Wait Upon the Lord for Your Shepherd s Distance Brings Hope and Trust

Jonah’s Prayer from the Fish and Salvation Belongs to the Lord

If you would turn in your Bibles to Jonah 2, Old Testament reading this morning is Jonah 2, please stand. Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, saying, I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me.

Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice, for you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me. All your waves and billows passed over me. Then I said, I am driven away from your sight, yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.

The waters closed in over me to take my life. The deep surrounded me. Weeds were wrapped about my head at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever, yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.

When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you and to your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love, but I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you.

What I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord. And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. New Testament reading this morning is in 2 Corinthians 1 -3 -11.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation, and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia.

For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us on Him we have set our hope, that He will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

Worshiping God in Spirit and Truth When He Feels Distant

Good morning, it is great to see you here on this Lord's Day. If you'd open your Bibles to Psalm 42, please, Psalm 42. One announcement that I probably should have given, I haven't given a morning announcement.

Yet.

You know, that's something that Tim does, and I'm just not ready to take that lot yet, so it scares me for some weird reason. But we do have the ACBC National Conference this week. I leave for it tomorrow morning, and since Tim is important, he had to leave early.

So he got to participate in teaching the pre-conference, and he's in a breakout session this week as well, so I'll be praying for him. And yeah, just pray that it will be a blessing, it's a great resource indeed.

So that's what will be going on this week, that's down in Memphis, Tennessee. All right, with our Bibles open to Psalm 42, let us read the text and go to the Lord in.

Prayer.

Psalm 42, to the choir master and mesquite of the sons of Korah. As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

It's because my tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead them in the procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me, hoping God? For I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me, therefore I remember from the land of Jordan, Hermon and Mount Mizar, deep calls to deep.

At the roar of your waterfalls, all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me?

Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a deadly wound in my bones, with adversities and my adversaries taught me, while they say to me all the day long, where is your God?

Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me, hoping God? For I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. O God in heaven, it's interesting to me to see just how dynamic and colorful and multifaceted the worship to your great name is, Lord.

It is not one-dimensional, it's not so simple as that, Lord. Our worship as believers in Christ goes through ebbs and flows, and it looks similar but yet different in all sorts of different circumstances that we find ourselves in life.

God may it be our joy to see Jesus in everything. Even whenever we are before you, thirsting for you, yet you seem so distant, may we know that even this, in some way, though we don't understand it, is still revealing Jesus to me in some way.

Lord, I pray that this sermon would strike at the heart of what is being said here in this psalm. Use me, Lord, as your mouthpiece. I am very weak at this. You know my weakness more than I do, so I ask, Lord, for your strength by the Spirit.

Lord, I'm aware of the weakness of the congregation before me. Their ears often can be distracted to many different things, because I know my own ears when I'm listening to a sermon can be so distracted.

So may we, Lord, all yearn for the Spirit of grace in this moment, that your means of grace here would have its effect of salvation furthering in our hearts, and for those who do not believe, that it would start even now.

Thank you for being so kind to us in Jesus. We praise him this morning.

Amen.

Remembering Past Worship and Hoping for Its Return

Well, in all the book of psalms here, I've been trying to strike a common theme. As you're going through the psalms, it's a lot of different texts, and really if you try to go verse by verse through the whole thing, you're going to be in it for years and years and years.

And so really, as I'm going through it, I'm trying to just collect a major theme and kind of centralize it based off of that without making the text say what I want it to say. And the major theme that I've been pulling forth from, because it's helped my own walk with Christ, to be honest with you, is that the psalms tells you, shows you how to worship God in all different circumstances.

So that we aren't delegating one portion of our life to worship to God, but rather we see that our whole life is to be a beautiful tapestry to worship to our King. In every situation, in every circumstance, we are to worship God and our life is found.

There.

And the psalms just come at you in all different angles of what that looks like. And we see these last few weeks, we've seen in Psalm 23, what I would see is the ideal situation. The ideal situation in Psalm 23.

We all know that psalm and we know that it seems to be ideal, right? I shall not want because my wants are found in the shepherd. And the shepherd's going to bring me to my wants. And what are those wants?

It is righteousness. Our shepherd brings us unto life and righteousness, green pastures, still waters. It all is giving of himself, right? This is the ideal situation for us as sheep, right? That we will not want the things of this world, but rather we will want Jesus because he gives us righteousness and his paths are filled with righteousness.

So I shall follow. But we see that in our life, it just doesn't seem to always work that way. It'd be nice, wouldn't it? I say that tongue in cheek because God has ordained it not to work that way because it's for a better purpose.

But nevertheless, it doesn't always work that way. The ideal is never, or it's not always present there, is it? We know that that is eventually working itself out, but it doesn't always play out in our daily lives.

So we see disturbances in that ideal. And we saw one disturbance last week of Psalm 32. Do you remember what that disturbance was? We called it, or I called it, mule syndrome. When you're acting like a mule instead of a sheep.

When you're not following because there is my righteousness. I don't care if he's having me go over a high hill, going through water, going through the worst of circumstances, I'm going to the shepherd because he is my righteousness.

See, that's the proper sheep, following. But sometimes we act more like a stubborn animal, don't we? Ah, I don't think I'm going that direction, shepherd. Sorry, I will go this because I want that instead.

Sometimes that happens to us. And so we see that there can be a disturbance in our walk with Christ when we go a different direction because our wants are not found in the simplicity of Jesus Christ and his righteousness.

When we want other things, we follow separate paths. Such a disturbance is hard, indeed it's hard. It's a difficult time in our life when our wants are not in conformity with Jesus and his righteousness.

It is a difficult circumstance, but it makes sense, doesn't it? If I'm sinning against the Lord, I cannot assume I'll get the pleasures of the new covenant of joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. I need to repent of those sins, bring it to him, so that I can then enjoy that peace in relationship with my shepherd.

It makes sense when we're in sin that we wouldn't be enjoying our shepherd. We can understand that disturbance. But see, this and this psalm here is a different kind of a disturbance. It's one in which it's a little bit more difficult for us to make sense of.

You see, where the last disturbance is, I don't want the shepherd, I don't want what he has for me. I need to repent, but I'm not going to do that because I don't want it. This is, if you look at verse 1 and 2, as a deer, in Psalm 42, as a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God, when shall I come and appear before him? See the difference there? See, this is a circumstance where I am thirsting for God. I want him. I don't want my nonsense sin.

I want him and him alone, but there is a serious problem here. I am not present with him. He's not here. I want him, but he just seems to be so far away. You see how that can be a harder disturbance to handle, isn't it?

I can get it when it's my own sin. I've got to repent of my sin, and then I'll enjoy the presence of God again. But here, if there's a sin that's causing a space between me and God, Lord, show me.

It.

I want to see it and repent of it. I don't see anything here, but yet God seems a million miles away. You see how that's a harder thing to deal with there. It reminds me, maybe this isn't a good analogy, but it's hard enough to deal with a funeral for a 95-year-old man who has died of cancer.

That's a hard enough situation. But there's a certain level where there's an understanding there. He's lived a long life, especially if it's a happy life. We get that, right? And our bodies decay over time.

But what happens when a two-year-old dies from the same cancer, right? It's an added level. Not to say that it's no big deal with a 95-year-old, but there's a certain added level of what's going on here.

And it's the same thing here. I can see when my sin is causing this disturbance, but what is going on here? This is an added level. I don't have any sin that I'm aware of that's causing this separation.

I want you, God.

Where are you?

Psalm 42, one through two. Again, the deer is panting for flowing streams. You can imagine the deer is used to going to its proper spot, its typical spot, to enjoy the streams of water to fulfill that thirst that this deer naturally has.

But this flow of water has ceased because of a drought. And you can imagine, right? When you are thirsty, is it simple to think of anything else? When you are very thirsty, all you can consider is the fact that, I am thirsty and I need.

Water.

And I don't think probably any of us have experienced to the point to where we are on death's door because of our thirst. We can imagine how dominating that would be in our mind. I need water. Well, then liken that to this spiritual condition.

I am so drought. I am in such a drought. I don't feel God close by and I just need him. I want him so bad. I don't want anything else. I just need him. But yet, once more, the disturbance here is that he does not seem to be close by.

He is strangely distant. I'm responding with want, but yet he's not seemingly fulfilling that want. I think the immediate context of this psalm here is that there is a psalmist, whoever it is, if it's a son of Korah or if it's David himself, some people argue, David wrote it and gave it to the sons of Korah to then use and worship for the Israelites.

Nevertheless, the psalmist seems to be in exile away from Jerusalem. This is the immediate context of this psalm. The psalmist seems to be in exile away from Jerusalem and if we look in 42 verse 4, these things I remember.

As I pour out my soul, how I would go with a throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keep in festival. He's talking about being in the temple or being at the centerpiece of worship there in Jerusalem and he cannot be there and worship God.

Look at 42 verse 6, it says, my soul is cast down within me, therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and Hermon and from Mount Mizar. The point is that he's remembering it as he's on the borderland of Israel.

He's on the outskirts of Israel. He's not in Israel, not in Jerusalem, he's on the outside and he's just longing to be in Jerusalem where there is worship. He is thirsting for worship but in circumstances that God is in control of, he is not able to be there in worship and it's causing him to have great thirst to worship God.

He wants nothing more to be in Jerusalem but he is exiled out. Now, I think this still has connection to us, right, because how many of us have been to Jerusalem? I mean, there probably has been a few but it's not because right there is where we worship our God, is it?

We can be a place where we worship God but in the old covenant dispensation, that was where you congregationally worshiped God, right? We're in a new covenant, a different circumstance to where we are not all itching to get to Jerusalem to worship God.

In fact, what does Jesus say to the woman at the well in John 4? In John 4, 19. Remember she brings up a point of contention between the Samaritans and the Jews about where to properly worship God and remember what Jesus says about this new covenant that is coming.

Look at 4, 19, John 4, 19. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers, the Samaritans, worshipped on this mountain but you say, and it wasn't Jerusalem she's referring to, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.

Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor on Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews.

But the hour is coming, and it's now here, he's talking about the new covenant, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. So what's the point that Jesus is getting at here? Well there's coming a time when it's not a matter of the location that is so important but rather that we worship God in spirit and truth.

That's why we can faithfully worship God right here in LaRue as a congregation. We can faithfully worship God wherever we are as long as we do it in spirit and truth. This isn't the point of my sermon but there is a distinction between your private worship and congregational worship.

Don't think for a moment, I worship God on my own, that's good, that's not what's going.

On here.

That's a side note, I just hear that so much. But there is a difference between congregational and private worship. But nevertheless the point that we are driving at here is that now we are not in the situation at all ever will we find ourselves in which we want to go to Jerusalem and we want to worship with the congregation there but we can't, right?

We're not found in that situation. But I do think there are situations in our life, and I don't want to over-spiritualize the text here, but I think there's situations in our life in which I want so badly to be worshiping God in spirit and truth.

I want so badly for my spirit to be filled with worship to my God in the congregation with the people in my private devotions. But right now it seems like my spirit is cut off from that benefit of the new covenant.

I want so badly to open up the Bible and read and be rejuvenated in my spirit as I see the truth of scripture pouring out upon me. And I want so badly to go to the Lord's Day service at LaRue Baptist Church and find my joy in worshiping with the saints, but to be honest with you, when I'm there I feel like my spirit is cut off from the new covenant promises.

I feel like I am cut off from the new Jerusalem. I feel like I am on the borders looking into the covenant promises saying I want to be part of that, but I feel so distant. I guarantee you there's people in this room suffering with that right now, and I guarantee you all of you, if you've been a Christian long enough, have been in that situation where I want to worship God, but I just can't.

It's not there. And if there is a sin in my life, show me. I will gladly give it to you so I can have Him. It just seems like He's distant, just to be distant. Just like the psalmist, I want so badly to be there, but God has ordained this situation where I can't worship God in Jerusalem with the people, and I am completely lost.

My soul is in terror. I am drying and welling up inside. I don't think I'm over-spiritualizing the text when I say that we certainly find ourselves in this situation, too. And so, I think we can follow this psalm knowing that we have the same situation in many times.

What do you do when you want God, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, well I want God, but He is painfully distant. Alright, we see here, verse 42, I think the first thing He does is He remembers the past and anticipates a similar future.

He remembers the past and He anticipates a similar future. And in the psalms before, I've made that point in my sermon, is that when we're in droughts of worship, certainly we need to then take inventory.

Am I acting like a mule right now that I need to repent of, right? And when we see there is no sin, it's just God is distant. What do we need to do in those moments? We need to remember the past and anticipate a similar future.

Well, look what I mean at verse 4 of Psalm 42. These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng, with the group, with the people, and lead them in procession to the house of God, with a glad shout, some psalms of praise, a multitude-keeping festival.

He's remembering, as I am considering I want so bad to worship God and I cannot, He's remembering the history, the past, in which He was receiving the beautiful covenant promises of God, enjoying.

That worship.

And so what He's doing is He's saying, I cannot, it's not happening right now, but I'm going to remember the times in which I enjoyed it, and it was beautiful to me, and it was enjoyable. And guess what then He does?

He plugs on with that, a anticipation for the same future benefits in verse 5, in which He says, why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil with me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.

What He's doing, He's remembering how He praised them before, and He's saying, I shall do it again, it shall happen once more. I feel in a drought now, but I know the promises of God are sure. I know that He's the God of my salvation.

I know that in the future waiting for me is the same sort of worship. I may be going through a drought right now, but I'm not going to then have tunnel vision on that drought, but instead I know as He has done before, He shall do it again.

It shall happen again. It is coming for me. What's the point then? Is we hope in the promises of God. Hope He says in God, for I shall again praise Him. That's the promises of God. Hope in the covenant promises of God.

We are to hope in what God has promised us. God has not promised that you are going to have a healthy 401k when you are ready to retire. He hasn't. So for you to put your hope in that is foolishness. Is it okay to try to have a healthy 401k?

Sure.

But for you to say, I'm going to put my hope in that is foolish because God has not promised you that. God has not promised you to have a healthy life your whole life. You may have a sickly life your whole life.

So if you become sick, you know this isn't part of the promises of God. I'm not going to put my hope in this. But what has God promised you? Worship to Him. He has promised you a new heart, a spirit of grace and understanding to illuminate your heart and mind to want Him.

And so there is nothing wrong, beloved. You are commanded by God in those droughts to say, I know that you have promised me through the new covenant grace that's found in Jesus that I shall worship my Lord.

I'm in a drought now and there's a reason for that that I can't see right now. But I know that what's waiting for me is worship to Christ and I shall put my hope in that. It is a good thing for you to consider historically how that's been true.

Oh, I remember going into church with a heart full of worship ready with the congregation. I remember opening up my Bible and just being hit with the truths of Scripture as it transformed me and changed me.

It was beautiful. I'm not feeling it now, but I know that that's waiting for me again. I know it. Because it is a promise of God, hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. He looks historically and he anticipates a similar future.

A similar future. And then I think he goes on, in 6 -11, I think he remembers again. Notice how he says that twice. These things I remember in verse 4, as he considers historically. And then in verse 6, I'm just making sure I'm at where I should be.

In verse 6 he remembers again, and my soul is cast down within me, therefore I remember.

Again.

But this time what is he remembering? Before it was historical, now he's going to remember who God is at present in the midst of this trial. Does that make sense? This is what's going on now in these verses.

He says, I remember historically the benefits I have received through covenant with God, and now here I'm going to remember who God is in the midst of this drought that I feel.

With Him.

Okay?

And notice what he says. He says again, my soul is cast down within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and Hermon, from Mount Mizar. So he's saying that from being separated from the covenant promises of God seemingly, I'm going to remember who He is.

But before he remembers who He is, he describes in detail what he's going through at present.

Right?

He's going to remind himself who God is in light of this trial, but then he's going to kind of poetically describe what this trial is like before he remembers who God is in light of this. He says in verse 7, which is I think the most, it's so beautiful the way it's written.

He says in verse 7, this is like what I'm going through as I'm going to remember who.

God is.

But this is like, this is what I'm going through. And now he says, deep calls to deep. He says in verse 7, at the roar of your waterfalls, all your breakers and your waves have gone.

Over me.

What is being said there? What is he saying there? Well, if you look at, we read it already today, but in Jonah 2, verse 3, you remember Jonah describes being in the waters because of his disobedience.

And it said in Jonah 2, 3, he says, for you, God, cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me, all your waves and your billows passed over.

Me.

It's using similar language here. This is something that God is doing to the psalmist in which it feels like that waves are just crashing over him, knocking him over, and just making him under tons of water, feet.

Of water.

This is something which a wave of trial is crashing down on him deep, and it's calling to its buddies to say, hey, let's come and knock him over again and again. You're in the middle of one trial, and if you listen closely to the trial, it's saying, listen, there's more coming just like me.

And we can see that it is God's waves crashing over them. This is a trial indeed. It is one thing to be enduring one trial, but when you hear it calling for its buddies, it just seems like it is enough.

Psalmist is saying, all your breakers, all the water, it's just roaring over me, and all he can hear is the sound of this great and mighty trial given by God. There's a contrast here, I think. Remember what happened to the Israelites when they were leaving Egypt.

And you remember what stood before them as they were seeing the army behind them. It was a great sea, the Red Sea. And God, when he felt very near, what did he do with that Red Sea? He separates it, and they go in between.

Water does not even come near them. And you remember they wander around for several years, and then they finally get to the borderland. They get to Jordan, the River Jordan, and that's in the way. And what does God do again?

The water goes like this, and they go right in between. Covenant promises all over the place. I remember feeling that, right? But now here I am in which all those waters seem to go, boom, right on me.

No longer am I feeling the beauties of your covenant promises. Right now, it just seems like the opposite. It's all just crashing down on me. That's a painful experience, isn't it? It can be a very difficult thing to struggle with.

That, man, I remember times in which I felt you close, but now here's this trial, and I'm just getting ran over by it. And I can just hear the roaring, it's scary, I don't know what to do. And by the way, I can hear it saying, there's more coming.

It's a terrible situation to be in. But yeah, almost paradoxically, I think I said that wrong, it's fine. Almost in a paradox, right? And something that seems to contradict it. He says in verse eight, by day, the Lord commands a steadfast love.

And at night, his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. There is this beautiful thing that happens, right? When we are being ran over by a trial that God is sending forth, I don't feel you, I want to.

And it is too much for me, but if we listen closely, there is a whisper of love in it. It almost seems like a paradox that God's trial is rushing over us, and it's smashing down on us, and your heart is trial, it is too much.

All you hear is the terrifying song of the waters roaring over you, but yet, there is a whisper of love and a song of worship found in that trial. You sit in the morning with your Bible open, with tears hitting the page, as you consider your trials and you're just not feeling them.

Trials are present, but God is not. And you say, just like the psalmist in 42 .9,. Yet, look, there's still this resolve in the midst of this chaos going on in which he says, There is this crazy thing that goes on in which our worship is not one-dimensional.

It's not like everything happens according to the way we want it to. God allows these things to come crashing over us, and it's like, I want God, I want him to be near to me, but I don't feel him, and all I do is hear these roaring waters.

But yet, even in the midst of that, as we wait upon the Lord patiently, we can hear a song of worship coming forth for that, can't we? We can be patient and wait upon the Lord, knowing that he has delivered me before, he will do it again, and even in this trial, he is showing me something about himself that I'm going to grab hold of.

He is revealing himself to me in some way, even in these waves. I think a great example of this is found in John 11. Let's go there. Found in John 11. When we want Jesus, and he seems to be distant, and our trials seem to be closer to us than Jesus, right?

There's a time when this happened physically, we're talking more spiritually here, but there's a time where this happened physically, in which Lazarus loved Jesus, Jesus loved him. He needed Jesus physically.

His sisters, Mary and Martha, oh, we need Jesus here. We need Jesus here. Lazarus is sick. We want Jesus here. I find it fascinating. Look at verse 5 and 6 of John 11. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

Again, I don't want to over-spiritualize anything, but in the time of your great trial and need, and he feels very far, you do know that Jesus loves you, cares for you, even in that moment. Because look what it says.

He loved them, so what did he do? He went over there and quickly delivered on their wants and needs. No, when he heard that he was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. I find that fascinating, that Jesus showed his love to the sisters and to Lazarus to hear that they needed him, and he loved them enough to say, and I'm going to chill out here for a few days.

Why?

Why would he do such a thing? Because he knew that this was an avenue that verse 4 would happen. Look at verse 4. But when Jesus heard it, he said, This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

Again, I don't want to over-spiritualize the text. Have I said that yet? But I can't help but see that this trial that you're in, beloved, right? This wave that's knocking you over, roaring, scaring you, it does not lead to your spiritual nor physical death.

Although it might lead to your physical death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.

Right?

That's what you need to tell yourself in that moment. That Jesus knows I'm in this. He loves me. He's waiting a few days, so to speak, because it is going to glorify him eventually to do so. That makes sense.

Jesus gets there and it's a sad state. It's a sad situation indeed. Look at verse 21. Martha said to Jesus, Lord, because Lazarus had died, Jesus then gets there, right? And, you know, Jesus waited until he was good and dead.

He waited until he was good and dead before he got there. And so Martha's like, where are you? Like, I've seen what you can do, okay? Like, what in the world's happening here? He's your friend. You love him.