How to Hope in God

Welcome

Good morning everyone, and to anyone listening online welcome as well! We are continuing on in our “How To” series and picking up with the topic of “How to hope in God.” Hoping in God is not always the easiest thing to do in our life. There are countless tragedies that happen in our personal lives and in our world which make it incredibly difficult at times to really have this strong sense of hope in God. That is why we are exploring this topic and our text today. My prayer and hope is that we would see that even in the lowest points of our life, we can hope in God.

For our text this morning, we are going to read Psalm 42 and 43. These two Psalms were at one point combined into one Psalm as you will see by the repeating stanza in the passage. This psalm is called a “maskil” of the Sons of Korah. Maskil means instruction, and so within this Psalm is instruction for the people reading and singing it. This psalm is likely written about the time David was running from Absalom when David spent months away from Jerusalem in hiding. As we read the Psalm, it might sound like this is more of a psalm of lament, but it really is instruction, as it teaches us that even in the midst of sorrow, we can turn to God and rest in the hope that we have in Him. So let’s start off by spending some time in prayer asking the Holy Spirit to teach us.

Prayer

Psalm 42:1-5

Psalm 42:1–5 (NIV)

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” 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. 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.

The Theme of Psalm 42

As you can probably see, the overall theme of this Psalm is not exactly pleasant. This isn’t one of those Psalms that you read in the morning and think, “Alright! My day is going to be great!” This psalm expresses real, genuine emotion, that everyone experiences within their life. We can take the first part of this psalm and think it is peaceful and nice. What a nice picture of a deer panting for water and how our soul should pant for God. Have you ever seen anyone pant before? It is not pretty. It isn’t calm and serene. Panting for water is extreme, it means you are absolutely desperate for it. This kind of thirst is not the calm deer at the river drinking. This is the deer who is running for its life away from a predator, about to collapse because of what they are going through. That is the kind of panting that the author is talking about. The Psalmist themselves is going through something like this, they are going through some external circumstances in their life. People are looking at the Psalmist and asking them, where is your God, because to them it appears that God has abandoned the Psalmist. So the author has this external situation going on in their life, but also these internal struggles. These internal struggles of where are you God? When can I meet with you? When will I see your saving hand in all of this? The psalmist is lost in depression and turmoil. His tears have been his food, and he acknowledges that his soul is downcast.

Fight to Hope

Chances are, you can relate to the emotions being conveyed in this psalm. Maybe a time in your past or maybe currently in your life, you would say that this psalm describes what you are feeling. During these times then, it can be hard to have hope. Hope doesn’t come easily to you during these times of spiritual depression and because of that, you have to fight to hope in God. Verse 5 demonstrates this. “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.” Despite the feeling of loss and despair the psalmist is feeling, they are fighting back against it.

Psalm 42:6-11

Psalm 42:6–11 NIV

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.

How does the author fight to hope in God? One of the first things they do is to remember who God is. They remember the love that God has towards them and that God is constantly with them. But yet again, they are struck with the situation they are in and even begins to question why God has forgotten about them. Now, the author knows that God hasn’t actually forgotten about them, because just previously he said that the Lord directs his love towards him and that God’s song is with him in the night. But what he means is that it LOOKS like God has forgotten him, it feels like he has forgotten him. In the middle of his struggle, he is pointing out that God is with him, he remembers that, but it just doesn’t feel that way. This is the time when it becomes easy to lose hope in life. If it feels like God has abandoned you, if it feels like he has forgotten about you, it is incredibly painful. If we believe that lie hope becomes a distant thought. How can we have hope if God has abandoned us? That is why it is so important that in these moments, you remind yourself that God hasn’t abandoned you. It might feel like it, yes, but it isn’t true. Just because you feel something, doesn’t mean it is true.

Psalm 43

Psalm 43 NIV

1 Vindicate me, my God, and plead my cause against an unfaithful nation. Rescue me from those who are deceitful and wicked. 2 You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy? 3 Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. 4 Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. 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.

Psalm 43 is where this overall passage ends, but how does it end? It doesn’t end with a happy ending. The author doesn’t ignore what he is feeling and immediately feel strengthened and hopeful in God. It ends with a bit of a mixed reaction. The author once again recognizes that God is the one who they need to trust in, but why do they still have to go through this hardship? It is almost as if the psalmist is playing tug of war in their mind. On one hand they have the feelings that they are experiencing, of feeling abandoned and rejected by God while their enemies pursue them. On the other hand, they remember who God is and the truth that he knows about God. And I think that the way this ends is actually extremely encouraging to us. We have it in our minds during these times that we should just hope in God and not think about our issues, or that if we hope in God then he will miraculously swoop in and take us out of that trial immediately. But that often is not the case, that often is not real life. Real life in these moments is this struggle. It is this process of feeling what you are experiencing, but then also reminding yourself of the truths you know of God.

How to Hope in God

1. Be Honest with God

The first step that needs to happen to hope in God in the midst of trials is to be honest with him. Throughout these Psalms the author is extremely vulnerable with God on what they are feeling. When you are in these moments, you need to be real with God. You have to be honest with him. Stop trying to hide what you are feeling and talk to God about what is on your heart. You’re confused as to what God is doing? Tell him. You’re wondering where God is? Ask him. You feel like God has forgotten about you? Tell him. God is not going to shy away from you or your pain, okay. We might think that if we are honest with God that he is going to pull away from us. We think this in part because that is how we act around each other at times. We don’t actually tell people what we are going through or what we are dealing with because we’re afraid that they’ll retreat from us. They will want to keep their distance from us. But God doesn’t do that. God isn’t going to hear your questions and your pain and think, “Wow, I’m really not in the mood to listen to this.” He wants you to cry out to him, he wants you to pant for him. Be honest with God.

2. Preach the Gospel to Yourself

The second thing we do in order to hope in God, is to preach the gospel to ourselves. The voice that we hear more than any other is our own. You listen to you more than you listen to anyone else. We have this running commentary constantly going in our mind and if we are not careful, this voice can be extremely dangerous to listen to. Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones wrote on spiritual depression and said it this way: “The main trouble in this whole matter of spiritual depression in a sense is this, that we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self.” This is that tug of war that we were talking about before. One second the author is saying, “God where are you?” And the next, he interrupts his own thinking and reminds himself to hope in God. That refrain that we see repeated three times in these psalms, that is where David stops listening to himself and starts preaching to himself! In the pit of despair we need to focus on God’s words and not our own, we have to preach to ourselves just as David does and tell ourselves over and over and over again. PUT YOUR HOPE IN GOD. Keep reminding yourself of Jesus and the loves that he has towards you, remind yourself of how God has redeemed you, he has bought you with the blood of his son, remember how he has sent his Spirit to abide within you, how he has promised eternity with him. Preach the truths of scripture to yourself when everything seems lost.

This is how we hope in God church. We hope in God in the worst parts of life by being honest with God and by preaching the good news of the gospel to ourselves.

Prayer

Communion