKER_03: Let me set the context using scripture.
SPEAKER_03: Let me let me turn you to Jeremiah 14, one through six.
SPEAKER_03: Listen to the words that we see here.
SPEAKER_03: The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought.
SPEAKER_03: Judah mourns and gets her gates languish.
SPEAKER_03: Her people lament on the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.
SPEAKER_03: Her nobles send their servants for water, they come to the cisterns, and they find no water.
SPEAKER_03: They return with their vessels empty.
SPEAKER_03: They are ashamed and confounded and cover their heads because of the ground that is dismayed, since there is no rain on the land.
SPEAKER_03: The farmers are ashamed, they cover their heads.
SPEAKER_03: Even the doe in the field forsakes her newborn fawn because there is no grass.
SPEAKER_03: The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights.
SPEAKER_03: They pant for air like jackals.
SPEAKER_03: Their eyes fail because there is no vegetation.
SPEAKER_03: You see, the psalmist is speaking of a drought here that isn't the type of drought that is like you forgetting to water your houseplants one day, and then the next day the leaves are droopy.
SPEAKER_03: No, this is a type of drought that causes the leaves to wither, to fall, and subsequently the vegetation to disappear.
SPEAKER_03: The cistern to grow completely dry, the farmer's land to be completely barren.
SPEAKER_03: This was not a simple short season.
SPEAKER_03: This was a long frame spiritual depression, not the fleeting of a moment.
SPEAKER_03: That's what the psalmist is experiencing.
SPEAKER_03: And verses two and three help us see that he uses a deer instead of a camel, not to lighten the significance of the drought, but to emphasize the importance of hungering and thirsting for God, not hungering and thirsting for relief.
SPEAKER_03: You see, the camel will do quite well in a drought.
SPEAKER_03: Drop a deer in the desert on the other hand, drop a deer in the middle of a drought on the other hand, call in the vultures, they're going to be on speed dial.
SPEAKER_03: One commentator put it this way: this stricken deer is no camel, desert dwelling and self-sufficient.
SPEAKER_03: He has chosen the blessedness of those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, not the deceptive ease of you who are full now.
SPEAKER_03: This helps us see that the thirst that we are to have is not inherently about physical relief.
SPEAKER_03: That should be convicting for many of us.
SPEAKER_03: I know it is for me.
SPEAKER_03: He doesn't thirst for relief, he thirsts for God.
SPEAKER_03: He doesn't thirst for the day where there are no enemies.
SPEAKER_03: Verse 2, he says, I thirst for you, the living God.
SPEAKER_03: Regardless of the despair that is your relational life, regardless of the despair that is your personal life, your physical life, your spiritual life.
SPEAKER_03: Thirst most primarily not for a relief from your pain, but thirst for the God who sustains you, the God who provides relief, ultimate relief for your pain.
SPEAKER_03: We have to also have to understand that this doesn't mean that God doesn't care about us in our pain.
SPEAKER_03: And quite, in fact, quite the opposite or is true.
SPEAKER_03: Look with me at the next point.
SPEAKER_03: The psalmist also specifically speaks to crying to God in pain.
SPEAKER_03: You know what's clear in this passage?
SPEAKER_03: It's clear that this psalmist feels hopeless and all alone.
SPEAKER_03: Look how many times he cries out to his own soul.
SPEAKER_03: Why are you cast down?
SPEAKER_03: He's preaching to himself, and we're going to get to that in a moment.
SPEAKER_03: Why, soul?
SPEAKER_03: He's talking to his own soul.
SPEAKER_03: Why are you cast down?
SPEAKER_03: He seems to be experiencing what many of us have experiencing, have experienced, or are experiencing when we know what is true in our mind, but is in contradiction to what we are feeling.
SPEAKER_03: If I asked for a show of hands, I venture many, if not all, of you would say, I have been there.
SPEAKER_03: The point where I know what is true.
SPEAKER_03: I know what God's word says is true, but I'm having a really hard time feeling that it is true.
SPEAKER_03: Brothers and sisters, if that is you, you are in good company.
SPEAKER_03: The psalmist is experiencing that.
SPEAKER_03: And to make matters worse for him, his enemies are also mocking him in the midst of that.
SPEAKER_03: He doesn't run from that feeling, nor does he run from the truth of what he knows.
SPEAKER_03: Rather, he cries out to God and pleads with an air for God to God for an answer.
SPEAKER_03: I would venture to say that every single person in this room, at some point in your life, if it's not right now, has been in that position where you know God is real, but he feels so distant.
SPEAKER_03: Some of you may be there right now.
SPEAKER_03: The question I would have, and I know my answer to this for everyone in the moment, in that moment, did you stop and cry out to God and say, God, I thirst for you.
SPEAKER_03: Where are you?
SPEAKER_03: I would say, God, where you be, man?
SPEAKER_03: Where are you?
SPEAKER_03: Verse four, He pours out, right?
SPEAKER_03: He pours out your soul.
SPEAKER_03: Cry out to Him.
SPEAKER_03: Cry out to God.
SPEAKER_03: I want to be clear.
SPEAKER_03: Crying out to God in pain is not simply acknowledging the turmoil.
SPEAKER_03: Right?
SPEAKER_03: We can hear this idea of cry out in our pain, and it's and we think, oh, yeah, that's just me acknowledging the turmoil.
SPEAKER_03: No, it's so much more than that.
SPEAKER_03: It's so much deeper than that.
SPEAKER_03: God, crying out to God in our pain helps us recenter.
SPEAKER_03: Helps us recenter our lives and it helps us recenter our minds.
SPEAKER_03: Crying out to God in pain reminds us that Christ, while we were still sinners, showed his love for us.
SPEAKER_03: Think about it this way.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus in that moment declared, I love you.
SPEAKER_03: Now, in turn, in moments of darkness, we can declare, Jesus, I long to praise you again.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, help me restore my soul.
SPEAKER_03: See, in Jesus' greatest moment of darkness, God declared to each and every one of us, I love you, child.
SPEAKER_03: I love you, child.
SPEAKER_03: Therefore, we children can declare in our greatest moments of darkness, I long to praise you again, Father.
SPEAKER_03: Some of us, I'm this fits in here as well.
SPEAKER_03: In verse 4, the psalmist remembers the procession to the temple and the praise of God's people.
SPEAKER_03: You see that in verse 4, and I think it continues on into verse 5 a little bit as well.
SPEAKER_03: Brothers and sisters, some of us in this room need to reframe the way that we think about the gathering.
SPEAKER_03: One of the things that I know to be true about the church in the South, and I even know to be true in some conversations I've had with people here, so many people have a low view of the gathering of God's people.
SPEAKER_03: It's devastating.
SPEAKER_03: Church attendance might be high, but the view of the significance of the gathering can still be low.
SPEAKER_03: To have a low view of the gathering, this this should scare us because to have a low view of the gathering is to have a low view of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03: We don't gather on Sundays for the heck of it.
SPEAKER_03: I love you guys.
SPEAKER_03: I spend time with you guys outside of the gathering.
SPEAKER_03: There's other things that I would rather be doing on a Sunday if I'm just gathering for the heck of it.
SPEAKER_03: I promise you.
SPEAKER_03: And I'm sure the same is true for you.
SPEAKER_03: This is not just something we do for the heck of it.
SPEAKER_03: Dead people come to life at the gathering through the proclamation of the word.
SPEAKER_03: Hurting sinners are encouraged by the hope of the gospel at the gathering and by the singing of God's people.
SPEAKER_03: Families are changed.
SPEAKER_03: Think about what we just saw in the baptism.
SPEAKER_03: Not because of us or because of you, but because of the gospel.
SPEAKER_03: They're changed at the gathering.
SPEAKER_03: I love sitting up front in worship because I can hear your voices proclaim truth.
SPEAKER_03: And I've told you guys this before on the days when I can't seem to muster any energy to sing a psalm because I'm in despair.
SPEAKER_03: I hear the truth sung over me.
SPEAKER_03: This happens at the gathering, and we have a low view of it.
SPEAKER_03: The psalmist says, Do not forget the gathering of God's people in my greatest moment of despair, I am remembering, and I'm thanking God for that memory.
SPEAKER_03: As redeemed sinners who've experienced a new covenant that is found in the blood, we know that regardless of how distant God feels, He is not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_03: And the gathering reminds us of that truth.
SPEAKER_03: Therefore, we should not only cry out to God in our pain, but we should also sing to God his praises.
SPEAKER_03: Verse 8 declares, At night his song is with me.
SPEAKER_03: I read for you a read for you a quote I found in my study this week, talking about verse 8 specifically.
SPEAKER_03: Says this is not a song of jubilant hope.
SPEAKER_03: He doesn't feel jubilant.
SPEAKER_03: Hope.
SPEAKER_03: He is seeking jubilant hope.
SPEAKER_03: This is a prayer song and pleading song, a song to the God of my life.
SPEAKER_03: That is, a song pleading for his life.
SPEAKER_03: It is a psalm, song written in a time of despair as a prayer.
SPEAKER_03: That's what this song is.
SPEAKER_03: And it made me think of the following lyrics.
SPEAKER_03: And if you've been around church for any amount of time, even if you haven't, if you've ever been to a funeral, you've likely heard this song when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrow like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.
SPEAKER_03: You know that hymn was written by a guy named Horatio Spafford.
SPEAKER_03: Some of you may know the background of that hymn, but many of you may not.
SPEAKER_03: It was written in 1873.
SPEAKER_03: And what many don't know are the circumstances that were a reality around this brother's life when he wrote that song.
SPEAKER_03: In 1871, he lost nearly everything.
SPEAKER_03: He lost all of his possessions, he lost his business to the great fire of Chicago.
SPEAKER_03: Not only that, in the same year, he lost his sweet four-year-old little boy to scarlet fever.
SPEAKER_03: So he lost his possessions, he lost his son.
SPEAKER_03: And after enduring that tragic event, he put his wife and four daughters on a ship to cross the Atlantic to go to vacation in Europe.
SPEAKER_03: And tragically, the ship was involved in a terrible accident, and his four precious daughters lost their lives along with 200 other folks.
SPEAKER_03: And he received a telegram from his wife, and the telegram said this saved alone, what shall I do?
SPEAKER_03: Can you imagine losing all of your possessions and then losing not just your son, not just one of your daughters, or two of your daughters, or three of your daughters, but four of your daughters?
SPEAKER_03: His wife, saved alone, what shall I do?
SPEAKER_03: Historical accounts say that he immediately boarded a ship and headed across the Atlantic himself.
SPEAKER_03: And as he was traveling over the waters that took the lives of his daughters, the captain summoned him to his quarters and said, Horatio, this is the spot where the accident took place.
SPEAKER_03: This is where your four daughters lost their lives.
SPEAKER_03: And it was in that very moment as he's in his ship, over the waters that took the lives of his daughters, that he pinned the words, When peace like a river attendeth my way.
SPEAKER_03: When sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot that has taught me to say, it is well with my soul.
SPEAKER_03: Not because our circumstances or even our inner peace demands us or dictates us to sing praises.
SPEAKER_03: We sing praises to God in our despair and in our depression.
SPEAKER_03: Because in the greatest moments of darkness in our life, when we can't seem to see the light that is there, we know it's there, but we can't see it.
SPEAKER_03: It is well.
SPEAKER_03: It's not this certain Jubilee song.
SPEAKER_03: It is a song of despair, knowing that it is well because Christ has made me well.
SPEAKER_03: It is a song that declares, My soul is well.
SPEAKER_03: Not because it feels well, because I may be in despair.
SPEAKER_03: My soul is well because of my faith alone and Christ alone.
SPEAKER_03: Praise the Lord for that.
SPEAKER_03: Same principle of what I was talking about a moment ago.
SPEAKER_03: I don't have this in my notes, but it's the same principle when you're here in the gathering and you can't seem to muster the words to declare that.
SPEAKER_03: Your brothers and sisters are declaring that over you.
SPEAKER_03: We also should preach to ourselves God's truth.
SPEAKER_03: I already mentioned at the top of the sermon Martin Lord Jones' book, I would encourage you to read that book if you've never read it.
SPEAKER_03: But one of the things he highlights in that book, which primarily focuses on Psalms 42, is the importance of preaching the truth of the word to yourself in seasons of depression.
SPEAKER_03: The reality is that we are all preaching something to ourselves.
SPEAKER_03: The question at hand is, what?
SPEAKER_03: Right?
SPEAKER_03: My wife would be the first to tell you, I don't do a good job at this myself all the time.
SPEAKER_03: What are we preaching to ourselves?
SPEAKER_03: Is it gospel truth or is it the truth of fill in the blank of your name for me, Robert?
SPEAKER_03: Let me give you an example of how this might play out.
SPEAKER_03: And well, let me just give you an example of how this plays out in my life often.
SPEAKER_03: Robert, you did or said this 10 years ago or 15 years ago or 20 years ago.
SPEAKER_03: What the heck were you thinking?
SPEAKER_03: You are trash, man.
SPEAKER_03: You know you're not lovable, right?
SPEAKER_03: You know you don't deserve this or that.
SPEAKER_03: And in that moment, what I'm doing, I'm preaching to myself.
SPEAKER_03: I'm preaching to myself, but I'm preaching to myself untruths.
SPEAKER_03: The psalmist goes on the offensive against this type of preaching with a statement, why are you cast down my soul?
SPEAKER_03: I said this at the beginning.
SPEAKER_03: He's not talking to some random soul, he's talking to his soul.
SPEAKER_03: Why are you cast down?
SPEAKER_03: As to say to his own soul, sit down, shut up, and listen to what I have to say.
SPEAKER_03: Why are you cast down?
SPEAKER_03: Praise God, we have the blessed opportunity to read this passage on this side of the cross, right?
SPEAKER_03: Jesus was and is triumphant.
SPEAKER_03: Therefore, if you're a redeemed follower of Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_03: When you tell your soul to sit down and shut up, you can declare things like, God is for me, who can be against me?
SPEAKER_03: You can declare things like nothing is going to pluck me from the grip of his hands.
SPEAKER_03: You can declare things like what we see in Romans 5.
SPEAKER_03: Yep, I am a sinner.
SPEAKER_03: I am a sinner, but God died for me while I was a sinner.
SPEAKER_03: He didn't wait for me to figure it out.
SPEAKER_03: You can declare my feelings may be legit in that they hurt and they cause despair, but that doesn't make them true.
SPEAKER_03: You can declare things like we see in Psalms 34, God is near to me in my despair.
SPEAKER_03: You can declare things like we see in 2 Corinthians 12.
SPEAKER_03: Do not discount my weakness, your weakness.
SPEAKER_03: God is going to use my weakness.
SPEAKER_03: You can declare things like what we see in Romans 8.
SPEAKER_03: God is interceding for me.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for me right now.
SPEAKER_03: You can declare things like we see in Isaiah 53.
SPEAKER_03: God is acquainted with my sorrow.
SPEAKER_03: He Jesus understands my sorrow.
SPEAKER_03: And we can declare what we see in Revelation 21.
SPEAKER_03: One day, one day, and oh, I wish that day would come.
SPEAKER_03: One day I will no longer have to fight despair because I will be glorified.
SPEAKER_03: See, our souls are not always going to be well.
SPEAKER_03: They're not.
SPEAKER_03: But we must fight tooth and nail that we confront our unwell soul with the truth that leads to a satisfied soul.
SPEAKER_03: It's what the psalmist is doing here.
SPEAKER_03: And at the end of the day, the satisfied soul on this earth may be few and far between, but take heart, because the psalmist also instructs us, instructs the readers to hope in God's sovereignty.
SPEAKER_03: Verse 7 says this statement deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls, all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.
SPEAKER_03: This is probably one of the hardest truths to comprehend in this whole passage.
SPEAKER_03: God is sovereign over your darkness.
SPEAKER_03: God is sovereign over the dark nights of your soul, over the dark days of your soul, as he draws us to the well that will never run dry and invites us to have a deeper understanding of his goodness.
SPEAKER_03: You know, I mentioned Spurgeon earlier.
SPEAKER_03: I did a lot of reading about Spurgeon this week.
SPEAKER_03: If you read specifically about Charles Spurgeon and his depression, you will see that even when God felt distant and he communicated that God felt distant, when his soul wasn't well, when he was experiencing a turmoil within himself, when he was experiencing difficulty and darkness, he hoped in God's sovereignty.
SPEAKER_03: And he did that in the same way that the psalmist does here.
SPEAKER_03: Look with me at verse 11.
SPEAKER_03: Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?
SPEAKER_03: Hope in God.
SPEAKER_03: For I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
SPEAKER_03: That's the last verse of this psalm.
SPEAKER_03: You notice how it ends?
SPEAKER_03: Think about that for a second before I give you the answer.
SPEAKER_03: You notice how it ends?
SPEAKER_03: The exact same way it begins.
SPEAKER_03: Do we see any relief for this brother?
SPEAKER_03: No.
SPEAKER_03: The end of the psalm.
SPEAKER_03: He's still in turmoil.
SPEAKER_03: His soul is still cast down.
SPEAKER_03: He is still saying, Soul, why are you cast down?
SPEAKER_03: But if you're cast down, I will hope in my God.
SPEAKER_03: Spurgeon declared it like this There is no attribute of God more comforting to his children than the doctrine of divine sovereignty.
SPEAKER_03: Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe troubles, they believe that the sovereignty hath ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all.
SPEAKER_03: Think about this, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_03: If you are a follower of Jesus and you are in a season right now that it you are like the psalmist, and you want to cry out to your soul the very same thing.
SPEAKER_03: You're on the verge of tears all day, not just all day, but all night, and you don't even know why you're on the verge of tears.
SPEAKER_03: You can't even figure out, man, I want to cry, and I don't even know why.
SPEAKER_03: You long to praise God and you can't seem to muster the words to praise Him.
SPEAKER_03: You can't quite seem to do it.
SPEAKER_03: You are depressed, you are in turmoil, you are suffering.
SPEAKER_03: Your suffering is God's doing and has divine purpose in your life.
SPEAKER_03: That's what we see here.
SPEAKER_03: It has divine purpose in your life.
SPEAKER_03: And this is so complex.
SPEAKER_03: Coming to an understanding of the complexity of God's sovereignty over seasons, like what is spoken of here in Psalms 42, is so hard for us.
SPEAKER_03: It is so hard for us.
SPEAKER_03: Martin Luther, let me read for you something from him.
SPEAKER_03: Our suffering is not worthy the name suffering.
SPEAKER_03: When I consider my crosses, tribulations, and temptations, I shame myself almost to death, thinking, what are they in comparison to the sufferings of my blessed Savior, Christ Jesus?
SPEAKER_03: We have to come to an understanding that regardless of how dark the dark season is, regardless of how difficult it is, regardless of the turmoil that you are experiencing within, God has purpose in that, and it is to draw you closer to Christ.
SPEAKER_03: To draw you closer to Christ.
SPEAKER_03: Think about Psalms 30, verse 5.
SPEAKER_03: Talks about for his anger is but for a moment, his favor for a lifetime, and then it goes on to say, we tarry but for a night.
SPEAKER_03: But what comes in the morning?
SPEAKER_03: Joy comes in the morning.
SPEAKER_03: We read that verse and think, yes, I'm gonna wake up tomorrow and it's gonna be over.
SPEAKER_03: Sorry.
SPEAKER_03: Doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_03: That verse doesn't mean it's all going to be over tomorrow.
SPEAKER_03: It's like the old saying, I was born at night, but not last night, right?
SPEAKER_03: It doesn't put a certain timetable on when it's going to end, but it does point to the promise for the followers of Jesus that your joy and your salvation will be restored.
SPEAKER_03: We don't know when, we don't know how.
SPEAKER_03: It may be tomorrow, it may be next week, it may be next year, it may be 20 years from now, but it will be restored.
SPEAKER_03: The despair will cease at some point.
SPEAKER_03: Therefore, drink of his hope, and you will be eternally satisfied.
SPEAKER_03: Again, to quote Spurgeon, our Charlotte, sorrow shall have an end when God has gotten his end in them.
SPEAKER_03: Our sorrow shall have an end when God has gotten his end in them.
SPEAKER_03: God has purpose in it.
SPEAKER_03: We prepare to close the actionables for believers.
SPEAKER_03: It's really simple.
SPEAKER_03: It's the the five things we just walk through, right?
SPEAKER_03: It's the thirst, cry, sing, preach, hope.
SPEAKER_03: That is the response for believers.
SPEAKER_03: But I spent time praying last night that there would be people here this morning who are far from God.
SPEAKER_03: And that not only are you far from God, but you are in the same season that this psalmist speaks of here on the words of the pages of the Word.
SPEAKER_03: You've tried everything to escape it, but nothing has worked.
SPEAKER_03: You've tried tears of pain.
SPEAKER_03: You have even felt remorse all day long, and there's no relief.
SPEAKER_03: That's because you can try you can cry tears of pain all day long, you can be remorseful all day long, and there's not ever going to be eternal relief for you.
SPEAKER_03: Ever.
SPEAKER_03: You see, you can shed tears over the suffering, but never breach over into the act of repentance.
SPEAKER_03: And if you do that, your despair isn't but for a moment, your despair is for a lifetime, your despair is for eternity, and your tears are meaningless.
SPEAKER_03: My my prayer, all that to say back to the prayer I mentioned, my prayer this week was for for you, if you're here and you're you're not a follower of Jesus, that that when you lay your very present suffering over the top of this psalm this morning, that the Spirit would remove the blinders and declare God endured darkness so that you may enjoy the glorious light of Christ's salvation.
SPEAKER_03: That's been my prayer for you.
SPEAKER_03: Put your faith in him today for the very first time.
SPEAKER_03: It doesn't guarantee, let me be very clear, it doesn't guarantee that you will stand up, that you will walk out of this room, and that your soul will no longer be cast down.
SPEAKER_03: If someone has ever told you that about the faith, that is a lie from the pit of hell.
SPEAKER_03: There's no guarantee that that will cease in this life.
SPEAKER_03: But it doesn't get it, it does guarantee for you that through faith alone and Christ alone, you will drink of the hope that we see in the gospel and you will be eternally satisfied.
SPEAKER_03: Brothers and sisters, may we thirst for God and not simply thirst for relief.
SPEAKER_03: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_03: Father, we are so thankful for your word.
SPEAKER_03: We're thankful for difficult texts like this one that that, while difficult, also so very hopeful.
SPEAKER_03: Uh God, it seems like such a heavy passage to preach, but when you get down into it, just like a couple of weeks ago, when you feel the weight of what the psalmist is communicating here and the realities of a soul that is cast down, it helps us uh even better see the glorious light that is our salvation.
SPEAKER_03: So, God, for believers in this room, may we hope in the light of salvation.
SPEAKER_03: May we do the things that we see the psalmist do in response to his pain and in his turmoil.
SPEAKER_03: And God, for the person who walked in this morning, who is suffering, who has never professed faith in Christ, may the Spirit use this passage to open their eyes to the reality that they are lost and in need of a savior.
SPEAKER_03: And may today be the day that they respond.
SPEAKER_03: It's in Christ's name we pray.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.