A Study in Psalms - Psalm 42

Psalm 42, I'm going to read verses one and two, and then I'm going to stop. So let's look at Psalm 42.

It says to the choir master, a mass skill of the sons of Cora as the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, Oh God, my soul thirst for God, for the living God, when shall I come and appear before my God? You know, we just sang the song as the deer, right? We've been singing that song since 1981. Probably one of the top five Christian choruses in the end of the 20th century. And it's a beautiful song, right? And this is a beautiful verse. You envision a female deer going to a nice lush green valley and finding a little brook, little brook to have some water.

It sounds real nice, right? But that's not what this Psalm is about. That's why I wanted to stop before we read verses three to 11. Did you know that the writer of Psalms 42 is in exile and he's a thousand miles from Jerusalem, did you know that this writer is a captive and it's likely he's on his way to Babylon. The writer of the Psalm is a Levi priest who led the worship in the temple. Now he's forced from the temple where he gave his heart and soul to ministry for so many years. And now he's just being mocked by his captors.

The writer of this Psalm is a very religious man, but his captors don't care. They taunting him all day long. The writer here remembers the joy of worship in the temple and the festivals, but now he only faces grief. The writer is absolutely depressed, much like the writer in Psalm 137. Remember when it says in Psalm 137 that we sat down by the rivers of Babylon and we hung our harps in the trees. Our captives demanded us songs. We were, we were too sad to sing songs. So there are certain Psalms like Psalm 137, Psalm 88, Psalm 77 that deal with depression and people are going through a rough time.

So let's continue reading then. Verse three, my tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all the day long, where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go to the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you so downcast? Oh, my soul. Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him. My salvation and my God, my soul is cast down within me.

Therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Herman from Mount Mizar, deep calls to deep, the roar of your waterfalls, all your waves, all your breakers and waves have gone over me. By day, the Lord commands his steadfast love. And 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 do I go about mourning? Because the oppression of the enemy as with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taught me while they say to me all the day long, where's your God?

Why are you so downcast? Oh, my soul. And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him my salvation and my God. You know, it was in 1965 that Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, one of the greatest preachers to ever preach. And by the way, he was a full on licensed medical doctor too, but he was the pastor of Westminister Chapel in London and he published a book called spiritual depression, its causes and cure. It might be in the library because there's a whole shelf of Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones books in our library.

At the present time, he had written about 50 books, very popular books, but this book on spiritual depression would become his number one bestseller.

Uh, the subject included that Christians can get depressed and are often looking for answers, but not just Christians. Let's talk about some people. Buzz Aldrin went to the moon and he came back to earth and found he couldn't cope with life and he went into serious depression. Winston Churchill, one of the great statesmen of human history, suffered from terrible depression. He said it followed him like a black dog. Ernest Hemingway, the author of many number one bestsellers, and he was considered the rugged of male of all the rugged male he-man.

He had such a depression problem with depression that he ended his life with it. Abraham Lincoln, perhaps our greatest president in living in some of the most depressing days in the history of the United States, knew awful divisive thoughts and had depression in his own life. And then of course there's another preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, one of the great called the Prince of Preachers. He had a lifetime battle with gout and that caused depression in his life at times, and it would lead to his death at age 58, but there were characters in the Bible like Jeremiah who would get in times of down being thrown in the dungeon, being thrown in the cistern and would get discouraged.

Joseph's brothers hated him because he was his father's favorite and they threw him into a pit. Doesn't tell us if he got discouraged. Jonah was in the whale of a belly and it says in verse six of Jonah chapter two, you brought my life up from the pit. Hezekiah got very sick and cried and moaned to God and he prayed God would give him 15 years additional of life. But perhaps the greatest story is in the Old Testament is Elijah. Uh, we've actually reviewed this. Pastor Lance reviewed it a few weeks ago.

They had the great spiritual victory in first Kings 18, 850 prophets of ball have been slaughtered after fire came down from heaven and their, their, their, their cow, no fire on it.

But when Elijah called fire down his altar, his cow burned up all the water and the fire, and then they killed the prophets. And then the drought was over rain came. It was a great spiritual victory of repentance and revival in Israel. That's chapter 18, but you'll be in chapter 19 Jezebel. We mentioned, mentioned her a couple of weeks ago, last week, she says, I'm going to kill him and he runs and hides and all chapter 19, Elijah has this pity party. And he says several times, I just want to die.

I'm the only one left and we'll talk more about that later. So depressed today, depression is very common in our day's world. I think especially it increased after COVID and the isolation, not being able to see your loved one. If they were in the hospital or in a, in assisted care in places like that today, the offices of doctors, psychologists, pastors, counselors are filled with people suffering depression. We can all get depressed at times we can all get down in the dumps. We can all have dark days.

We can have anxieties and worries and discouragements and fear. And sometimes like our Psalmist, we feel that God has forgotten us. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones in that same book listed five causes of depression. Number one, sometimes it's just the temperament.

It could, some people are more inclined to depression than others. Maybe the way they're brought up, maybe their constitution. So temperament is number one.

Number two, it could be because of physical conditions. This would be like Spurgeon and his battle with gout, right? So temperament, physical conditions, and then number three, a letdown after a great victory like Elijah.

I always warn the mission teams. The 17 of them come back on Saturday and they'll be on cloud nine. It always happens, but some of them will get home and maybe they have a non-Christian spouse or a relative who doesn't care about the trip, or maybe they're, they're so excited. Their coworkers don't care. There's always a warning. When you go on a short term mission trip to be careful when you come back, don't go into a depression like Elijah. Number four, it could just be an attack of Satan. You know, we take our eyes off God.

We get lazy. We stop going to church. Satan is described as a roaring lion looking for somebody to devour. And he doesn't look for you who are here in church and are reading your Bibles and praising. He looks for the weak in those. And number five, just simple unbelief. Non-Christians should suffer more depression than Christians. Many of you here today might add some other things to this list. A great disappointment in life, a loss of a loved one, some personal failure, and just the burden of getting old.

A couple of weeks, we're going to look at the old age psalm, Psalm 71. And maybe it's a phone call, a letter, a text message or something on TV. Maybe it's a memory of something in the past life that's triggered. The list could go on and on. So this is a psalm for you and me tonight. The type of psalm, it's an individual lament, a lament psalm, probably 75 of the 150 psalms are laments. This is an individual lament. And then there's congregational where the whole whole people in the temple are crying out.

But a lament is simply crying out to God. Now, we looked at Psalm 4, if you remember a couple of weeks ago, and I said Psalm 3 and Psalm 4 are related, right? And then last week we looked at Psalm 9, Psalm 10, and I said originally Psalm 9 and 10 were connected. So it's interesting tonight we look at Psalm 42.

Now, I'm not going to cover Psalm 43 tonight. A lot of pastors would because in the original Hebrew Bible, they're together. They're one psalm. So Psalm 43 has the same refrain or chorus as Psalm 42, verse 5 and 11. There is a superscription and it gives us the author. It says to the choir master, a masculine of the sons of Korah. Now, the sons of Korah are the worship leaders in the temple and they're going to write 10 of our psalms. This 42, Psalm 44 to 49, Psalms 84, that great one, one day in your courts is like a thousand days elsewhere.

Psalms 87 and Psalms 88. Masculine means instructions or teaching. So if you remember, we've been mostly in Book 1. Book 1 of Psalms is Psalm 1 to 41. And David wrote at least 37 of those, almost all those psalms. So all the psalms we covered so far are from David. But now we're going to go into Book 2, Psalm 42. If you look at the top, it says Book 2 in your Bible.

Right. And Book 2 would correspond to the book of Exodus, where God is a deliverer. And perhaps this psalm tells us how to get delivered from depression. And notice the author's change from David in Book 1 to the sons of Korah.

It's always interesting when you mention the sons of Korah, because you always think of number 16 when the sons of Korah were not satisfied with being the worship leaders and they tried to overthrow Moses and Aaron's authority. And you know the story. God opened up the earth and swallowed them up. And it's said that God swallowed up the families and even the little kids. But apparently there were some descendants who did not follow the sons of Korah and they lived and they would be the righteous generation and they would be the worship leaders.

They would be the choir masters. They would sing songs throughout the day. And apparently they did not join that rebellion in number six. And now they were worship leaders in the temple. Let's look at your outline.

If you have it, the first cause of depression, verse one to four, the faithful cure of depression, verse five.

That's the chorus and verse number three, further causes of depression, six to 10. And then we have the chorus again, the final cure for depression. Verse 11. You know, this is a very personal psalm of lament. The soul is crying out. There are at least 34 personal pronouns in this song. If you add Psalm 43 together, you might have 59 personal pronouns in Psalm 42. There are nine questions crying out to God. I am not sure there's another song where the psalmist cries out so many times like Psalm 42.

So let's look at the causes of depression for this psalmist. And there are three of them in point one missed public worship, verbal ridicule and pleasant memories. We read verses one and two as the deer pants for the flowing streams. So pants my soul for you, oh, God, my soul thirst for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before my God? It's similar to Psalm 63. Remember Psalm 63, verse one says, oh, God, you are my God. Earnestly, I seek you, my soul thirst for you, my flesh faints for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

The only difference in Psalm 42, we have this metaphor image of a of a deer dying of thirst, looking for the stream. Psalm 63, there's no deer. And as I mentioned, it's not a pretty picture. And you can see this illustrated in the verse of Joel 120. The day of the Lord is pictured as the same. The day of the Lord is that great day when God's wrath will be poured out on the wickedness of the earth. Earth and Joel 120 says even the beasts of the field pant for you because the water brooks are dried up and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

So we have the first of nine questions. When shall I come and appear before my God? He cries out to Elohim here. Elohim is the name of God. It's used 13 times in the psalm. OK, and that means that God is a judge. God is the creator. And his depression begins here because he's isolated from the temple. He's isolated from the worship in the temple in Jerusalem. First and foremost, he's not he's not crying about isolation from his family.

He's not crying about the state of Israel, which has just been wiped from the face of the earth by Nebuchadnezzar. Probably he's not crying about his possessions, his house, his belongings. He's crying about that he can't be at the temple and worship God. He's he feels cut off from God during his time. He was a leader. So he's a very important worship leader. And he and he had experienced the presence of God at the temple, mostly at those three feasts they would have three times a year. He felt useful.

Now he feels useless. He missed appearing before God. It's just a reminder to us when we get depressed, when we get discouraged, when we get down, when we have those dark days, don't neglect the assembly of the saints. Don't neglect your reading of your scripture. Don't neglect serving because that'll just keep you in a spiritual oppression. And that's exactly where Satan wants you. Not at church, not reading your Bible, not serving, not praising. Let's move on to number two, the verbal ridicule.

It says my tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all day long, where is your God? It's a hurtful question that causes tears. The taunters are using hyperbole here. You know, it's a question from the scoffers to the isolated believer asking. This is the second question we have here.

Where is your God? There are no atheists around here at this time. Every country had their own gods. You remember when Shenanigrab was going to attack Jerusalem and I'll just read you a couple of verses in Isaiah 36, 18 to 20. This story is so important that the Bible records it three times. But Shenanigrab was going to attack Jerusalem with a mighty army of one hundred eighty thousand soldiers of Assyria. And he sent a general and the general is yelling at Hezekiah and he says, beware, lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying the Lord will deliver us.

Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arapod? Where are the gods of Seraphim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered their lands out of my hand that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? Now, that case got the angel. The Lord would come and kill one hundred eighty thousand because Hezekiah was a righteous king and led revival. But this this worship leader, God is punishing Israel and they're going to go into captivity for 70 years.

So there's no no rescue here. This Levi is probably wearing robes. They probably know he's a worship leader. Remember, only a few thousand of the people of Jerusalem would go to Babylon. Daniel would go in the first exodus.

Ezekiel would go in the second. They didn't take a lot of people. They took the important people. They took the wise people. They took some of the king's sons. Most of the other people were slaughtered, though. So the taunters here are saying they know he's a worship leader and they're saying, where's your God when you need him? Is your God really of any use? Our God is more powerful than your God. It's so bad he can't eat. All he can do is cry. And the state here often occurs when you have great sorrow.

Maybe maybe you've been there when you're down in the dumps. You don't want to eat, right? You don't want to eat. You just want to cry. Your appetite, it's destroyed for any desire for food. And this reminds me of the Pharisees taunting Jesus when he hung on the cross. Remember Matthew 27, 43? The Pharisees looked up at Jesus and said, he trusts in God. Let God deliver him if he desires him, for he said, I am God. So mocking can really hurt, can't it? And these taunters are mocking this this Levite priest all day long.

Number three, in verse four, he remembers the pleasant memories. Verse four is a beautiful verse, isn't it? It's because he remembers. He says, I remember these things as I pour out my soul. I used to go with the throng. That's the multitude. That's the the thousands of people that would go up for those three feasts three times a year. Every male in Jerusalem was required to go to Jerusalem. But it wouldn't just be the males. It would be the entire villages, entire towns, entire families. Jerusalem would grow.

Some people estimate too many as two million people during the Passover and those different feasts. And it was a glorious time. There would be shouts, it says here, of praise. They would worship. They would offer sacrifices. They would sing. So the psalmist has pleasant memories of worship and fellowship at the temple. He remembers the good old days. He's troubled by the memories and wants better days. And I mentioned three times a year they would go. You know, we don't have anything in our culture that compares to those Jewish feasts where they would go three times a year.

Now we have Thanksgiving. We have Christmas kind of relates a little bit. But these festivals were just joyous occasions. But now he's far from home and it's bringing on depression. And it reminds me that there are people that get depressed because they live in the past. They recall all the bad things that happened in childhood. They have regrets and they say, if only, if only, if only the past is past and there's nothing you can do about it. We can't change what happened in the past. When you dwell in the past, it only causes failure in the present.

If there was a sin or a failure in the past, you need to confess it and forget about it. And Jesus will forget about it. Leave it there. The Apostle Paul says a verse that the Apostle Paul had regrets. He regretted killing Christians, arresting them, you know, crushing Christianity before he came to Christ. But when he came to Christ, he didn't dwell in the past. So I'm going to give you four verses tonight that I want you to write down. And I want you to memorize them if you haven't already. And verse one is Philippians three, 13 from the Apostle Paul.

And he says, Brothers, I do not consider that I've made it on my own. But one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. He says that I haven't made it and I'm not going to make it on my own self, but I can make it with Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. But one thing I'm going to do is I'm not going to dwell on the fact that I'm a murderer, that I killed men, that I was there when they stoned Stephen and I held the coats and I dragged people out of their their houses and, you know, and chased the Christians, did all those things.

But he says, I'm going to put that behind and I'm going to strain. Doesn't mean it's going to be easy. There's no quick cure. There's no 12 step program. But I'm going to strain. I'm going to work at it. I'm going to continue to go to church. I'm going to continue to read my Bible. I'm going to continue to serve. I'm going to continue to praise him. Paul rejoiced in his new life. And that's why he could say, by the grace of God, I am what I am. It's now that matters, not the past. When you have Jesus Christ in your heart, it's a new beginning.

We've been ransomed. We've been healed. We've been restored. We've been forgiven. I am a child of God. I'm a joint heir with Christ and I'm going to glory someday. So memory verse number one is Philippians 313.

If you'd write that down. So we looked at three causes of depression of this Psalmist and then we get to verse five as the faithful cure for depression. This Psalm reads like a hymn. You notice verse five and verse 11 are the same.

They're the chorus. It's also repeated in Psalm 43 verse five. So you have three times in this Hebrew. It's two Psalms, 42 and 43 are connected. As I said, the Psalmist is cut off from enjoyment and the loving kindness of the Lord, and he's overwhelmed with sorrow. So he's going to, he's going to do two things. He's going to have an introspective question. What's that mean? That means he's going to examine his own life. He's going to examine his own thoughts and feelings. Why am I so downcast? Why am I in despair?

That's the third and fourth questions. He asks his hopes have been shattered. His prayers don't seem to be answered. His enemies are mocking him. It's more than he could handle. Okay. So some translations say, why are you in despair? Well, the, the, that leads to the inevitable answer. A very simple answer. I hope that you will memorize this verse. If you haven't already memorized this song, you know, you can't avoid it. Psychology is not the answer. Counselors are not the answer. Programs aren't the answer.

Alcohol and drugs certainly aren't the answer, but we have, there's two, two, two, two points to this answer. We have a patient hope. We hope in God and we have a persistent heart. We're going to praise him again because he's our salvation. In the midst of his depression and despair, the psalmist has hope. Uh, James Boyce says, is there a cure for depression? Yes, but it's not in us. It's in God. The cure is to seek God's face. So ours won't be downcast, which is what the psalmist does. I gave this, uh, this quote to you.

Uh, when I think we looked at Psalm 77, it's worth repeating. Occupation with self brings distress. Got it. Occupation with self brings distress. Occupation with others brings discouragement. Occupation with others brings discouragement. Occupation with Christ brings the light. I hope you got that. Only Jesus Christ is the answer and his word of God. And then, so we had to have a patient hope. We got to hope in God. And I'll spend more time on that when you get the verse 11, but we also got to have a persistent heart.

It says for, I shall again, praise him. So he goes here from sighing to singing. He goes here from sorrow to song. See, either you'll remember God or you'll reject him in your depression. One of my favorite quotes regarding afflictions, suffering and trials is from Warren Wearsby. And you probably heard this before. He said, when God puts his own people in the furnace, he keeps his eye on the clock and on the hand on the thermostat. He knows how long and how much. If we rebel, he may have to reset the clock, but if we submit, he will not permit us to suffer one minute too long.

The important thing is that we learn the lesson he wants to teach us and that we bring glory to him alone. We may question why he does it to begin with, or why he doesn't turn down the heat or even turn the heat off. But our questions are only evidences of unbelief. He says, Job 2310 is the answer. And this is your second memory verse.

I want you to write down. Job 2310 says, but he knows the way that I take when he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. Gold does not fear the fire. The furnace can only make gold pure and brighter. And sometimes that's what God does through our trials or tribulations. So Philippians three 13 is your first memory verse tonight.

Joel 2310 is your second memory verse. Okay. So don't neglect the same with the saints. Don't stop serving. Don't stop reading your Bible. Don't stop praising him. But the Psalmist then switches back to point number three, further causes of depression, and he lists like five of them.

These are the symptoms of what the Psalmist is feeling in verse six. He says it's physical separation. He says, you know, my soul is downcast. Therefore, I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Herman and Mount Mizmar. Where is Mount Mizmar? We don't know. This is the only place in the Bible it's mentioned, but most commentators believe it's on the way to Babylon near Jordan. So possibly as many as a thousand miles away from Jerusalem. Mizar means little mountain or little hill. So it's possible that there, these are the mountains of Jordan.

There he's looking up to them. The heights of Herman there. It's a long way from home. And as I said, most commentators believe he is a captive and he's on his way to Babylon, probably going to be there for his life in exile. He's longing for home. He could, we can only speculate. Is his family alive or were they killed or were they, are they, are they with him? We don't know. So he's separated from his family. He's separated from his job. He's separated from his city and he's discouraged. Uh, you know, I, I was thinking when I wrote this about my wife is from Laos as some of you know, and she was raised in a Buddhist family and this month at Christ made church, we're praying for the Buddhists.

But I always remember what happens in Laos. Laos has a lot of mountains and in the mountains, there's some Christians, but what happens is, is that that, and this is a true story, a truck pulls up and there was a group of about 25 Christians. And they told these Christians that they need to recant. Laos is also communist, but you can be a Buddhist there, but that's the only reason they allow. They told these Christians to recant. They're mountain Christians. They live in the mountains. That's where they live and thrive.

And some of them did recant Christ, but others refused. And they gave him five minutes to grab their belongings and they loaded them in the truck and they took them about 500 miles away and dumped them in the plains where they had to live for the rest of their life. Kind of reminds me of the Psalmist, you know, cause they're mountain people. They live in the mountains, but the government forced them away because of their Christianity. So they had physical separation. I don't know what your separation could be.

Um, I'm praying for a man in our church right now. He's not a believer. He's not in our church, but his, his mom is, and this man's wife divorced him. And through the courts, she's legally preventing this man from seeing his only son. You can imagine the depression he's undergoing. If you pray for him, his name is Daniel. So first off physical separation for the Psalmist.

Number two, he's overwhelmed with trials. He says, deep calls to the deep at the roar of your waterfalls. All your breakers and waves have gone over me. The words deep in the Bible mean, uh, usually refer to deep water. You've got four words here for water, right? Deep waterfalls, breakers, and waves. These are all metaphors describing the Psalmist sense of despair and the help he needs. Um, the language seems to imply that the Psalmist was near some floods of water, maybe a rapid river waterfalls, which illustrate the waves of sorrow that were rolling in his soul.

I'm sure you know that great song. It is well with my soul. We just sang it a couple of weeks ago. And the first two lines say, when peace like a river attended my soul, when sorrows like sea billows roll, that's what the Psalmist is experiencing.

The sea billows are rolling and it's like deep waters, waterfalls, and breakers. It says they've gone over him, which causes anguish in his soul. Today, you might say he's drowning in his tears or drowning in his grief. You've heard that, right? And notice it says, it says your waterfalls, your breakers, your waves.

Matthew Henry would say that implies that these troubles are coming from God. And if this is punishment, this punishment is coming from God. He's a righteous man, but because of the sins of Jerusalem, God is punishing Israel and he's been taken away. So God is either the originator or the permitter of all of our troubles, whatever waves and billows of affliction go over us at times, we must call them God's waves and God's billows that might humble ourselves under his mighty hands for the waves and breakers are under his control.

Says Matthew Henry. So Israel was punished for his sins, but this psalmist is suffering. He's undergoing under overwhelming trials. Number three is verse eight and commentators are divided on this verse.

Some commentators believe it's talking about a sleepless night because he says at night, his song is with me. So many commentators believe the psalmist can't sleep and I'm sure it wasn't a comfortable situation being bound and being a captive, being drug to a Babylon. But other commentators think there's a light of hope here that after verse seven where you've got images of drowning, it's like in verse eight here, God is throwing a lifeline because it seems like he's praising the Lord here. So you can take it either way.

Some commentators feel he can't sleep and that's why I put sleepless nights. But other commentators say that, you know, God is faithful. God is committed and notice here after using the name of God Elohim 13 times in his psalm here, he doesn't use Elohim.

He uses Yahweh, God of the covenant, the faithful God who cares for his people. And you notice he says Yahweh and his steadfast love.

You cannot separate Yahweh and love. So the psalmist here, maybe he's reminded that he doesn't have to go back to Jerusalem to worship. God may be there with him at night, but notice he immediately goes back into depression in verses eight and nine.

He says, and I say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do you go about mourning because the oppression of the enemy? You know, that metaphor for rock is God. It's used at least 20 times in the psalm. God is my rock, you know, my fortress, my deliver. Psalms 18 one. But it's a metaphor for a place of refuge. God has always been his refuge. It was Jehovah who gave Israel great victories in the past. But now the temple is destroyed and burned. Thousands are taken captive to Babylon. So we have question number five here.

Why have you forgotten me? And question number six, why do you go, why do I go about mourning because of the enemy? His prayers seemingly go unanswered. We talked about this last week when we looked at Psalm 10, didn't we? Where is God? Where's God when I need him and I'm in a far country when I'm separated from my family, when I'm mocked by the enemy. Why doesn't God hear my cry? Why doesn't intervene and change my circumstances in this heart? The psalmist is crying out to God in this song. He says six times, why, why, why God?

The enemy is mocking him. Where is your God? That's this surely would cause depression. And when, when you're in depression, when you're in discouragement, when you're having those dark times, it feels like God has forsaken you, doesn't it? We spoke about this last week in Psalms 10. I said that the bitterest trial of the saint is the consciousness of God's absence. Number five, difficult people, difficult people, and these would be the taunters and they're taunting him so bad that he uses an illustration.

He says a deadly wound in my bones. What's that mean? Well, it means there's just anguish in his soul. They are so brutal. They're so mocking. And they're saying, where's your God? And it hurts him. The pain is, is represented as being deep in his bones. His adversaries are always taunting him. They know he's a Levite priest. They know he's a worship leader. He's probably someone of relative importance. So they mock him and he's saying, God, have you forgotten me? You know, that could be one of the worst things when you're in depression.

That's why you need to be in church. That's why you need to be reading God's word and listening to the Holy Spirit and, and memorizing these verse. Remember when we are study of Job, Job had three counselors, right? And they were, they were worthless fellows. You're not going to get a lot of, even the best counselors can't take you out of depression. Difficult people, they don't help you, but hurt. So let's look at the last verse, 11, the final cure for depression.

It's the same as I mentioned as verse five. It's the same as verse Psalm 43, verse five. It's the chorus. So once again, we have the introspective question. Why are you so downcast? Why are you so disturbed within me? Question eight and nine again, and let's look at the inevitable answer.

You need number one to have patient hope. We need to hope in God. Now that word hope in our modern English language has been butchered today. You say, I hope I win the lottery. Well, I hope you don't play the lottery, but today I hope my dinner will turn out this new recipe. I hope the doctor's report will turn out. Well, I hope I get the job. I hope I get married. That is not the hope of the hope of the Bible. The hope here means to eagerly await a future event. Job would say in Job 13, 15, though he slay me, I will hope in him.

God can kill me, but my hope is in God. A hundred percent hope. Okay. God is my rock. He's my fortress. He's my deliver, and he's my hope. Ray Steadman says something interesting. He says, remember the, the, the superscription at the above verse one, it says to the choir master, a mass skill of the sons of Cora. Remember that these inscriptions are part of the inspired record. They belong with the Psalm. They were in the, I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, uh, there's 106 of these superscriptions out of the 150 Psalms.

They're in the Septuagint, which was written two to 300 years before Christ came, so they're important, but the word mass skill is a Hebrew word for teaching. The Psalm is intended to teach us something. What judging by the repeated or frame verse five, verse 11, chapter 43, verse five, it's intended to teach us how to handle our mood swings, the times when we get up in the morning and say, why are you so downcast on my soul? Why are you so disquieted within me? The answer to each blue boot is to hope in God.

Wait for God. He is working out his purposes and if you will hang on, you will yet praise him when you can't shake the blues and you have a depression spirit that nothing seems to rely, relieve when you've tried to remember the past, tried to recall the unshakable, unchangeable relationships that exist between you and God, but nothing seems to help. There's nothing left but the rest upon his word, his truth, and allow that to heal your heart. No, so we need to number one, have hope in God.

Number two, we need a persistent heart for I shall again praise him my salvation and my God. In Luke 18 one, Jesus told a parable of disciples that said effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. We know that that parable is about always praying, but you also got to remember it's about not losing heart. I won't go into all the parable again because I think I'm going to read it next week. But when problems come, when pains come, persecutions come, there's only two choices we have. We can lose heart, which gives into depression or we can seek God's face in prayer.

When we seek God's face in prayer, it leads to praising God. They go together. There's a great doctrine in the church that's called the perseverance of the saints. Not very popular today, right? We don't want to persevere. We want our troubles to go away. One prayer, God, take it away. Doesn't happen that way most often. What does that mean? Well, the New Testament, it makes it clear that perseverance is doing a good work and that's the greatest indication of an individual's faith is genuine because a person has received new life from God and knows God.

There will be a steadfast effort to follow God's command and to do his work despite the trials, the difficulties, the persecutions, which at times can cause us to be discouraged, downcast and even depressed. Your third memory verse, I think you need to remember, memorize tonight is one that's meant a lot to me personally, and that is Second Corinthians chapter 12, verses 9 and 10.

You know the story. Paul cried out to God three times. Take that thorn of flesh away from me. Take it away. We don't actually know what it is. It could be a persecutor. It could have been some physical ailment. Some people think it's his eyes. But Second Corinthians 12, 9 and 10, God answered Paul and he said, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Verse 10, for the sake of Christ, that I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities for an I'm weak, that I am strong because I've got nobody else to help me except the Holy Spirit. Your wife can give you some encouragement. Your pastor can give you some encouragement, but only the Holy Spirit and the word of God can make you strong when you're weak. So that's your third memory verse.

Second Corinthians 12, verses 9 and 10. We need to memorize these scripture verses. I'll give you one more later for him, because when the trials come, when discouragements come, when the depression comes, God's grace is sufficient for us and that will lead us into better times. Let's look at the application.

OK, he said, well, actually, let me finish. He says, I shall again praise him. Those five words there, I shall again praise him, means that my present downcast situation isn't going to be the final act of my life. I trust the Lord that this psalmist maybe went to Babylon. Maybe he shepherded the flock there. Maybe he got to go back to Jerusalem. We don't know. But it reminds me of Elijah. I mentioned Elijah in First Kings 18 had the great revival.

First Kings 19, he has the pity party. God comes to him and God doesn't spend a lot of time trying to encourage him. God says, you're not the only one, Elijah.

There's 7000 more that are not bowed the knee to ball. And then God gives him three jobs. God wasn't finished with Elijah. Job number one, Elijah, go anoint Elisha.

Job number two, go anoint Jehu, king of Israel. Job number three, go anoint Hazel, king of Syria. God wasn't through with Elijah and his pity party. He had work for him to do and reminds us God isn't finished with us. So our application tonight is the answer to each blue mood is we need to hope in God. We need to wait for God. God is working out his purposes. We may not understand them. And if you will hang on or persevere, you're going to praise him. Warren Wiersbe gives three really good applications tonight to this psalm that I thought I'd read and not make any up on my own.

But this helps point the way to victory over discouragement and depression. And he gets these from his own experience. He says, if you want to overcome depression, you must make some radical changes in the outlook in your life. So, number one, he says, stop looking at yourself and start looking at God.

Depression is selfish. The psalmist was discouraged because his plans had not been fulfilled. He wanted to stay in Jerusalem. He wanted to be the worship leader. He was an important person. But God punished Israel and God says, you're going to Babylon.

His feelings have not been relieved. His prayers haven't been answered. His questions have been answered. But God just says, put your hope in God. Colossians 3 to reminds us to set your mind on things above, not on the things of the earth. So, number one, we need to stop looking at ourselves and start looking at God.

Number two, stop looking at the past and start looking at the future. The important thing is not just to remember the past, but to remember God in our past. It's helpful to look back at what God has done for you. You can't recapture the past, but we can trust the same God who never failed or forsake you because we have hope. God delivers us. God's presence and protection is with us. God's direction is in our lives and God's gift of joy is in our life. So, number two, stop looking at the past and start looking at the future.

And number three, last, we must stop searching for reasons and start resting on promises. It's not why, why, why? God promises to care, God promises to be faithful, God promises to forgive your sins and cleanse you. God promises to be your strength and your refuge. God promises to lead us and receive us. You know the story of Job. He said, why? I think 13 times I counted once God never gave him an answer and he might not give you an answer to that great day when you're with him in heaven. So stop looking at yourself.

Start looking at God. Stop looking at the past and start looking at the future and stop searching for reasons and start resting on God's promises. You know, the preacher tonight needs this psalm as much as many of you do. It's been quite a few years, but it was September in 2012 that my sister Ruth, at age 49, passed away of breast cancer. She had fought it for about four, about 10 years. So I rushed home from Thailand to come to her funeral here. And while that was going on, just a couple of months before Ruth died, her twin sister Rita was diagnosed with leukemia right out of the blue.

We thought we'd beat it. I came home, we did stem cell transplant. We got after six months. She was we thought she was healed, but it came back with a vengeance. So just four months after Ruth passed away, Rita passed away in February of 2013. And then just three more months later, my dad, after a great long life, went home to be with the Lord. On top of that, now we had to deal with mom, who was beginning to experience dementia or Alzheimer's. That's why we had dad and moved into assisted care center.

So we had to take care of mom and we're dealing with that situation. The real the hardest one hit me. The ladies in the nursery at Christ Community Church said. They said, I think you need to take your daughter to the doctor, it's just something seems off, something seems wrong. That came as a huge blow. So we took her to the doctor. It took about four weeks to get the result. But the pediatrician immediately saw that she was doing this and she said, I think your daughter has something what's called Rett syndrome.

And we knew then that we would have her forever. She would not be leaving our house when she's 18. I thought initially that my wife and I being missionaries, we were done. So that was discouraging. But reality, God gave us seven more great years. But those were big things. Moving your mom. My brother took my mom up to Vacaville and she lived another seven years. But those are big things. But you know what the hardest one is? Is when you're in the lobby at Christ Community Church and I'm over this now.

But then you would watch the kids run down the hallway. You'd watch the kids jump in their mom and dad's hands. You'd watch the kids sing and shout and play hide and go seek. And I knew I would never, ever be able to have that here. I knew I'd never hear the pitter patter of those little feet in the morning when you're lying in bed and your kids come running in your house. That put me, I don't want to say it's depression, but it was discouragement. It was down. It was anxiety. It was a lot to handle.

My sisters and my dad are in heaven and I rejoice at that. But that just seeing other kids, seeing them run and play, that would get me into a funk, into a depression. What helped? The Psalms, Psalms like this one, Psalm 42, verse 11, hope in God, for I shall again praise him my salvation to my God. My hope was in God. My hope was in his word, especially the Psalms. And I love the phrase for I shall again praise him. You know, I know I'm going to praise him in heaven. But when I think about it, so will Tessa.

She'll have a new body, a new mind, and she'll be able to sing. She'll be able to run, maybe fly. I don't know what all we'll do there. And so that makes you rejoice because James 1, 2 says, count it all joy, my brothers. When you meet trials of various kinds, you are going to go through trials in this world. Lord, Lord willing, hopefully you won't have him as, you know, like special needs child. But you're going to have trials of many kinds. There's many kinds. Right. But your fourth memory verse is 2 Corinthians 4, 17, 2 Corinthians 4, 17, because this verse says for this light and momentary affliction.

Emphasis on light doesn't seem light, does it? But it says this light and momentary affliction is preparing us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comprehension. A pastor in India took a rope, a white rope, and it probably was 200 feet, and he roped it around the entire sanctuary. Church wasn't as big as this. And he said this white rope represents eternity in heaven. Just goes on and on and on and on and on a perfect place, a new body, a home in heaven. There'll be no no Rett syndrome, no cancer, no leukemia.

That's heaven, the white rope. And then he showed a little piece of black tape on the white rope. And he said that represents your life on earth. Light troubles compared to this 200 foot rope eternity in heaven. And it says those black the black tape represented the light momentary troubles of this world, this life, because when you're in heaven someday and I trust everybody here today as Jesus Christ in his heart, you will look back at those times of discouragement, those times of depression, those times of dark moods, and they will seem so light because you will be praising God in heaven.

So their fourth memory versus 2 Corinthians 4, 17. Let me review them. Philippians 3, 13, Job 23, 10, 2 Corinthians 12, 9 and 10, 2 Corinthians 4, 17. I don't know what your trouble is tonight. I don't know what your trial is tonight. Maybe you're having a difficult time in your marriage. Hope in God. Maybe you've got a child that's not walking with the Lord. Hope in God. Maybe you lost a spouse or a loved one. Hope in God. Maybe you're waiting on the doctor's diagnosis of some element. Hope in God.

Maybe you lost your job. Hope in God. Maybe you're looking at the country, which certainly seems like it's fallen apart. Hope in God. On the back of your outline, if you have one, there's a poem. I read this poem when we looked at Psalm 77, which was another Psalm dealing with depression, but I thought we'd close it out. It's a beautiful poem. If you want to read it with me. If God can hang the stars on high, can paint the clouds that drift on by, can send the sun across the sky, what could he do through you?

If he can send a storm through space and dot with trees the mountains face, if he the sparrow's way can trace, what could he do through you? If God can do such little things as count our hairs or birds that sing, control the universe that swings, what could he do through you? God is not finished with you either. Hope in God, for I shall yet again praise him. Let's pray. Father, I pray that this song, that the power of the Holy Spirit was in us. If we have Jesus Christ with us, that the scripture verses that we need to memorize and just reading the word of God would be an encouragement to anybody today who could be in depression.

Father, I don't think a Christian can stay in depression. I know there are times of difficulties, but ultimately we need to come out of those dark moods. We need to come out and be at church and be worshiping you, be reading our Bible, be praising you, be serving you, be tithing to you, being used of you in a mighty way. You have good works for us to do, which you prepared in eternity past. So may you help anybody here tonight, Father, who's downcast, who's going through some trials, whatever they would be, who's discouraged, who's having a dark time.

May they put their hope in you, God, and may they yet again praise you for you are our salvation. In Jesus name. Amen.