Bible Study - Culture (3) - When Circumstances Overwhelm - Psalm 42 and 43 - January 27, 2019

Bible Study – Culture (3) – When Circumstances Overwhelm – January 27, 2019

This is lesson three (3) in our series entitled “Engaging Culture in an Everchanging World.”

Our focus scripture is Psalm 42:1-3, 6-8; 43:3-5.

GOD lifts us up when circumstances pull us down.

Often, when we, as Christians, look at our local, state, nation and world we may say “LORD where are you?” The psalmist wrote this psalm or poem to direct those who feel abandoned by GOD to have a change of attitude toward GOD and HIS ability to restore their relationship.

First, some history regarding Psalms as copied from the “Advanced Bible Study, Winter 2018-2019, LifeWay, written by Dr. Janice Meier, pages 113 and 114. Dr. Meier is a gifted Hebrew scholar and she participated on the translation team of the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

[“The book of Psalms differs from other books of the Bible in some key ways. First, while the Scripture as a whole is God’s revelation of Himself to human beings, the Book of Psalms consists of worshipers’ response to God’s revelation. Furthermore, it consists of worship songs a variety of inspired writers composed over a period of approximately one thousand years. Thus, these poems functioned for centuries as the hymnbook of God’s people. In the Hebrew language the book’s title means “praises.” This title reflects the book’s main purpose – to help people worship God.

The entire book of Psalms has been divided into five separate books. Book I consists of Psalms 1-41. Psalms 42-72 constitute Book II. Psalms 73-89 comprise Book III. Book IV encompasses Psalms 90-106. The final portion, Book V consists of the Psalms 107-150. Bible scholars believe the fivefold divisions reflects the fivefold division of the Law – the five books of Genesis through Deuteronomy. Thus, while the five books of Law convey God’s revelation of Himself, the five Books of Psalms reveal His people’s fivefold response in praise to Him.

Bible scholars have categorized the psalms into different types. As you would expect, the largest single category of Psalms consists of poems of praise. Approximately half of the 150 psalms fall into this classification. Another large category is prayers of lamentations, including both individual and community laments. Psalms 42 and 43 (Our focus scripture) fall into this classification. Other categories include royal psalms, wisdom psalms, enthronement psalms, penitential psalms, and thanksgiving psalms. Many psalms have headings called superscriptions. These headings provide historical information, musical instructions, and writer information. These superscriptions are ancient, accurate, and reliable. They were added to help worshipers understand and know how to sing these psalms.]

In Psalm 42, we see the heading “For the choir director or chief Musician. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.” “Maskil” is likely a specific type of hymn. Psalm 42 and 43 make a single lament-poem sung by “The sons of Korah;” likely a musical group of singers of that time period. Let’s explore!

Psalm 42 and 43 are written as one. Note verses 42:5, 11 and 43:5 are repeated:

42:5 - 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.

42:11 - 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.

43:5 - 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.

Let’s read Psalm 42:1-3:

For the choir director. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.

1 As a deer longs for streams of water, so I long for You, God.

2 I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God?

3 My tears have been my food day and night, while all day long people say to me, "Where is your God?"

Water is essential to life upon earth. In this poem of lament, the writer gave us a word picture of a deer desperately needing water to survive. The psalmist compared this to a person desperately needing GOD in his or her life. Not just any god but the one true “living GOD.” The psalmist has been consumed by this need to the point that he could not eat. His heart was broken and it ached. His food was his tears.

Recorded in Jeremiah 2:13 we read: (GOD is the source of Spiritual water.)

13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

JESUS told the Samaritan woman at the well, in John 4:9-15, that she could have living water gushing within her:

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?

12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,

14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Christians have this living water within them the instant they ask JESUS into their hearts. This living water is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a person and is the third person of the Trinity. Allow HIM to flow through you to others as you obediently serve the LORD. The people of the world are thirsty for the right relationship with GOD. Most do not know that their Spiritual thirst can only be quenched by placing their faith in JESUS. JESUS broke the sin barrier that separated mankind from GOD but to do so cost JESUS HIS sinless life. JESUS is the only perfect sacrifice GOD has accepted to break the sin barrier.

Do you believe that JESUS gave HIS sinless life just for you? HE did but you have to accept this gift from GOD to receive forgiveness and eternal life through the miracle of Spiritual rebirth.

There are times when GOD may seem to be avoiding us, when our desire to have an intimate, personal relationship with HIM. The question is “What is blocking this relationship?” We know that GOD seeks this relationship, as well, with us.

In last week’s study, we read scripture that revealed how intimately GOD knows each of us, even to the number of hairs on our heads. HE knows what we are going to say before we speak as recorded in Psalm 139, written by David as revealed in verses 1-4:

1 You have searched me, LORD, and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely.

A person’s thirst to know the One True GOD in the most intimate, loving way is not as great as GOD’S desire for him or her to know HIM; not to just know about HIM but to really know HIM. Is sin or unconfessed sin blocking your relationship? Ask GOD to search our hearts.

GOD expressed HIS love to all humanity to the max when HE allowed HIS only Son, JESUS, to come to earth to live as a human, subject to being tempted and dying as a human.

Yes. JESUS was dead as a doornail but GOD demonstrated to all the world that JESUS lived a sinless life, as a human/yet GOD, upon earth by the bodily resurrection of JESUS. The resurrection is proof that JESUS paid the penalty for sin, in full, for all who will place their faith in HIM. Life is in the blood and this was true for the physical life of JESUS. JESUS blood was poured out for our sin. The resurrection of JESUS is GOD’S guarantee to all who place their faith in JESUS that they will not die eternally. They have gone from spiritual death to Spiritual Life. JESUS said it best in John 5:24:

24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

Every person who is Spiritually dead will “hear the voice of the Son of GOD” and when he or she hears HIS voice he or she has a decision to make – either to accept or reject JESUS as his or her Savior. If that person accepts JESUS as his or her Savior, he or she is born Spiritually into GOD’s Family – receives eternal life and “will not be judged” because he or she made the transition from eternal death to eternal life. Think about that. No more guessing but this Spiritually born-again person has a guarantee. This guarantee is confirmed and sealed by the indwelling Holy Spirit – 2 Corinthians 1:21-22:

21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us,

22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

GOD did this so that every person can have an intimate, personal, dynamic relationship with HIM through faith in JESUS. Faith in JESUS is the only way any person can experience the miracle of Spiritual rebirth and become a true born-again Son or Daughter of GOD.

Let’s read Psalm 42:6-8:

6 I am deeply depressed; therefore, I remember You from the land of Jordan and the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and Your billows have swept over me.

8 The Lord will send His faithful love by day; His song will be with me in the night- a prayer to the God of my life.

Of course, this psalm writer did not have what we have today. The coming of the Messiah was still far off. What was a person who was seeking an intimate relationship with GOD do? The psalm writer saw GOD’S power everywhere he looked – the landscape, the waterfalls, the ocean. The psalmist was lamenting that he saw the handiwork of GOD day and night but yet he was not satisfied by what he saw. He wanted an intimate, personal, permanent relationship with GOD - 24/7. But wasn’t GOD in Jerusalem?  

Depression can be a medical condition that is very real and needs to be treated accordingly. Humans can be depressed by the circumstances they encounter in their lives. Often, when depression is due to circumstances these folks need a helping hand or someone to come along their side who can help them. It may take a counselor.  

We read in this psalm that the psalmist would have bouts of despair and then he was reminded of GOD’S love and care for him as recorded in verses 42:5, 11 and 43:5.

It is much like when we get into an internal debate – left brain – right brain analysis of our circumstances. It just goes around and around without resolution. That cycle must be broken and it seems that the psalmist breaks this cycle when he acknowledges what we read in verse 5 “Why am I so depressed? Why this turmoil within me? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise Him, my Savior and my God.”

Now, let’s read what the psalmist wrote after he shifted his circumstance into GOD’S hands -----

Let’s read Psalm 43:1-5:

1 Vindicate me, God, and defend my cause against an ungodly nation; rescue me from the deceitful and unjust man.

2 For You are the God of my refuge. Why have You rejected me? Why must I go about in sorrow because of the enemy's oppression?

3 Send Your light and Your truth; let them lead me. Let them bring me to Your holy mountain, to Your dwelling place.

4 Then I will come to the altar of God, to God, my greatest joy. I will praise You with the lyre, God, my God.

5 Why am I so depressed? Why this turmoil within me? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise Him, my Savior and my God.

The psalmist was depressed by what he saw and had experienced in the world. Those in the world did not recognize or acknowledge GOD in their lives. The psalmist recognized that there was a negative force in the world that opposed GOD and he was experiencing it.

It is unclear how much the psalmist knew about the coming of the promised Messiah. But it is certain that this psalmist’s desire was to be liberated from the despair of ungodliness and to have an intimate relationship with GOD. He concluded that his liberation was in having the right relationship with GOD. But what would lead him to having this right relationship with GOD? In these times before JESUS, GOD was generally relegated to a physical place e.g. Jerusalem in the temple.

The psalmist reveals this in verses 3 and 4 - 3 Send Your light and Your truth; let them lead me. Let them bring me to Your holy mountain, to Your dwelling place.

4 Then I will come to the altar of God, to God, my greatest joy. I will praise You with the lyre, God, my God.

GOD is light. Light dispels darkness. When we can see the path of truth and follow it, we build the right relationship with GOD, The One True Light. Before JESUS, the promised Messiah, came into the physical world, GOD was viewed as dwelling in a specific location - tabernacle or Jerusalem in the temple. This was a human restriction. GOD is everywhere. GOD’S desire is to have an intimate, personal relationship with those who place their faith in JESUS. As we read in 2 Corinthians 5:21 - God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him (JESUS) we might become the righteousness of God.

Faith in JESUS purifies the human body so it can be occupied by GOD/Holy Spirit.  First Corinthians 3:16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?

Even today, when we are in despair our hope is in our relationship with GOD through faith in JESUS. Let that hope in GOD be your pathway out of despair. If you have medical depression, then seek medical help.

As the psalmist wrote, when we are in despair or in a depressed state, we need to be led out of that state by allowing GOD to lead us out by the revelation of the light only GOD can provide through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Where does the light of GOD lead a person? The true light leads to Truth, which is faith in JESUS and hope that is in HIM. Faith in JESUS leads Christians to build an intimate, loving, personal, dynamic relationship with GOD. Why? It is because those secure in JESUS know that GOD is real and true. This psalmist finally came to a positive conclusion.

The psalmist ends with verse 5 - Why am I so depressed? Why this turmoil within me? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise Him, my Savior and my God. When we know GOD through faith in JESUS, why do we allow circumstances to depress us, which, in turn, produces turmoil. The secret is abiding in JESUS and to trust GOD to lead us through the dark days that will come into our lives. We must do our part and trust GOD to do HIS part.

JESUS gave Christians an example as recorded in John 5:19-20:

19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.

Do you recall when a violent storm came up while JESUS and HIS disciples were on the sea as recorded in Mark 4:35-41? JESUS was asleep in the same boat with them. HIS disciples were terrified but JESUS was sound asleep. They frantically awaken HIM. In essence, they said, “How can YOU sleep when we are all facing possible death?” JESUS’ disciples went directly to the source for the solution to their circumstance. JESUS spoke and the winds and waves ceased. HIS disciples were amazed. HIS disciples were taught a valuable lesson. 

Storms come into our lives even when JESUS is present in our lives. JESUS may seem to us to be asleep or aloof to our circumstance but HIS power prevails regardless of what we may think. GOD allows HIS children to experience life to teach us. Can we look beyond the angry storms when they come into our lives, as Christians? Will we go to HIM for help? When we trust GOD’S solution, that is when “peace like a river flow through us.” GOD desires for HIS Children to trust beyond what is they see, ask HIM for light and trust HIM to for HIS solution. The solution may be for us to wait and watch or it might be to take a step of faith. The indwelling Holy Spirit will direct our response.

In the words of the late Dr. Vance Havner, “We must practice in the dark, what we learn in the light.” Blessings!!!