Intro:

What if via David Tripp

An Eclipse of the Soul - When the light of God seems to be gone where it once was?

What do you do when Trouble comes that you have no answer and don’t understand?

What do you do when you feel isolated and removed from the healthy spiritual walk with God you once experienced?

What do you do when You experience Spiritual Depression as a Christian and you haven’t sinned?

Struggle and wrestling and life in the DARKNESS of the Soul happens.....

Psalm 42-43 are here to provide us a real life moment that most of us will experience -

EVEN the very choicest of God’s people… travel most of the way to heaven by night. - Spurgeon on Spiritual Darkness

Psalm 42–43 ESV

To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah. 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 6 and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. 7 Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. 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. 9 I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” 10 As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” 11 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 and my God. 1 Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me! 2 For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? 3 Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! 4 Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. 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 and my God.

What is this Dark Night of the Soul and what do we do if we find ourselves in the Dark?

The Dark Night of the Soul

This is no ordinary fit of depression, but it is a depression that is linked to a crisis of faith, a crisis that comes when one senses the absence of God or gives rise to a feeling of abandonment by Him....The presence of faith gives no guarantee of the absence of spiritual depression; however, the dark night of the soul always gives way to the brightness of the noonday light of the presence of God. - Sproul

He is crying and not eating -

Martin Lloyd Jones - Medical doctor before becoming a pastor - there is a direct connection between your physical body and the spiritual soul.... We see that here.

Abuelito - bringing the entire family from Peru to America.... a mechanic.... would work, go eat a hot dog and instead of a drink he would cry each night and the tears were his drink....at the same place and save the rest of his paycheck to ONE BY ONE Bring the entire family from PERU to AMERICA in the 1960s...... I got to see the apartment where he lived and the small restaurant he ate at in Virginia.....

What moment in life have you been met with these tears? This emotion? This physical anxiety and turmoil?

Soul is Cast Down -

down in the dumps - message

depressed

sad

despaired

Soul is Turmoil

crying the blues - message

disquieted

disturbed

What does this look like?

- Numb spiritually

- Isolating from others and God

- Question theological and Biblical things you once did not....Does God love me? Where is God? Why God did this happen? Is my sin forgiveable?

It may come in a crisis, it may come without warning, it may come over time, when it comes what will you do and how does Psalm 42 help?

Spiritual Habits in the Dark Night of the Soul

flying with the instruments when it’s too dark to know where you are going - Jon Bloom

This isn’t a Holy High Five..... A Quick Fix Book, Quote, or verse...... Churchese....

We walk by faith and not by sight! Even more so in the darkness and depression

2 Corinthians 5:7 ESV

7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.

a. Yearn and Thirst for God

animal in a dessert place dying of thirst....... not a cute bumper sticker, tshirt, or coffee mug.....

Matthew 5:6 ESV

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

What does your soul yearn for? Thirst for? Long for? We don’t talk like this with other people… maybe our spouse.... but when was the last time you walked into the kitchen and said to your wife.... I thirst for you?!

b. Pours Out His Soul to God

Buying Paint at Home Depot.... You get the white paint.... and then to mix colors they pour in all sorts of colors to make your own color..... That is the same way with our emotions..... WE need all of them and we experience all of them.... and the Psalmist shows us that it is a practice to be honest with our emotions.... to pour them out...... to label them to know them....... when they are mixed together because they are mixed together.......

Birth of a child.... mothers in the room.... amen… such joy and such pain?

Starting a new job - excitement, anxiousness, worry, hope

c. Remembers God’s Character In the midst of suffering - 6-7

His Steadfast love marches on - Commanding the day with His Love

Days may be easier to make it through, but at night.... the struggle becomes more real..... Seeing God at work in the day is easier than to be in the night… in the valley of darkness.... in the shadow of death....

dark in the movie matinee theater.... but it is light outside

John 1:4–5 ESV

4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

1 John 1:5–7 ESV

5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Light the candle of praise - Tripp - Sing the songs of His Steadfast Love towards you.... Prayer......

A PRAYER to the GOD OF MY LIFE...... a shift in this psalm..... look at the progress..... Lament .... Sermon… .Lament.... Sermon.... Prayer .... Sermon

d. He preaches to His Soul 3x

Hope in God

My Salvation… My God

This is not just a conversation inwardly with your soul if you are a believer in Jesus..... He is with you.... the Holy Spirit is with you..... This is more than positive self- talk......! God is listening!

What do you memorize to repeat to yourself in times of depression and darkness?

Scripture memory should be on the top of our list for moments just like this!

1. My bologna has a first name, it’s O-S-C-A-R. (1960s) – Oscar Mayer 2. Plop plop, fizz fizz, oh what a relief it is. (1970s) – Alka-Seltzer 3. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. (1971) – State Farm Insurance

McDonalds.....

What are the Spiritual truths in God’s Word you need to know as well as these?...

1. The Gospel - 1 Cor 15 ,

2. Eternal security - Romans 8:28,.....

3. Jesus’ presence - Matthew 28.

4. Hope of Heaven - Revelation 21-22.

The truth you need to hear this morning may be this..... YOU ARE NOT READING THE BIBLE IN ORDER TO KNOW THE BIBLE TO PREACH TO YOURSELF!......

e. Moves Outward to God

a. In Prayer -

Prayer as habit in depression and turmoil is essential -

no weapon remains except that of All-prayer. - Spurgen Many saints have gone this path before and in His power we too will make the journey to heaven!

b. God the only solution

- Pleads for the Light and Truth to Break through the darkness!

The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness!

Romans 8:26 ESV

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

Jesus as the ultimate example of this depth of emotion......

In the Garden of Gethsemane..... Luke 22:44

Luke 22:44 ESV

44 And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Jesus is our substitute for sin.... He has taken the depths of even our spiritual depression and gives home for eternity!

2 Corinthians 4:7–11 ESV

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

Pressure in this life exists.... but you will not be crushed..... not driven to despair not forsake not destroyed.... BECAUSE CHRIST DIED IN YOUR PLACE FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF YOUR SINS!

What will you do when the Dark Night of the Soul comes? Will you be able to fly with just the instruments in front of you? Will you move outward to God as your only solution?

Conclusion -

If you are there in the dark night of the soul...... May this Psalm be a breath of the Holy Spirit to you this morning....

practice these spiritual habits

tell someone to journey with you

Be obedient to follow Jesus..... in baptism I ask if you are willing to follow between here and heaven.... it includes these moments too...... In a few weeks another person will take the plunge in baptism.... Will you too?

Join the Church

BELIEVE IN JESUS!