Where Do You Place Your Hope?

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, my adversaries taunt me while they say to me all the day long, where is your God? Why are you cast down, oh my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. Vindicate me, oh God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people. From the deceitful and unjust men deliver me. For you are the God in whom I take refuge. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

Send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise Him with the lyre. Oh, God, my God.

Why are you cast down, oh my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. This is the word of the Lord. Well, I wanna suggest this morning that if you're feeling a little bit like I do at the moment, maybe you're just a little discouraged about all the events of recent times.

Nobody's really forecasting a year that's just gonna be so different than our previous year, 2021. And I think you'll recognise that our nation has taken some dangerous and disastrous hits during '21 that are gonna have implications for some time yet. So what will 2022 have in store for us? Globally, we're aware that relationships with a country like China are at breaking point. There's the ever present threat of China in our region and in the world.

And how will Australia respond if Taiwan is invaded? I think of Iran and North Korea, Myanmar, and other countries that are run by religious rulers or dictators or military regimes that threaten world order as we've come to know it and appreciate it. And domestically, locally, we've all been impacted by the pandemic. Only future generations will judge us as to how well or not so well we've been able to manage that. At the same time, we're experiencing a significant shift in Aussie culture, the Australian way of doing things.

Political correctness is becoming unreasonable, crazy, really, and some are sounding warning bells at a future loss of democratic freedoms, such as freedom of speech and even freedom of religion. Some studies reveal that mental illness is at an unprecedented high and especially among young people. Violence is a regular feature in the evening news. It's not uncommon to hear of bashings or glassings among people. Even people visiting the Gold Coast are here at Narrang.

We can look at all this and we might just be a tad depressed. The news is quite distressing, really. It's drained of all happiness and joy, and the future does not look promising. And if you wanted to, you could indulge yourself this morning by overthinking the issues. There's so much to be depressed about, so much that causes pain.

Some people try to escape their pain through divorce or excessive entertainment or lots of holidays or lots of alcohol. Some people pop pills, and some are on the pathway to forming a drug habit. There must be tens of thousands of us who go shopping at this time of year only because they say it's good therapy. It gives their credit card a good workout and helps them overcome their depression. I think you'll recognise with me this morning that these so called fixes are ineffective.

At best, they lift our spirits for a time, but nothing lasting, nothing permanent. But what we have in these two psalms this morning is one man's struggle with depression and God's timely, loving, reassuring response. And amazingly, the psalmist is not backwards in coming forward. We find him in conversation with himself and before God. Why?

Why, my soul, are you downcast? He says to himself. Why are you so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my saviour and my God. One question this morning is, how will he do that?

And how will you and I challenge ourselves to do that? And especially when we're troubled, downcast, a tad depressed even. The psalmist can teach us so much this morning. Here, he offers this lament, which is a cry, really, to God, a prayer about the emptiness of his life. And he tells us what causes the depression and what his prayer is, and then where he's looking for a cure.

First of all, what's the cause? Well, to understand the cause, what we need to do is look at the who, what, why, and when of the psalm. You might have noticed that Psalm 42 marks the beginning of the second book within the Psalms. It's the start of book two in the Psalms. We should be asking, who is writing this here?

We've read a psalm earlier in the service that's ascribed to Moses. Well, this psalm is not from Moses, and maybe you know the well known psalm writer. If you go to the conclusion of the second book of psalms in Psalm 72, it says, this concludes the prayers of David, the son of Jesse. So we can safely conclude, therefore, that the author is, in fact, David, King David. What's going on?

Well, David is downcast, he says. The word downcast appears four times throughout these two psalms. The word for downcast in the Hebrew literally means to crouch down or to bow down. It's used in Job 38 to describe a hungry lion in a crouched position, lying in wait for its prey. It's lying as low to the ground as it can possibly get before it attacks its victim.

And David is saying that he's hungry. He's empty inside. He feels about as low as a lion crouching in the long grass, ready to strike, ready to pounce. Why so troubled? Why so disturbed?

Well, the Hebrew word disturbed here means to groan loudly, to moan, to be in a state of anxiety or distress. It's used in Psalm 59 to describe the sounds of a dog, and in Isaiah to describe the angry sounds of a bear. And both dogs and bears are territorial. They protect their space around them, and they become agitated if you or I were to step between them and their next meal, or step between them and their cubs. They become highly anxious and distressed, and so they respond with sharp barks. And David is saying that he feels that way.

He's responding with moans and groans in a state of anxiety. He's caught up in the darkness of despair. And today, we would use the word depressed. A doctor might even offer a diagnosis and say David was clinically depressed. Someone who's stuck in depression, who never sees light at the end of the tunnel.

They think they're in such a deep hole that they can never imagine a time when they'll be able to climb out. I think of those moaning and groaning in hospital wards, in psychiatric wards, racked with pain, giving up all hope of ever getting better. That's the strength of this word, downcast. David's in trouble. His soul is in turmoil.

His life is in distress. He's in a world of pain and misery. He's feeling overwhelmed by it all. He's caught up in this darkness. Why is David in this situation?

Circumstances, there could be a whole range of circumstances being spoken about. In verses three and ten, David identifies the mocking cries of his enemies. Where is your God when you need Him? Where is your God now? And David, all David could offer them is silence.

He can't answer them, but he has memories of better days, of better years. He says in verse two, when I used to go with the multitude leading the procession to the house of God with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. David feels utterly forsaken, nothing like what he can remember. God is not there. You're my stronghold, he writes.

Why have you rejected me? According to the famous opening words of Psalm 42, he's forced to be absent from the actual temple of God where God is worshipped. And there, he laments, as the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, oh God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?

Commentators can't agree on the exact circumstances that gave rise to this psalm. Some say David is writing about his experience when his own son, Absalom, rebelled against him. At that time, David was driven from the land. His enemies publicly taunted him. Others say David is writing about a time when he was literally being hunted down when King Saul tried to track him down, when Saul saw him as a rival king, and David was reduced to living in holes and caves.

But we don't have to be specific here. And maybe there's wisdom in the idea that the psalmist didn't elaborate on his circumstances. It covers a multitude of different situations. It covers your situation and mine too. So what is it that David misses the most? If you're in David's shoes, what would you be missing the most?

Is David missing his own family, his wives, his sons, daughters? Is he missing his friends, his palace, his flocks, his herds? Remember, he was a shepherd. Verse four answers that question. What David misses most is the altar.

What David looked forward to seeing more than anything else is the altar, the altar of the temple back in Jerusalem. Now this might seem really weird to us if we don't understand the place and the purpose of the altar. The altar, you see, stands at the entrance to the temple, and it's through the altar that the people have access to God. It's the altar that allows for the worship of Israel's God, Yahweh. So sinful people approach the altar and they come with their offerings.

They might have a sheep or a goat or a lamb, and they sprinkle the blood of their offering after it's been slaughtered, obviously, and they confess sin. And then they're free to worship God, free to sing His praises and join with the congregation together in the presence of God. We've come to church. Most of us just walked through the door. Admittedly, we had to do the scan and a few other things, but I don't recall having passed by an altar this morning in order to worship God. In fact, we might even have the view that we don't even need an altar, but we sin, we still need forgiveness, and yes, we do have an altar.

And if you're a Christian in church this morning or watching at home online, if you believe in the good news of Jesus Christ, then you recognise He is your altar and He's the only one who can grant us access to God. He's the only one who can enliven our worship this morning so as to bless our God, so as to cause God to delight over us. Says Colossians one, through Jesus, God reconciled to Himself all things by making peace through His blood shed on the cross. The cross is the altar where Jesus, your sacrifice, and my sacrifice, guaranteed us continual access to God. Even so, we need to ask the question this morning, do Christians ever feel the way King David does in the Psalm?

Do we ever truly experience the darkness of despair that David felt and the depths of that despair? At the beginning of a new year, that's a good question to be asking, and especially when we reflect on the year that was and then anticipate what might lie ahead this year. And as we do so, we can so easily be led to despair. In so many ways, God seems so distant, so far away. That will almost certainly happen if we neglect to read our Bible or if we stop praying to God.

When our lives are so full of stuff happening around us that we forget or ignore what we need to feed and nourish our inner being, our own soul. The situation in which David found himself was made worse by the trials that he faced, and this can be true for any one of us. When things are most difficult, when we hunger, when we're feeling downcast, we need God's presence in our lives more than we ever have before. And yet, when we neglect the means of grace open to us, what God's provided for us in worship, in community, in coming together like this on the Lord's Day, in our daily quiet times or meeting weekly in our small groups, if we neglect those things, these means of grace, we can so easily spiral into the slippery slope of darkness and despair. So I want you to notice what David is asking for this morning.

It's his prayer. Send forth your light and your truth. Let them guide me. Let them bring me to your holy mountain to the place where you dwell. A reference to the temple in Jerusalem.

Light and truth, we shouldn't treat them as separate. They both mean the same thing. And because David's in a dark place, he can't see. He needs to see that light. You might be thinking of the tabernacle here.

God gave Moses the command to set up a golden lampstand in the holy place. It was placed just outside the curtain covering the entrance to the holy place where God's presence is. You can read about that in Exodus 25. Without that lampstand lit up and burning bright, there was only darkness. There were no windows.

There was no access to the most holy place. The purpose of the lampstand, therefore, was to provide light for the priest to do their work. Later, a similar golden lampstand was placed in the temple. The lampstand was a sure reminder that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. The lampstand was a reminder that the light leads the people into the very presence of God.

The lampstand is a reminder that all darkness is overcome by God. Keeping all this in mind, do you hear what David is praying? In the darkness of despair, in the darkness of being on the run, of being away from the temple and from the altar and from the worship of God and from His people, David is asking for light. A light that will lead him to the presence of God. Now consider with me ever so briefly what John, the writer in chapter eight of his gospel, says.

According to John, what happens is of great interest to us because it was Jesus that took on all the symbolism of this light, and He declared that I am the light of the world, and whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. This is something this lampstand was simply pointing to, and this is what David is reaching out for, the light of the world. Today, we know Jesus as the light of the world, and with the measure of light that David receives, a change takes place. We notice the light dimly at first, chasing away the darkness. There's a kind of progression going on here.

David is finding his way. There's guidance being afforded him, a route back to the altar where he can meet with God. We've seen David in deep despair, his desire for the altar, and his prayer for light and truth. But what is the light doing for David's depression? What does the desire to worship and to go to the altar do for David?

Well, for one thing, these things enable him to keep a check on himself. The light gives David some sense of vision. It gives David the strength not to give in to depression or self pity. The altar, he knows, provides the means for forgiveness and reconciliation with God. David seems to keep a tight rein on himself in the Psalm. You can hear him wrestling his way through it.

We actually get to hear him speaking to himself. We're actually listening in on a very private and a very personal conversation with himself before God. Here, David asking again, why are you downcast, oh my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my saviour and my God.

In this case, it's David speaking to his emotions, the very centre of his being, his inner being, and he's challenging himself, questioning himself. Why? Why are you downcast, oh my soul? What business is it of yours to be so depressed? Listen up, soul, or personality, or my inner being.

You have to deal with this. Consider the altar. Consider light and truth, and then say to yourself, put your hope in God. You see, David actually challenged himself to do what needs to be done. God's means of grace is there, open to him.

This same writer, David, is also the author of Psalm 46. Let me just read a few verses from that Psalm. God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. Those waters roar and foam.

The mountains quake with their surging. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall. He lifts His voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations He's brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the shields with fire. He says, be still and know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations, and I'll be exalted in the earth. The Lord Almighty is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. And it's through the person of God's only Son that Jesus declares, never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you.

And so David reminds himself of this great assurance. And with Jesus comes change and hope. God sends David just a measure of light, a flicker if you like, and it's enough to restore his hope, to challenge himself to be having that important personal private conversation before God. But I wanna declare to you today at the beginning of a new year that we have much more light than David ever had. God literally bathes us in the light.

In two Corinthians, the apostle Paul writes, God made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Never let the darkness tell you otherwise. When we put our trust in the living God, we know that nothing can prevent us from meeting Him because Jesus is the altar, and Jesus is the light and the truth. And when we're feeling the darkness threaten us, when it threatens to surround us and even blind us, we have to be having that conversation in our head and in our heart. We can be reading and even rereading these two psalms.

And in so doing, we recognise we have to go to Him again and again according to the light that He's given us, let us say, bathed us in, according to the altar where the blood of forgiveness flows free, we have to go to Him again and again via His cross. And in so doing, our spirits are raised and our hope is inspired because we have something far more enduring than any hope or any therapy or any reason for living that this world might wanna throw up at us. The final verse of the psalm has a ringing confidence that the earlier ones do not. In verse three, then I will go to the altar of God, to God my joy and my delight, and I'll praise you with a harp, oh God, my God. My hope and my prayer is that throughout 2022, nothing will prevent us from the worship of God and from the congregation of His people. My hope is that again and again, as often as it takes, we'll go to Jesus, we'll enter by way of the altar, we'll be bathed in His light.

And then whoever follows Him will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we need to learn from you this morning. We need to learn how to preach to our own hearts instead of just listening to its foolish or panicky chatter. Help us to learn how to effectively say to our unruly and, at times, difficult inward self.

Help us to learn how to say it, Lord, and believe it, to put your hope in God. Lord, you are our reputation, our vindication. It doesn't matter what anyone else says. You are our stronghold. Nothing else can protect us from danger, even death, for you've shown us the pathway through death and sent Jesus as a kind of firstfruits, knowing where we're headed and where we're going.

And yet, at times, we feel so vulnerable, so fragile. Lord, give us that deep, deep joy and delight knowing that these things have been accomplished for us because of your wonderful work for us. Help us to be challenged this morning. Why should we ever be downcast? Why should we ever feel so low?

Flood our lives with joy and delight in loving you, in loving your people, in serving you. Thank you for Jesus. And in His name, we pray together when we say, amen.