Psalm 42, Psalm 42. And before I read the scriptures
and pray, let me mention that Brad took Pam to the emergency
room down in Cookville last night. Her blood pressure has been extremely
high. It just got dangerously high
yesterday evening, took her down there. And it's still high, not
as bad as it was. And so they, and her problem
is this, with that allergy thing that she has, I
don't know the name of it, they went to Mayo Clinic and found
out what it was, Cleveland Clinic. And she can't take something
anybody else would because it causes, you know, causes going
anaphylactic shock and, you know, make her very, very sick. So
they have to be very careful what they can give her. But we
need to certainly pray for her and Brad. What a burden to bear,
your wife that's sick. And then, you know, and the thing,
another thing is, is when they're your family members, you're just
in the situation with them. You know, Daryl and Joyce is,
and Eleanor is with her daughter, and Brad, and Kim, and Darren
and Kim. you know, their sister. So it's
a, but you know, you remember her, that the Lord would have
mercy on both of them, strengthen them, encourage them, and give
some doctor, when they go to a doctor, give them some wisdom
to know how to deal, get her the right medicine, get her,
her blood pressure under control. It, 218, was that what it was?
225 over 159. She was just about that close
to having us. That's dangerous, ain't it? We just don't know. So let's
pray together. Our Father, oh, our blessed,
blessed Father, you're our Father and we're your children. And
as your children, we come together to come to you. And we come in
our hearts, we come in our souls. We come honestly, we come sincerely. We come as needy people. And
Lord, we thank you that you meet our needs and that you are our
father. And you hear us when we call. There's not a father
that if he loved his son, if he asked for an egg, that would give him
a serpent. No, no. No, you're good to your children.
And I thank you for your children. Thank you for the children of
God. What a blessing they are. And
I pray that you would hear us tonight. And Lord, we brought
a special need to you. Brought a special family to you.
Special to me, special to this body of believers. Faithful,
God honoring. Saints of God. Lord, we ask that you'd bless Pam and strengthen her
body. And Lord, you've got power. She's made by you and created
by you. And I pray that you'd touch her and ease this situation. And when they go to doctors,
please, in your sovereign mercy, give the doctors wisdom to know
what to do. and watch over them and care
for them and all their families. Lord, we love one another and
we don't want to see one another hurt. So God bless, God strengthen,
God encourage, and meet the needs of Brad and Pam and others among
us who are having burdens and heartaches and sorrows, troubles
and trials. God bless, God give grace, God
give sufficiency, and enable me to speak tonight to your glory
and the good of these hearers for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. I want you to look here in Psalm
42 with me, and let's start reading together in verse 5. Psalm 42 and 5. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? And why art thou disquieted in
me? Hope thou in God. For I shall
yet praise him for the help of his countenance. O my God, my
soul is cast down within me. Therefore will I remember thee
from the land of Jordan and of the Hermonites from the hill
Mizar. Deep calleth unto deep at the
noise of thy water spouts. All thy waves and thy billows
are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command his
loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall
be with me in my prayer unto the God of my life. I will say
unto God, my rock, why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy? As with the sword
in my bones, my enemies reproach me while they say daily unto
me, where is thy God? Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? Why art thou disquieted in me?
Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the health
of my countenance. Now look in chapter 43, Psalm
43 in verse 5. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? And why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope in God, for I shall yet
praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God. We often have heavy, heavy hearts. We often, our spirits are often
very grieved and we get trouble down in our soul, very, very
troubled, very heavy laden. And you wonder why. And then I run across these scriptures
here. And I learned that King David,
the King of Israel, the man after God's own heart,
the man after God's own heart, the one that sat before the Lord
said, what is my house that thou art mindful of me, that you even
consider me? The sweet psalmist of Israel,
here he is. having a heavy heart, grieved
soul, burdened down, troubled. And our Lord Jesus Christ himself,
in the garden, it said he was exceeding sorrowful, even unto
death. And when he stood at Lazarus'
tomb, he groaned in spirit. That means his heart was so heavy
that he couldn't say anything but just groan, just groan. And nobody likes to have heavy
hearts, burdened hearts. Nobody likes to have their spirit
grieved. Nobody likes to be like that. Nobody wants to go mourning
all the day. Nobody likes to go with a heavy
heart, grieved in their soul. Nobody likes to do that. Nobody
enjoys it. Nobody enjoys it. I know I don't,
and I know you don't. But one thing you notice that
David is doing, he is asking himself why this is happening.
Now the reason he asks himself why is he's reasoning out. He's reasoning out. He's even
chiding himself for letting himself be in this condition. And being
in this condition, when God's his God. And so he pours out
his complaint to the Lord. And He says there, Why art thou
cast down, O my soul? Why? God your God. He says down there in the last
part of verse 8, He says, The God of my prayer unto the God
of my life. So He says, Why art thou cast
down? Why are you bowed down? Why is
the weight so heavy that you are bowed down and cast down?
Why? And then he says, why art thou
disquieted? Why are you disturbed? Why are
you uneasy? Why you don't have any rest?
Why are you worrying? Why are you so restless? What
is this that's going on? Why are you disquieted? And he
asked this question three times, three times. And David here is
actually rebuking himself and chiding himself. But when you
consider who we are and what we are, it seems like that that
should be our lot most of the time. Our lot most of the time. We're like the man who came to
the Lord Jesus and asked him, you know, to do
something for himself, and he said, if you believe, he said,
Lord, I believe. Please help my unbelief. Help my unbelief. But he says, I am disquieted.
Why is thou my soul? Why are you disquieted? Why are
you unrest? Why are you worrisome? Why are
you so restless? Why are you so uneasy? Why are
you so cast down? Well, what would disquiet your
soul? What would cause your soul to
be uneasy and not have any rest? What would cause it? Well, there's
lots of reasons, lots of reasons. We have this flesh to contend
with, our soul-fallen nature to contend with. And that certainly
makes it tough. Paul said he was a dead man he
was carrying around with him. He was a dead man. He said, this
old wretched man that I am, this old body of death that I have,
maybe one of these days I'll get rid of it. And one of these
days you will. I'll tell you another thing that causes us
to have it. It's sin. Sin in ourselves. Sin in our
unbelief. Sin and not owning up to what
we're really like and trying to justify ourselves and the
things we say, do and act. And then there's spiritual depression.
You believe people have spiritual depression? Spiritual depression's
tough. That's why David says down here
in verse one and two, look what he says in three. He says, just
like that heart, pants. He's just braying at the water
because the water brooks are dry. He's panting after the water
brooks and there ain't any in there, so he pants after my soul,
God. My soul thirsts for the living
God. It does. And then when shall
I come and appear before God? When will I be able to come?
When will God have me come and appear before Him? The river's
dry. The water is gone. And he says,
my tears have been my meat day and night. When they continually
say unto me, my tears do and my meat does, he says, where
is God? Where is God? And I remember
these things. They pour out my soul in me.
And I remember, and I'd gone with the multitude to the house
of God with joys and praise. And he says, listen, I went there.
That didn't do me any good. Why are you cast down and why
are you so disquieted? Spiritual depression. Spiritual
depression it's a real thing Where you get up someday, and
you just darkness death No life Not a good thought come across
your mind And all you do is just go all the days of your loan
call it on God and God don't seem to answer God so Dean seemed
to be present God doesn't seem to say, oh listen, the water
brooks has dried up and I know you're thirsty for me. Go ahead and cry. But oh, I tell you, that'll cause
disquietness of soul. That'll cause your soul to get
cast down when God denies his presence from you. And oh, to
not have the presence of God, that to me is one of the most
awful things to think about. and all seeing no evidence of
salvation and sometimes not in ourselves and the things that
we think and the things that we feel. And we're tried with
lots of difficulties. Life is difficult. You know,
I'm going to bring a message soon out of Job 14. Man that's
born of a woman is a few days and full of troubles. There's more hope for a tree
that's cut down, that if it gets a little water, he'll come back.
But man, where does he go when he dies? What happens to man? And oh, listen, oh, that's the
way it is. Man is born of a woman, born
in sin, born from a sinful woman. But trouble, difficulties, God
tries us with our difficulties. We have difficulties, a lot of
people have difficulties in their homes. They have trials in their
homes, sickness in their homes, arguments in their homes, no
love in their homes, bitterness in a home, sickness in a home. That causes your soul to get
cast down. And our friends. It's one thing to have people
that don't love you and people don't like you to say thanks
to you and hurt you and grieve you. But boy, when friends don't
treat friends right Lovers, you know, and people don't treat
one another right. That's grievous. That's sarcastic. That'll cause
your soul to cast down. It'll cause it to go way down.
And then jobs, people that have jobs. You know, here's the thing
about it. I was talking to Greg Amquist
today, and here's the thing. We as believers, even people
that's never heard nothing but the sovereign grace of God. Never
had no religious background, anything. God in sovereign mercy,
all they've ever heard is the grace of God. And you think,
boy, that's a great blessing. And it is. It is. You don't have
no religious baggage. But still yet, when you go on
a job and you go out among the world and you go out among people,
you hear all the false religion, you hear all the filthy language,
you hear all the silly jokes, you put up with a whole bunch
of foolishness out there in the world. That causes your soul
to come down. That causes your soul to cast
down. Finances, not having enough, not hardly having enough to get
around, not enough to get by sometimes. Get overextended sometimes. But I'll tell you something that's
more dangerous than poverty. Prosperity has slew more people
than poverty ever did. Prosperity slew more people than
anybody else did, has ever done. Poor men, they ain't got nothing
to trust in, nothing to look to. But God Almighty, and then
church, His things that cause our troubles, cause us to, our
troubles and griefs in our heart, cause our souls to be cast down
and disquieted within us. And the church, if there's any
trouble in the church, oh, trouble in the church. You know, when
the church is your life, the church is our life. Church is
my life. This is my life. Not the best
thing in my life, not the first thing in my life, not the second
thing in my life, not the most important thing. This is my life. And when there's trouble where
your life is, it causes your soul to be disquieted and to
be cast down. It does. And I know it does you
too. I know it does. It has to. It
has to. Oh, and then you see people that
they always seem to, after they've been a few years, they always
have somewhere else to go and have more places to go and more
things to do, and they start getting less and less and less
in the services. And then sin, sin in us, sin
around us. And I tell you something that
really, really, really caused your soul to be disquieted in
you and cast down. is an attitude that's not right.
An attitude. An attitude towards God. That's
why David said, why art thou cast down? Hope thou in God. When I went over here, I said,
I remember God. When I didn't have nowhere else
to go, I remember God. I called on God. And oh my, to not esteem our
Lord Jesus Christ enough to let these things keep us so absorbed
by our minds and hearts and our souls that we can't even hardly
consider Christ. Oh my, our attitudes, our lack
of love, zeal, sometimes having a will and not knowing how to
do anything about it and how to perform. Unthankful, unappreciative. All those things will really
break you down. Bad health, oh my, you get bad
health, that'll burden you. That'll keep you awake at night
wondering how tomorrow's gonna be. They gonna be any better
tomorrow? Gonna be any stronger tomorrow? Things gonna be any
better tomorrow? Gonna be worse tomorrow? All
these things, all these things can cause our souls to bow down. And then if it gets any worse,
and this is what makes it worse than anything, that grieves us
and disquietens us more than anything, me, I should say me, is that we don't trust God enough. Don't trust God enough. That's
what David says. Isn't that what he says? Why
art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquiet? Hope thou
in God. And even in this situation, I
shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance." Hope
in God. Boy, you take away this hope
that we have in God when our souls are bowed down, when our
souls are disquieted, when our hearts are heavy. When we go
mourning, as David said here, what did he say down here in
verse Verse 9, I'll say unto him, God
my rock, why hast thou forgotten me? I go mourning because of
the oppression. I'm oppressed. I'm oppressed. Hope in God. I prayed to preach
on that the other night. The God of hope. Now the God
of hope fill you with all joy and peace and belief. God of
hope. You see, he's in one mind and
nobody can change him. And David called him the God
of my life in verse eight there. He said, he's the God of my life. He's decreed your life and everything
that's gonna come to pass in it. He says, he's my God, the
God of my life. I will say unto God, my rock.
He says in verse six, oh my God. Oh my God, he's telling God about
this. My soul is cast down within me. And when I do, I'll remember
thee from the land of joy. And the deep things of my soul
calls unto the deep things that come from your water spouts.
Your deep things answers to my deep things. You come down in
their deepness and you come to the depth of my soul and you
bring me to these conditions. My God, covenant God, my God,
hopefully we submit to him, I do. My God by purchase, David's saying. My God and I rejoice in Him.
My God by choice of His of me and mine of Him. Hope. Hope thou in God. Confident expectation. Confident expectation. Tomorrow's
always going to be better. Tomorrow's always going to be
better. And if it ain't, He's still God. He still ordered our
life. He's still God. He's still the God of our salvation.
He's still the God of our hope. Oh, uphold me according to your
word that I may be live and not be ashamed of thee. That's what
David said in Psalm 119. Paul said, we're saved by hope.
Saved by hope. Paul said, look over in 1 Corinthians
9, just a minute, let's look at this, 1 Corinthians 9. Verse 10, we labor in hope, we
even labor in hope. He said, or saith he altogether
for our sakes, For no doubt this is written. Now listen to this.
He that plows, he should plow in hope. If a fellow's going
to plow his garden, going to go out and plow his fields, he
plows in hope. He plows in hope that I'm going
to, and listen to this, and that he should be a thresher of hope,
should be a partaker of his hope. He's hoping that when he sows
that field, labors in that field, then he sows that field and gets
that field, and he comes threshing, he threshes in hope. Everything
he does, I'm doing this in hope that by next fall, there'll be
something there worth having. And that's what he's saying.
We labor in hope. And Paul talked about, you know,
the hope of his calling. There's one hope of his calling.
What is the hope of his calling? Hope that God called us to himself. The hope that he called us to
Christ. The hope in knowing this, that only sinners are the ones
that are called. Only sinners. And call, he calls,
the hope of this calling is that he called us from darkness to
light. He called us to the fellowship
of his dear son. And this call of God was, it
was a predestinated call. And this call lasts forever.
The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. And I'll
tell you something, beloved. The anchor of our soul is our
Lord Jesus Christ. The hope of the anchor of our
soul is the Lord Jesus himself. And you know Peter says this
when he said, hope thou in God. No matter what goes on, we can
give a reason of our hope. Peter says, always be ready to
give a reason of the hope that's in you with meekness and with
fear. We can give a reason of our hope,
huh? We can, our hope, and it has
reason to it. He said, hope thou in God. We
hope in God. We hope in His mercy. We hope
in His grace. We hope in His love. We hope
in His justice. We hope in His pity. We hope
in His longsuffering. We hope in His righteousness.
We hope in His faithfulness. We hope in His promises. We hope
in God. We hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, what a blessed hope we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. And hope in the Holy Spirit that
he comforts us and teaches us and will guide us. And we have
a blessed hope and the Word of God gives us a hope. And Paul
said in Ephesians or Hebrews 611 that there's a fullness of
hope. And this is the hope that's really wonderful. Our hope reaches
beyond this world, beyond this veil of sorrows and tears. One
of these days, these burdens, these griefs, these heartaches,
these troubles, these things that cast us down, these things
that disquiet us, these things that trouble us, one of these
days they'll everyone be gone. Never have another one. Why do
we say that old song, you know, when I can read my title clear?
And not a trouble roll across my peaceful breast. Not a trouble shall roll across
my peaceful breast. No wonder David, this same David
says, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life. And then let me give you this quickly. I started to
preach this last week and so tonight. And if nobody
else gets anything out of it, I'm certainly getting it. It's
speaking to me because that's the condition I'm in. I'm David. I'm David. I'm David. That's where I'm at. Right where David's at. But still got to go on. You got
to go on. You got to get up. You got to do what you got to
do. You got to labor. You got to preach. You got to
pray. You got to love. You got to be
gracious if you can. And look what he said here. Look
what he said here in verse 5. Now listen to this. And look
at the margin now. Why art thou cast down? Why art
thou bowed down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in
me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him or give thanks
to him. And then it says, for the help
of his countenance. And the margin says his presence,
his salvation. If he gives me his presence,
where his help is, that's my salvation. That's what he's saying.
The help of his countenance. salvation. And we're going to
praise Him for His salvation. He's never failed us yet. He's
never ever let one of His children down. He has loved us and He
says down here in the 11th verse, I shall yet praise Him who is
the health of my countenance. He makes my countenance healthy.
He makes me look healthy. He makes me look spiritually
healthy. He's never yet failed us. He has loved us. He decreed
our salvation. He brought this salvation to
us. And bless His holy name, He has saved us. He that hath
begun a good work in you shall perform it unto the day of Jesus
Christ. He that begun that good work
in you. It's Him that works in us both the will and the do of
His good work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure,
and He shall yet save us." And he said, our lot of affliction
was just a moment, just a moment. On the whole scope of things,
whatever happens right now, just a blip on the screen, just a
blip on the screen. He saved them. He shall save
us and he saved us from all our distresses. Paul says in old,
he saved us from such light afflictions. What makes them light? They're
light compared to what we should have to, afflictions should be. They're light in compared to
what our Lord Jesus Christ afflictions was. And they're light in light
of eternity. They are very light. And I tell you, we don't live
by our circumstances, but we live by the God of our circumstances. And he gives us salvation upon
salvation, salvation of every kind. We need saving from ourselves,
saving from sin, saving from our troubles, saving from our
griefs, saving from our ill contrary ways, saving us from our Oh, Joe said, I said, watch over
my mouth. I wished I'd do that. If I was
a horse, somebody'd put a muzzle over me and keep me quiet. That'd
be all right. Sometimes somebody ought to be
muzzled. But all are full and complete
salvation, not by our merit. He shall be the help of his salvation. The help of his countenance is
salvation. His presence is salvation. And
he'll give us salvation upon salvation upon salvation, every
kind of salvation we need while we go through this life. Grace
for grace. A full and complete salvation
by the free grace of God. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
that's risen again, sits down at the right hand of God. Who
is he that condemneth? It's God that justified us. God,
they did it. And when you start looking at
why you're cast down, talking to myself now, there's only one remedy, three
remedies. Hope in God, having His countenance
upon you. When David said, I'll remember,
I'll remember. And His countenance, and it brings
salvation. And we're going to praise Him
yet. We're going to praise him. We're going to thank him. And we're going to attribute
all glory to him. All glory to him. No wonder he
said, be still, be still and know that I am God. Our father. Lord Jesus, it's hard, hard sometimes
to be honest, to be honest with myself, to expose my soul. And I pray, Lord, that I didn't dishonor you, didn't
shame you. As old Scott used to say, I pray I didn't bring
any shame upon your name or your ways. Lord, we need saving in so many
ways, from so many things. And Lord, when Brother Bruce
comes and our father, Brother Bruce, comes to preach Sunday,
God bless him. Lord, bless him abundantly. Bless
him fully. Use him. Oh, he loves this body
of people and these people love him. And so Lord, bless their
fellowship together. Bless the gospel that he'll preach
and the fellowship they'll have. And Lord, when we go down to
Milton's, Lord, go with me, go before me, go before me and Shirley
and protect us and preserve us and keep us safe there and enable
me to speak and preach and be a blessing to the saints there.
And again, we pray for Pam, Brad. God, give them strength, give
them grace, touch her body, meet all of their needs. And may she
be made comfortable and easy and restful and peaceful. And we ask these things for our
Lord Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.