Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 42. We read for our text, verse 2. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? Psalm 42 and verse 2. My soul thirsteth for God.

If there is any psalm that speaks of experience, it is this one. The experience of the soul, the experience of the Lord's presence, and of the Lord's absence, and of the longing of the soul after the Lord. clarifies what the psalmist is desiring. My soul thirsteth for God, but he doesn't leave it there for the living God. The living God, we read of Psalm 115, the contrast with other so-called gods, the idols, they are not living. They have mouths and they don't speak, ears they don't hear. They have all the faculties, but they can't, they don't use them. But the soul here is thirsting after the living God.

And the question, when shall I come and appear before God? This is not speaking of death, it's not speaking of coming and appearing before God. in heaven, it is here below, to be brought into the presence of God here below. We know when we pray, we preface our prayers often by, let us come before the Lord. And our prayers are coming before the Lord, the God of heaven and of earth. But there are many times we don't have a real feeling sense of it, nor feel it to be so. Sometimes we may feel the heavens to be as brass, or the Lord afar off. We might be like Job, O that I knew, where I might find him, that I might come even unto his seat. In his affliction and in his trial, his feeling sense of the Lord's presence, though the Lord is everywhere and is always with his people, that Job did not have it, did not feel it. And it is this psalmist here that is thirsting after this.

A living soul for a living relationship with a living God. And the illustration that is given here, my soul thirsteth. We know what the feeling of thirst is. It's not something we can consciously bring up. If we are lacking water, if it's a hot day, If we're thirsty, we feel it. It's an automatic thing. The body is longing for that which to satisfy its thirst. It's a deep longing and it needs quenching. And this is what is described here. My soul has a deep longing for God that needs to be quenched, that needs to be satisfied. a longing after the living God.

How easy it is to just have forms and rounds of dead service, coming and going to the house of God, reading, praying, and yet God is far from us. We haven't got the sense of His felt presence. No communion, no fellowship with Him.

I want to then look this evening Firstly, from this passage and from specifically this verse, the marks of a living soul. A living soul. And then secondly, what will quench a thirst for God? If this is our language, what will be the quenching of this thirst? And then thirdly, How will the Lord's presence be realized and felt here below?

But firstly we have marks here, marks of a living soul. The first thing is there's a consciousness of the soul. My soul. The many upon this earth and by nature, we have no realization that we're any different from the beasts of the earth. The beast does not have a soul, but we are made in the image of God and we have a soul that tabernacles in our body. Our soul is our real person. When our Lord was on the cross and the thief desired him, Lord, remember me, when thou comest into thy kingdom, Our Lord said to him, verily, verily, I say unto you, this day shalt thou be with me in paradise. And of course, the Lord yielded up his breath. The dying thief was killed and his body was upon the cross and taken down, but his soul was with the Lord in paradise. The very clear distinguishing of soul and body there on the crucifixion scene. We have it also in the writings of Solomon, that who knoweth the spirit of the beast that goeth down into the earth and the spirit of man that goeth upward. Man is unique in that he has a soul.

And the psalmist here testifies that he has a soul, my soul. And really it's a sign and evidence of one that has been quickened into life to know that they are an eternal being. They have a living soul. When Adam was created, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. And when the breath of eternal life, I pass by thee, bid thee live, when that breath I give unto them, eternal life, is given to the soul, then they know they have a soul.

But the second mark here is this thirst, this strong inward feeling and desire after God. Our Lord says that none can come unto me except the Father which sent me, draw him and I'll raise him up at the last day." If we had a piece of metal and we have a magnet and we put them within reach of each other, then we'll feel a drawing, a pull from one to the other. We can't see anything. There's no rope, there's no thread, there's no physical, but there's a real attraction, a real drawing that is felt by those holding the magnet and holding the seal. And so the Lord says that those that come unto Him are drawn unto Him.

And so this thirst, our Lord pronounces it, blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. But this thirsting, this longing after God, this aching void which the world cannot fill, this which is a strange feeling for those that are dead in sin, they've never known it, and for God's people, it's the first time that they ever know what it is to thirst after God. I believe the psalmist here already has known the Lord's presence. This is not the first time, but it is that desire after God again. Have we that desire? Have we that thirst after God? Not after his gifts, not after answers to prayer, not after things that he can do for us, but for God himself.

The third thing is that the psalmist here, instead of fleeing from God, he is wanting to come before God. We read a most solemn thing at the end of the world, when the Lord shall come with power and great glory, that there shall be those that flee, and shall call upon the rocks and the hills to hide them from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne. A natural man, he is like even Adam. When he had sinned, he fled from God, he hid in the garden. A soul cannot stand before Almighty God, it recoils from God. And yet here is a soul doing the opposite, and he's wanting to come before God. We must all appear before God, before the judgment seat of Christ. But for God's people, there is that desire to depart, to be with Christ, which is far better. And it begins here below, of wanting to appear before God in the light of His presence. And so here is a mark that is very different than the mark of a natural man and one that hasn't been quickened into life.

But then we have another mark and that is feeling the taunts of the enemy. This comes in a couple of times through this psalm. Because the enemy is saying, where is thy God? Verse three. My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, where is thy God? And then in verse 10, as with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me, while they say daily unto me, where is thy God?

Man cannot see the true and living God. We are told that this is one reason why the world rejects the Holy Spirit why they do not believe. The natural man likes to make idols of their gods, something that they can see, something that is before their eyes. They cannot, they don't have the idea of an invisible god, and yet a god that does appear for and help his people.

You think of Sennacherib, Rapsakee, Taunti, Hezekiah, concerning his God, saying to the people of Judah, let not Hezekiah deceive you and tell you to rest in him. And he reminds them and Hezekiah of what he's done to all of the other nations and all of the other gods. And as Hezekiah said in his prayer, truly, he has done that, but they weren't any gods. They were no gods. But there's taunt, as if they're making the true and living God the same as an idol.

And unless the Lord appears for help, unless He comes to us, then we have no difference. And this is the longing of this soul, and why it so pierces this soul, because the enemy is speaking. Be encouraged in this. If you also have a tempter, an enemy, an adversary, that is saying the same things to you, maybe in providence, where is thy God? In your soul's experience, where is thy God? In the troubles of your heart, where is thy God? This is the voice of the enemy. This is what this psalm clearly sets forth. And that you feel it, that the soul here feels it, is a mark of life.

Another mark of life is the inability to quench the thirst and appear before God. The psalmist is very evidently dependent upon God in this, upon the sovereign hand of God to appear and to show himself to him. And God's people feel this. It's a sign of life. It is not a natural religion that is just at the command of man to come and go when we want, and to draw near to God whenever we want. This is the sovereign work of God. And this soul feels it, and therefore, again, this is a evidence of life.

Another evidence is the remembrance of former times. There's two ways of looking at verse 4. When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me, for I had gone with a multitude. I went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day.

One way is to view it that the psalmist is remembering times when He, with his soul, was praising the Lord in the house of God, the multitude. And now it is not like that. Now he cannot praise, he cannot sing as before. And for a soul, a living soul, to feel that, they that have no changes fear not God. This is a soul that does remember the visits, the blessings, the lovely times of the Lord, and now it is not the same. And instead of just brushing it off and saying, well, the Lord will appear again, or not professing any feeling of sorrow upon the Lord's evident withdrawing himself, the psalmist really feels it. I wonder how much we tell the Lord when we do not feel his presence and do not enjoy the blessings that we once did enjoy.

But there's another way of looking at this verse as well. We can be in the midst of an assembly. We can go to the house of God. We can be with a multitude, and they can be singing, and they can be joining in with praise. And yet our heart be heavy, our heart be sad, because the outward does not make up for the inward. And when the Lord's presence is not feelingly felt in the house of God, then even that outward seems to just mock that poor soul that is longing and desiring and thirsting after God. No wonder how many times we feel that. That outward assembly and all of those round us cannot pick us up. It is singing songs to a heavenly heart. It's like those in Babylon, how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? And I believe this also is the experience of a living soul to be found in the assemblies of God's people, but they have a heart of sorrow, and they don't feel the Lord present, and they don't feel Him near.

It's not wrong that we should go into the house of God. We should be instant, in season and out of season. But it's good when we're mindful, do we have. the Lord's presence. Can we see the Master? Can we have His felt presence? We know His promised presence, but do we feel His presence?

Another evidence is this, that being cast down and disquieted at the Lord's absence. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? We might be cast down on many things in providence, many things in health, but here is a very distinct thing. Cast down at the Lord's felt absence. You can only ascribe that to the mark of a living soul. They've come looking, they've come like the spouse in the Song of Solomon. Have you seen him, whom my soul loveth? He'd gone, he'd departed. She went out to the city, the streets of the city, looking for him. That was her desire, after the Lord. And this is a good mark, when we have that, like the hymn writer says, object of my first desire, Jesus crucified for me.

This was a charge against the churches in Asia, They had left their first love and didn't seem to be troubled about it, that they departed from the Lord or he departed and withdrawn himself from them. They weren't acting as if he had or that they felt it.

The last mark that I mentioned to you is that of hope. Hope thou in God. A soul where there is hope. The grace of hope. God's work in the soul. Verse five, hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. Verse 11, hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God. That blessing of hope is a good thing still to have. John Bunyan in his Pilgrim's Progress, he speaks of his Christian and hopeful, I think it was, in the castle of giant despair. And it was hopeful that realised that they had the key of promise. It was hopeful that found the bottom when they're going over the river and sought to assure and comfort Christian. A Christian's hope. Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him. It's a blessed mark, however low we may get, Our expectation, our hope is not within, is not to us, is not to man, but it's to the Lord.

How many of these marks do we actually have that are found in this psalm? Those marks of a living soul. Yes, the Lord feeling thee not with them and They're in distress and in their sorrow. But they cannot say the hymn writer marks of grace, I cannot show. Because here, there are marks of grace. There are tokens for good. The breathings of a living soul.

So I want to look then secondly at what will quench this thirst. Well, we are told here in this psalm, it is firstly when the soul appears before God feelingly. And they feel to be in his presence. That is what they're thirsting for. When they feel that, that will quench that thirst and that longing. Then we have in verse five, when the Lord's countenance, God's countenance is seen. You know, if we have someone that we love or we know, and they've got their back to us, and we might have done things to offend them, to grieve them, and we don't know whether they're angry with us, whether they're upset, whether they'll be pleased to see us, while we're looking at their back, but if they turn around, and then we see their face, if we see their smile, if we see their favour, our faces read what we're really feeling towards someone. And so when the Samas desires to see the Lord's countenance, he is especially thinking in this way, while the Lord is looking away from me, I can't see his countenance and there's every sign that it's not good, but when he looks towards me, then I can see his countenance, then I can see how he feels and how he is carrying himself towards us.

And of course, That is changed in verse 11 because we read there, not in the words of verse 5, for the help of his countenance, but a professing that he is the health of my countenance. So in verse 5, in wanting to see the countenance of the Lord, but when he sees the countenance of the Lord, that will make his countenance different, a healthy countenance, instead of sad, instead of downcast, instead of despondent, then his countenance will be joyful and in praise and at peace. The countenance of the Lord towards his people affects their countenance. So what will quench the thirst of the psalmist here is not only seeing the countenance of the Lord, but what effect that that has upon his own countenance.

But then we have in verse 8, we have several things to show us what will quench the thirst of the psalmist. Firstly, when God's loving-kindness is felt, yet the Lord will command His loving-kindness in the daytime. When the psalmist, when we feel the loving-kindness of the Lord, that shall quench the thirst for our God. We read at the end of Psalm 107, after many changes set forth for the soul of men, Who so is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord. In verse 8, again, he's dependent upon the Lord, commanding his lovingkindness to us.

But then we have also how that he makes the soul to sing, And in the night his song shall be with me. It's the best thing when the Lord blesses our souls and we want to sing. I can remember many times when that has been so. The Lord has blessed my soul, and I've gone to the piano, I've gone to the hymn book, and I've sung. And it makes a soul to want to sing. We mentioned about those in Babylon, how shall we sing the Lord's song in strange land? And when we're sad, when we're low, we cannot sing. But when the Lord appears, when the Lord blesses us, then we can sing. And that makes us all then, that thirst is satisfied as they at last let loose, they can praise and they can sing and they can joy. So instead of those just going to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise, they can join in with them now, feelingly, joyfully, that shall quench the thirst of God's people.

But then we have in verse eight as well, and my prayer unto the God of my life, access in prayer. We mentioned before about having the heavens as this brass and we cannot feel to have the Lord's presence. We've got a hard heart. an unbelieving heart, and prayer is a real struggle, real difficulty, we don't feel any access, and that's very different than being softened and drawn out in prayer, and feeling the Lord very near unto us, and a relief in prayer, unburdening ourselves instead of taking away our petitions and away our sorrows, you think of Hannah, who poured out her heart before the Lord. Eli mistook her at first. He thought she'd been drunken, but when she told what the true case was, that she was a woman of a sorrowful spirit, had poured out her soul unto the Lord, he said, the Lord grant thee thy petition, that they had asked of him. And she went away and was no more sad.

She hadn't got Samuel. she hadn't conceived, all she'd had was that blessing from Eli, the Lord grant thee thy petition. And that will take away the sadness and heaviness of the people of God, to feel that their cries have been heard, they've entered into the Lord God of Sabaoth. And that was satisfying. the thirsting soul, thirsting after God.

But then it will also satisfy a soul when they know that the Lord has remembered them. How the psalmist longed. He is remembering. He's remembering these things. He's remembering the Lord. but he desires the Lord to remember him and to visit him. And in this, when the Lord does this, we think of the time that the Lord shut up Rachel's womb and then remembered her, opened her womb. Same thing with Abraham's wife, Sarah. Same thing with Elizabeth. Yes, when the Lord remembers his people, he remembers them to do things for them, appear for them. Remembers his people in Egypt, he comes down and he delivers them. We have those tokens that the Lord has remembered us in our lowest day. And he's beginning to work in providence. He's beginning to work in our lives. He's beginning to answer prayers so that we can see that they're answered. And that thirsting after God then is satisfied in this, when we know the Lord is nigh. When we see his work, we see his hand. This is what Job could not see. He looked on the right hand, looked on the left. even where the Lord was working and he could not see the Lord. Oh, that I knew where I might find Him. But get a glimpse of Him, get a realisation of His near presence and His working, then that answers the thirsting and longing of the soul.

But then we must ask, how is and how will be the Lord's presence realized and felt. It's not as if we can see his presence like we'd see a friend or a loved one, not with our bodily eyes, but how is his presence realized and felt? in really two main ways.

One is by his word and the other by the effect upon our own spirit. In the first one with his word, it is hearing the word of the Lord. The Lord gives a wonderful token of being his sheep. My sheep, they hear my voice.

And all of God's people, they've known the difference between hearing and hearing. We might have attended a place of worship all our lives and been dead in sin and heard the word outwardly. But when we have first heard it, heard it in the way that our Lord said at the end of the parables, he that hath an ear, let him hear, or at the end of the letters to the churches in Asia, he that hath an ear, let him hear, what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Mine ear hath he opened. Ye cry, Be not silent unto me, lest, if thou be silent unto me, I become like them that go down into the pit. It is in desiring to hear the voice of the Lord, and we hear His voice through the Word of God. The Word of God begins to speak to us. It comes with power, with authority, with a fact. Where the word of a king is, there is power, and my word shall not return unto me void, it shall accomplish the thing whereto I sent it.

Those in Thessalonica, the word came unto them not in word only, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. So the Lord's presence is actually realized and felt when the Word has that effect. I mean, reading it or in the house of God, I believe there are those of us that know what it is. When the Word has been so precious, found and spoken to us, and that has been the way the Lord has made His presence to be known and felt.

I think of the two on the way to Emmaus and how the Lord drew near and in all the scriptures opened up unto them the things concerning Himself. It was the Word of God that's been brought to them in a special way by the Lord Himself and their heart burned within them. They had the Lord's presence right there. They didn't recognize Him, their eyes were holden, but they had that which God's people recognize as the Lord's presence because of the effect of the Word that is brought to them.

Also, where the Word is dwelling richly in us, where we're given sweet meditation upon the Word, where the Holy Spirit, who is the Comforter, brings to our remembrance the Word of God. We may say that that Word is dwelling richly in us. It is our meat and it is our drink. It is the manna from heaven, the words that I speak unto you. They are spirit and they are life.

The disciples had the Lord's presence. They were listening to His Word. Those who couldn't receive His Word, they went away. The Lord said to his disciples, will ye also go away? And they said, to whom can we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And when we have that word, we know the Lord's presence.

Another way, again in the word, is beholding wondrous things out of thy word. Sometimes we can be reading the Word and it is so dry, we think we've read it all before and there's nothing wonderful about it. But other times, the Lord is pleased to draw near, shine light upon it, and then we see those wonderful things. Going those two on the way to Emmaus, they saw many wonderful things brought forth from the Word of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is the living, and incarnate word, the written and the incarnate word, all things the same.

Another way it's realized is by the love to the word of God. In Psalm 119, we have many professions like this. O how I love thy law, I love the word of God. You know, it is a blessed thing to have the love of God shed abroad into our hearts. but to have the love to the Word, whereby the Lord has spoken to us, healed us, calmed us, instructed us, and we love that Word. And that love of the Word leads us to the love of God. We love Him because He first loved us.

And so in a lot of ways, the realization of the Lord's presence coming to us again is related to the Word, how it comes to us, how we feel in reading it, its authority, its savour, the joy we have in it. When the Lord is nigh, then His Word is very precious to us.

But then the second main way is by the effect upon our own spirit. Our Lord said to the disciples at one time, you know not what spirit ye are of. Their spirit there was to command fire to come down upon the Samaritans because they wouldn't receive the Lord, because his faith was to go up to Jerusalem. But the Lord says, come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." He is to draw into His Spirit and to have the Spirit of the Lord. He told in Romans 8 that if any man have not the Spirit of the Lord, he is none of His, that we are to walk in the spirit and not walk in the flesh. In Revelation 1 we have John being in the spirit on the Lord's day. It is good if we're mindful of our spirit, what kind of spirit that we have. And so when the Lord draws near, that will affect our spirit.

A spirit of worship is a blessed thing, to feel that. It's a blessed thing to have the spirit of humility. We think of when the Lord drew near to Daniel, in Daniel 9, then all his strength went from him, he humbled himself, he bowed before God. And that will have the effect when the Lord's presence, it won't leave us unmoved, unbowed, proud, and mighty, it would be like Elijah. He'd heard the noise of the fire and the wind and the earthquake, but then this still small voice, and he wraps his face in the mantle, goes out to the entrance of the cave, and then he hears the Lord. What doest thou hear, Elijah? The Lord passed by, but he was not in all of those other things, but in the still small voice. and it had effect upon Elijah, effect upon his spirit.

Blessed thing to be tender in the things of God, to have a sense of his holiness and might, and to be softened. I think some of the most times the Lord has made known his presence to me is when he's softened my heart. when I've been so hard and cold and far off, and then with a sense of His goodness either brought to my mind or blessed through the Word, I've felt that softening, sometimes unexpectedly so, at my desk, that I've suddenly felt this softening, perhaps through reading the Word, and then to come before Him in prayer, and suddenly realize that access and to pour out my soul to the Lord and feel that He is near. Especially when we've labored under such a hard and feeling hard for a long while. It is such a relief, such a contrast to feel the Lord near in that way.

To be blessed with peace that will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon thee, because he trusteth in thee, that peace comes from the Lord. He says, in me ye shall have peace, in the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace, through the word, have that peace to come upon our souls.

To be blessed with assurance, a measure of assurance. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, I have a goodly heritage. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. When that bubbles up into the soul, and the Lord speaks to the soul in that way, We know and feel the Lord's presence and the Lord's blessing.

The Lord's blessing, it maketh rich, he addeth no sorrow with it. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. It's when the Lord makes us satisfied with the goodness of the Lord. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places. I have a goodly heritage. He said at the beginning of this psalm, it speaks of experience, it speaks of a feeling soul. It's not full of doctrine, though there is doctrine there. But it's not a whole lot of theories. It's that which really touches the soul. a living God, a living song.

Although our hope for heaven does not depend upon our feelings, it depends upon Christ's shed blood at Calvary, what He has done for us. And the righteousness that He gives us as we believe in His name and trust in His name, He imputes to us His righteousness. We're justified by faith in Him. accounted as free from guilt. It is not reliant upon our feelings. The psalmist here, though low, though the Lord is not nigh, he can't feel the Lord nigh, yet he still calls him my God. He still has not cast off and saying, well, because I am low, I'm no longer the Lord's. Because I'm this condition, then one moment I'm thine and one moment not. Our standing is in the Lord.

But if we are the Lord's, we'll want to feel, we want to know, we want to enjoy the Lord's presence. We'll mourn when our sins have grieved him and when he's withdrawn from us and when he makes us to feel that. I will return, the Lord says in Ezekiel, unto my place. When they acknowledge their transgressions, they will seek after me. And God's people, those that are prepared to be with him for heaven, in heaven eternally, they are those that feel after and want the Lord's felt presence here below.

Rounds of dead service, forms and ways will not satisfy their souls. They want that which does warm their heart, draws their affections, and assures them of the Lord's presence with them. May we be able to join with the Samas here if we, also in a low place, realizing that there are tokens here of a living soul, helping us not to cast away our confidence, our faith.

May we also realize when we are praying, when we are thirsting, what is it that we really want? What is it that we're thirsting after? What will satisfy that thirst? And when our thirst is satisfied, what are those feelings? What are those things that the Lord will work in us so that as much as feeling low as the psalmist here, we shall then feel strengthened and lifted up and encouraged and feel the Lord's felt presence with us.

The difference with the disciples, when the Lord appeared after he'd risen from the dead, they were glad, they were joyful, they could not hardly believe for joy. May we know also those changes. They that have no changes fear not God. This psalm speaks of the changes that a soul goes through and it evidences such a love and union and desire for God himself.

My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

Well, at last the Lord shall bring us to appear before him in heaven. But there'll be many times here below that we know his presence and that we appear before him here below. May the Lord add his blessing. Amen.