Feeling Through the Lens of Faith

1:12It is true that the victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ should give us an unconquerable joy, but that doesn't mean that we won't feel sad at different times in our lives, or that it Wrong to feel sad at different times in our lives. Thankfully, Scripture gives perfect expression to our sadness. It gives us this perfect picture of God meeting us where we are, coming to us in our sadness, in our brokenness, in our aloneness, and meeting us there, right where we are in this broken and sinful world.

1:59Friends, today we'll be covering Psalm 42. And Psalm 42 is what's known as an individual lament. It's the most common type of psalm. And in an individual lament, a believer cries out to God for help because he's grieving. That grief may have been brought about by his own choices, but more often than not, it's brought about by the choices of other people around him in his life. And this particular lament was written by the sons of Korah.

2:38The sons of Korah served as temple singers, first in the tabernacle and then later on in the temple when it was constructed. And their job, as you would anticipate from their job title, was to lead the people in worship, specifically worship through song. And for some reason, maybe because of the Babylonian. Exile that we talked about so much this past year as we looked at Ezra and Nehemiah. For some reason, this particular son of Korah, who's writing this psalm, finds himself distant from God and from God's place and from God's people. He is far away from Jerusalem, he's far away from the temple, and in part because of those realities, he feels far away from God.

3:27And so he cries out to God. He feels lonely and isolated and forgotten by him. And to make matters worse, he is surrounded by enemies who mock him constantly for his faith. So he cries out to God, and in this cry that we're going to study this morning, we're going to learn how to feel through the lens of faith. We're going to learn to feel through the lens of faith. Christianity is not a religion that is devoid of feeling. Nowhere in Scripture are we told that emotions are bad. But friends, we have to learn, and this psalm helps us, to feel through the lens of faith.

4:15And so let's do that together this morning. Let's jump here into Psalm 42. You look here at verse 1. This is well known. Only Jeremiah's, I know the plans I have for you, is on more coffee cups worldwide. As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. That is a very familiar line, but unfortunately, it is often misunderstood. The image that the psalmist paints for us isn't of a calm deer next to calm waters. The image, rather, is of a deer who is in desperate need of water that she can't find.

5:01Why is this deer panting? Well, from the context, it seems that she's been running away from predators. Deer don't run for fun, only crazy people do that. She's panting because, in the context, she's running away from predators. And unless she finds water soon, the predators aren't her biggest problem. She's going to die of thirst. So, you see, water isn't a convenience for this deer, a pleasure to enjoy after a relaxing day. Water is absolutely essential to her survival. And, friends, that's what the psalmist is saying. He's using a simile. He's comparing himself and his current experience of feeling isolated from God and being surrounded by enemies to a deer panting for water, desperate for water that she cannot find because she is all alone in the wilderness.

6:00Surrounded by predators. The psalmist says, His soul thirsts for God, but at this moment, God seems impossible to find. That's why he asks in verse 2: When shall I come and appear before God? Can you relate to that experience? I think many of us can, either because we felt that way before or because we feel that way currently, right now, in our lives. Perhaps you've been through a season where you felt so spiritually dry, so thirsty for God, and yet his presence seemed elusive. You were left asking, When shall I come and appear before God?

6:49You desired to meet with the living God, but for whatever reason, he seemed distant. That left you feeling alone and isolated and maybe forgotten. So I think many of us have felt that way before. But some of you surely are feeling that way even now. You're feeling that way this morning. You felt that way over the past week or perhaps the past few months, and that has continued into today. You're thirsty for God, you're desperate for God, and you are wondering whether you'll ever enjoy the presence of His community once again.

7:28Well, you're not alone. And aren't we so glad that in God's kindness and in his perfect wisdom, the authors of Scripture were people just like you and me? People whose struggle, whose experience with God is not always wonderful and blessing, and feeling full and spiritually satisfied all the time. That's not what we have in Scripture. See, Christianity is so different than other world religions. It does not present us with a Buddha or a Confucius or a Muhammad or a Joseph Smith and say, here is a perfect person. Do everything that you can to be just like them.

8:21Instead, the scripture shows us a perfect God who redeems imperfect people for his own glory and who uses us and meets us even in our struggles and doubts and fears. And so our psalmist is panting for God. He's desperate for God, but feels that God is distant. And to make matters worse, just like the deer, he is surrounded by enemies. It's bad enough that he already feels that God is far off and that he's been forgotten. But it's even worse because he's surrounded by enemies. These unbelievers who taunt and mock him, saying all the time, where is your God? Where is he? You say you believe in him, you say he's real, where is he?

9:13When you're struggling spiritually, one of the greatest blessings in life is having other believers around you who can encourage you and pray for you and listen to you and remind you of the truth. But when you're struggling spiritually and you're surrounded by unbelievers who taunt and mock you, your misery is compounded exponentially because they take your circumstances as evidence that God either does not exist or if he does exist, that he does not care about you and what you're going through.

9:53That's why they ask, where is your God? They're implying that if he really existed or if he really cared, you would not be going through what you're going through. So in verse 4, the son of Korah remembers what it was like to be in the exact opposite situation. Instead of being surrounded by mocking unbelievers, he remembers leading a throng of believers. He says, a multitude-keeping festival in procession to the temple, to the house of God. To lead the people in worship.

10:34He says that he is reduced to tears day and night because he has no idea when he'll be able to do that again, to gather again with the people of God in order to worship him. Friends, I think in the 21st century, so many professing believers would read this verse, verse 4, and be baffled at the deep sadness that this man expresses at the fact that he can't gather with God's people to worship. That would not even compute for most professing believers today.

11:23So many professing believers, especially in our country, see gathering with the body of Christ to worship as an optional supplement to their private spiritual lives. They'll gather with other Christians if and only if they're not too tired from whatever they've done over the weekend, or if there's not a big game or an event going on, if their kids don't have sports or activities, if they haven't been invited to go do something, Something by a friend. If those things are not the case, they're happy to gather, but otherwise, they're just not going to do it.

12:07But, friends, I want you to put yourself into the position of this particular psalmist, a man who is being persecuted by enemies all around. When you are persecuted for your faith, as so many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are around the world, when you're persecuted for your faith, gathering with other like-minded believers is something that you are going to see as essential. You're not going to view it as an optional supplement to your private spiritual life.

12:41Where else are you going to be encouraged when at your job and in your neighborhood and in your own family, everyone around you is mocking you and taunting you and persecuting you? When you gather with other Christians, that's the only time that you're going to be built up and encouraged. That's the only time that you're going to be reminded that you are not crazy, that you are believing the truth of God's word. If that's your situation, then corporate worship is not going to seem optional. It's going to seem essential. An essential time to remember the truth of the gospel. An essential time to receive encouragement and to encourage others. An essential time to gather and pray together and sing together and to do things together that we leave. Literally cannot do at any other time, in any other way, that we can in corporate worship gathered together this side of heaven.

13:45If gathering with the church seems like a chore, if it seems like an optional supplement to your private spiritual life, it may not really have much to do with what goes on in here on Sunday mornings or in any other assembly of Christians. It may have much more to do with what's going on in here, in your heart, the other six days of the week. So, this is how the psalmist feels, friends. He feels alone, he feels sad, he feels as though he is panting after God and desperate for him that he can't be found. He is weeping and weeping all the more over the fact that he is surrounded by these enemies that remind him that he's all alone, far from fellow believers.

14:36But look at what he does in verses five and six. He doesn't just accept his feelings as infallible truth, he questions his feelings. He asks, Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? He doesn't. Something that is very foreign to our society, something nearly unthinkable. He questions his feelings. He asks, Why am I feeling this way? He's trying to process and understand. You see, friends, you cannot control how someone or something makes you feel, but you can control what you do with those feelings.

15:27Do you say, I feel this way, and therefore that is real and true and beyond question? Or do you say, I feel this way, so now let me consider whether it is right to feel this way in light of God's Word, in light of His promises, in light of what is true. Do we examine our feelings, or do we just accept them at face value? See, we're taught in our society that what you feel is true and right, and that you should never question your feelings. But, friends, the theology behind that belief is that the hearts can be trusted above all things.

16:17It is the theme of Mulan that your hearts will never lead you astray. But we know that that's not the case. Scripture tells us very clearly that the heart Cannot be trusted, and that we need to question how we feel. But what I want you to see in verses 5 and 6 is that the psalmist doesn't stop with asking questions, he doesn't merely listen to himself. To borrow a phrase from the great preacher, Martin Lloyd-Jones, he says, we need to preach to ourselves, and that's what he's doing here. He is preaching to himself. He tells his soul, soul, you must hope in God.

17:03You must hope in God. One day you will praise God again in the midst of other believers. It may be in this life, it may not be until eternity, but one day you will praise God again in the midst of other believers. Look at verse 6 and let these words sink in deeply. He says, My soul is cast down within me. This is a fact. This is exactly how he feels. My soul is cast down within me. Look at what he says next.

17:41Therefore, I remember you. You see, friends, precisely because he feels forgotten by God, he tells his soul, soul, do not forget God. Hope in him. Remember him. Remember his word. Remember his works. Remember his promises, his character. He acknowledges his feelings. He does not attempt to pretend that he does not feel the way that he feels. He says, My soul is cast down within me. This is exactly how I feel. But then he preaches to himself. He tells himself to hope in God, to recall his character and word and works, to believe that even if he feels far off, he's not far off because he is always present with us.

18:40Friends, you can employ this very same process with respect to your own feelings. When you feel overwhelmed by your emotions, you can walk right through this exact same process. First, ask, how do I feel? How do I feel? Do you feel sad, lonely, forgotten, angry, depressed? You cannot make progress if you can't even name how you're feeling. What are you feeling? How do you feel? Second, ask the question: Why do I feel this way? Why do I feel this way? Why do you feel sad or hurt? Or disappointed or angry or forgotten. See, naming your feelings is a good start, but if you don't diagnose why you feel the way that you feel, you're still stuck.

19:42And then finally, ask this question: What does God's word say to my feelings? How does God's word address my feelings? In other words, what biblical truths can you cling to at this low moment in your life? So let's walk through how this plays out in Psalm 42. How does the psalmist feel? He feels sad. Why does he feel sad? He feels sad because he feels lonely and forgotten. He feels isolated from other believers and that God has forgotten him at this point in his life.

20:34So what does he do? He preaches to himself and he says, hope in God. Remember him. Remember his character, his word, and his works. Even if it looks like God has forsaken me, that is not true. I will be reunited one day with God's people, and I will be reunited again with the presence of God in a tangible way. That is true, no matter how he feels. Feels. But, friends, you remember how a few minutes ago we were talking about the fact that the authors of Scripture were not perfect people, but imperfect people with struggles, just like you and me.

21:21And Scripture, one of the great things about God's Word is that it is perfectly honest about life in this world. It doesn't present easy solutions to the problems of life. Just employ this three-step process and you'll be good. Because you see, feelings are not like a disease. You don't get them and then go get a vaccine and then move on with your life forever inoculated against those same feelings returning ever again. That's not how that works.

22:03Those same feelings often do return, and sometimes, isn't it the case that they return even stronger than ever before? Absolutely. And I think that's what we see in verses 7 through 11, which is as good of a description of being overwhelmed by feelings as any passage in Scripture. In verse 7, instead of the flowing stream, Streams that he yearned for back in verse 1, or the still waters described by David in Psalm 23, what does he experience?

22:39We have a picture of violent, out-of-control water. Two waterfalls are thrown over the side of a cliff, they plunge hundreds of feet down into pools of water. The noise is deafening, it's so loud. Breakers and waves overwhelm him. As soon as he manages to get his head back above water, the next breaker, the next wave crashes down on top of him. That is how he is feeling. Right after he preached the truth to himself in verses five and six. Right after he preached the truth to himself, once again, he's feeling overwhelmed with emotion, overwhelmed with his feelings.

23:27And so in verse 8, he fights back again with the truth of God's word. Look at what he says. By day, the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night, his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. He reminds himself, God's love isn't going anywhere. He commands it, he directs it, and he directs it always towards his people that he loves. No matter what it looks like, no matter how we feel. God is commanding and directing his steadfast love towards us, his beloved and chosen people. He remembers that, and then he prays honestly and openly in verses 9 and 10. Look at what he says. I say to my 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, my adversaries taunt me while they say to me all the day long, Where is your God?

24:31He goes on to say that their words are like wounds deep in his bones. And he is asking God this question: why? Why is this happening to me? Why do I feel this way? Why are these people oppressing me? Why is this happening in my life? And who among us has not asked that question before? Some of us have asked that question many times in our life. God, where are you? Why is this happening? Why are you allowing this? Did you catch this in verse 7? Your breakers and your waves have gone over me. He understands that God is sovereign and that anything that is happening to him is because God has caused it or allowed it in his life.

25:20And he cries out to God, Why? Where are you? Answer me, please. And church, this is what I don't. Want you to miss. There is no resolution. There is no explanation that is recorded here. The psalmist doesn't tie a neat bow around the scenario and say, this is why this is happening to me. God has shown me why, and God has shown me how it's going to end and when it's going to end. There's none of that here. There's no explanation whatsoever.

26:10And friends, I think that drives home the uncomfortable truth that sometimes we will not understand why certain things happen to us in our lives. Despite the fact that God exists, despite the fact that he is our father and he loves us, despite the fact that he is good and wants what is best for us, there are going to be times in our lives where we simply will not understand. And more than that, when we won't even be told, when we will not even be told why something is happening.

26:51His ways are not our ways. Many of his ways are inscrutable. They are beyond our understanding. Things happen to us in this life, to us and to people that we love, that don't come with an easy answer. Soldiers die on the battlefield. Natural disasters sweep away hundreds or thousands or hundreds of thousands of people at a time. Children die in the womb or at a young age. We feel depressed, anxious, overcome with sadness. And yet, friends, there simply aren't neat and tidy answers for everything that happens to us or happens to those who we love this side of heaven.

27:53That's why God's Word is such a gift to us, because it reminds us of His character, His promises, and His works, which comfort us in times of doubt and depression and loss. So, when we don't understand what's happening to us or why, we can do the same thing that the psalmist does in verses 5 and 6, and then again in verse 11. We can be completely honest about how we are feeling and why we feel that way, and then we can preach the truth to ourselves.

28:30We can say, soul, hope in God. No matter what things look like, he has proven in his character and in his works, he has promised in his word that he loves us and that he is for us, and that he will sometimes bring us through trials for reasons that we can't understand. That his name may be more magnified, more glorified, as we talked about in prayer meeting today, more hallowed than it is right now in our life and in the lives of others around us.

29:05But that doesn't mean that we'll understand it. And thank God that he meets us there, meets us in our grief and in our sadness, where we can express lament to him. Friends, nearly all of us have felt or currently feel spiritually parched. We're thirsty for God, but like a deer panting in the wilderness, we don't know where to go to quench our thirst. Not long after Jesus began his ministry, he preached what we know as the Sermon on the Mount.

29:52And I want you to look on the screen at Matthew 5:6. Jesus says, Blessed are the Lord. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Are you thirsty for righteousness? If so, Jesus makes a promise to you. He says that if you're thirsty for righteousness, you are blessed, and you will be satisfied. You see, because if you're thirsty for righteousness, you're blessed because the thirst for righteousness is not something that we're born with. We are not born hungering and thirsting for righteousness. We're born hungering and thirsting for everything this world offers. So if you're thirsting for righteousness, you have a God-given thirst.

30:58And God Himself, the righteous one, promises to quench the thirst that He has given to you. Look at what John records in His Gospel. On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now, this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

31:50You see, Jesus is clear. If you're thirsty for righteousness, and if you're thirsty for the righteous one, there is only one place to go: to Jesus Himself. He alone can quench your God-given thirst for righteousness. Every person who believes in Him, trusting in His life and death and resurrection, is given a new heart, a heart that is filled with the Holy Spirit, out of which flow rivers of living water. That's what He promised. And so, if you are here today and you are spiritually parched, you must come to Christ.

32:35You must come to Christ. He is the only one who can quench the thirst that God has given to you. Trying to quench your thirst with the things of this world, whether success or fame or money or relationships or anything else, is like trying to quench your thirst with ocean water. It looks like it would satisfy you. But the more you drink of it, the thirstier you get, and it will eventually kill you. Even Christians are tempted from time to time to look at the beautiful, glimmering ocean water of this world and to dip our cup in and to drink from it.

33:28And it's in those times that we are reminded that drinking that water leaves us thirstier than we were before. Only Jesus can quench our spiritual thirst. So, friends, if you are feeling spiritually parched, if you are thirsty for righteousness and you don't know where to go, if you feel forgotten in the trials of your life, there is only one place to go. It is to Jesus, the fountain of living water. You're already blessed because you have that thirst. God gave it to you. He promises to satisfy it. He won't abandon you. He will not leave you. You cannot control how you feel.

34:14But you can control what you do with those feelings. And so, when you feel forgotten by God, when you feel sad and lonely and afraid, the answer is to feel through the lens of faith. And to run to Christ, our great Savior, the living water, who alone can satisfy our thirst. Let's pray. Father, I pray for those who are parched this morning, who are panting for your presence like a deer pants for water. I pray that you would reveal yourself to them.

35:18Once again, for those who have tasted and seen that you are good, and who have come to Jesus, the fountain of living water, already. And I pray also for those who have never tasted that living water, but they are thirsty and they're parched, and they've looked everywhere, they've tried everything, and you've brought them here. I pray that today you would meet with them, and I pray that they would come to Jesus, who alone can give them living water.

36:01Father, I pray for all of those among us who are lamenting. Maybe because of persecution, maybe because of loss in their personal lives, maybe because of the loss of a family member or friend. I pray, God, that you would teach us to lament. Teach us to lament like your word instructs us and exemplifies for us. Teach us to be honest before you and before one another about how we feel. And teach us before you and for one another to run to the word where we can find strength and encouragement and help for our time of need.

37:01Thank you, God, so much for Psalm 42 and for every other psalm of lament. In Christ's name we pray all these things. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.