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Sermon

Why Are You in Despair, O My Soul? Part 2

Speaker
David Capoccia
Scripture
Psalm 42, Psalm 43

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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

Psalms 42 and 43 model the believer’s fight for hope in God against despair. Through a three-round battle, we see how a faithful soul wrestles with spiritual drought, pummeling floods of trials, and the taunts of enemies — yet perseveres by remembering God’s past faithfulness, trusting in His sovereign covenant love, and anticipating future worship and deliverance.

Key Lessons:

  1. The Christian life is a campaign of many spiritual battles, and the key question is not whether we fight perfectly but whether we keep following Christ despite defeats and discouragements.
  2. God’s sovereignty over our trials and His steadfast covenant love (chesed) together form our primary lifeline — if a good God sends the trials, they have a good purpose, and He will also deliver from them.
  3. Righteous complaining before God is born from humble faith, presenting how God’s character and promises don’t appear to align with circumstances while waiting for Him to vindicate Himself.
  4. Progress in spiritual warfare is often slow and incremental — the speaker cycles through despair repeatedly but gains ground each time by counseling himself with truth.

Application: We are called to speak truth to our own souls when despair strikes, to keep praying and seeking God even when He seems silent, to turn from false comforts and worldly hopes, and to help one another in the church through communal encouragement and singing God’s truth together.

Discussion Questions:

  1. When you find yourself in spiritual drought or under pummeling waves of trial, what false comforts are you most tempted to turn to instead of waiting on God?
  2. How does understanding that God is both the sender of trials and the refuge from trials change the way you process suffering?
  3. In what practical ways can we counsel our own souls with truth and help fellow believers do the same during seasons of despair?

Scripture Focus: Psalms 42–43 provide a three-round model of fighting despair with hope in God. Lamentations 3:37–38 teaches God’s sovereignty over both good and ill. Micah 7:8 and Romans 8:37 affirm the believer’s ultimate triumph through Christ. Exodus 3:14–15 reveals God’s name Yahweh as the foundation of His faithfulness.

Outline

Introduction

Let’s pray.

God, you are indeed great and it is wonderful that you are our God. Oh Lord, we cannot fully search out your greatness. Yet learning more and more is such a delight to us and such great comfort to our hearts.

You are the God of all comfort, the one who comforts us in every affliction and teaches us how to comfort one another. So God, do that now. Comfort us, teach us, and Lord, help us to comfort one another in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Christian Life as Spiritual Warfare

Something that you’ve probably heard if you’ve been in this church for a while because it is a biblical concept is that the Christian life is spiritual warfare.

It is ongoing spiritual warfare against sin, against the flesh, against the world, and against Satan and his minions.

One clarification worth remembering about Christian spiritual warfare, however, is that the Christian’s experience is not one long battle.

Rather, it’s a campaign or even a war with many different battles fought over one’s tour of duty.

“The Christian’s experience is not one long battle — it’s a campaign with many different battles fought over one’s tour of duty.”

Depending on where Commander Jesus deploys you and depending on the activity of the enemy, you may experience times of relative calm, only short, sporadic skirmishes with the enemy as he bides his time or probes for a weak spot.

Or you may experience fierce fighting as the enemy launches an all-out assault on your position with many battles close together over days, weeks, or even months.

These latter battles can be long and intense, as if your very soul were on the line. And not every battle necessarily goes well.

Yet the key question in your and my spiritual war and the key question in every battle is not whether I have followed the Lord perfectly, but instead whether I will by faith keep following the Lord despite my defeats and discouragements.

Will I keep pursuing Christ so that I will ultimately triumph with him in his guaranteed victory?

“The key question is: will I by faith keep following the Lord despite my defeats and discouragements?”

Bunyan’s Picture of Persevering Combat

I always remember the picture of spiritual warfare that 17th century preacher and writer John Bunyan provides in his classic work “The Pilgrim’s Progress.”

In this great allegory of the Christian life, the main character Christian at a certain point encounters Apollyon, the name by which Bunyan refers to Satan. He encounters Apollyon on a stretch of road leading to the celestial city.

After Apollyon unsuccessfully entreats and then threatens Christian to return to Apollyon’s dominion, Apollyon then launches a rageful attack on Christian, which Bunyan describes as follows.

And with that, Apollyon threw a flaming dart at Christian’s breast. But Christian had a shield in his hand with which he caught it, and so prevented the danger of that. Then did Christian draw his sword, for he saw it was time to bury him, and Apollyon as fast made at him, throwing darts as thick as hail.

By which, notwithstanding all that Christian could do to avoid it, Apollyon wounded him in his head, his hand, and foot.

This made Christian give a little back.

Apollyon therefore followed his work quickly and Christian again took courage and resisted as manfully as he could.

This sore combat lasted for above half a day even till Christian was almost quite spent.

For you must know that Christian by reason of his wounds must needs grow weaker and weaker.

Then Apollyon spying his opportunity began to gather up close to Christian and wrestling with him gave him a dreadful fall and with that Christian’s sword flew out of his hand.

Then said Apollyon, “I am sure of thee now.” And with that he had almost pressed him to death. So that Christian began to despair of life.

But as God would have it, while Apollyon was fetching of his last blow, thereby to make a full end of this good man, Christian nimbly stretched out his hand for his sword and caught it, saying, “Rejoice not against me, oh mine enemy. When I fall, I shall arise.” Micah 7:8.

And with that gave him a deadly thrust which made him give back as one had received his mortal wound.

Christian perceiving that made at him again saying, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” Romans 8:37.

Romans 8:37: “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

And with that, Apollyon spread forth his dragon’s wings and sped him away.

That Christian for a season saw him no more.

The Reality Behind the Allegory

I cannot help but get emotional in reading this passage from Bunan because it is so true to the Christian life.

Brethren, I know and God knows how hard our spiritual battles are sometimes and how we also sigh, groan, and even despair while suffering unceasing trials or spiritual attacks.

Yet God promises that we will eventually know victory if we keep clinging to Christ and do not give up.

Though wounded, though already giving ground, though sensing the enemy pressing closely in against us, we can still fight back with the truth against our feelings until God rescues us and the enemy flees.

“God promises we will eventually know victory if we keep clinging to Christ and do not give up.”

Bunan’s description of persevering spiritual combat is ultimately fictional and allegorical.

Is there a more real-world example of wrestling with temptation and ultimately triumphing that we can use to inform Bunan’s own imagination?

There is, and it’s the passage that we began looking at last week. Please open your Bibles to Psalms 42 and 43 as we look at “Why are you in despair, oh my soul?” Part two.

Reading Psalms 42 and 43

Psalms 42 and 53, Pew Bible page 575. If you’re using that, let’s read these two Psalms together again, and then we’ll do some review.

Psalms 42 and 43. The title is for the choir director Amaskill of the sons of Korah.

As the deer pants for the waterbrooks, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

My tears have been my food day and night. While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember and pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with a voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me?

Hope in God, for I shall again praise him for the help of his presence.

O my God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore, I remember you from the land of the Jordan and the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Misar. Deep calls to deep at the sound of your waterfalls. All your breakers and your waves have rolled over me.

The Lord, that is Yahweh. Yahweh will command his loving kindness in the daytime and his song will be with me in the night. A prayer to the God of my life.

I will say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me while they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me?

Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, the help of my countenance and my God.

Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation. O, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

For you are the God of my strength.

Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

O, send out your light and your truth.

Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling places.

Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and upon the lyre I shall praise you, O God, my God.

Why are you in despair, O my soul, and why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, the help of my countenance and my God.

Review: Round One — In Desperate Drought, Remember Past Worship

Here again, we behold this beautiful prayer song modeling the believer’s fight for hope in God against despair.

Most likely, you remember me explaining this last week. These two psalms were originally composed as one. They were written by the sons of Korah to be used in the communal worship of God’s people at the temple in Jerusalem.

Thus, as we noted previously, this song is not merely a testimony that God’s true followers will sometimes endure fierce spiritual battles and even struggles with hopelessness.

But this song is also divine counsel, divine comfort, and instruction as to how we should talk to ourselves. We should talk to God and we should talk to one another through difficult times.

“This song is divine counsel, divine comfort, and instruction as to how we should talk to ourselves and to God through difficult times.”

We summarized the main idea of this song previously.

The Korahites provide a three-round example of fighting for hope in God against despair so that you will persevere in your own battling.

Last time we looked at just round one of the speaker’s fight for hope in God, and that was in verses 1 to 5. We saw there round one.

The Deer Panting for Water

In desperate drought, remember past worship. Round one in this song is mostly an expression of lament and unfulfilled but desperate desire for God. In verse one, the speaker likens his spiritual state to a deer panting for water in the middle of a deadly drought.

Parched, pained, fading.

The speaker nevertheless clarifies that his soul’s desire is not for prosperous circumstances, but for God. God himself is true life, and the soul’s deepest need in every trial and situation.

“God himself is true life, and the soul’s deepest need in every trial and situation.”

Evidently, the speaker somehow feels that he has not been able to find the life or joy of God. A feeling no doubt made worse from what we see in verse two.

The speaker desires to come to the place of God’s special presence and gathered worship in Jerusalem, but for some reason cannot do so. Perhaps harassing enemies are keeping the speaker from worshiping at God’s temple.

The Taunt of Enemies

And in verse three, such enemies are mentioned more directly. The speaker tells God how tears have become the speaker’s food both day and night. The speaker cannot eat. He can only cry constantly.

Meanwhile, his enemies frequently taunt him with one menacing question: Where is your God?

Where is your God? How can you believe in God when he’s left you to suffer like this? Your God has failed you. Your God cannot save you. Your God is not even real.

“Where is your God? How can you believe in God when he’s left you to suffer like this?”

How do you deal with such cruel mockings when in your breaking heart you’re wondering the same?

Remembering Past Worship

In verse four, the speaker continues mourning as he remembers happy days of past worship now lost. He remembers the days of religious festival in Jerusalem in which the speaker not only went along with the joyful crowd praising God but also himself led the people in procession to God’s house and probably then sang thanksgiving to God before and with them.

Oh God, those were wonderful days with your people. But what has happened to them? Am I now doomed only to misery and ruin going forward?

“He remembers the days of religious festival — wonderful days with God’s people. But what has happened to them?”

The Self-Counseling Chorus

Yet the remembrance of verse four leads to a sudden regrouping in verse 5 and a moment of self-counseling with the truth and what will turn out to be the repeated chorus of this song. The speaker asks himself rhetorically why he is in despair, why he is so disturbed within himself.

There’s ultimately no good reason for this soul-melting and tumult. Why not?

Because there is sure hope in God.

The speaker counsels himself to hope in or more literally to wait for God. Reminding himself that the speaker will praise God again.

In other words, the speaker knows that a time is coming at which God, the God he seemingly cannot find, will show up.

“There is sure hope in God. A time is coming at which God will show up again.”

He will show up again and he will minister his life, his joy and his deliverance to the speaker so that the speaker will again be able to offer heartfelt and public praise to God.

For who is the speaker’s God? The end of verse 5 following the ESV’s rendering of the verse. The speaker’s God is my salvation and my God.

My salvation is more literally translated the salvation of my face, the help of my countenance. The speaker realizes God is the one whose salvation, whose kind and faithful acts lifts up my face and gives me joy again when I am distressed.

God has lifted up my countenance in the past so that I could lead others in joyful worship. God will do the same in the future. So soul, wait for God.

At the conclusion of round one, we see that this godly effort of talking to himself with reality, with the truth, has set a new hope-filled trajectory for the speaker in contrast to the otherwise mostly lament-filled prayer of round one.

But one battle does not decide the campaign.

How will the speaker fare in the next rounds of spiritual warfare?

Well, let’s find out together as we conclude our review and begin our new examination of the rest of the passage.

Round Two — In Pummeling Floods, Remember God’s Love

Let’s look at rounds two and three and finish this instructional song. Round two takes up verses 6 to 11. What is the message and model of round two?

In pummeling floods, remember God’s love. In pummeling floods, remember God’s love.

“In pummeling floods, remember God’s love.”

Look at verse 6.

Oh my God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore, I remember you from the land of the Jordan and the peaks of Hermon from Mount Mizar.

Despair Returns but Progress Appears

Well, much for the little pep talk and self-counseling. The speaker confesses at the beginning of verse 6 that he is right back in that melting feeling of despair.

Yet, isn’t this so true to life? How many times do we pray to God about something or resolve to think, to act, or to speak differently based on God’s truth, and in the very next moment, bam, we’re already on the losing end of a new spiritual tussle?

It’s what seems to be the case for our speaker. Does verse 6 mean that the lament and the hopeful remembrance of round one in our song was ultimately useless?

Well, no. Because even here in verse 6, though we see there is ongoing wrestling, we also see progress, even if slight and slow.

For here, notice he does confess his renewed feeling of despair, but he also responds with purposeful action. He again chooses to remember something and tells God so in prayer.

“Though we see ongoing wrestling, we also see progress. He responds with purposeful action — he chooses to remember God.”

But this time the speaker is not merely choosing to remember the past but what, or rather whom, he remembers: God.

Therefore the speaker says, “I remember you. I’m in despair again. Therefore I remember you, God.”

The Speaker’s Location and Longing

The speaker then tells God that the speaker remembers God from three specific locations. What are these locations?

Well, the land of the Jordan refers to the Jordan River and its valley on the eastern side of Israel. Just imagine a border on the eastern side. The Sea of Galilee at the top, river that goes down, Dead Sea at the bottom. That’s the Jordan Valley and the river. It goes from north to south.

That’s the land of the Jordan. The peaks of Hermon, meanwhile, are the tallest mountain range in or near Israel. They lie on the northeast edge of Israel just beyond today’s Golan Heights.

Springs at the base of Hermon combine with snow melt from the mountains to form the headwaters or the source of the Jordan River before the Jordan River flows southward. So you’ve got the Mount Hermon range, Jordan River flowing south from it.

As for Mount Mizar, we know of no such mountain today or from ancient times. But intriguingly, mizar means small amount or little.

Now, why does the speaker bring up these three locations in his remembrance of God?

Most likely, these places describe where the speaker currently is in his dejection. Far from Jerusalem and its joyful worship with God’s people, which would be in the south center of Israel, the speaker is on the northeast edge of Israel at the start of the Jordan at the base of Mount Hermon.

Instead of being impressed by the majestic snowcap peaks of the Hermon range—Mount Hermon itself is 9,232 feet above sea level today—the speaker apparently considers Hermon a mere Mount Mizar, Mount Tiny, Mount Unimportant compared to lovely and joyful Mount Zion.

“The speaker considers Mount Hermon mere ‘Mount Tiny’ compared to lovely and joyful Mount Zion.”

Indeed, one might think that Mount Hermon and its lush environs—the whole area around it is very well watered—would be an improvement on dry old Jerusalem. But the speaker feels the opposite.

In fact, the base of Hermon may provide the source for the lament-filled metaphors the speaker uses in verse 7.

Look there now.

Deep Calls to Deep — The Metaphor of Floods

Deep calls to deep at the sound of your waterfalls. All your breakers and your waves have rolled over me.

At the base of Mount Hermon still sits the largest waterfall in Israel, the Banas Falls. Though not especially tall, only about 33 feet today, they do have a powerful, unrelenting flow, especially in the beginning of spring.

Today, a hike to the falls is supposed to be peaceful and refreshing. You can see videos online.

But perhaps our ancient author saw something quite different in these falls as he stared at them in unhappy exile and listened to their roar. He perceived a fitting metaphor for the unceasing pummeling he feels in his own soul and life.

“He perceived a fitting metaphor for the unceasing pummeling he feels in his own soul and life.”

Deep calls to deep, he says, at the sound of your waterfalls, which is a curious description. The Hebrew word for deep can also be translated ocean or flood. This is the same word used to describe the primordial waters over the unformed earth in Genesis 1:2.

It’s also the word used to describe the deepest and darkest portions of the ocean right at the bottom in various other Old Testament passages.

That these deeps should call to one another and that the sound of waterfalls means either that these deep waters are telling one another to pile on the speaker one after the other in a fierce falling flood or that they are simply roaring at one another in some kind of chaos as their downpours are released.

The end of verse 7 either continues the image of the waterfall and the consequent rapids at the base of the falls or it switches to the image of ocean waves. The speaker says that every single wave, every breaking wave has hit him one after the other.

Now I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the ocean or ever tried to withstand a breaking or cresting ocean wave. You don’t go under it. You don’t ride it. You just try to stand in front of it. If you’ve ever done that, unless the wave is really small, you get slapped back forcefully for your trouble.

These waves are powerful.

The speaker says that’s what it’s been like for him. All the waves have passed through him. They’ve slapped him again and again and again, and they’ve passed over him.

And if they’re over him, where’s the speaker now? He’s underwater.

This is another tragic and ironic shift in the speaker’s experience. Before the speaker was dying from lack of thirst, but now the speaker is at risk of drowning.

He was desperate to drink of God. But meanwhile, he is flooded with so many trials and sorrows he can barely keep his head above water so that he might gasp for air.

Have you ever felt the same or feel like you’ve been hit by wave after wave? You’re hoping for some sort of relief, but it’s just more water, more water.

God’s Sovereignty Over the Floods

And who is responsible for unleashing all these waters on the speaker?

Our speaker is not confused or ambiguous on the subject. For notice in verse 7, he says, “Your waterfalls, all your breakers, your waves.” In other words, the speaker says that God, his God, the God he just named, the salvation of his face, is the very one pummeling him with the flood of trials.

And the speaker tells God, “So is that a proud and unfair accusation?” No. Once again, that’s good theology.

“God, his God, the salvation of his face, is the very one pummeling him with the flood of trials — and that’s good theology.”

Though the scriptures are clear that God takes no pleasure in afflicting mankind, not his own children, not even the children of the devil, God nevertheless claims ultimate responsibility for all that takes place in his universe.

As Jeremiah says concisely in Lamentations 3:37-38, which we read earlier in the service, who is there who speaks and it comes to pass unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the most high that both good and ill go forth?

Now this truth is a very obvious truth if you just study through the scriptures. This truth about God’s complete sovereignty even over all our suffering could be used to justify bitterness or despair against God, even to blame God as unjust or unloving to afflict his people so severely.

But notice this is not how the speaker responds to such truth as we see in verse 8.

The Lord—that’s in small capitals—will command his loving kindness in the daytime and his song will be with me in the night, a prayer to the God of my life.

Are you surprised by the juxtaposition of these two verses, their placement side by side? This is more of our speaker’s instructive wrestling.

Though our speaker confesses to be spiritually drowning in his trials, he finds a lifeline in the fact that God is the one who has sent the trials. Because if a good God sends the trials, then the trials must have a good purpose. And if a good God sends the trials, then God can and will also deliver from those trials.

You may notice that the two verbs of verse 8 are future tense: “will command” and “will be with me.” This is one accurate way to translate the verse, but the Hebrew verbs in verse 8 could be translated either future or present. There’s enough flexibility in the Hebrew language for either. You have to lean on context to determine which is better.

Here, I lean toward the ESV’s present tense translation as better fitting the context. For in verse 8, the speaker is not merely anticipating what God and the speaker will do in the near or far future, but describing what God and the speaker are actually doing right now.

Yahweh Commands His Covenant Love

And what is God doing? Well, before looking at that, notice the name switch.

At the beginning of verse 8, we do not see God, the translation of the Hebrew terms Elohim or L. We don’t see that term again. Those names emphasize God’s majesty and power.

Rather, we see the Lord in small capital letters, which is our Bible’s way of translating the name Yahweh.

“The Lord in small capitals translates the name Yahweh — emphasizing God’s faithfulness.”

Now, Yahweh sounds like the Hebrew phrase for “he is.”

It commemorates the explanation of God’s name and being to Moses in Exodus 3:14-15. You remember that when Moses asked, “Whom shall I tell them has sent me?” God said, “Tell them I am who I am. Tell them I am has sent you.”

The Name Yahweh and His Faithfulness

Thus this name Yahweh emphasizes God’s holiness, his otherness, his eternality, his self-sufficiency, his immutability. He doesn’t need anything outside of himself. He doesn’t change. He’s eternal.

But this name above all, most significantly, especially for Israel, Yahweh emphasizes God’s faithfulness. For if God is the eternal transcendent God who never changes, and if God makes a promise, God will be faithful to that promise because nothing could cause him to be unfaithful. He won’t change. Yahweh, you can be sure, will keep covenant.

“If God is the eternal God who never changes and makes a promise, He will be faithful — Yahweh will keep covenant.”

But why does the speaker suddenly refer to God as Yahweh in verse 8 and nowhere else in this song? Certainly a key part of the answer is because of the special term that the speaker uses also in verse 8 that is intimately connected with that name.

The speaker uses the term loving kindness. That is that wonderful Hebrew word that you should get to know and remember. It is God’s loyal love, his steadfast love, his covenant love. In our New American Standard 95 translation, it’s usually translated as loving kindness.

Thus in verse 8, the speaker says at the beginning, Yahweh commands presently his loyal love. That is, Yahweh continually orders his loyal love to be poured out on his own by covenant.

And who’s included in that covenant? The speaker. That’s one of God’s believers, one of God’s believers in Israel. And you too, if by faith and repentance you have been placed in Jesus Christ, if you believe in God’s son Jesus.

What does verse 8 mean for you? That God’s loyal love will never fail to find you and work everything for your good. For Yahweh will never change. He is. That’s his name. I am. He is. He will never change nor prove unfaithful to his abundant covenant love.

It also means that even when God sends his waterfalls and pummeling waves upon you, these are sent in love for a mysterious yet faithful purpose. Meanwhile, God’s loving and sustaining grace will be sent to you with the afflictions so that you may endure.

Sovereign Love as Your Lifeline

You see, verses seven and eight together combine to emphasize one of the most powerful and lovely truths.

This truth of God’s sovereignty—your waterfalls, your breakers, your waves—but also the truth of God’s steadfast love, his connected with his name, Yahweh. United together, they are also your lifeline. They are your primary lifeline through the floods of life.

They were for the speaker, they are for you.

“God’s sovereignty and God’s steadfast love united together — they are your primary lifeline through the floods of life.”

These like the key of promise featured elsewhere in Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. They are what can open every door in the dungeon and environment known as Doubting Castle.

They can deliver you. They will deliver you from the fearful torments of that cruel giant named despair.

You have this key of promise, the truth of God’s faithful, sovereign love. It will open every door in Doubting Castle.

It will deliver you from the giant called despair. But only if you remember you have the key and actually use it to open the doors.

Notice in the rest of verse eight how God’s love gives hope to the speaker.

Knowing that Yahweh commands his steadfast love to the speaker on the speaker’s behalf every day, the speaker responds with Yahweh’s song. Every night the speaker does exactly what we are to do with this psalm.

The speaker studies, he recalls, he sings the Bible’s truth about God and uses such as the continual prayer to the God of his life.

He remembers God. He thinks again on God’s covenant love and then he sings praise to God about it.

By the way, are you noticing more signs of progress between round one and round two?

In round one, we saw the Hebrew terms for day and night being used to describe the speaker’s tears. They were his food day and night. But in round two, those same Hebrew terms appear again, but now they describe God’s love. God’s love is commanded forth every day and God’s song is sung every night.

Furthermore, in round one, the speaker sought desperately for the living God and could not find him. But here in round two, the speaker finds the God of his life every night by prayer.

The speaker’s battling obviously continues, but he is slowly gaining ground.

Righteous Complaints from the Rock

That’s instructive. But he’s not out of the woods yet. For notice verse nine.

I will say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

This may seem like a step backwards, but actually this is a sign of more progress, more of the speaker’s hope taking hold. For notice, the speaker calls God the speaker’s rock.

What’s a rock? Among other things, it’s a place of sure footing and safety, especially against rising waves and floodwaters.

In other words, and get this, the speaker rightly sees God as the refuge from the trials sent ultimately by God.

“A rock is a place of sure footing and safety against rising floodwaters — God is the refuge from the trials sent by God.”

God is the refuge for your trials that are sent by God. He’s the rock.

But part of the speaker’s taking refuge in the rock consists of righteous complaints, which is what we see in the rest of verse 9.

Now remember, righteous complaining. There is such a thing as righteous complaining. Righteous complaining does not consist of expressing doubt in God until God gets his act together or of angrily blaming God for mistreating the complainer.

Rather, righteous complaining is born from humble faith. It presents to God how God’s own character and promises do not appear to align with experienced circumstances but also waits for God to vindicate himself by faithful deliverance.

This is what we see from the speaker in his two questions to God in verse 9. He first asks God, “Why have you forgotten me?” which is not to accuse God of literally forgetting the speaker and his suffering, but to call God to remember the speaker by powerful and loving action. For in the Old Testament, remembrance is always connected with action.

You may remember in the account of the flood, Genesis 8 says, “God remembered Noah.” Oh, you forgot about him. No, it means he’s going to act now. He’s going to act in faithfulness and kindness to Noah.

All throughout the Old Testament, you see that connection. Remembrance leads to action. This is what he’s calling for to God here in this verse. The speaker asks God to show the speaker that God remembers the speaker.

And then second, the speaker asks God, “Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” Again, this is not doubtfilled, fault-finding with God. This is presenting to God painfilled confusion and pointing out to God that the speaker’s situation does not currently look like God is ordering forth his covenant love like the speaker knows that God is.

After all, the speaker is still in mourning because of the evil, hurtful acts of those around him.

God, don’t you think there’s something wrong with this picture? Won’t you do something about it?

The Shattering Taunt Continues

In verse 10, the speaker more fully describes the oppression that he is under. Look at verse 10.

As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me while they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” Here the speaker tells God what the vicious words of the ungodly all around him feel like. They are like a shattering of the speaker’s bones. More literally a murdering of his bones.

God, these enemies are striking mortal blows deep into my spirit by their insults, their slanders, their lies, and their taunting.

And what is the worst taunt? It’s the same as before, and it still is offered all day long. Where is your God, God? Do you not care how they wound me?

“These enemies are striking mortal blows deep into my spirit by their insults, slanders, and taunting.”

How they bow me down and how they dishonor your own name? Surely you will not let me be ground down and shattered forever, proving them right in their taunt. Oh, I guess there is no God.

Surely God, as I present this before you, you will remember and act.

Progress at the End of Round Two

Thus, as round two winds down, we can see that this fight, this battle went a little bit better than round one.

It wasn’t without despair at all, but he’s made progress. And the speaker returns to his self-counseling chorus in verse 11.

Why are you in despair, oh my soul, and why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, the help of my countenance and my God.

Now, do note after round two, the pummeling floods from God have not yet ceased. They’re still there. The waves are still coming.

And the speaker is still not free from despair and soul groaning as he notes to himself in verse 11.

But the speaker has grown. He has regained ground. He’s made some progress in his wrestling. He has another ray of light shining through the dark clouds into his heart.

Another reason to wait and hope for God, to look forward even to future praise of his God as God will soon lift up the speaker’s face. And what is that reason? What is that ray of light? It is God’s sovereign, steadfast love, ever commanded toward his own, including you, and never failing.

“God’s sovereign, steadfast love — ever commanded toward his own, including you, and never failing.”

Round Three — In Earnest Requests, Anticipate Future Worship

We now arrive at round three, which is Psalm 43. Psalm 43:1-5 as it appears in our Bibles, but again most likely part of one song originally.

What is the theme and model of this final round in the speaker’s fight for hope and God against despair?

Round three is in earnest requests anticipating future worship. In earnest requests anticipating future worship.

Asking God for Vindication

Look at verse one and the beginning of verse two of Psalm 43.

Vindicate me, oh God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man, for you are the God of my strength.

Notice immediately that round three is starting off better than round two.

Rather than dipping right back into despair, the speaker raises earnest prayer requests to God. Actually, these are the first requests made in this whole song.

“Round three starts better than round two — rather than dipping back into despair, the speaker raises earnest prayer requests.”

And for what does the speaker ask of God?

Vindication.

Using courtroom language, the speaker asks the judge of all the earth to be both his vindicating judge. The beginning phrase is literally “judge me,” translated as “vindicate me” because that’s the idea, but “judge me”—be a righteous judge for me. But then the second half of the verse: be my defense attorney, advocate for me. Plead my case.

Essentially, the speaker implores God to grant him justice from those who unjustly attack him. Defend and rescue me from all the evil schemers around me.

And notice the simple reason the speaker provides for why God should grant these requests. He says, “For you are the God of my strength.” Or as the ESV has it, “For you are the God in whom I take refuge.”

Now, does that seem like an odd reason?

God, rescue me because I’ve taken you to be my rescuing God.

Taking God at His Word

Couldn’t God be like, well, you chose to do that yourself. That doesn’t have anything to do with me. No, not at all. Because there’s a context to all of this.

God has indeed offered himself as such to all who will believe in him, as is obvious from the Torah and really the rest of the Bible.

In these scriptures, God presents himself as his covenant people’s true fortress and strength, promising that if they will trust in him and rely on him, he will surely deliver them.

So in the beginning of verse two, our speaker is merely taking God at his word and thus putting God’s own reputation on the line.

Yahweh God, I have done what you have commanded and entreated me to do. I have made you, not myself, not other people, not any false god, not any treasure or experience in this world. I have made you my strength, my refuge.

Now then, oh God, fulfill your word and show your holy strength on behalf of your slave. Do not show yourself false to your promise when a needy believing one calls upon you.

“The speaker takes God at his word and puts God’s own reputation on the line — fulfill your word, oh God.”

You are the God of my strength. Therefore, vindicate me.

In the rest of verse two, the speaker again relates by righteous complaint how his circumstances do not seem to align with God’s now assumed responsibility to be the speaker’s strength and refuge.

You see the questions there. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

Intensified Complaints and Increased Faith

These lines are almost an exact repetition of Psalm 42:9, which we looked at moments ago, except that a few of the words have been intensified.

You may notice—actually, I’ll say this about the verse. Previously the speaker had asked God, “Why have you forgotten me?” But here in verse two, Psalm 43:2, the speaker asks, “Why have you rejected me?”

Again, this is not a doubting accusation. This is a faith-filled complaint and plea.

God of my strength, it looks like you not only have forgotten me, but have turned your back on me. I show up at your door like a needy subject looking for his Lord’s protection, and you seem to have slammed the door in my face.

Surely you are not such a faithless God. I know you are not. Why does my situation seem to suggest otherwise?

“This is not a doubting accusation — this is a faith-filled complaint and plea.”

Won’t you act to vindicate me?

Also, it’s hard to see in our English translations, but the second line of Psalm 43:2 uses a different verb form to describe the speaker’s going in mourning.

In Psalm 42:9, the verb for “I go” and “I go mourning” has the sense of the Hebrew “I go” or “I walk” as the translation. But in Psalm 43:2, the verb for “I go” has the sense of “I go about” or “I walk up and down.”

In short, the speaker now emphasizes to God in prayer even more explicitly that the speaker is so oppressed he can only go about everywhere in mourning.

It’s not like I go sometimes, but everywhere I go I’m walking all about and it’s just in mourning.

God, why is this the case? Surely for the sake of your own name, you won’t leave me in this state.

Testing God with Belief

Are you noticing the increased boldness of the speaker in addressing God in the speaker’s distress?

The speaker is now making requests. He’s again righteously complaining and he’s reminding God that the speaker has specifically sought refuge in God so that God should act.

Is this new boldness a sign of the speaker’s increased doubt in God and frustration with God?

No, it’s the opposite. This is a sign of the speaker’s increased faith and hope.

This is the speaker testing God with belief rather than unbelief, which is exactly what God wants. God says, “Test me with faith.” He tells doubting Israel in Malachi, “Test me in this. If you will bring in the whole offering into my temple that sustains the Levites, the priests, and everybody else, test me in that and see if I don’t open the windows of heaven for you. Test me with faith and obedience, not unbelief and disobedience.”

“This is increased faith and hope — the speaker testing God with belief rather than unbelief, which is exactly what God wants.”

That’s what the speaker is doing.

This really is a model for our own calling upon God amid ongoing distress.

God says, “Test me with belief. Bring your righteous complaints before me in humble faith knowing that I will answer.”

Send Out Your Light and Your Truth

We actually hear more earnest but faith-filled requests from our speaker in verses 3 and 4. Look over there now. Psalm 43:3 and 4. “Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me.

Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling places. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and upon the lyre I shall praise you, oh God, my God.”

You may notice that in these verses, we have a parallel to the beginning part of our song. In Psalm 42:2 and 4, the speaker lamented the fact that he could no longer worship God joyfully with his brethren in the place of God’s special presence in Jerusalem at the temple.

Here the speaker returns to that same theme but in the form of expectant prayer requests.

In essence, the speaker says, “God, bring me back to the one mountain or hill that I really love, Mount Zion.” And why? So the speaker can be comfortable in his own house in Jerusalem and have all his possessions again? No. So he can worship at the very altar of God and again offer public and musical praise to his God.

God My Exceeding Joy

Notice the striking description the speaker uses for God in the middle of verse four: God, my exceeding joy.

This phrase is again notable for its intensity. My exceeding joy. That’s pretty big. Literally, the Hebrew is joy of my rejoicing.

God is not merely the speaker’s life or comfort or help. God is the speaker’s consummate joy, his utmost happiness.

Second, this phrase is notable because it does not merely describe a future reality for the speaker, but a present one.

God will not just be the speaker’s joy when God delivers the speaker back to Jerusalem, but God is the speaker’s exceeding joy right now, even when the trial is not over.

“God is the speaker’s exceeding joy right now, even when the trial is not over.”

Is this not more progress in the speaker’s fighting for hope in God against despair?

He knew from the beginning that what he needed in his spiritual droughts and floods was God. And now before deliverance has even come, the speaker is tasting the goodness of God again.

How is that possible? Nothing’s changed.

By remembering the truth and by believing.

It’s simple persevering faith that allows the joy of God to come back into this believer’s life.

This renewed delighting in God has come, as we’ve seen, by different steps. He has remembered past worship and deliverance of God. He has remembered God’s present and never-failing covenant love. But now we see a third help and light and reason for hoping in God: he anticipates future worship of God according to answered prayer and new deliverance.

Notice again the specific prayers of verse three: Send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill.

What does the speaker mean by God sending out light and truth?

Surely these must be figurative rather than literal descriptions. The speaker is not asking for a literal light beam or an audible truth message from God to bring the speaker to God’s house in Jerusalem. No, this has got to be figurative. So what is it? What are they?

Most likely in this particular context, God’s light refers to God’s life-giving and providential guidance.

Whereas God’s truth, which could be translated also accurately as God’s faithfulness, refers to God’s faithful and loving acts.

In other words, in verse three, the speaker prays earnestly to God that God would intervene both providentially and supernaturally to bring the speaker back to where God’s special presence has been made to dwell because there the speaker can enjoy his delightful God the most.

“God’s light refers to His life-giving providential guidance; God’s truth refers to His faithful and loving acts.”

The Final Chorus and Growing Confidence

So we come to the end of round three, which has been the best fought battle for hope thus far for this speaker.

The final verse, verse 5, sees one last reprise of the song’s chorus.

He says, “Why are you in despair, oh my soul, and why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, the help of my countenance and my God.” This chorus’s reappearance clarifies for us that the speaker, despite this excellent last battle, has not fully vanquished despair. He still must ask his soul rhetorically why his soul is downcast and in turmoil.

Nevertheless, by the end of round three, the truths of the second half of the chorus have become more of a focus and reality for the speaker.

Because the speaker does hope in God, he will thus earnestly pray to God and then wait in faith for God’s answer and provision.

Furthermore, the speaker’s chief prayer to God is for what? It is for a deliverance that will bring the speaker back into God’s house and increased ability to give God praise.

Isn’t that what the speaker has been anticipating and reminding himself of in the chorus all along? “For I shall again praise him.” Yes, even in Jerusalem, God will bring me back to his home and dwelling place.

Thus, by the end of Psalms 42 and 43, clearly the speaker is leaning into God’s sure deliverance in the future and finding hope. For his God, his strength, his rock, the help or salvation of his countenance could never fail to vindicate the needy one who calls upon him because God can never fail to vindicate himself or refuse to show his beautiful glory.

So our song doesn’t exactly end with happily ever after, but instead with a growing confidence and perseverance in God until the happily ever after arrives.

“Our song ends not with happily ever after, but with growing confidence and perseverance until the happily ever after arrives.”

Application: Hope in God and Wait

Dear friends and brethren, how does this instructional song find you today?

Do you feel like you are in desperate drought? That you are enduring pummeling floods? Are you remembering past times of wonderful worship and amazing deliverance?

Are you remembering and trusting in God’s steadfast love, his covenant love for you? Are you offering earnest requests to God continually and anticipating God’s answer and renewed ability to worship God even with the brethren?

Well, wherever you are in your campaign, in your fight against sin and the evil one, hear the main truth of this passage today: Wait for God. Hope in God. Wait for God. Amen.

He will bring his victory and deliverance. He will not forget you. He will not turn his back on you, though he seems to for a time.

He will remind you of his joy. He will remind you of his life. He will bring his deliverance to you at the right time, and he will sustain you until then.

But you must wait. You must hope. We must persevere in God.

Don’t turn to sins. Don’t turn to doubt. Don’t remain in despair.

Rather, if you already have gone to those things, turn from them. Turn from all the false and poisonous comforts. Turn from placing your hope in yourself or in other people or in any of the things of this world and place your hope solely in God.

For he is the salvation or help of your faith. He and only he ultimately is the one who will lift up your countenance. Don’t give up on God. He will not fail.

“Place your hope solely in God — He and only He ultimately is the one who will lift up your countenance. Don’t give up on God.”

His joy and reward are coming.

Rather, commit to reminding yourself, counseling yourself with God’s truth, even singing this song or some version of it. Find help in your comrades in arms, your brothers and sisters here in the church as God has designed you to do.

Remember, this is a communal song. We sing it to one another. But ultimately, whether you have good access to the brethren or other spiritual resources or not, keep knocking and praying and seeking until the God of your refuge opens his doors.

Keep going to God until the righteous judge of all pleads your case and vindicates you and vindicates himself. Keep after your sovereign Lord until he sends out his light and his truth to bring you home to exactly where God wants you to be.

We know that for those without Christ in the world, those who are still enslaved to sin, still under God’s wrath, who’ve never come to Jesus in simple faith and repentance, they have good reason to despair. They don’t know the truths or realities of this passage.

Rather, as Ephesians 2:12 says, those without Christ are strangers to the covenant of promise, and they have no hope.

But we ought to be different. We can be different. We who are in Christ, who have the Spirit’s empowerment, the Son’s salvation, and the Father’s love, we need never despair.

And when we find ourselves despairing, we have a sure hope that we can turn to, a sure reason to keep going on and fighting.

For though the battles be long and hard, they will not last forever. That’s the thing that gets us right. When we’re in the midst of trials, drought, floods, we say, “This is the way it’s going to be from now on.” But that’s not true.

God’s scripture, which is more true than anything you could ever feel, says the opposite: Hope in God, for you will yet praise him.

So though the battle be long and hard, it will not last forever. God’s victory, your deliverance will come.

So speak to your own soul with this truth: Why are you in despair, oh my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God. Wait for God. For I shall yet praise him.

Closing Prayer

Let’s pray together.

Lord God, we love that your scriptures are so real. By these psalms, Lord, you acknowledge that due to the weakness of our flesh, due to the fallenness of this world, due to the craftiness of the evil one, we can lose hope. We can despair.

Yes, Lord. Even your mature believers, those who have loved you and walked with you for a long time, Lord, you can send such waterfalls and breaking waves that we’re not sure how to go on.

Yet you give us this song and you give us Lamentations 3 and you give us 2 Corinthians 1 and so many other passages of scripture to remind us, Lord, that you are with us in the trials, that you’re using them for a great and loving purpose, and that deliverance is coming as Habakkuk says—or rather, as you tell Habakkuk in Habakkuk 2:3—though it tarries, wait for it; it will not delay; it will surely come.

“As for the proud one, his soul is not right within him, but my righteous one will live by his faith.”

Oh Lord, help us to be that way. Lord, sometimes it seems like we’re hanging on by a thread, but rather, God, it’s you who’s hanging on to us—and not by a thread, but by your hand that can never lose us.

God, give us your empowerment. Remind us of your truth. Work in our hearts, God, so that we can make progress in our faith. We can gain back the ground that we have ceded to the enemy. We can put off sin and doubt.

We can persevere against despair and hope in you and wait for you. Help us to do that individually, but help us to do that communally. Help us to help one another in this, God, so that we may know the joy and hope that you’ve meant for us to enjoy all along.

We pray, God, for those who are yet outside your covenant, who do not yet know you, God, as their refuge. Help them see the emptiness, the vapor-like nature of all worldly hopes and refuges. Help them see that the only hope against the wrath of sin and even the trials of life is you, God.

Lord, help us to worship you well as we now go to communion. Amen.

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