Psalm 42 is our study this evening. Psalm 42. And I'm taking the
title for the message from what's said in verse 5 and what is said
again and repeated in verse 11. And then I found as I'm reading
on over in Psalm 43, it's also quoted again in Psalm 43, verse
5, hope thou in God. Hope thou in God. You see that in verse 5. Why
art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted or upset
or disgruntled? Hope thou in God. for I shall yet praise Him for
the salvation of the Lord. Hope thou in God. We can always have a good hope,
a good hope, a solid hope, a living hope because our hope is in our
blessed Savior. He will never leave us. He'll
never forsake us. We can always have hope in Him. It's not hope in hope. It's not
hoping a hope, it's hoping Him. He's a living God. I like what
Paul writes when he writes 2 Thessalonians, he talks about we have an everlasting
consolation and a good hope through the grace of God. That's our
hope. Our hope is not vested in ourselves,
in our flesh. Cursed is that man that trusteth
the arm of the flesh. Christ is our hope. No believer
has a reason to be hopeless. We have every reason to hope
thou in the Lord. We have a hope of pardon. We
have a hope of forgiveness. We have the hope of justification,
regeneration, sanctification, resurrection. Our hope we have
in Christ is a resurrection hope. We have a hope to ever be with
the Lord. Truly David, King David, the
sweet psalmist of Israel, was a man after God's own heart.
God had given him a new heart, made him a new creature in Christ. God used King David as the anointed
king of Israel to be faithful ruler in Israel for more than
40 years. 40 years he ruled. Those 40 years
were years of heartache and trouble as well. He ruled as a prophet
of God to declare God's truth. When he dies upon his deathbed,
when he lays upon his deathbed, he said, although it be not so with
my house, he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered
in all things and is sure. But just before he said that,
He said, the spirit of God spake by me. He was David's, he was
God's king. He was God's prophet. God spoke through this man, David. But let us never put David or
any of God's dear saints above what every believer truly is. sinner saved by the grace of
God. Can't you say with the Apostle
Paul, I am what I am by his grace? We're subject to heartache, trial,
tears, and spiritual depression. But thinking upon God's mercy,
we have hope. David says in another Psalm,
turn over here to hold your place there, Psalm 42, and look over
here at Psalm 77. David at one time says in this
Psalm, Psalm 77, verse seven, will the Lord cast off forever? And will he be favorable no more? Is his mercy clean gone? Has
God forgotten to be gracious? Does his promise fail forevermore? Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Hath he in his anger shut up his tender mercy? And I said,
this is my infirmity. God has not forsaken me. But
I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high.
I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember
thy wonders. I'll meditate also on all thy
work. and talk of thy doings. So when we have these times of
doubt, fear, and unbelief, we can say with David, this is my
infirmity, this is my weakness, my sin, my unbelief. God has
not forgotten to be gracious unto his people, ordered in all
things, and sure, we have the sure mercies of David in the
Lord Jesus Christ. David truly expresses that in
this Psalm, but he also expressed not only his his wretchedness,
his sinfulness, but he also expressed his hope, comfort, and encouragement,
as he says, and he asked himself a question. Why am I cast down? Why am I bowed down in my heart
and my soul? Why art thou disquieted or upset? And the answer to the question,
hope thou in God. Hope thou in God. Again, he says that in the same
thing in verse 11. Why art thou cast down? Hope
thou in God. Now look at verse 1. He says,
as a heart, as a young deer panteth after the water brooks, the running
fresh, clean, clear water of a mountain stream. So panteth
my soul after thee, O God. My soul was thirsty for God,
for the living God, the true God. Now here's every believer's
true desire. Every believer's soul and his
heart longs for and craves after and earnestly desires to be found
in Christ and to be one with Him. Hold your place there and
find Psalm 63, verse 1, I think it is. Psalm 63, O God, Thou art my
God, early will I seek Thee. My soul thirsteth for Thee, my
flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and a thirsty land. where no
water is, to see thy power, thy glory, as I've seen thee in the
sanctuary because of thy loving kindness is better than life. My lips shall praise thee. Thus
I'll bless thee while I live. I'll lift up my hands unto thee. That's the desire of every believer,
to honor God by believing him. As the apostle says, that I may
win Christ and be found in him, counting everything else, lost,
dung, and ruined, that I may know him. Now this desire to
thirst after the true and living God is not there naturally. That's
not a desire naturally. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God. The carnal mind is entity against
God. The natural man loves darkness
and hates the light. If a man truly thirsteth after
God and seeks salvation where it's found in the Lord Jesus
Christ, it's only because God has given him a new desire in
his heart to seek the true and living God. It is only by his
sovereign grace that we desire to know him Believe him worship
him and glory in him. It's only by his grace Remember
that question in the book of Corinthians first Corinthians
who made you two different from another? What do you have that
you didn't receive? Well, we've received everything
we are and have a no by the grace of God our gracious Lord commands
us and Encourages all that are thirsty To come unto him and
drink Don't turn, let me just read it to you again. Our Lord
says, ho, everyone that is thirsty, come where water can be found.
Come unto the waters and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and
eat, yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. He said, come to me and drink.
He says, all you that laboring and heavy laden, come unto me
and I'll give you life. The Lord Jesus, we read in John
7, let me just read it to you. Our Lord said, if any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink. Let him come to me and drink. And then our Lord said to the
woman at the well, If you knew the gift of God and who it is
that say to thee give me to drink I would have asked of him and
he would have given thee living water. The Lord Jesus Christ
meets our need as we thirst after the true and living God. Our
Lord said all who are laboring and heavy laden he said come
to me and rest. How do we come to the Lord? It's
not something we do physically. How do we come to the Lord? By
faith. By believing Him. That's how we come. That's how
we rest in Him. By believing Him. Now look at
verse 2. My soul, my soul thirsteth for
God. For God. Not the God of our imagination. Not the God of the idols of men. False religion. My soul thirsteth
for God. And then he says, the living
God. The living God. The living God
who is absolute sovereign God. When shall I come and appear
before our God? This is our continual desire,
thirsting after the living God, the true God. Not the mere idols
of religious men, but for the living God who is
God. I like what Arthur Pink said
in his book on the sovereignty of God. How do you describe the
sovereignty of God? And he simply said, God is God.
I like that. God is God in heaven and in earth. He does according to his will
and none can stay his hand or say to him what doest thou. We must drink of him or die. We must have him or perish the
Lord Jesus Christ. We must have him. This is the
believers constant appetite to come to him, to believe him,
to hunger after him, and to be satisfied with Christ who is
the bread of life. He said, I'm the bread of life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on
me shall never thirst. We come to the living God, a
dead God. cannot save those who are dead
in sin, but the ever-living God, he's able to save to the uttermost
all that come to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for us. He is a fountain of life and
salvation. He is light, as David said in
Psalm 27, the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall
I fear? The Lord is the fountain of liberty.
He set us free from the bondage of sin and from the curse of
the law. The Lord himself loves us with an everlasting love. He's a fountain of life, light,
liberty, and love. That's why we desire him. To
have Him is to have all spiritual blessings in the heavenly in
Christ. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We seek to
know Him. Seek Him with all your heart.
When you do, you'll find Him. When shall I come, David says,
and appear before God? When shall I see Him face to
face? When shall I come before him?
Well, in reality, we are right now in his presence. For he says,
where two or three are gathered together in my name, I'm in the
midst of them. David said in another psalm,
as for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness, and I'll
be satisfied when I wake with thy likeness. One day we'll see
him with a new body, resurrected glorified body and we'll see
him face to face. Love him like we ought to with
no sin or distraction. Won't that be something? To truly
worship the true and living God to see him face to face. Look
at verse 3. My tears have been my meat day
and night. Weeping and weeping and weeping
daily in the night while the enemy, they continually saying
to me, where's your God? Your God's on the throne? You're
hoping in God? He's your strength, your help?
Why are you weeping? My tears have been my meat day
and night while they continually mock me and they say, David,
David, where is your God? You remember, turn to Psalm 115. Look at verse one, Psalm 115. Not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for
thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? David's response, our God's in
the heavens. Our God's in the heavens. Psalm
115, three. He had done whatsoever he had
pleased. Our God is in the heavens. Don't
turn to this and let me just read it to you. You know it already.
David said in Psalm 135, I know that the Lord is great, that
our Lord is above all God's whatsoever the Lord pleased that did he
in heaven and earth, seas and all deep places. He is the living
God seated on the throne. The only place a sinner will
worship is at the throne of a thrice holy sovereign God. Oh, they
may mock me. Where is our God? Where is our
God, David? He's on the throne. Look at verse
4. When I remember these things,
I pour out my soul in me, For I had gone with the multitude,
I went with them to the house of God. With the voice of joy,
I went to the house of God with a multitude, with a voice of
praise. with the multitude that were
seeking to worship the Lord to keep the holy day, to honor God,
to believe Him. Every believer enjoys and look
forward to with eager anticipation to worship the true and living
God in the house of God with the people of God. David said
in another Psalm, I was glad when they said to me, let's go
to the house of the Lord to worship Him. Notice how we come. It says there, we come with a
voice of joy, with joy, rejoicing in the Lord, having no confidence
in the flesh, but rejoicing in the Lord always. And again, I
say, rejoice. We come with a heart of praise.
You see that in verse four, we go to the house of God with a
voice of joy and praise. And we go with a multitude keeping
this holy day or to observe the feast day and that day, that
is the sacrifice of Christ. In our day, we come, the sacrifice
being made complete for us, putting away our sin, we come to the
house of God, honoring God by worshiping the true and living
God, thanking him for his great sacrifice for us. He is our Sabbath
day. He is our holy day. We worship the true and living
God. Again, he goes back to the question
within himself. Why art thou cast down? Bow down,
O my soul. He keeps speaking to himself,
get up, get up. Why are you bowed down? Why art
thou disquieted or disgruntled, disturbed? in me?" And then he answers those two questions.
He's talking to himself here. Do you ever do that? I do all
the time. Hope thou in God. Boy, that's
a good answer, isn't it? When you're cast down, hope thou
in God. When you're disquieted, disheartened,
troubled, Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him and honor
him and give thanks to him for the help of his countenance.
That is, the marginal reference has, his presence is salvation. You remember what Simeon said
in the temple when he picked up that little one, Mary's virgin-born
baby, and said, Lord, I'm ready to die. I've seen thy salvation."
That's when a man's ready to die, when he's seen the Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He says that again in verse 11,
and he repeats himself. Why art thou cast down? No reason
to be cast down. Why art thou disquieted, full
of turmoil, unbelief, doubt, fear? Hope thou in God. For I shall yet praise him who
is the health, the health of my countenance and the help of
my countenance. It says in verse five, for the
help of his countenance, who is the health of my countenance
and my God. He's my help and he's my hope
and he's my health. He's the health of my salvation.
Hope thou in God. David there talking to himself. in his own heart before God. Someone said his faith reasons
with his fears, his hope argues with his sorrows. We as believers
have no reason to be cast down, but every reason to be joyful
in the Lord. Hope thou in God. If every evil
be loosed against us, the grace of God causes us to swim through
all those troubles and trials because his grace is sufficient. His grace is sufficient. Hope
thou in God. Hope thou in God. He's unchanging.
We change all the time. David had ups and downs on the
mountain and the valley. He said, hope thou in God. He's
unchanging. He's unchanging. He said, I'm
the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob, you're not consumed. His grace is the ground of our
unshaken hope in Christ. His grace. Hope thou in God. Our Lord said, I'm the same yesterday,
today, and forever. You can trust me at all times.
Hope thou in me. Christ in you and you in Christ
is a hope of everlasting salvation. Hope thou in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our hope. He's our only
hope. Our only hope of all salvation.
Look at verse 6. Oh my God, my soul is cast down
within me. Therefore I remember. I'll remember
thee. When you're cast down, don't
remember you, remember him. Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan and of
the Hermonites and from the hill of Mizar. Maybe David is thinking
back in his early days in the hill country as a shepherd boy
meditating upon God's mercies in the past, how he was blessed
and how God sustained him in the wilderness when he fought
the lion and the bear, defending the sheep. In favor to our soul,
it is good to reflect upon the Lord's dealings with us in his
mercy past. and with the promise of His mercy's
future. You remember from Lamentations
chapter 3, His mercies are new every morning, past mercies,
daily mercies, and mercies to come. We know His promises never
fail. He's able to perform all that
He has promised. His love has no measure. Nothing
can separate us from the love of God which is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. His grace has no beginning, does
it? He saved us with an everlasting
salvation. He loved us from all eternity.
The Lord Jesus Christ was our Lamb, our Atonement, our Redeemer
before we were ever born. His grace has no beginning and
His grace has no end. Everlasting both ways look at
verse 7 deep deep calleth unto deep David said I'm going through
deep trial deep waters at the noise of thy water spouts Notice
last part of verse 7 all thy waves and all thy billows are
gone over me David looks to the hand of the Lord and he says
these trials and these heartaches and these troubles They come
from the hand of the Lord Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth All thy waves and
thy billows are gone over me thinking about those men on the
ship with the Lord Jesus Christ and the waves coming over and
the boat taking in water and the boat starting to sink And
the Lord Jesus Christ is over there resting. And they're so
startled, they wake him up and say, Lord, don't you care that
we perish? Who sent the storm? The Lord
sent the waves. The Lord sent the billows. And
then he said, peace be still. Peace be still. When the raging
waves are about us, He is our comfort, He is our hope. Even in the waves and the billows
that go over us, remember they come from the hand of the Lord.
They're His waves and His billows. They're called precious trials,
they're called light afflictions, which work for us, not against
us. Precious trials, Peter calls
it, but he also calls it this. Verse Peter 4, verse 12. Think
it not strange concerning the fiery trials as though some strange
thing happened to you. These trials that come our way
are ordained of God, and therefore are eternal good. Trials do not
produce faith, but they do reveal faith. They reveal it. Trials that come from the hand
of God don't drive us away from Him. They drive us to Him. They drive us to the Lord. I
have hope in Him always. Look at verse 8. Psalm 42 verse
8. Yet, yet. I like that. The Lord will command His loving
kindness. in the daytime and in the night
his song shall be with me and my prayer unto the God of my
life." You see, he gets right back to his hope. He said, trouble
and despair, disquieted, all these things were about me, turmoil,
heartache, the waves of God come over me, yet the Lord will not
forsake us. Yet the Lord will command his
loving kindness. He speaks and it's done. He commands
and it stands fast. His lovingkindness have been
toward us for how long? He loved us with an everlasting
love, therefore His lovingkindness does He draw us to Himself. Yet
the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night
His song shall be with me. And my prayer, my song and my
prayer are done to the God of my life. He's a God of my life. He is my life. In Him we live
and move and have our being. The Lord will command His mercies
toward His people. He will not forsake them in the
daytime or in the nighttime, in life or in death. He said,
look unto me and be ye saved. His song of mercy shall be with
us and our prayers unto the God of my life. Christ, our Lord
Jesus Christ is a living God. He's a God of our salvation for
he bought us with his own blood. The living God, think about this
now. The living God, died for our sin that we might have
life in Him. How can the living God die? I
don't know. But the God-man mediator did in order that we might have salvation
eternally in Him. Praise and prayer, as it says
there, my prayer And my song is unto
the Lord." Praising the Lord and praying unto the Lord cannot
be separated, can it? Where you find one, you find
the others, like faith and repentance. Both are the sovereign gifts
of God. Both freely confessed at salvation to the Lord. We
pray unto the Lord, and when we're praying unto the Lord,
we're praising the Lord. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me thy salvation so rich and
free. My prayer unto the God of my
life, who is the living God. Now look at verse 9 in clothing. I will say unto The God of my
life? I was saying to the God, I was
saying to God, my rock. Here he goes again. Why have
thou forsaken me? Is his mercy clean gone? No. Why do I go mourning because
of oppression of the enemy? I'd with a sword, verse 10, in
my bones. The enemies reproach me while
they say daily unto me, where is their God? You see a conflict
there, don't you? That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. David in the same breath, in
the same heart, he's depressed, he's down, he feels forsaken,
and yet he turned right around and he said, my hope is in my
God. The flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit against
the flesh. These are contrary one to another so that you cannot
do the things you would. We have these two warring natures
within this one body we live in. Well, they say daily, where is
their God? The Lord is our rock. Turn to
Psalm 62. The Lord is my rock. He's the
God of my salvation. He's the foundation upon which
we rest. God has not forsaken us. And even though we go mourning
in oppression from the enemy, and that basically is our flesh,
it ought to be done with this wretched man. with this enemy
that we drag around every day. The Lord is my rock, Psalm 62.
You remember this? My soul, verse 5, wait thou only
upon God, for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock
and my salvation. He's my defense, I shall not
be moved. And God is my salvation, my glory,
the rock of my strength and my refuge is in God. Trust in him
at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before him.
God is a refuge for us." Such confidence, such hope, such assurance. And yet, David says, is his mercy
clean gone? Has God forgotten to be gracious
unto me? No, he hasn't. But this, I think,
is the psalm of reality. That's where we live. like David,
a sinner, saved by the grace of God. Yet we'll praise the
living God for the salvation of the Lord.