J. Stephen Yuille, Professor of Church History and Spiritual Formation at Southwestern Seminary, preached from Psalm 42 and 43 in SWBTS Chapel on October 1, 2024.
The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Good morning to each of you. It is great to be here, and as always, it is a tremendous privilege to open God’s word with you. To that end, I invite you to take your copy of God’s word and turn with me to the Psalms, Book of Psalms, and in particular Psalms, 42 and 43 Psalms, 42 and 43 I’m going to assume that the name John Bunyan is familiar to most of us, and when you hear the name John Bunyan, you probably think of the Pilgrim’s Progress, rightly so. What you might not know is that Bunyan, when he was 15 years of age, his mother and sister passed away within two months of one another. The following year, at 16, he was drafted forcibly into the army on the side of the parliament during the English Civil War. After being released from the army, he married at age 21 and he and his wife had four children. The first was born blind, and then, sadly, suddenly, his wife passed away. Bunyan remarried a young woman, and they were expecting together their first child. When Bunyan was arrested for the first time, this would be a series of arrests over a 12 year period, and he was thrown into prison, and when his second wife heard the news of her husband’s imprisonment, she miscarried and lost the child, and there she was, all by herself, at home with four children from Bunyan’s first marriage, all under the age of 10, the oldest of them blind, and as Bunyan sat in his prison cell. Don’t imagine prisons as they are today. This would have been a square stone, dark, damp building with a bucket in the middle of it, and as he sat in his cell, he languished and lamented not just his own life, but what his wife was going through, what she was experiencing. And he remarked at that moment, “it was like tearing the skin from off my bones”, as how he described it, that season, that episode in his life. “It was like tearing the flesh, the skin from off my bones.” Years later, he wrote an autobiography. I do recommend this one. You buy it, you read it. Grace abounding to the Chief of Sinners echoes from 1 Timothy. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. And in that book, as Bunyan reflects on this season in his life, in this series of episodes, which involved heart wrenching loss, he wrote the following. Pay careful attention to this. Just one very pithy statement he wrote, “if ever I am to suffer rightly, because, you see, there is such a thing as suffering wrongly. If ever I am to suffer rightly, I must learn to live upon God, who is invisible.” Let me repeat that. You write that out. You put it up on your fridge at home. It will serve you well. “If ever I am to suffer rightly, I must learn”, his choice of words is fascinating. “I must learn to live upon God who is invisible.”
My objective, my goal this morning, is very simple, very straightforward. I want us to take a baby step, just a baby step toward entering into those words from John Bunyan, entering into what it means to learn to live upon a God who is invisible. I was praying for us this morning, and I was praying, of course, that this would be beneficial and edifying for each of us, and then I was praying for just one or two in particular. I had no one specifically in mind, but it sort of came to the realization, you know, crowds being what they are, and life’s life situations being as they are, there is undoubtedly someone here for whom these words will be particularly relevant, to whom these words will resonate, and what we’re going to consider this morning, I pray, will be God’s word for you, for you in this moment, given whatever it is that is transpiring in your life, as we wrestle with what it means to live upon a God who is invisible. So, there’s our goal. You’ve got it.
Our text is Psalms 42 and 43, so follow along now as I read this portion of God’s word for us.
“As a deer longs for flowing streams, so I long for you God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food, day and night, while all day long, people say to me, where is your God? I remember this as I pour out my heart how I walked with many leading the festive procession to the house of God with joyful and thankful shouts. Why my soul? Are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God. I am deeply depressed. Therefore, I remember you from the land of Jordan and the peaks of Herman and the mount Mizar Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls, all your breakers and your billows have swept over me. The Lord will send his faithful love by day, his song will be with me in the night, a prayer to the God of my life, I will say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about in sorrow because of the enemy’s oppression, my adversaries taunt me as if crushing my bones, while all day long, they say to me, where is your God? Why my soul? Are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God. Vindicate me God and champion my cause against an unfaithful nation. Rescue me from the deceitful and unjust person, for you are the God of my refuge. Why have you rejected me. Why must I go about in sorrow because of the enemy’s oppression? Send your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy mountain, to your dwelling place. Then I will come to the altar of God, to God, my greatest joy, I will praise you with a liar God, my God. Why my soul? Are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God.”
Now, right from the outset, I have a confession to make. We cannot unpack everything in these songs. I mean, there are depths here, and there are mountain peaks and there is much for our learning, much for our instruction, much for our edification. What I want to do is simply restrict our focus to a single phrase which the psalmist utters three times. Perhaps you noticed it as I read these psalms for us, you’ll find it firstly in Psalm 42 verse 5, it is repeated still in Psalm 42 verse 11, and there it is the third occasion. Psalm 43 verse 5. Here it is three times.
“Why my soul are you so dejected?” Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him, my Savior and my God.”
That’s what we’re going to focus on, that single statement, and yes, we’ll make reference to other portions of these psalms to shed light on this tremendous declaration. But this is what’s really going to capture our attention, our focus. And I want to simply make three observations, all good sermons, three points. Here we go now. Three observations based on this statement. Here is the first. I want you to notice the psalmist’s lamentation. So how does the phrase begin? “Why my soul are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil?” He answers the questions in these two Psalms, and we discover a twofold response. Firstly, he points to his enemies, oppression. Something has happened, probably on a national level. Israel’s enemies have gained the upper hand, and the penman of this psalmist, he’s had to flee. He is cut off from the City of God. He is cut off from the temple of the living God, and now he is in such anguish of soul because he is being tormented by his enemies. But there’s a second reason, a second cause of his lament, and it’s actually far more significant than his enemies oppression, and it is this God’s rejection. He actually states it three or four times in the two songs, why have you rejected me? Why have you rejected me? Why have you abandoned me? Why have you deserted me? We can feel, can’t we the anguish of his soul. We can enter into the his heartbeat, the heartbeat of his lament. There is a huge difference, you know it. There is a huge difference between forgetting someone and ignoring or rejecting someone. A huge difference. I recall a few years back, I was with my wife, Allison, in a shopping center up there in Ontario, and we were headed up the escalator, and coming down the other side of the escalator, there was a man, and our eyes met, and I recognized him immediately, and he started to call out Yuli. Yuli, which is what they used to call me back in high school. I hated but that’s what it was, Yulee. And I saw him coming, coming, coming. I said, Bruce. And there was this look of absolute dismay and dejection on his face as our eyes locked, and he passed by me on the escalator, and I kind of turned back looking forward, and my wife said to me, “Well, that was rather awkward”, sure was his name isn’t Bruce! Came to me three or four days later. It was Paul, a high school friend. Well, we can be excused for that, can’t we? We forget things, but we don’t willfully forget things. We forget them by accident.
Oh, but rejection, desertion, ignoring there is intentionality behind these words. And this is why the psalmist is so perplexed. This is why the psalmist laments, oh, why my soul? Are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? The answer is this, because from my present circumstances, and as I take stock and evaluate my life, this is my only conclusion, God has forsaken me. We can word his cry as follows, where is my God? It’s a question that perhaps you’ve asked. It’s a question I ask, where is my God? When the Christian suffers irreparable, physical, mental trauma in an accident? What. Where is my God? Where is my God when a Christian buries a child, where is my God when a Christian surrenders multiple internal organs to the surgeon’s scalpel in a vain attempt to stem the spread of the cancer. Where is my God when a Christian feeds and dresses and bathes her once vibrant husband who no longer even remembers her name, where is my God when a Christian lives in a place where a significant segment of the population believes they would be serving their God by actually killing him.
Where is my god in those moments, far too many moments when it feels as though the Earth is about to give way beneath my feet. Am I just preaching to myself this morning? I find this with increasing frequency. I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting old Dr craze or what it is, but it just seems with increase ever increasing frequency, the Earth is just giving way beneath my feet. And I want to know, where is my God? It is the cry of the psalmist’s lamentation. That is observation number one. Here’s the second observation. Notice the psalmist’s exhortation. And so back to that three statement he uses three times. Why my soul? Are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? His lamentation, the next phrase, exhortation, put your hope in God, tremendous statement, sadly, that word hope, we need to unpack it, because it is sorely misused in our society today to a great extent as we typically use that word hope in our 24/7 course of life. It is far removed from Scripture and is actually has nothing to do with the meaning of this word in the Bible, hope. I remember a story that made the circuit among the itinerant preachers in those churches I grew up in years and years ago, and I heard this story on multiple occasions. It was about a father who arrives late for his young son’s little league baseball game, and Dad pulls in in a mad rush, parks the car, and he runs over to the fence, and there is his son, Timmy, standing in left field, and he yells out to him, Timmy, but how’s it going out there? And Timmy just sort of turns to him and looks him in the eye and says, Dad, we’re losing 20 to nothing. His dad is taken back by that but quickly regains his composure. He says, Boy, what do I say? And quickly uttered these words, oh, Timmy, don’t give up hope. Timmy, world whirled around again and looked at his father with a puzzled look on his face. Why would I give up hope? We haven’t even got up to bat yet.
That isn’t hope. That is what wishful thinking. That is how we use the word hope. When we use the word hope, we mean nothing more, nothing less than wishful thinking that has nothing to do with biblical hope. Biblical hope is a confident expectation. Biblical hope is taking God’s promises concerning the future, making them present realities whereby they govern and dictate our lives. That is hope. And this psalmist, it’s as if he stands in front of the mirror and he fixes his gaze upon himself, and he points the finger at himself, and he preaches, he lets loose, yes, why my soul? Are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God, and as you read the two Psalms, we discover many truths concerning this god. Oh, this psalmist, he remembers that his God is the living God. You see that back in Psalm 42 verse two, his God is the living God. His God is the giver and the author of life. His God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, all things. As Paul states in Romans 11, his God is the God “from whom, through whom and to whom are all things from whom the source, the origin of absolutely everything, the one through whom all things exist. Exist, the one who sustains and upholds all things by the Word of His power, and the one to whom all things exist.” Meaning, this universe is nothing more than a stage upon which God has chosen to reveal His glory. Oh, he remembers that his God is the living God, and if his God were to withhold his influence, the fire wouldn’t burn, the eye wouldn’t see, the sun wouldn’t shine, the wind wouldn’t blow, the hand wouldn’t move, the bird wouldn’t fly, the grass wouldn’t grow. This living God rules the universe fully and completely, from the smallest particles dancing in that beam of sunlight to the greatest stars burning far above and galaxies far away. Oh, he remembers that his God is the living God. He also remembers in these psalms, you see it. Psalm 42 verse nine, Psalm 43 verse two, that his god is a rock. His God is a refuge, suggestive of what that which is unassailable, that which is immovable. Off the northeast shore of Scotland, there’s a little tidal island called Bell Rock tidal Island, meaning, what? When the tide is in you can’t see the rock when the tide is out there, you can see the rock up until the early 1800s that rock was responsible for six or seven, eight shipwrecks annually. They finally decided, we better put a lighthouse on this thing. And in the early 1800s they constructed this lighthouse, remembering they could only work for a few hours each day. Couldn’t work through winter. It was an engineering wonder feat. It still stands today, two centuries later, immovable, unshakable in the midst of the storm, the Psalmist put your trust in God. He is the Living God, and he is a rock. He is a refuge. Was the third thing that takes center stage in these psalms, the Psalmist remembers, according to Psalm 42 verse 8, that his god abounds in faithful or steadfast love, the love that does not change. I know this can be perplexing and a little confusing. I’m going to state it anyway. Surely, friends, this is more than God’s common love, common grace for all. This is a covenantal love. This is God’s love for His people.
When we come into the New Testament, and we hear the Apostle Paul proclaim that when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive adoption as sons. And because we are sons, he has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. It is a filial relationship. It is a covenantal relationship, and we have this absolute certainty as we enter into the mindset of the psalmist, that this is a love that is not contingent upon us. This is a love that does not, does not depend upon our performance. This is a love that does, knows no ebbs and flows on the basis of how I’m feeling today, yesterday or 10 years from now. No. This is a faithful, steadfast meaning unmovable, unalterable, love, His covenant love for the psalmist. And as the psalmist takes stock and he thinks to himself, “My God is the living God. My God is a rock and a refuge. Oh, my God is a God who abounds in faithful love.” Here’s what I’m going to preach to myself. Put your hope in God. Beautiful, isn’t it? You can picture him standing there in front of the mirror, just taking himself by the collar, right, just grabbing himself and preaching to himself. Put your hope in God. Oh, friend. Put your hope in God when the pain is chronic, illness is incurable, the cancer is inoperable. Put your hope in God when the persecution is unavoidable, when the relationship has turned down right poisonous, put your hope in God, when the days are oppressively Gray, sadness has set in like a thick fog hiding all from you and. Put your hope in God and the horror of sin overwhelms like a tsunami when the foundations of society begin to crumble and we fear what lies ahead.
Put your hope in God when you begin to feel your own mortality with the passing of the years. That is the psalmists exhortation. Oh, there’s a third observation here, folks, I trust you’re tracking with me. You’ve got his lamentation. Why my soul? Are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? You’ve got his exhortation, put your hope in God. Now notice, thirdly, his determination for I will still praise him. Oh, personal pronouns, they’re precious. They’re your best friend. Look at what he says. I will still praise him, my my Savior, and my God, you have it just, just jump back into the preceding verse, verse four. The middle of it, my there it is again. Personal pronoun, my greatest joy, my greatest joy, My God, my Savior. And as the psalmist thinks of what it means this great fulfillment of the Covenant in his own life, his own experience, you will be my people. I will be your God. And as the psalmist revels in that truth, that reality, and turns his heart towards celebrating the fact that this God is his greatest joy. This God is his Savior, and he is his greatest joy, his savior, because this God is his God. He determines in his heart. Here’s what I’m going to do, whether I feel like it or not, I will praise Him. Makes me remember Think of what were their names, Paul and who was with him act 16, Silas, wasn’t it? Paul and Silas, and they’re thrown where, into the prison, right? You know the story the Philippian jailer, in a little detail we often miss, and maybe even a detail I prefer skip over, because I find it so challenging that they have been beaten, scourged, and they are in the stalks and the chains and the inner recesses of that jail. And so there they are a mangled mess, pulverized flesh, beaten and tied and chained to one another, and it is the dead of night and darkness all around and what do we read? They were singing praises, Psalms to God. Here’s the question, and I’m not even asking you this question. I’m asking myself this question, do I really think they felt like it? You think they felt like it? You think this was something that came naturally to them.
No, they must have determined in their hearts that despite our circumstances, we are going to turn our attention to our God, My God and Paul and Silas, joint voices, one heart, one mind, and they sing praises to their god. Oh, here’s an all important question, friends, where does such motivation come from? Where does the impulse come from? Where does such determination to praise God in the face of such overwhelming adversity? Where does this determination come from? Here’s something I’m going to ask you to do, and I’m going to ask you to spend some time on this later, and I trust and pray you will find it so rewarding, so profitable, my friend, I am absolutely convinced we need to put these psalms on the lips of the Lord Jesus. That’s what we need to do. And we need to go back and read, for example, Psalm 42 verse 3, and imagine the Lord Jesus uttering these words, “my tears have been my food day and night, while all day long, people say to me, where is your God?” Oh, skip down to verse seven. “Oh, think of the Lord Jesus uttering this statement Deep calls to deepen. The roar of your waterfalls, all your breakers and your billows have swept over me.” Oh, look at verse 10. “My adversaries taunt me as if crushing my bones while, all day long, they say to me, where is your God?” Into the first verse of Psalm 43, “vindicate me God and champion my cause against an unfaithful nation. Rescue me from the deceitful and unjust person.” Oh, you put these words on our lips. In the Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the church. And you imagine him uttering these words. It is not difficult to do. And you just get close. And you follow him into the garden of Gethsemane. And you see him lying prostrate, groveling in the dust. And you see him sweating, as it were, great drops of blood, and you see him experiencing such anguish and torment of soul. O Lord, let this cup pass from me. What cup is this desertion upon calvary’s Cross? I think he would have been praying this in a host of other Psalms. Will you follow him from Gethsemane to Golgotha? And there you see this pulverized humanity suspended between heaven and earth on a cross, enveloped in darkness, heaving chest and crying out that anguish of soul, “my God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?” Oh, the Lord Jesus experienced perfectly the emotion of these songs. The Lord Jesus entered into this lament and anguish of soul perfectly. And here’s the question of all questions, why? And the Scripture makes it abundantly clear that the just suffered for the unjust that he might what bring us to God, My God, my Savior, my greatest joy. And now I hear this God say to me, I am keeping you. I am guarding you. I am preserving you by power, through faith.
That is not to say life will go well. It probably won’t. It’s not to say all your dreams will come true. Most of them will not. I am not promising to spare you from depression, discouragement, difficulty, opposition, death itself. Here’s what I am promising you, that I will keep you, I will preserve you. I will guard you by my almighty power, through faith, for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last day and until then, as we find ourselves in the heat of battle, as we find ourselves in dire and dark circumstances, as we find ourselves facing different forms of opposition, persecution, suffering, Oh, you. Fill in the blank. What is our cry? Here’s our cry. Why my soul? Are you so so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God for I will still praise him, my Savior and my god, friends, that was just a little baby step. That was a baby step to entering into John Bunyan’s sentiment from centuries ago. If ever I am to learn to suffer rightly, I must learn what to live upon a God who is invisible, our heavenly Father. We make this our simple prayer this day that your word would come alive to us that you would indeed give us eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to receive and impart to as a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of you. And as a result, may we be built up in the faith. May we be encouraged in faith, hope and love. Our prayer is that this might resound for our good and your eternal glory in the matchless name of Jesus Christ, we pray.
