Remember The Gathering of God’s People And Preach God’s Great Love And Mercy Toward You (Psalm 42)
We don’t live in an era of Christian consensus. That once existed here, but it is gone. Many people hate Christians with a passion, and we feel the isolation of that. And, praise God, this text speaks directly to how we should respond to that situation.
I was reminded of this a few days ago. And it came from some news out of the University of Florida and Senator Ben Sasse.
A lot of you know who Ben Sasse, the United States Senator is. He was a college president before taking that position. As a college president, he took a small college that was headed for bankruptcy and transformed it into a thriving and growing school. And before that he worked on a show called The White Horse Inn, which is a Christian radio show that became a podcast before podcasting was even a thing, And it was quite good. I’ve spent many hours listening to those White Horse Inn episodes. He is not liked by a large group of conservatives because he had a few spats with Donald Trump, but the man is a devout believer who has been a rather successful college president.
After this year ends, he will be leaving the Senate and taking a position with the University of Florida as the President of that university. But the story is very telling. Because of his past successes he was approached about this job. He did not seek it, but his past success led the Board of Directors to hand pick him and talk him into the job. His beliefs, however, caused an uproar. Faculty and students protested the choice, not to due to his credentials but because of his beliefs. In the past days, he has been called a bigot, homophobic, and the school has been in an uproar. Many of his discussions with faculty and boosters for the school have had students chanting in the background of the audio.
But this is no surprise to you. How many times have you heard folks be called a bigot, a homophone, etc., etcs?
You know it and you’ve heard it.
I have heard from some of you similar things in much smaller instances. Your positions on certain hot topics have led you to run afoul of those you know or work with. Sometimes it’s your family members. You are seen as bigoted or a homophobe because of what you believe. And we live in Arkansas, which means we likely have it much easier than most.
I am certain that many of you will avoid certain topics over your Thanksgiving meals for just this reason. Otherwise your family will think little of you and you might start a fight.
And all this means that, more and more, Christians in America feel the sense of isolation that comes with these sorts of situations. You have likely felt it recently and will certainly feel it again. It is a sense of isolation that we can all relate to.
The psalmist here is faced with a population of unbelievers that mock him for his belief. “Where is your God?” is the refrain he often hears (Psalm 42:3, 10). He is walking in a land of disbelief. And in that place, he hears what we often hear in our own land of disbelief.
What is it that he does to help? What would the Lord have us to do amid struggles as these? What do you and I need to do, because surely you feel that same isolation?
We must remember the gathering of God’s people and preach the Lord’s great love and mercy to ourselves.
Remember The Gathering Of God’s People
Our psalmist cries out here with a beautiful picture of longing for the Lord. We are tempted to read this and miss exactly what is going on. It becomes obvious as the psalm continues that he is talking about worshipping the Lord along with god’s people. He misses that dearly as he wanders in a barren wilderness of unbelievers. (Psalm 42:1-2). And he longs to appear before the Lord.
His sorrow seems constant. His tears are his food day and night (Psalm 42:3). He is so filled with sorrow that food is not the delight it once was. In fact, he can’t stomach it because of the sorrow and the tears. And in this land of disbelief and rebellion against God he hears, “Where is your God?” (Psalm 42:3). His sorrow is tremendous! What will give him consolation?
The psalmist remembers when he was at the worship services. He led people in the great festivals and feasts. And he remembered the worship of the Lord among God’s people. He is depressed and the thing that brings great consolation to him is that he will one day worship again with God’s people. And this he preached to himself, even when it was hard for him to see what would one day happen.
It shouldn’t be necessary to convince believers that they need to come to church. The things that go one here, the worship, fellowship, and bonding in the Lord should be life giving to the believer. And they should carry us through many tough circumstances.
God’s Word preached to us should give us comfort, peace, direction, and life in the gospel.
The Lord’s Supper delivers to us a message of life as it declares the truths of the gospel to us.
We are one in the bond of love, as we sing in the hymn. We are one in Christ and the relationships created by the gospel are things that we cherish and help us through the incredibly tough times that will happen in our lives.
And so, because all of this is true, it grieves us when we must be away. This mindset should help us to see why it is so good to be in church. It should also help us to see why it is important for us to do all we can do to care for those who cannot be here. It should also cause us to push those who are not here to get here. We understand that it is that important to the life of the believer.
Church is necessary for the life and livelihood of the Christian. We are not able to live on our own and if we are forced away for a while it hurts. But this also means that if we choose to be away, we are foolish.
In our times of trial, if be illness or hardship, remember the tremendous times of worship and care among your brothers and sisters in Christ. Remember the sweet times of worship. Remember their care for you. Remember that. But this also means that while you can worship the Lord, do so. While you are not inhibited, you must participate as you’ve been commanded to do.
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV)
Remember God’s Love Toward You (Psalm 42:5b-10)
The psalmist is depressed, so he remembers the Lord (Psalm 42:5-6). This is what many people call preaching to yourself. I believe that to be a good name for it. He is reminding himself of the Lord. This is work as he is forcing himself to think about those things that should never have left his mind.
And this is done amid much grief and turmoil (Psalm 42:7). Deep within himself, he is crying out to God. He understands that it is the Lord that has allowed him to go through this. The Lord has brought strong and mighty waves to crash upon him. He is reminded, however, that God’s love is all around him. It might be better to say that he has preached to himself about God’s love being all around him (Psalm 42:8). And then he goes to the Lord in prayer.
Isn’t this how it often works for us? The hardships and struggles pound us and bring us into a position of terrible doubt and fear. But after some time, we remind ourselves of God’s love and care for us and go to him in prayer.
In prayer, the psalmist does not sugarcoat things. He laments that God has placed him in this situation. Even as he remembered God’s love and care for him, he lamented the place God had put him and prayed for the troubles to cease, for his troubles sought to overwhelm him (Psalm 42:9-10).
And again, while in the middle of the sorry, the psalmist preached to himself again (Psalm 42:11). He preached again that he would worship the Lord amid the people of God. He preached that God was his salvation. And he preached that God was for him, that God was his God.
Sometimes God’s love and care for us isn’t terribly obvious to us. We face hardships and it covers that fact up. But we must preach this truth to ourselves.
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28 ESV)
It is necessary that we, as God’s people, keep this truth in front of us. And when we forget it, it is necessary to preach it to ourselves. We were once rebels against God, but He sent His Son to bring us to Himself. God the Son took on human flesh and dwelt among us. He lived a perfect life on our behalf and died the death that we deserved. And all those who turn from ruling their lives and entrust their selves to Him are united to Him by faith. He is our salvation and He is our God.
As a pastor, I have found that some truths must be addressed with more repetition and with a bigger hammer. This is one of them. And there are going to be times in which you must say this to yourself over and over through tears, doubts and fears.
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28 ESV)
Conclusion
We live in times that are changing fast. And the world is growing more and more dark and hostile toward us. I think we can understand this psalm better than we did in year’s past for that reason. But the things that brought him hope bring us hope as well. Remember these things. We must remember the gathering of God’s people and preach the Lord’s great love and mercy to ourselves.
R. Dwain Minor