Retreat 2023

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Christ our hope

Psalm 42:1–5 ESV
1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” 4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. 5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation

Intro:

Ben Kovala- Youth and young adults director at Westside Church in Vancouver
Im married to a beautiful lady named Ally and we have been living in BC for about 15 months and we are loving it!
In todays text we are looking at a Psalmist who is really going through it!
The Psalmist feels isolated from God. He hasn’t stoped believing in Him but he feels a despair being away from what Vs 42:2 calls The Living God.
How many of us in various situations, have felt
Loss of family/friend
in depression/anxiety
Isolation
Bullying, you name it
I Know I have. When I was in High school a close friend of mine passed away and I didn’t stop believing God but definitely had a hard time. Let’s look to the text.

Prayer

When Problems Come:

The writer of these Psalms in lament ( sorrow pain confusion) over his situation.
Israel’s enemies are keeping them from being able to worship in the temple.
The people are being oppressed and are in exile.
Things are not good for them in this time
The writer opens stating his thirst for things to return back to normal.
Psalm 42:1–2 ESV
1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
By loosing Jerusalem and the temple they lost where they went to experience the presence of the living God.
a way we could look at this is: you know the feeling when you wake up in the middle of the night and your throat is super dry and the first thing you do is run to the tap and drink a lot of water? that is the thirst that is being described here
C.S Lewis in his book reflection on the Psalms writes “longing to go to Jerusalem and appear before the presence of God is like a physical thirst.”
The need for God was a felt need where people longed to be in his presence.
They missed what once was
Anyone else relate to that?- elaborate
Psalm 42:3–4 ESV
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” 4 These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.
The Psalmist is remembering the Good times with God
Remembering how it was before things were bad even to the point of tears.
When things are bad that is what we want, when someone passes thats what we want, when we loose a friend we long to return to the way things were.

Going to God

Psalm 42:5 ESV
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation
So what happens when we’re in lament? what happens when we feel alone and hopeless ?
The Psalmist Reminds him self of God’s faithfulness
He Begins with asking him self a very honest question: Why are you cast down my soul
Other Translations state it as Why are you; dejected, in despair, disturbed.
Asking the question as to why do I feel like this?
Why do I experience this turmoil?
all of these draw attention to the internal dialogue as he experiences the despair
The psalmist doesn’t remain in this despair he reminded himself what truly matters
Psalm 42:5 (ESV)
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation
Realization of the priority of these things
Remembering is hard! a pastor i work with alway says people are forgetful and worse of all we forget were forget full. We need to remind our selves that God is who he says he is.
The Psalmists situation changed however God didn't
God was faithful through out everything he went through. God was present in all of this pain this isolation the loss. he needed to remind himself that God is our hope, and he is our salvation. We will praise him again.
even though the trial still remained he reminds him self to trust in the lord, “I will praise him again”

The problem with Listening to our selves:

There were many other voices in the Psalmist Life as he went through it
The people who surround him: Taunt him asking where is his God as he goes through these trials
His own thoughts are leading him negative places that we mentioned(turmoil and being cast down)
Listening to our selves is not a great idea. following our heart is not good advice.
Jeremiah 17:9 ESV
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Theologian Martyn Lloyd Jones wrote:
Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to your self? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you.
Lloyd Jones, Spiritual Depression
When these struggles come we need to remind ourselves to not to go along with what the world does and “follow our heart” we need to remind our selves that God is who he says he is
Talk to our selves and remind our souls that We will praise God
He is our hope
He Is our Salvation!
we will praise him again.
It is okay to wrestle with these issues! Jesus him self goes through this process. He quotes the greek version this Psalm.
John 12:27–28 ESV
27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

Conclusion

What do we do?
Trial are not a matter of If there a matter of when
I have gone through a lot
But Jesus was always there
John 16:33 ESV
33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
The Living God of the bible sees you
he knows you he loves you
Jesus walked the earth:
He knows: pain, opression, loneliness, loss of friends, you name It?!
Hebrews 4:15 ESV
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
1 Peter 1:3 ESV
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
We need to remember that Jesus is still on the throne!
He is who he says he is
He has gone through all of it
2. We need to remember!
Our suffering is time bound! it will get better and there is an end!
we need to remember that we are forgetful when these struggles come
remember all the good timesGod times
The psalmist Doesnt stop believing in God when things get hard
3. We need to remember not to listen to the world our our seff
There are so many voices in the world
be careful which ones we listen to
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