CW-C Psalm for the Day - Second Sunday in Lent - Kieth Bernard Kuschel
Psalm 42 &43
Psalm 42 For the director of music. A maskil of the Sons of Korah. As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. {2} My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? {3} My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" {4} These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. {5} Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and {6} my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermonfrom Mount Mizar. {7} Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. {8} By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me a prayer to the God of my life. {9} I say to God my Rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?" {10} My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?" {11} Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Psalm 43 Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; rescue me from deceitful and wicked men. {2} You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy? {3} 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. {4} Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God. {5} Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
What is the toughest criticism of your faith for you to handle?
How about: Where is your God?What is the state of mind in which the writer of the Psalm finds himself? Vs 5. “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?” What is causing this state of mind? If you read verses 1,2, & 4 together, you can take a pretty good guess. “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. {2} My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.” The writer is downcast because for some reason he is unable to go to worship God at the temple in Jerusalem.
2. What might have caused that? A variety of things. The person might be out of the country on a permanent basis. His job might have led him to such a situation. Another possibility might be that the person was living way up north and it was geographically impossible for him to get to Jerusalem on a regular basis. Another possibility might be that this was written after the northern ten tribes split from Judah. Then the people were told by the leaders of the northern ten tribes not to go to Jerusalem to worship. God had told all of his people to worship in Jerusalem, however.
B.1. The specific comment by the writer on why he is depressed is: “I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.” He was remembering the good old days. He had been in a situation where he could regularly worship the Lord. As he compares that with his present situation, he gets real depressed.
2. If there is something good that comes out of his situation, it is his eager longing to worship the Lord. Notice how graphically he describes his desire: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. {2} My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” When a deer is running, it gets very thirsty. It needs that water to keep going. We have a spiritual thirst for personal contact with the Lord. We need the water of life from Him to keep on going.
C.1. There is something else which adds to the depression here. {3} My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" The people around the writer were looking at how sad he was and telling him, “Obviously your God has left you all alone. He wouldn’t have put you in this situation if he were interested in having a relationship with you. He would not have given you this job, or this location if he were concerned about maintaining a relationship with you.”
2. And the next part of the criticism is implied. “Why do you even bother with your God? Why do you trust in Him? Why do you have a desire to go into His presence? Why do you even want to worship Him? He doesn’t seem to want to bother with you? Trust yourself. Take care of yourself. Find some other god who isn’t so distant. Find some god with whom you can have contact locally.”
D.1. One of the blessings which we have in our society today is the blessing of long life. The average life span in now into the seventies. There are many people who are living well into their eighties. Every once in a while there is mention of someone who is past one hundred - something that was very rare only a few years ago. The medical technology that the Lord has given us has made it possible for us to ward off the consequences of many illnesses and keep people alive for a very long time.
2. There is a down side to this blessing. People are alive. But their quality of life is not what it was , nor very often what the people would prefer. A large percentage of the people in their mid to upper eighties and above are in health care facilities or shut ins in their own homes. Many of them are not physically or mentally capable of doing anything near what they were used to be doing. They long for the good old days. When I visit them, they talk about the good old days when they were able to go to church regularly. How they long for the good old days!
3. And what is the world telling them these days, and what will it be telling us when we are in that situation? “You are foolish to think that a relationship with God is important. It is obvious that He doesn’t think so. He wouldn’t have left you all alone like this, if He did. You shouldn’t insist that you have to look at your life according to what He thinks, since He isn’t an active participant in your life. If you are sick and tired of life the way it is, then you decide if you want to continue on. You need to realize what the answer is to the question, ‘Where is your God?’” The world’s answer is: “He is nowhere to be seen.”
What is the state of mind in which the writer of the Psalm finds himself? Vs 6. “ My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermonfrom Mount Mizar. {7} Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.” Mention again is made of location. But the pictures in verse 7 seem to indicate that the writer is being drowned in the circumstances of his life.
2. What might have caused that? Well, life hasn’t changed. What causes people to be overwhelmed in their lives today? Pressure of accomplishing what we are supposed to be accomplishing each day. Expectations of the people around us. Our failures. Our own inabilities. Things beyond our control. Health issues. Financial issues. Relationships. The list is endless.
B.1. Again something makes all of this worse. Vs 10. My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?" “How come your God lets you be sick like this? How come your God puts you into a situation where you have so much stress? How come your God lets you be without the financial resources to handle life? How come your God doesn’t equip you better for your life?”
2. “You should realize what the right answer is to the question, “Where is your God?”. The answer is: “He isn’t around.” You are foolish trusting in Him. You have to handle life on your own your way. You have to set expectations for yourself. You have to handle relationships the way that is best for you. You have to provide for yourself in whatever way you can. Forget god, he’s not around.”
C.1. And then our feelings take over. Vs {9} I say to God my Rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?" Notice the implication. God has forgotten me. We have listened to the people who have rejected the Lord as their Savior. They have told us that the Lord has forgotten about us and we have bought the concept.
2. The reason we buy into the concept is the dreaded “Why” question. Why is my life so full of grief? Why are the enemies given so much free reign? If God loves me, why doesn’t he exempt me from all these problems? If God loves me, why doesn’t He exercise His power and limit the activities of those who are attacking my faith?
D.1. There is something positive that comes from the dreaded “why” questions. Did you notice the second line of verse 6? “Therefore I remember you.” If you are asking God the “Why” question, we are remembering Him. That is Ok. If fact, that is good. Very often we get into the depression state because we don’t remember the Lord. He isn’t part of our thought process.
2. Look at verse 8 at the end. “A prayer to the God of my life.” When we are asking God the “Why” questions, we are asking Him for solutions. That is good. And when we think about the Lord and ask Him for solutions, we are reminded of some things - verse 8 again “at night his song is with me, by day the Lord directs his love.” There is a blessing that comes from the comment of those who have rejected the Lord as Savior, “Your God lets bad things happen to you,” and the negative feelings which we have as a result of that. They lead us to yell at God. That is OK. He wants us to do that. “Call upon me in the day of trouble.” That is God talking to us. God’s answer to the question, “Where is your God?”, is “I am right here.”
What is the state of mind of the Psalm writer? Look at vs 1 of Psalm 43 which is just a continuation of Psalm 42. “Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; rescue me from deceitful and wicked men.” Rescue me from deceitful men. The men have been telling him “Where is your god?” Now the Psalm writer informs us he realizes that these are deceitful men. He shouldn’t be listening to them. He shouldn’t be letting his state of mind be influenced by what these deceivers were telling him.
2. Then he says: {2} “You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy? {3} 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.” In this verse the writer is questioning that he was questioning God. “You are my Stronghold. “Why have you rejected me?” Should I be asking that question if you are my stronghold? “Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy”? Should I be feeling that way if you are my stronghold? Probably not. 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.” I shouldn’t let my feelings make me feel isolated from the Lord. I should listen to His Word instead.
B.1. It is interesting that the writer says that the light and the truth of the Lord brings us to Him. Remember this man was isolated. How do we get over the isolation that all of us feel at one time or another? By being reminded that we are not alone even though it might feel that way. The Lord is our stronghold. God is our Rock. He is with us, no matter how we feel or what others tell us. Go into the Word. Let the light of the Word and the truth of the Word remind us of all those things. Then we have the right answer for the scoffers question, “Where is your God.” “He is right here with us.”
2. Verse 4: “Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight, my Savior and my God.” When the Word brings us into the presence of the Lord, we are reminded who He is. He is our Savior. He took our guilt on Himself and removed it from us. He suffered the wages of sins for us so we don’t have to be threatened by death as punishment for sins. He experienced hell for us so we don’t have to be afraid of experiencing that. He lived for us so He could cover us with His righteousness. Our sins are gone in Christ. We are acceptable to God in Christ. He rose from the dead. We will conquer death and live forever. When we are reminded who He is, we have the right answer for the question of the scoffers, “Where is your God?” The answer is: He is my Savior and my God. I have him with me right now.
3. “I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God. Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him,” When the Word brings us into the presence of the Lord, we are reminded who He is and what He has done and we are led to praise Him. When we praise Him, we say how great He is. We hear that as well as other people. And when we remind ourselves of who He is and what He has done, we put our confidence in Him and His promises. And then we don’t listen to our feelings or our enemies any more. Then we know the right answer to the question, “Where is your God.” He is with me every step of the way.