Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

Happy New Year!

Today is the first day of 2023.

As you all well-know, it is popular at the beginning of a new year to set goals (or, resolutions) to develop as a person.

Some people set health goals.

They want to lose weight or live healthier.

They want to cut back on fried foods and eat more fruits and vegetables.

Others may have financial goals, they want to cut back on unnecessary spending and focus exclusively on buying books.

They may want to put more away for the future or leave more for their children and grandchildren.

Others may have personal goals.

They want to become more organized, or learn a new skill, or develop a new hobby.

The varieties of goals are as vast as the human race.

Although these goals are good and helpful and things at which we should aim, they are all secondary to both our greatest need and marvellous privilege and sweet obligation: maintaining an insatiable thirst for God.

We will look at Psalm 42 this morning, focusing on some verses more than others.

At the heart of this psalm by the sons of Korah, however, is an insatiable thirst for God.

What do I mean by that phrase?

We are acquainted with the idea of insatiable, that something is impossible to satisfy fully.

An insatiable hunger is never satisfied, regardless of the volume or diversity of the food consumed.

Many more examples could be offered, but as we enter our present discussion we must consider this concept of insatiableness in light of God.

If it is impossible to be satisfied fully, how can we have an insatiable thirst for God?

How can we have this ever-increasing and simultaneously ever-satisfied thirst for God? Am I holding out empty promises to you this morning?

No, my brothers and sisters, I am not.

I am holding out to you the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Jesus Christ.

The only way to reconcile this idea of satisfying an insatiable thirst is to bring you to the Feet of our Infinite God.

We are wading into the deep this morning, I am aware.

But hang with me before we dive into our Scripture.

God is infinite, as Pastor Terry Johnson defines

“God is free from all limits of character, power, knowledge, time, and space.”

Terry Johnson, The Identity and Attributes of God, 62

Because God is infinite, He can always satisfy and increase of hunger and thirst after righteousness (c.f.

Matt.

5:6).

We, then, should be resolved to maintain an insatiable thirst for God in 2023.

Jonathan Edwards developed a series of resolutions by which he would live his life.

I am patterning my thought for us this morning after Edwards’ own resolution.

Resolved, to maintain an insatiable thirst of God in 2023.

Let us sit at the feet of the sons of Korah this morning and see how we can maintain this insatiable thirst for God, both individually and corporately.

I.

The Background of the Sons of Korah- Numbers 16:1–40

The sons of Korah came from, surprise surprise, Korah!

Levi, one of the sons of Jacob, had three boys: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

Kohath then had four boys, and one of those boys was Izhar (on a side note, another son of Kohath, Amram, had Moses and Aaron).

Izhar had three boys, Korah being one of them.

Thus, Korah and Moses/Aaron were cousins.

Let’s take a brief look at this background.

A. Korah and Company’s Rebellion- 16:1–4

Korah and his gang are not satisfied with the positions of service.

God chose Aaron and his lineage to be priests.

They erroneously thought that Moses and Aaron had taken this priestly privilege upon themselves.

But Mackintosh’s statement here bears reading,

“But what had Moses taken upon him?

Surely, the most cursory glance back at the history of that dear and honored servant would have been sufficient to convince any impartial person that, so far from taking dignity and responsibility upon him, he had shown himself only too ready to shrink from them when presented, and sink under them when imposed.”—C.

H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch, 525

Moses was the meekest man alive (Num.

12:3), and it is a shock to Korah’s cousins that they assumed this upon themselves!

The great sin committed by Korah is that he was dissatisfied with God’s call on his life.

B. Korah’s Problem: Dissatisfaction with God’s Call- 16:8–11

We will not spend much time here for it is easily grasped.

Korah was not satisfied merely working with the Tabernacle, he wanted to be a priest (against God’s Word, by the way, Num.

3:1–4).

This is a good reminder to be careful how we think about our lives.

Moses, the man Korah accuses of taking the role of leader on himself, offers a test: God will accept the one whom He accepts.

Let God decide, in other words.

And God does.

C. Korah’s Epic Demise- 16:23–27, 31–33

Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and D and A’s wife and children, and the other men of 250 people all died horrific deaths.

D. Korah’s Distinct Reminder- 16:39–40

The bronze censers were hammered down as coverings for the altar.

Every time the sons of Aaron (the priests) would have offered sacrifices, they would have remembered this event.

And every time the sons of Korah ministered, they would have remembered Korah’s sinful rebellion.

E. The Sons of Korah: Guardians of the Tabernacle- 1 Chronicles 9:19; 27

What is amazing about this verse is that the sons of Korah were still ministers for God.

They were gatekeepers of the Tabernacle (and eventually the Temple).

In other words, they had witnessed the terrifying judgment of God and yet received His incredible grace.

This remarkable grace brings us to Psalm 42.

II.

The Psalmist’s Insatiable Thirst: Almighty God- Psalm 42:1–2

The psalmist is under incredible stress, difficulty, and depression.

His soul is distraught.

This terrible situation, displayed in 42:3–6, 9–11, brings an awareness to his trying state.

God does not waste time or experiences, and in many instances He brings them into our lives to draw our attention back to Him.

Job is perhaps the most common example of this.

God allows Satan to destroy the majority of Job’s wealth, all of his children, and his physical health.

Job and his friends had wrong thinking when it comes to God.

Perhaps Asaph in Psalm 73 provides a more relatable experience.

Upon seeing the wealth and success of the wicked (73:2–16), he felt overwhelmed.

He felt as if his faith was pointless.

God, though, brought his attention back to Himself, and Asaph, after receiving the gentle correction of the Lord, cries out, “Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is none upon earth that I desire besides you.”

Which brings us back to the sons of Korah: they had an insatiable thirst for God because they knew full-aware the grace that God demonstrated to them.

The psalmist compares the thirst of a deer to his own thirst for God.

Without getting into the anatomy of deer, we will compare this with Psalm 63:1 “O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.”

The idea here is one of desperation.

The psalmist had an insatiable thirst for God.

He simply could not get enough!

No doubt, as he himself attests, he experienced the goodness and glory of God (42:4, 5 he had surely experienced God’s deliverance before).

But his present turmoil has torn him away, so to speak, from the God of grace.

He wanted to “appear before God,” 42:2.

He wanted to return to the Tabernacle, the place of God’s presence with His people.

He simply could not get enough!

Like the woman at the well, the psalmist was amazed at the grace God had demonstrated to him.

This is where we enter a time of reflection on our own hearts as we begin 2023.