Summer in the Psalms: 2020 (Week 1)
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Last summer...
One of the biggest reasons I am so excited about this series is how much it fits with our vision to ENCOUNTER|CONNECT|GROW. Maybe you have started to notice these ideas of encountering God, connecting to Him AND His people which will ultimately cause us to grow personally and through impact around us as we see His Kingdom come. I feel like these ideas are in so many of the things we say because it is in Scripture so much.
The Psalms, though, are riddled with raw poetry, some of sorrow and laments, others desperation for God’s presences in acknowledgement of His presence, while pleas for God to take care of some enemies. I guess what I like about these chapters in the Bible is just how real and authentic they are. I can identify with some of the struggle, the soul baring struggle that the authors use.
And we value a culture of trust and being real, which requires healthy vulnerability from the top-down. How many of you think it is time we start being a little more real with each other in the House of God? And that’s why I think we will love this series, Summer in the Psalms. Because they will force us into a reality of authenticity with God and one another.
So, as we begin I want us to take just a moment to look at some historical context to the Psalms.
The Psalms begin the last section of the Old Testament or Torah. You have the Pentateuch (encompassing the first five books of the Scripture), Historical Books, Prophets, and Writings.
Scholars believe that poetry such as the Psalms make up nearly 75% of the Old Testament Scriptures.
Poetry is clearly seen in the Psalms but is also present in Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and Job.
Roughly 2/3 of the Psalms are laments. They are mourning the loss of something dear or one’s recognition of sin and need for God.
The Psalms themselves are broken into five books (1–41, 42–72, 73–89, 90–106, 107–150), and roughly half of the Psalms are believed to have been written by David.
Book Two
The second book consists of Psalms 42 through 72. Here attention is given to how God goes before us. David confesses his sin in Psalm 51 and pleads with the Lord to wash away his transgression and to create in him a clean heart.
Book Two closes with this expression of praise found in Psalm 72:19:
Blessed be his glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory!
Amen and Amen!
We don’t always know the exact occasion or circumstance for each Psalm written, which brings us to the first Psalm I would like for us to look at together.
For the director of music. A maskil of the Sons of Korah.
1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng.
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
6 My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
8 By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?”
10 My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
11 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Psalms 42 starts Book 2 of the Psalms with a desperate longing for God. At Emmanuel, we talk about ENCOUNTERing God. The psalmist describes an intense longing for fellowship with God that will not be content until in His house and praising God (43:4) in His presence.
C. S. Lewis
“appetite for God”
CS Lewis was always drawn to this notion that the Psalms share so often, something that he called an “appetite for God”. He easily identified with this same feeling. Lewis wanted to personally, experientially know God, in all his fullness. It seems to him that the ancient Jews had an experience that was richer than what we moderns tend to experience. They had this experience because they were not conscious of some divide between the literal and the abstract. If the ark of the covenant was in your house, God was in your house. The admittedly still spiritual presence of God was not distinguished from some object which in some way was associated with his presence, for whatever reason. The result is that the more sensual part of our being, as humans, is included in our experience of God, not excluded for some philosophical reason.
James Tissot, French painter and illustrator (1836-1902), shares this painting with us.
PAINTING
James experienced a revival in his faith around 1885, where you begin to see a shift in the focus of his paintings. He begins to capture specific Biblical events. (Painter of Lights)
The psalmist expresses longing for God as a deer would pant for streams of water. Water being the very source of life, signifying the life giving power of God and being with Him in His presence.
“My soul pants for you, my God.”
“My soul thirsts for God, for the living God”
His longing increases in intensity, and the idea of God being the only satisfier reinforced as the “living God”. The living God associated with the imagery of God as “living water”, the fountain of life (Ps 36:8-9). This is God, who in verse 8 is “the God of my life”.
STORY:
I believe in the foundation of our faith needs to exist this tension. The tension of God has satisfied me, will always be the only one to ever fully satisfy me, but I will never be satisfied until with Him in His fullness. For me this was formed in my teen years, early in my faith journey. Exposed to a radical expression of worship and encountering God in His presence, there were books that were swirling around by a man named Tommy Tenney.
God Chasers
Hungry Album
These things that were happening all over in pockets were signed that marked a desperation for the presence of God and to encounter Him in presence. Reading psalms like 42, we see that there is a Biblical precedent for a desperation and outcry to meet with God, to know Him more. Paul talked about putting aside all the credentials he could easily include on some sort of resume for the simple pursuit of knowing God.
Jesus said...
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Paul talks about it this way...
3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—
4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:
5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;
6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.
10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
The writer ends vs. 2 with the rhetorical question of where can one go and meet with God. There is this idea of seeing God face to face, reminiscent of Moses on the Mount. The question being asked is fueled with desperation and even the taunting of those around him.
vs. 3
“My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
The question is really the same one he is asked. “Where is my God?” Where can I go to meet with Him?
Similar to Psalm 84...
1 How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty!
2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
The psalmist expresses how desperation has become sustenance, tears become food. In this psalms (84), tears become a source of life, sustaining and prodding towards meeting with God.
It is not unlikely that the psalmist also speaks of the highway, the Valley of Baca, and the water as metaphors of the experience of fellowship and blessedness after a prolonged period of adversity. The strength and joy of the godly stem from their hope in God. Faith in God is ultimate and transforms weak people into those who “go from strength to strength” (v. 7) and the Valley of Baca into springs and pools, as expressive of God’s blessings (v. 6). The object of the search is communion with God (“in Zion”). As faith approaches the presence of God, it goes from “strength to strength” (cf. 2 Co 3:18: “with ever-increasing glory,” lit., “from glory to glory”). Faith waits for God to reveal himself.
In Psalms 42, not knowing where else to turn, he looks back in remembrance, digs deeply into his own soul, and then looks to God for the final answer to his despairing feeling.
vs. 4
Verse 4 through the end of verse 11 is a bouncing back and forth between a desperate present, a remembering of praising God with shouts of joy, exulting in His triumph and mighty deeds, and speaking to his downcast soul to put full hope in God and God alone.
Do you remember the series from last year, Looking Back to Move Forward, where we discussed part of moving towards what God has for us in the future is looking back and building upon His faithfulness to us in the past.
The psalmist reiterates that idea here.
vs. 5-6a (HOPE)
As we recount God’s faithfulness, express authentic desire to be with Him again, hope builds within us.
Hope, in essence, is waiting for God to act (cf. 38:15; 39:7). Hope is focused on the glorious acts of salvation and victory of which the Law, Historical Writings, and Prophets speak. Hope longs for the “praise” of God for the acts of salvation. Hope says, “You are my God,” in anticipation of the fulfillment of the promises, even when help is far off.
vs. 6b-7 (LAMENT)
Have you ever walked through a season of life where it was one step forward two steps back? I have been through those personally and feel that our situation with COVID has been similar. One step forward to take two steps back.
The psalmist here is desperate for the Lord, reminds himself of the glory days recounting God’s faithfulness, but it doesn’t dissolve his current, deep sense of despair. Looking back at the Promised Land, God’s promises, he paints a contrast of waterfalls, rocks, and breakers and waves metaphorically like his internal turmoil.
He has no control over his present circumstances and undergoes the present troubles, not knowing where he will end up. Has doubt triumphed?
vs. 8 (HOPE)
The expression of raw emotion and reflection on what is happening in life can sometimes seem and feel like a roller coaster. Have you ever felt that way before?
Remember when I shared last year about how we often think the worse of times will never end, but we never worry that the mountain top moments won’t ever come down. We recognize the temporal nature to life’s events when it something good going on. We know it won’t last forever. We just don’t give the same approach to the challenge situations we face as well. We worry they will never end, that it will be one bad thing after another failing to recognize the temporal nature to all season in our life.
This perspective I think will bring you some freedom, and allow you to embrace God and His faithfulness in all seasons, both mountains as well as valleys, that we walk through.
I was reading last week this verse and it reminded me of this idea...
4 Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people; praise his holy name.
5 For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.
I shared it with you last week. But allow this truth to bring freedom to how we approach the ups and downs that just happen in life. Not to minimize but certainly not to maximize because God wants to help us grow emotionally and mentally as it all effects us spiritually.
So, the psalmist rides the waves of his emotions in expressing hope, lamenting, then coming back to hope again in vs 8.
In his self-doubt the psalmist remembers the covenantal love of the Lord. By day and night he experienced the evidences of God’s care, protection, and blessing. He sang praises to him and prayed to him morning and evening (cf. 92:2). That was a time of fellowship with a God who was always present. The very experience of communion with God made Yahweh real to him as “the God of my life” (cf. 66:9).
STORY:
Do you have a place? A time? A location? A song? That will help you focus and discuss things with God? That will help you clear the clutter and listen to what He has to say?
Misheck…in Malawi...
For me…down by the river...
A time of day...
A song…when my sister got married…during different seasons...
But we journey back to the final verses in Psalms 42.
vs. 9-10
The psalmist continues to ride the roller coaster of hope and doubts as he reflects on God’s presence. The key component to anyone who walks through a season of doubt and comes out on the other side with faith and dependency upon God is remembering who He is. What the enemy wants us to do is to forfeit God’s nature at the expense of our experiences.
But the psalmist says, “God my Rock.” Regardless, how dark the days get, how hard the situation seems, how daunting to face another day…we have to remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness. That He is our Rock. He is a place of refuge (18:2). It doesn’t mean the questions dissolve, but instead we face the questions with His history of faithfulness. DON’T FORGET!
PIANO
So, while mourning in the agony of his own perplexity, faced with the taunts of those around him, he find himself asking the same questions, “Where is God?”
QUESTIONS: Have you ever found your self there? Maybe not for every area of your life. Maybe just for a specific situation. Where is God? God’s not afraid of these questions. He is not turned off. He isn’t even surprised.
While we may be distressed by those around us and what appears to be God’s silence, God isn’t far from us.
vs. 11 (HOPE)
These reflections bring the psalmist again to a point of despair, self-examination, and an affirmation of hope in the future saving acts of God.
The author starts with hunger for God, work through the laments of being disappointed with the distance between God, but comes back to having hope in God. Let’s remind ourselves of His faithfulness to and for us.
If God be for us, who can be against us.
He will never leave you nor forsake you.
...let’s pray...
PRAY