Praying the Psalms (42)

Hymn: Blessed Be the Name (103)

Hymn: He Touched Me (504)

Background

42-49 - Sons of Korah who was Korah?

Rebelled against Moses (Nub. 16 - swallowed by an earthquake)…but God spared his sons...

Samuel eventually came out the line.

During Davidic Kingdom they were great choral and orchestral leaders for the nation.

Psalm 42-43 were really one Psalm but some scribe throughout history must have separated them…how do we know?

43 is the only one that doesn’t have a superscription on it.

Public Worship - (EXTREMELY EMOTIONAL)

Verse, chorus, verse, chorus.

Maskil - v. “to instruct”

This Psalm is for the heart and for the mind.

(What we will see as we Read Psalm 42-43 is that something has gone terribly wrong in this mans life.

Let’s read (Ps. 42-43)

This is a Psalm about Sorrows and Suffering

Humans are sufferers. Life is not the way it is supposed to be. Life on planet Earth is often broken as we seek times of peace. Sin that originated in the Garden has affected everything.

Who among us has experienced any sort of sorrow? of suffering?

How are we to interpret the sorrows or the sufferings of life?

This Psalm will show us how to handle these natural experiences in life.

Hymn: What a Friend We Have in Jesus (435)

Hymn: Grace Greater than All our Sin (201)

TEACHING ON SUFFERING

SUFFERING CHART (Satan / Others / Self / Nature) one person is missing. WHO

Romans 11:36 (ESV) 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Even our suffering is used for His glory.

Psalm 42:4 (ESV) 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.

What things do you remember? (Heath, Christmas’s, spouses, houses…what do you remember that you don’t have any more? (RESPONSE is to POUR OUT YOUR SOUL.

How do we go about pouring out our souls to God?

Lament can be defined as, “a crying out in grief”, “to express sorrow”, “to mourn aloud”.

Hymn: STORY (pg 69) - There is a Fountain (196)

6 Things that the Psalmist Does during this time of Spiritual Depression

1. He Asks God “Why?”

Psalm 42:9 (ESV) 9 I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

He “isn’t “forgotten” by God…otherwise he wouldn’t cry out to God…but he “feels that way.

Think about Jesus (Ps. 22)

2. He affirms God’s Sovereign Love

Psalm 42:7 (ESV) 7 Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.

All these hardships are your waves...

Psalm 42:8 (ESV) 8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

Still loved in the process.

3. He Sings!

Psalm 42:8 (ESV) 8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

Songs of instruction and sadness.

4. He Preaches to His Own Soul

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

(5, 11, 43:5)

MLJ - 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 yourself?

ULTIMATE THINGS (Romans 8 things)

5. He Remembers Past Experiences

Psalm 42:4 (ESV) 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.

Corporate worship experiences…times gathered with other believers…and the power of God that is present.

In hard times, we so often want to isolate…DON’T.

6. He Recognizes His Thirst is for God.

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?

THIS IS MASSIVE. It isn’t the absence of suffering he is after, he is after God Himself.

Why is the deer panting for water? Probably because it is being chased.

The water will provide some relief…Jesus once said, “If anyone is thirst...”

It’s not wrong to want relief and to pray for it, and it is sometimes right to pray for the defeat of enemies, but more important than any of that is God himself.

Hymn: I’d Rather Have Jesus (517)

Hymn: When the Roll is Called Up Yonder (543)

Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save  When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave  I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save, I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save  Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save