PSALM 42<\/b><\/p>\n
Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God<\/i><\/p>\n
(Psalm 42:11)<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Psalm 42 is a psalm of distress. The psalmist is in trouble. He finds himself in exile from God\u2019s people and oppressed by God\u2019s enemies. The worst of his troubles, however, is that he feels forsaken by God. On October 3 we discussed the \u201cdark night of the soul.\u201d Here in this psalm we see one of the reasons God takes us through such difficult experiences.<\/p>\n
In verse 1 the psalmist says that he pants for God\u2019s presence the way a deer pants for water after being chased. God withdraws the sense of His presence from us in order to make us long for Him all the more, guaranteeing that we don\u2019t take Him for granted.<\/p>\n
God\u2019s apparent desertion of the psalmist is not merely subjective, however. While in former times this man was once among the religious leaders in Israel, he soon found himself in exile, away from Jerusalem (vv. 4, 6). His enemies were triumphing over him (vv. 9\u201310). From all outward appearances, this man had been rejected by God, and people were taunting him, \u201cWhere is your God?\u201d<\/p>\n
Since many of the psalms were written by David, perhaps this one was also. Certainly the experience of this psalm fits what David went through when Absalom revolted against him. David was driven from the land and could no longer lead the congregation in worship. Enemies like Shimei publicly taunted him. Certainly David felt that all of God\u2019s waves and breakers had swept over him, and that he was being swept away like the wicked at the Flood (v. 7).<\/p>\n
Notice how the psalmist deals with this intense depression. He argues with himself. He grabs hold of himself and says, \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with you? Why are you upset? Sure, everything\u2019s gone wrong, but God is still God. Hope in God, because the storm will not last forever. The time will come when you will be restored, and you will praise Him who is your deliverer and your God.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a kind of second witness, Psalm 43 deals with the same problem and ends with the same refrain. When we go through similar experiences, let us remember these psalms, because they teach us how to deal with ourselves in the midst of spiritual depression.<\/p>\n
CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n
Isaiah 45\u201347<\/p>\n
Colossians 3<\/p>\n
WEEKEND<\/b><\/p>\n
Isaiah 48\u201352<\/p>\n
Colossians 4<\/p>\n
The psalmist also realizes anew that God can be worshiped even in exile, that His presence is universal. Recall the next time God seems strangely absent that even if you took the wings of the dawn or made your bed in sheol, you could not escape His loving presence.<\/p>\n
For further study: Psalm 46:1\u20133 \u2022 Lamentations 3:21\u201325<\/i><\/p>\n
WEEKEND<\/b><\/p>\n
Psalm 104: Glorious Creator<\/p>\n
by Derek Kidner<\/i><\/p>\n
This psalm has all the exuberance and loving detail of a nature poem, but at every point its praise is for the Creator. We are not left bemused by a meaningless display or invited to worship it. Unlike the ancient sun worshipper or the modern secularist, we relate these marvels to the Lord as \u201cbut the outskirts of His ways\u201d (Job 26:14 rsv) and our psalmist goes straight to Him, delighting to address Him as \u201cmy God\u201d and opening almost every sentence with \u201cYou\u201d or \u201cHe\u201d as he alternates between explicit and implicit praise\u2014to<\/i> Him and about<\/i> Him.<\/p>\n
As we read the psalm we become aware of another great passage, Genesis 1, on which the writer meditates and enlarges as he follows in the main the progress of that chapter\u2019s six creative days. So, for instance, the command \u201cLet there be light\u201d comes alive to us as we contemplate not the mere opposite to darkness but a vibrant phenomenon fit to picture to us the glory that surrounds the Lord: blinding as the sun to mortal eyes (1 Timothy 6:16), yet beautiful as the rainbow round the throne (cf. Ezekiel 1:28; Revelation 4:3).<\/p>\n
So too, that \u201cexpanse,\u201d or atmosphere, of the second day (Genesis 1:6\u20137), now speaks to us not only literally of its role in separating cloud from ocean to reveal the heavens but poetically (as in Isaiah 40:22) as God\u2019s spreading of His palatial tent\u2014since His ethereal abode needs no terrestrial foundations, and His chariot-throne and angelic messengers are untrammeled as the clouds, swift as the wind, potent as lightning.<\/p>\n
Then the third day (Psalm 104:5\u201318) brings before us the fruitful interplay of land and sea: first dramatically, in the primeval flight of the waters from the emerging land masses \u201cto the place you assigned for them\u201d (v. 8); and then in quieter vein, in the genial flow of springs and rains to create a fertile and hospitable world. Here we can pause to reflect on both of these aspects, the panoramic and the intimate. The more the global proportions between land and sea are studied, the more remarkably they are seen to work together to produce this planet\u2019s brilliantly contrasted yet tempered and integrated pattern of climates and habitats. Then verses 10\u201318 glory in the freedom and variety in which the living world abounds. No two of the creatures which we glimpse here in swift succession are tamely alike or make identical use of God\u2019s provision. Significantly, too, as in the Lord\u2019s reply to Job (Job 38\u201341), we are made conscious of those animals and birds that live in blithe disregard of us or in the wildest places, as well as of the cattle we can tame, and the growth that we can cultivate not only for subsistence but for delight. It is a far cry from our human way of handling large and complex matters: our itch to standardize and regiment; to create bureaucracies and barracks for ourselves, and batteries and factory-farms for our creatures. In refreshing contrast, the words already quoted in the comments on Psalm 84 come to mind again (bear with me!) from Dora Greenwell\u2019s hymn:<\/p>\n
\u2026 with Thee Is light, is space, is breadth, and room, For each thing fair, belov\u2019d, and free To have its hour of life and bloom.<\/i><\/p>\n
Already the psalm has leapt ahead of the \u201cthird day\u2019s\u201d mere preparation for a habitable earth, to sample its diversified fulfillment. But now in verses 19\u201323, we contemplate the \u201cfourth day\u2019s\u201d heavenly bodies, noting as in Genesis the times they mark out for us, but dwelling on the fascinating effects of these rhythms on man and beast. (Is there perhaps a poetic \u201cconceit,\u201d or thought-play, in verse 21, whereby we hear the lion\u2019s roar as its uncouth prayer? Compare the poetic play in Psalms 68:16 and 114:3\u20134 of hills that are \u201chopping mad\u201d with envy or jittery with fright!)<\/p>\n
So we pause for breath in verse 24, to exclaim \u201cHow many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all.\u2026\u201d We continue on in verses 25\u201326 to take in the wonders of the ocean (Day 5) and the dependence of all life on God\u2019s providing hand and quickening Spirit (vv. 27\u201330), the closing theme of Day 6.<\/p>\n
But what of the creation of man? And what of the last verse of Genesis 1, where God rejoiced in His works? These, I believe, are the unspoken background and motivation of verses 31 to the end, since it is man that has marred this earthly glory and joy. The psalmist takes up the challenge in his fervent prayer: \u201cMay the Lord rejoice in His works; \u2026 May my meditation be pleasing to Him; \u2026 But may sinners vanish from the earth.\u201d The quaking earth and smoke-shrouded mountains (v. 32) recall Mount Sinai and the realities of sin and judgment, indeed the shaking of \u201cnot only the earth but also the heavens\u201d (Hebrews 12:26), for this is no escapist psalm, and no exalting of the natural world above the spiritual. For that very reason it can end in doxology, since while the inanimate and the animal creation can only praise the Creator by what they are, it is given to us to praise Him for what He is.<\/p>\n
Praise the Lord, O my soul. ■<\/p>\n
Derek Kidner, a leading Old Testament scholar and former warden of Tyndale House in Cambridge, England, has written three volumes for<\/i> The Bible Speaks Today series.<\/i><\/p>\n
monday<\/p>\n
october<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PSALM 42 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God (Psalm 42:11). Psalm 42 is a psalm of distress. The psalmist is in trouble. He finds himself in exile from God\u2019s people and oppressed by … Continue reading “ARGUING WITH YOURSELF”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}