WWUTT 1019 Why Are You Downcast O My Soul?

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In case you haven't noticed, life is hard. Even Christians are going to go through some difficult things.

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Unbelievers go through tough stuff and it seems hopeless, but for us who are in Christ, He is our hope.

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When we understand the text. This is

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When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will.

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For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. Well, being Thursday, we continue our Old Testament study in the

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Psalms, picking up where I left off last week, which is at the end of Psalm 42. That's the

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Psalm that begins, As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you,

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O God. And then Psalm 43 is really the third stanza of Psalm 42.

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You could remove the numbers and you wouldn't tell the difference between Psalms 42 and 43.

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They really go quite well together. So this is just five verses long, starting in verse one of Psalm 43.

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Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people.

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From the deceitful and unjust man deliver me, for you are the

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God in whom I take refuge. Why have you rejected me? Why do

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I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Send your light and your truth.

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

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Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the liar,

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O God, my God. Why are you downcast, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me?

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Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my

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God. And if you're familiar with Psalm 42, you recognize that conclusion to Psalm 43.

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We would have said it twice in the 42nd Psalm, right at the end of Psalm 42, verse 11.

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Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me?

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Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my

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God. Again, the psalmist is asking here for deliverance, not just from the enemy, but into the procession of God.

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So away from those who hate God, away from those who want to oppress the people of God and deliver me into the people of God who are praising the

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Lord. That's where the psalmist wants to be. And we'll see similar themes when we get to Psalm 44 as well.

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But for now, at the start of 43, vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people from the deceitful and unjust man.

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Deliver me and remember who the deceitful and unjust man is. What kind of oppression is this that the psalmist is experiencing?

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Well, back in Psalm 42, verse 3, they say to me all the day long, where is your

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God? They mock and they scoff. Verse 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

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God? And this is not just something that the psalmist experienced 3 ,000 years ago, but even the apostle

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Peter warned that the last days, which we are in now, are going to be exactly like this. When Peter wrote his second letter, 2

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Peter 3, he said, I'm writing to stir up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the

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Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.

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Peter had previously said in his first letter, in 1 Peter chapter 4, he says they're going to malign you because you won't join them in their debauchery.

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People will make fun of you just because you don't want to be a sinful wretch like they are. And so he goes on to say that, this is 2

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Peter 3, 4, they will say, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation for they deliberately overlook this fact.

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The scoffers overlook this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God.

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And that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluge with water and perished.

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And notice here that Peter is saying they overlooked this fact. It is a fact that God created all things simply by speaking a word and that when people rebelled and were sinful and he devoted them over to destruction, it was by water that he did so flooding the world and destroying all of creation.

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The world that then existed was deluge with water and perished. But by the same word, verse 7, the heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

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Peter mentioning the ungodly there, just as the psalmist in Psalm 43 is praying for deliverance from an ungodly people, the ungodly who mock me, who are scoffing.

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But may the righteousness that I am pursuing in God be vindicated, vindicate me because of the righteousness that I have in Christ.

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That's what the psalmist is asking for. So we have a righteousness that is not our own, but it is given to us by God.

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And God will indeed deliver us from the hands of our enemies, though we may not be delivered in this lifetime.

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For as long as we live in this flesh, we're going to be scoffed and mocked for the

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God that we believe in. But we must hold fast, looking more all the more toward that day of Christ, the day in which he returns and will gather us up to be with him in glory.

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Now when you die, certainly if you are in Christ Jesus, your soul goes to be with him forever in glory.

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But we don't have that that full consummation of the entire body of Christ happen until the day of Christ's return.

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So we look forward to that day even more so than the day that we shed off this body and our soul goes to be with the

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Lord. So again, back to Psalm 43 with the psalmist asking for deliverance from the ungodly.

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Verse two, for you are the God in whom I take refuge. Why have you rejected me?

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And it's not that God has rejected the person praying, but when you go through something as difficult as this person is enduring, it certainly feels that way.

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Nevertheless, the psalm ends with hope. Very last phrase of Psalm 43, hope in God for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my

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God, knowing full well that God is going to deliver those who are his children, his own who have received the covenant promise of God.

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He will be faithful to them. So though we may not get deliverance in this lifetime, we certainly will be delivered in the next.

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The Lord has not forgotten us and we will be with him forever in glory. Remember the words of the

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Apostle Paul in Second Corinthians, chapter one, verses eight and nine, where he talks about the struggles that he went through as a missionary for the gospel were so difficult that he said, we thought we received the sentence of death, but this was to make us rely more on God who raises the dead.

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So those things that we endure now cause us to cling all the more to Christ and remember his promises for those who love him and fear him.

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We finish up verse two here of Psalm 43. Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

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Send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.

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Remember where the psalmist wants to go back in what we read in Psalm 42 verse four.

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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.

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Where does he want to go? He wants to go to church. He wants to be with the people of God.

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When we are, uh, when we are out in the world and surrounded by our enemies, what are we going to face?

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We're going to face mockery. There will be scoffing. But when we are with the people of God, we are with those who are praising

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God themselves and we all praise the Lord together. There is an encouragement in that company knowing that we're all looking forward to looking toward the same thing.

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And that is that day of glory. When we will be with Christ, it's a lot easier to worship

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God and be motivated to worship God when you're with others who worship God, is it not? And this is why church attendance is so important that we would regularly be with the people of God to be reminded that our hope is not in this world.

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This world is fading. This world is fallen. It is going to perish by fire. And it is only in Christ Jesus that we have a hope for life after death, that we have forgiveness of sins and the promise that we will dwell forever with God.

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We will not perish in judgment, but our sins are forgiven for those who have faith in Jesus Christ and all the promises of God that are stored up for us in Jesus.

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We were reminded of every time we were able to gather with the saints and seeing these praises and choruses that we do in church, and we hear the gospel of Christ proclaimed and preached as we go through his word.

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We see with more clear eyes the things that are going on in the world that are contrary to the righteousness of God so that we would know all the more as Christians how we are to live in this world, holding out the hope and the promise of the gospel even to those who are perishing so that they may repent and know the gospel and so live.

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This is the refreshing that we get attending church. And so may we be faithful to this, getting encouragement and our hearts enlivened by the company of the people of God.

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Send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. I will have hope beyond the hopelessness of this world when

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I remember the promises of God. Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.

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Remember that the word of God grows us in sanctification. When we were in John 17, it's in verse 17 where Jesus prayed to the father, sanctify them in your truth.

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Your word is truth. The word of God brings us to his holy hill.

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Verse four, then I will go to the altar of God to God, my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the liar, the instrument kind,

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L .Y .R .E., oh God, my God. And then the preaching to himself that the psalmist does here in verse five.

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Why are you downcast, oh my soul? Same phrase and stanza we saw come up in Psalm 42, verse five and verse 11.

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Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God for I shall again praise him by salvation and my

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God. Regarding Psalms 42 and 43, the late

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Dr. Martin Lloyd -Jones said the following. 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?

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Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they are talking to you.

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They bring back the problems of yesterday, et cetera. Somebody is talking.

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Who is talking to you? Yourself is talking to you. Now this man's treatment, referring to the psalmist in Psalm 42 and 43, this man's treatment was this.

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Instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. Why are you downcast, oh my soul, he asks.

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His soul had been depressing him, crushing him, so he stands up and says, self, listen for a moment.

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I will speak to you. And then what do we have at the end of the psalm? Hope in God for I shall again praise him by salvation and my

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God. The psalmist is preaching to himself. And so maybe that's something you need.

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You need this reminder. You need to preach to yourself, asking yourself, why are you downcast?

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And then saying to yourself, so you're preaching yourself a sermon, hope in God, I will again praise him for he is my salvation.

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He is my God. And we do worship a good God. Amen. God is good even on your worst days.

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And no matter how difficult things are for you today, be glad for you deserve much worse than you are getting.

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Amen. Psalm 44. Now, oh God, we have heard with our ears.

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Our fathers have told us what deeds you performed in their days in the days of old.

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You with your own hand drove out the nations, but them you planted. You afflicted the peoples, but them you set free.

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For not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm save them.

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But your right hand and your arm and the light of your face for you delighted in them.

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Let me pause there for just a moment. So keep in mind that in Psalms 42 and 43, though things are difficult and the psalmist is experiencing oppression, yet they hope in God who is salvation.

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And it's especially when we are with the people of God that we are reminded of the promises of God. Well, here in Psalm 44, the psalmist is with the people of God and they are indeed reminded of those promises that have been given to his people.

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We were set free. The the pagan peoples, the Gentiles, they suffered affliction, but you released us.

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You have delivered us and not because of anything great that we have done. Verse three, for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm save them, but your right hand and your arm and the light of your face for you delighted in them.

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And indeed, all glory goes to God for the salvation that we have. You did nothing for your salvation.

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As we are told time and time again in the scriptures. But let me quote in particular Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace you are saved through faith.

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And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no man may boast.

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It's in Romans 4, 5, where the apostle Paul says that to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted to him as righteousness.

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It is by faith we are saved and it is not by our works. God is the one who saves us so that all glory and honor goes to him.

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And we have no cause for boasting. We go on in Psalm 44, verse four.

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You are my king, O God, ordain salvation for Jacob, the descendants of Jacob.

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And by the way, that applies to us because we are the descendants of Jacob. Who is the one who is descended from Jacob that became our savior?

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That is Christ. And all those who are in Christ are the chosen people of God.

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Verse five, through you, we push down our foes. Through your name, we tread down those who rise up against us.

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For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me.

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But you have saved us from our foes and have put to shame those who hate us. In God, we have boasted continually.

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And we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah. Verse nine, but you have rejected us and disgraced us and have not gone out with our armies.

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Well, that's quite a turn. Things have kind of changed a little bit here in the Psalm. But like with Psalms 42 and 43, this is going to be a prayer asking for deliverance from the hands of their enemies.

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Verse 10, you have made us turn back from the foe and those who hate us have gotten spoil.

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You have made us like sheep for slaughter and have scattered us among the nations. You have sold your people for a trifle, meaning you've sold us on the cheap, demanding no high price for them.

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You have made us the taunt of our neighbors, the derision and scorn of those around us.

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There we have mention of the scoffer again. You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughing stock among the peoples.

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All day long, my disgrace is before me and shame has covered my face at the sound of the taunter and reviler, at the sound of the enemy and the avenger.

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Now, you would think there with that statement, my disgrace is before me, that perhaps what it is the

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Psalmist is asking for is for repentance, like forgive me of my sin. My disgrace and my shame is before me.

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But it's not because of their sin that they are ashamed. It's rather the embarrassment that they're feeling at the hands of their enemies.

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We have been righteous and we have not disgraced your covenant and yet this is what is happening to us. We are struggling.

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We're in turmoil and that's what we go on to read in verse 17. All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you and we have not been false to your covenant.

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Our heart has not turned back nor have our steps departed from your way.

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Yet you have broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death.

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If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign

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God, would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.

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Yet for your sake, we are killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

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That verse might sound familiar to some of you. I'll come back to that here in just a moment. Awake. Why are you sleeping,

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O Lord? Rouse yourself. Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face?

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Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust.

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Our belly clings to the ground. Rise up. Come to our help. Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love.

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So it would almost seem like we have no resolution to this psalm other than concluding with a plea to the

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Lord that he would deliver them. But if we find any resolution to this, it would most certainly be in Romans 8, verse 31.

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I mean, that's where I'm going to start is verse 31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

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He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

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Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

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Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

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Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

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As it is written, this is verse 36, quoting from Psalm 44, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long.

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We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Knowing all of these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

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And what's being communicated here is that though we are Christians and we will be saved out of this world, that doesn't mean that we're not going to go through tribulation and stress.

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We are going to go through some tough stuff here in this life. We live in a fallen world, a world that has been subjected to futility because of sin, as Paul had illustrated earlier in Romans 8.

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But when we go through suffering, we share in the sufferings of Christ and we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

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Meaning that these things that we go through are accomplishing something. They are shaping us more and more into the image of Christ.

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They are causing us to cling to him all the more, as I quoted earlier from 2 Corinthians 1, that we might know our hope is in Christ and in nothing of this world.

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Paul goes on to conclude in Romans 8, verse 38, for I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our

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Lord. So indeed, we go through some difficult things, but none of that separates us from the love of God in Christ.

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And as we're promised in Philippians 1, 6, I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Christ.

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Cling all the more to Christ Jesus. He is our forgiveness from our sins, our fellowship with God, our entrance into life everlasting.

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Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .tt