Summer Playlist: Part 7
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Let's get into our series. We are continuing in our summer playlist series. If you're new this morning, we've been enjoying covering different songs of the Bible. We've covered songs of praise, Hannah's song of surrender, a song from Isaiah about God the Father. We've talked about a song that reminded us of God's protection. And then last week we covered a classic song, Psalm 23, how God is our shepherd. So we've been enjoying the different songs that the Bible has, seeing how each can help us draw closer to Him, help us understand ourselves and give us instruction in how to live a life that is pleasing to God. And really that there's a biblical song for every experience in life. I know that we have playlists sometimes, if you're a musical person, you have a playlist for your mood and you, you know, if you're working out, you're going to put on that heavy stuff to get you pumped up. Or if you're more in a contemplative mood, you put on the slower music to help you meditate or be in that moment. So the Bible has songs that are also in the same vein.
Today is going to have a different tone. As I said, there are times in our lives of celebration and joy. There are times of quiet reflection and contemplation. There are times of focus and preparation, but there are also times of despair, distress and depression. Now on Sundays, as we gather as a church, we more often than not spend time talking about joy and for good reason. But today, if it's okay with you, I hope it's okay. We're going to spend some time together discussing moments in life when we feel agony and anguish. Talking about emotions that the human body wasn't created to handle, but that sin brought into the world and therefore we must deal with. We're talking about situations in life that bring us to the end of ourselves and in desperate need of divine help. It's an unfortunate belief that some people have that hold that the church or Christians are a one-track singular emotion people of joy. That like, if you're a Christian, you just got to be joyful all the time. And in reality, we sometimes go through seasons where joy is the farthest thing, the farthest emotion that we feel. Where darkness seems to me more closely surrounding us than anything else. And we need to know as believers what the Bible says about those times. Whether you're in it or not right now, it's still important that you know that the Bible addresses those darker human emotions. And looking around this room, I know that many of you through conversation, getting to know you have been through a lot in life, maybe even recently. I know that many of you have wounds, pains, deep sorrows that you are working through, are processing, or maybe haven't even yet begun to process. But when we were preparing for this series, as pastors, we knew that we wanted to cover a song of lament. We knew we needed to because we knew that you needed it. So is it okay this morning, we take a pause on the joy, and we enter into the grief and anguish together? Is that all right?
We're going to be in Psalm 42. If you have your Bibles with you, you can go ahead and turn there right now. We'll have it up on the screen as well. Psalm 42. You might recognize this song as we read it. It's often sung with a gentle tone. It's a very pleasing song. But it's a song that brings up some of life's hardest questions. Questions like, "Do I have what it takes to keep going in life?" "God, where are you? Are you even there? Why do I feel this way? Why can't I be normal like everyone else seems to be? Why don't I feel as happy as I once was? Why is whatever I'm going through, why is it happening?" If you've ever found yourself in a season of life where these questions are constantly running through your head, take some comfort in knowing that you're not alone. And not just with the people around you. That's a huge comfort too. But know that it's a question that's been asked since sin entered the world. There's a song about it in the Bible. And maybe it'll put words to some of the feelings that you've had. And I want to be honest with you up front. This song, this song, it doesn't answer any of those questions in full. But it does communicate to us that we're not alone in how we feel. And it's a song that shows us, just its existence in Scripture shows us that God cares. I believe he put this in the Bible because he knew that as long as we struggle with sin, as long as sin was a part of our world, that people would continue to suffer, continue to despair, and that they would need to know that they can and should turn to God.
So let me go ahead and read our psalm this morning, Psalm 42. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Where can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the mighty one, with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng. Why my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast within me, therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Herman from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls, all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God my rock, 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? Why my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Let's pray one more time. God, we know that you are there for us, even though sometimes it doesn't feel like it. So I pray for anyone who is in that moment right now, where they have some very serious questions about what's going on, the feelings that they're feeling, where you're at. God, I pray that you would meet them in this moment through your word, through Psalm 42, God, a Psalm that you included in scripture for a reason. I pray that it would speak to us today, that we would feel your presence, we would be comforted to know that you are there and feel your peace. Even if our situation and circumstance doesn't change, God, I pray that our hearts would change knowing that you are standing there with us in that moment. Be with us today. Amen. I want to go verse by verse. I also want to make... Oh, thank God. I was about to pray for some air. I'm warm. Are you guys okay? It's warm? It's warm. It's back on at like 65? Okay, good. I didn't know if I was that nervous or it was just the heat. It's the heat. It's totally the heat. A little... No, just the heat. Okay, there it goes. Okay. I want to go verse by verse to dive deeper into this... I'm trying to be like a somber picture of the psalm. Verse one talks about this deer panting for streams of water. And it's a desperate picture. This is death is at the doorstep for this deer. And you may know the song, "As the Deer Pants," that many of you are familiar if you've grown up in church or been around the church for a while. It has a very gentle tune. And when you YouTube that song, "As the Deer," it's always like a video of a deer next to a quiet stream in a forest. And it's just very serene and peaceful. We were just in Mendocino this past week on vacation and we saw a lot of deer. And it was very peaceful. And I was like, "If I'm a deer, this is where I would want to be. This is ultimate deer country." I don't know if they have any predators. I didn't see anything. Maybe there are. But just peaceful deer in meadows. You got the ocean. It was beautiful. There's mountain lions? All right. I didn't see anything. Thank God. But this is our deer in this Psalm is in a totally different situation. This is a more dire situation. This deer is fighting for its life. I got a talk with Bob and Kris Lindsey working at the fireworks booth and they witnessed literally what is happening in this Psalm in their backyard. They live out in Loomis, I believe. Yeah. And there's this creek that runs through their backyard. And one summer day, they came out to find what this is describing, which is a deer sprawled out in its sight. You can see the breathing, the heaving, and the tongue is out. And it is literally fighting for its life. It's trying to regain its energy and composure. It had maybe smelled the water or something, and it was trying to make it to the stream, and it didn't make it. Now they reported that the deer left at some point, so it did regain its energy in that story, and the deer lived. But it is a very serious-- this is not a deer. We think of a dog panting. Maybe we read this and it's like, "Oh, it's just hot. It went for a run, and it pants to cool." You know, no, this is-- it's on the ground. It's side, you can see it gasping for air. The tongue is out. It needs water to survive. This is what the Psalm is talking about. Instead of the picturesque deer in the middle of the forest with a babbling brook, it's more of a wilderness setting. The waters are hard to come by, and the terrain is of desolation. Life is hanging in the balance here.
Verse 2 continues, it says, "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Where can I go and meet with Him?" Our souls long for things. That's what our soul does. Sometimes our souls long for sinful, worldly, fleshly pleasures, and our soul can have a terrible appetite. But there are also times when our souls long for God, for good, for our Maker, to be in the presence and to feel the goodness of God. And yet, sometimes when we're longing for Him, we know we need Him, it seems like He can be nowhere to be found, like He's just not there. The Psalmist writes, "Where can I go to meet with God?" We get a sense of wandering here, looking and searching and striving to find the source of renewal and restoration. And given what we know in the rest of the song, we know that they have experienced, the person writing this, who's living this terrible situation, has experienced being in God's presence before. And so the question is, "Where can I go to meet with God?" It seems like it's a place out of reach. I know what that's like, and it doesn't seem like it's possible right now. It doesn't seem like it's nearby.
Verse 3 says, "My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, 'Where is your God?'" It's one of my favorite lines. It's just real and raw emotion. My tears have been my food day and night. The only liquid that the author has been able to consume are his own tears from crying about his situation. Have you ever been in a situation where the memory of what you need, the memory of a good thing, or just the thought of a good thing, is both food for your soul? It's not super nourishing, but it's just enough for your soul. And yet at the same time, the thought of that good thing is also the source of agony because you don't have it. I think tears that we cry sometimes serve two purposes. We can be mourning our lack, our loss, our pain, while also getting the smallest amount of maybe joy or relief or sustenance, just enough to keep us going, all from the thought of the thing that we're missing. It's a truly desperate and despairing place to be, to experience. But I know that many of you know exactly what I'm talking about. When we're in that stage of life, when we're in the midst of anguish and agony, it can be hard enough just to wake up and get through a day. And then sometimes we're even conscious of how our suffering seems like evidence that there is no God to other people around us. Again there are those who believe that a believer's life is exempt from hardship and pain, and it's just simply not true. It's how we deal with all that that shows people our faith in the everlasting God. But how others view us in our worst times, in our most deepest struggle, can be an extra burden on top of everything else that we're trying to manage. Verse four continues, "Where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One, with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng." Continues this thought of remembering God's presence. And the writer isn't currently there, he seems far from the presence of God, but he remembers how he used to frequent the temple with the protection of God, how safe and peaceful and sound that time in life was, how smooth everyday life seemed. And as their soul is heaving and crying and just trying to survive, they remember the joyous celebratory shouts and praises that they used to partake in. We just had a psalm a few weeks ago, Psalm 121 about the ascent to the temple, and how everyone would sing together as they entered the temple. And he's remembering that exact time of, "I used to be in the crowds, I used to sing praises to God." And again, there's both, it's causing both sorrow, because it's not a reality for them in that moment, but it's also giving the writer the slightest bit of hope and relief. Just the memory of it is anchoring them at this time in life.
Verse five says, "Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." Now the author turns to reflective questions, to self-reflection, which if you've ever been to counseling or therapy, you know that that self-assessment, that time of looking within is essential to making any progress in processing what's happened in life. So I don't know if you've ever paused to ask yourself, "Why, soul, are you so downcast?" As an aside, I love the self-talk. I think we all do this, we talk to ourselves, right? We talk to, "Soul, why are you downcast?" Or, "Mind, why are you so anxious? Heart, why are you feeling so heavy? Why so disturbed within me?" And then comes the self-motivation, calling yourself up, or sometimes we say preaching to yourself. Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. Now in my time of study this past couple weeks, I read this over and over again, and I think it can be read in a couple different ways. It can be read with this defeatist mentality or tone of kind of like an Eeyore. You guys remember Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, how he always talks like this, "Downward, hmm." And maybe the author is saying, "Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him." Maybe it's that, I don't know. Maybe it's this sudden champion spirit, he's been feeling depressed and down, and he's like, "All right, why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed? Put your hope in God, we got this. We're going to go forward, we're going to win the day." Maybe there's that sudden change of tone. Or maybe it's more like a coach in sports, he's like, "Hey, why are you down? We got this. We're going to be okay. Keep your head up. It's going to be fine.”
There's probably even more ways to read this, verse five. And I think it's got to do with maybe personality, however you read it, whatever type of personality you are. Maybe it's the opposite of what your personality is. Maybe you're the Eeyore and you're like, "I need the other personality. I need the coach. I need the champion spirit to get me through this time." Read it in whichever one relates to you. I don't know how the psalmist intended it. But I do know, and it's important, is that they know what should be done. They know what has to be done, and they know what they're going to do. And in times of such despair, when in reality our minds are a fog and we don't know what we're going to eat or remember if we've eaten, every decision we have seems to be overwhelming and the to-do list is mounting and the weight of the world is crushing. To know just one thing you're going to do is such a win. And the psalmist knows, "I'm going to hope in God, and I'm going to praise Him." I don't know the answers to the rest of my life's problems right now. They seem insurmountable, but I'm going to hope in God, and I'm going to praise Him. So we continue in verse 6. It says, "My soul is downcast within me. Therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, and the Mount Mizar." The perspective shifts again from talking to God to back to talking to Himself. Or sorry, the other way around. Talking to Himself, talking to God. And it seems like the writer is hitting another wave of sadness, another wave of depression. Why am I solely downcast? Therefore God, I'm going to remember you. And maybe there's frustration there. Maybe there's frustration that the pep talk didn't work. I don't know if you've ever been there, if you've had a moment of really being intentionally like, "Okay, we got this." And then an hour later you're like, "This is even worse. Nothing helped. I tried everything and I'm back down at the bottom again." And then it feels even worse than before. But it says, "I will remember you, God." The writer knows he can place his hope in God. It doesn't ease his despair, but it draws him closer to God. In fact, it's the very tribulations that drive him toward God, not away from Him. And I think that's ironic, right? It's the very tribulations that cause us such pain, such anguish, that can also bring us closer to God. Verse 6 ends with, "The land of Jordan, the heights of Hermon, the mount from Mount Mizar." Then verse 7 says, "Deep calls to deep and the roar of your waterfalls, all your waves and breakers have swept over me." So from the heights of the mountains to the depths of the sea, we get now more of a tumultuous picture from the deer at the beginning of the passage fighting to survive on the verge of death trying to get a drink. Now the psalmist paints this picture of the highest heights to the lowest lows and the chaos waters and the waves and breakers sweeping over him. It's a mental picture of wave after wave. There's no escape. There is no break. And the psalmist feels like drowning in the hardships is inevitable. The song of laments, it can be hard to read. Songs of lament can be hard. We can tend to skip over them because, again, we want the joy. We see God and we're like, "I know I should be," or we have this idea of like, "I should be joyful." But it's also necessary to bring all this heavy stuff that we're feeling, the pain, the loss, the sorrow that we carry, and bring that before God. For whatever reason, we may believe the lie that feeling those type of emotions makes us weak, that we would feel shame if people were to know the sorrow that we're carrying and the pain that we feel. We never really want to be vulnerable and share that with other people. But it's real and it's not meant to be suppressed. And of anyone on earth, God understands how you feel. Verse 8 continues, "By day the Lord directs his love at night, his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life." Again, we see further hope in Yahweh. By day and by night, this is the Bible's way of saying 24/7, "God is with me and he is protecting me, he's looking over me." And maybe we read this and we're thinking, "Oh, the author is feeling hopeful again, he's feeling positive.”
Well then comes verse 9, "I say to God my rock, why have you forgotten me?" Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning oppressed by the enemy? Again, even though the psalmist maybe had a moment of hope, despair is in full effect and now they are starting to question God's absence. He feels as though he's forgotten by God. I think we've all, at one point or another, felt forgotten by God. Maybe some of you are in that position right now, not sure where God is in your life, wondering why it's been so long since you've heard from him. Maybe you've had these nagging doubts, "Has God abandoned me?" Maybe in whatever hard situation you're going through or went through at one point, at first you knew that God was there. Your faith was strong, you're like, "God is with me, I know this is tough but God's with me." But as that difficult situation just kept going and going and going, maybe the longer it went on, maybe that whisper became louder of, "God, are you there? Have you forgotten me?" I appreciate that we can sit in this uncomfortable position for a bit. The psalmist doesn't immediately fix or address the truth that God has not left him, which God hasn't. God does not leave us, he doesn't abandon us. But the emotions that we feel are valid. And the writer continues, he says, "My bones suffer mortal agony, as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, 'Where is your God?' My bones suffer mortal agony." What a picture. I don't know if you've ever been in such a state of distress or depression or agony where the emotional and mental strain is actually having a physical toll on your body. Where the food that you eat doesn't taste like anything. Where you have no energy and sleep isn't actually refreshing, it's just a gap between feeling the pain. You can't really think and your head is maybe either throbbing or maybe it's just a fog. But living in agony is not what our bodies were made for. It hurts. It sucks. The writer here is writing a song about it just saying, "God, I don't know where you are. My soul is aching right now." Once again, the author is strengthened just a little bit by hoping in that which is unshakable. That's Yahweh, God.
And he ends in verse 11, "Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God." Anytime anything is repeated in Scripture, it's important. It means that we're supposed to pay extra special attention to it. And especially in something like a psalm where it's more poetic and there's more creativity, the placement of it means something. And I think we can maybe gather that if verse five was this pep talk that kind of failed as the verse is after it, he's back in despair. Maybe he comes around to verse 11 and maybe he's strengthened just a bit more. Maybe it's not a full-on, "I am so confident," but it's just a little bit more hope. It's a little bit more pep talk. He hasn't given up. That's our song. It's not the most uplifting song. And in fact, if I knew music and could write music, all of this would be in a minor key, something that's painful and doesn't sound great, but kind of conveys the pain and the sorrow that I'm feeling. Even though the joy of the Lord is the farthest emotion that this psalmist is relating to, he knows that God is there somewhere and that he's worth putting hope in. He's worth putting his trust in. And so I just want to reiterate the truth that God does care about us. He knows about our pain, our suffering, and he has not abandoned us. And again, even though the joy of the Lord is maybe the farthest thing that we feel, that love and grace is still for you and given to you daily by God. So continue to put your hope in him and praise him.
I want to ask a few questions for us to consider this morning. First is this, are you thirsting for God? Are you panting for God? Are you thirsting for him? In your most desperate despairing and in your anguish, are you thirsting for God? Like it says that deer does at the beginning. One thing we noticed in our psalm was that despite the agony the author is experiencing, the joy does not come from a better situation, but specifically from the presence of God. It can be easy in our difficult times in life to ask God just to make it better. God, can you just... You guys awake? Ask God, we tend to ask God, "God, can you just undo this? Can you make it? Can you reverse this? Can you make this better?" We just desire non-difficult times. Even I'm guilty of just praying, "God, can I go back to the season of life where it was good and enjoyable? God, can you take away the pain? God, can you make this whole situation better?" Those prayers aren't wrong. And in fact, we should pray some of those prayers. But it should be in addition to a prayer that asks for the presence of God, to be in the presence of God. We need to yearn for Him, to thirst for Him, recognizing that He is the only thing that will quench our heart's deepest desires. It's not the good times that we should want as the end-all be-all. It's being in His presence that is best for our souls. That may mean still dealing with life's difficulties, dealing with pain, but doing it in the presence of God. So are you thirsting for God? Are you praying for His presence in your hardships? And the second question is, are you intentional in your seasons of celebration and joy? There's a part of this psalm that really speaks to me, and it's that memory of the joy and celebration and the presence and protection of God. And sometimes those memories of a good time can stir bitterness. We're upset that we're not in that good time, that our situation isn't a better one.
But really, I think we need to view the good times, the good memories, the positive experiences and life situations as gifts from God, as anchors for our minds and hearts, as a future oasis in a future desert that we're going to be in. Don't let the bitterness rot your heart. Don't let the lack of good times close the door on God and distance you from Him. Rather, let it be one of the things that draws you closer to Him. You are sowing seeds for your life when you are intentional in your seasons of celebration and joy, when you make the most of your relationship with God, when you practice healthy spiritual rhythms, things like spending regular time with Him, praying and meditating on His Word, loving others and being generous with a heart of service, Sabbath-ing regularly, thinking of others like Jesus would, fellowshipping with the body of believers on a weekly basis. Just like the psalmist remembered doing, build up those memories. Store them up within your heart so that you can remember the preciousness and joy of being a part of God's family for moments when you feel so far from Him. So are you intentional in your seasons of joy and celebration? I want to close with this as the team comes back up. I know I said that this song doesn't resolve, but there is more. Scholars think that originally Psalm 43 was a part of Psalm 42 as one longer lament psalm. In Psalm 43, the writer continues looking to God for vindication and imagines his joy in the presence of God. One scholar writes, "Throughout Psalm 42, there has been a growing reliance on the things that cannot be shaken, although the storm of suffering has given no sign of relenting." And in 43, "Homewhere bound or not, the poet can praise God as his exceeding joy, not merely his help, but God's salvation is there. Outwardly nothing has changed, but he knows that God is with him." So my encouragement and my challenge to you is this week, read Psalm 43. Read it a couple times. Maybe you read Psalm 42 and 43 together, but see what the Spirit is helping you process and understand how you might draw nearer to Him in your seasons of life. I love that this week is a prayer Sunday. I think it's perfect. Whatever you're going through, whatever, maybe it's in the past, maybe it's months old, but we all have things that our hearts are heavy for. Sorrow, pain, loss. We would love to pray for you in that time. So we're going to enter this time of prayer. In this next song, you are invited, Bob and Chris are here as our prayer team, and they would love to pray for you. So you are welcome to come up, and they would pray with you in this next song. You can sit quietly and reflect and pray if you would like, but worship God freely, but know that you're not alone, that God is here for you, and therefore we as a body of believers and as a church, we are here for you too. So I'm going to go ahead and pray right now, and then we're going to sing this song and pray however you feel led.
God, thank you for your Word. Thank you for being there for us. Thank you for not leaving us, not abandoning us. And I pray for those who feel like you are so far from them, I pray that they would feel closer to you today. Even if it's just an inch closer, just a step. God, I pray that they would feel your presence even more and be reminded of the truth that you love them, that you are there for them, that you protect them. God, be with us in our sorrows and our hardship. May we remember that you are always there, ever-present, with your love and grace. Amen.