Fight for Joy in the Hour of Discouragement

The following is a beautiful sermon by Pastor Winston Bosch on Psalm 42 that was adapted, with his permission, for this blog page. Winston currently serves as pastor of “Jubilee” Canadian Reformed Church in Ottawa, Canada.

Introduction

Do you remember as a child playing on a teeter totter? Or have you recently helped your younger sibling, child or grandchild onto one?  When I was a kid I loved going on the teeter totter – up and down, up and down. It was especially fun when one of us bumped the other one right off the teeter totter up into the air!

Happiness and sadness, hope and despair, contentment and discouragement; they can go up and down too, just like those teeter totters. Sometimes hope is up high, everything is great, and we are feeling good, enthusiastic and happy. Then there are those moments when hope falls down and despair surges up and we are so down and discouraged, even depressed. Depending on what kind of person you are, your particular life circumstances, and what is going on in your body chemically or hormonally, the teeter totter can go up or down, one side or the other, sometimes multiple times a day! You know what I’m talking about? I wonder how you are doing right now.  Which way is the teeter-totter leaning for you today as you read this?

We see these teeter totter emotions in Psalm 42. The author goes back and forth, up and down between hope and despair. One moment he is up high and the next he is down low. Up and down, up and down, hope and despair, confidence and discouragement, joy and depression. This is a psalm that puts to words what we often feel in everyday life. But it does something more than that. Psalm 42 teaches us something really important. It teaches us how to fight for joy in the hour of discouragement.

So here’s what we are going to do. We are going to play on the teeter-totter of Psalm 42. We are going to look at Psalm 42 verse by verse so that we can fight for joy in the hour of discouragement.

The Title

Have a look at the title of this Psalm: “To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.” A maskil is a kind of song. The sons of Korah were temple singers, but we don’t know who specifically wrote this psalm. Perhaps the author was in exile or somewhere else far from Jerusalem. Whatever the case, we know for sure that he is having trouble and that he speaks in a very personal way. And that is how you should read Psalm 42. If you want to really get something from this psalm, you have to try to read it and listen to it in a personal way. Let it speak to your own personal life or to the life of someone close to you.

Verse 1-3

OK. Let’s get on the teeter-totter. The psalmist starts with despair and discouragement. His words give voice to our own despair and discouragement. Please take a moment to read verses 1- 3.

Notice that the psalmist does not say as a deer pants for flowing streams so pants my soul for healing and help. Healing and help are important, but when deep suffering pushes you down, your deepest need is God Himself. “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”  The Psalmist isn’t looking for some temporary solution; he doesn’t want a Band-Aid or a backrub. He wants the living God to show up. He wants the real presence of the real God.  He needs this like an animal needs water to survive.

So the cry of the psalmist breaks out in verse 2: When? When God? When shall I come and appear before you? He is probably talking about his desire to go to the temple in Jerusalem, but this is not a guy who just wants to go to church on Sunday morning. His soul is suffering; his heart, the center of who he is, is thirsting for the presence of the living God. He is crying out, “When? When is God going to show up?”

I wonder if this word “when” is also your cry of suffering? Maybe even at this very moment? Are you sick and tired of suffering, of the pain, of the hopelessness, of the expectations placed on you? Are you desperate for things to change in your life? Are you discouraged dear brother, dear sister? Do you have this desire for God to do something, this need for God to show up and change things in your life, or in the life of your loved ones? Enough already. When God? When? I need you!

And so the tears begin to fall. The 3^rd verse says, “My tears have been my food day and night.” Maybe you know what that is like. Your difficulties, your troubles, your worries -- are they the last thing you think about before your go to sleep and the first thing that comes to mind when you wake up? Are you sometimes shedding tears behind the closed doors of your home? Are you holding them back right now? Are you discouraged? Are you depressed?

It is possible as a Christian to have a strong and sincere faith and a dark and difficult depression. Depression is not necessarily a sign of a lack of faith. The great English preacher Charles Spurgeon, known for his great passion for the Lord and for the Word, and who is sometimes called the prince of preachers, was also someone who fought long and hard with depression. He once said, “Sometimes, I spend the whole day on my bed crying like a child, and I don’t know why.” Everyone gets discouraged from time to time; some of us get really depressed. Are you or someone you love living in a season of discouragement?  Are you or someone you love living with depression?

When that is the case it is hard to explain your suffering to others, isn’t it? One of the hardest parts of emotional suffering or unseen chronic pain is that feeling that no one understands. In this psalm the people around the author do more than just ‘not understand’. In verse 3 they say, “Where is your God?” In verse 2 the question was “When O God?” Now the question is, “Where are you God?” And this is the question par excellence of suffering. This is the question that cries out for an answer when things are not going well in life. But God, I am your child, and I’m suffering. Where are you? Where are you when things are bad? Have you ever thought or asked this question? Have you ever asked it through gritted teeth and tear filled eyes? Have you ever prayed what you think you are supposed to pray, those good prayers full of clichés, but then wondered in the back of your head, “But what use is this anyways? Where is God?”

Verse 4

In verse 4, the discouraged psalmist starts pining for the good old days. Have a look at it.

He is thinking about those good moments when his faith was strong and he was feeling encouraged. Those times when his relationship with God felt really on fire and he actually enjoyed worship. A far cry from what he is feeling now. Do you ever have those daydreams about the good old days? Don’t get me wrong, it is great to have good memories and it is great to look back with thankfulness. But sometimes suffering uses our good memories, not to celebrate the past but to emphasize the bitterness of the present. 

Those are the first 4 verses of this teeter-totter psalm. Despair, depression and discouragement surging up. An intense need for a God that doesn’t seem there. Tears, cries of the heart, lonely groans of suffering and a bitter nostalgia for something better. You can hear the discouragement in the psalmist’s voice. Can you hear it? Can you feel it in your own life or in the life of those you love?

Verse 5

In verse 5, the teeter-totter goes the other way. It is the refrain of the song; it is repeated again in verse 11 and again at the end of Psalm 43. Take a moment to read that verse.

Who is the author speaking to in this verse? He is speaking to himself, and that is important. He is not talking to God or to other people -- he is talking to himself. It is as if, in the middle of his suffering, he stops and says, “Wait a second, I don’t want to be a slave to my emotions. Instead of listening to myself, I’m going to speak to myself.” It is as if he stands up and says “Soul, listen up, I’m going to talk to you.”

What a great thing to develop in our own lives. Instead of listening to all the lies that pop up in their head, every Christian should speak truth to him or herself; every Christian should preach to him or herself. Instead of questioning God, the author of Psalm 42 now questions his own thoughts, his own emotions. “Why are you cast down O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” Thoughts, why are you so negative? Brain, why are you beating me up? Emotions, why are you pulling me down? The Psalmist examines his bad thought patterns, his wrong questions, his negative emotions, and then speaks truth to himself. He tries to replace the bad soul-sucking turmoil going on inside of him with truth. “Hope in God, for I will again praise him, my salvation and my God.”

This is biblical positive thinking. This is the truth of God that stabilizes us in moments of instability. The truth of God that helps us fight for joy in the hour of discouragement. Psalm 94:19 says it like this: “When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.” In the turmoil of his soul, the psalmist trusts the Lord.

Trust in the Lord is not a passive state of mind. Trust is an act of the soul where we choose to hold tight to the promises of God, despite the discouragement that is threatening to overcome us. By an act of the will I decide to believe that God is the one that He says He is and that He will do what He says He will do. The psalmist is preaching to himself: “Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” Brothers and sisters, preach the truth of God to yourself, replace the negativity with positive biblical thoughts and fight for joy in the hour of discouragement.

Verse 6-7

And now some of you who have or still do struggle with depression are saying, “That is nice Winston, but it isn’t that simple. You have no idea how dark it gets in here and how my brain and feelings just spiral out of control”. This psalm is not giving simple answers. Have a look at verses 6 and 7. The teeter-totter shifts again and the despair surges up once again.

The first line of verse 5 is: “Why are you cast down O my soul?” The first line of verse 6 is: “My soul is cast down within me.” Talk about a teeter-totter. His eyes are fixed again on his difficult circumstances. He thinks of God and the Promised Land, but he seems far away from all that. So instead of thinking of God as the source of salvation, he thinks of God as the source of suffering. It is as if God is breaking waves on him, pushing him into the deep end of depression and he doesn’t know how to swim. Deep calls to deep; all he can hear is despair.

When I was a teenager I did some surfing in Australia. When you are hit by a big breaking wave it is as if you are stuck in a washing machine on full spin cycle. I remember one time I was so disorientated that I tried to swim to the surface but instead swam to the bottom. That is not a bad picture of the disorientation of depression. When the deep is calling to the deep and the waves of depression and anxiety are breaking on your head, you can feel like a little wee thing bobbing around helplessly in an ocean of despair -- powerless, incapable, desperate. Do you ever feel like that? Do you know someone who feels like that? This psalm is not giving simplistic answers to life’s difficult problems. The Lord knows what you and those you love are going through, and he takes it seriously.

Verse 8

In verse 8 the teeter-totter goes the other way again with a radical swing of emotion. The discouragement goes down and hope and joy surge up again. It is as if the psalmist gets his head up above the water and all of a sudden he finds things calm. Please read it for yourself right now.

I love the phrase: “By day the Lord commands his steadfast love.” Steadfast love is our attempt in English to translate the word hesed in Hebrew. Hesed is God’s covenant goodness and mercy and faithfulness and grace for us despite all our weakness and despite all our faults. And according to this verse the Lord commands his hesed, his steadfast love, for us. He commands it. The love of God is not an afterthought; it is not something nice He tacks on at the end of a conversation. The love of God is not something that just floats around in the universe or in the church. God commands His love for you; He loves you with a particular and intentional love. His steadfast love is given, commanded, granted specifically and personally according to his sovereign desire and pleasure.

What a great thing to remember. In the middle of your disorientation, your depression, your discouragement, your topsy-turvy, teeter tottering emotions, remember that the Lord commands his steadfast love for you by day and at night his song is with you.

His song is with you. When deep calls to deep and despair drowns out everything else this Psalm is telling us that if you listen carefully you can hear the Lord singing his steadfast love to you. Can you hear it? Zephaniah 3:17 says it like this: “The Lord your God will rejoice over you with gladness…He will exult over you with loud singing.” The Lord commands and sings his magnificent covenant steadfast hesed love that injects hope into our hearts and helps us fight for joy in the hour of discouragement.

At the end of verse 8 the psalmist says this is a prayer to the God of my life. Stitch prayer through your day, through your life, in good times and bad, as the psalmist does. That is hard to do if you are feeling really down, which is why it is important to have a habit of prayer, so that even when you don’t feel like it you still do it. The thread of prayer stitched into the high and low parts of your life will help you fight for joy in the middle of discouragement.

Verse 9-10

We expect now to hear a prayer of praise and worship, but take a look at what it says in verse 9 and 10. What has happened? The teeter-totter has shifted again. Again there is sadness, again questioning, again the suffering of the soul. Sometimes emotions are like this. They are like springtime in Ottawa. There are days when the sun is out and it is getting warm and you are full of hope and you want to put on shorts and play basketball on the driveway. Then the next day it is a depressing minus 17 with a frostbite warning and you want to stay in bed. This is real life!

“God my rock” he says, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning?” The questions keep piling up: When, O God? Where are you, O God? Why, O God? These are the questions that suffering asks. When? Where? Why?

There is a sense of oppression here. The psalmist feels bullied by his enemies, wounded, insulted by their questions, harassed by the expectations of others. Sometimes we feel the same way don’t we? Harassed by the well-intentioned but dumb questions and not so helpful advice of others. Sometimes we feel so discouraged we just want to hide somewhere, pull the covers over our heads and ignore the world. 

Taking a break from other people can be a good thing, but do you see how the author of Psalm 42 doesn’t take a break from God, even in the middle of his discouragement? He is still praying. When life has got you down, when the teeter-totter of despair is making you feel so very rotten, don’t let go of prayer, don’t stop communicating with God, and do your best to make it to church on Sunday. Pray your questions and your frustrations to him in the middle of discouragement just like how you pray your joy and thankfulness in the middle of encouragement.

Don’t get me wrong, I know this is hard. The psalmist says he has a deadly wound in his bones. Literally he says there is murder in my bones. He feels close to death. The laughter and jokes and lack of understanding of others, as well as our own dark thoughts that spin around and around in our heads, our suffering and pain, our depression and discouragement, these things can make us so tired, so exhausted and worn out that we can feel close to death, or even wish to die. There is not one moment in this psalm that the complexity of our pain and suffering and our teeter-totter emotions are not taken seriously. This is the Word of the Lord who has compassion on his children who suffer.

Verse 11

Sometimes our negative thoughts are like a toboggan roaring down the hill. It’s very difficult to stop once you get going. Often times our depressive thoughts turn up the volume of our worries and discouragement so high that the noise covers everything else. The challenge is to dig in our feet to stop the toboggan. The challenge is to turn the volume down so we can think straight, so that we hear the love song of the Lord and speak to our own soul. And that is what the author of this psalm does one more time in the last shift of the teeter-totter. The last verse (verse 11) brings us back to the refrain. This is the part to memorize, the part to sing in the car, the part to write out and put on your fridge.

Hope in God! Remember His promises. He is your salvation. He is your covenant God. He will not abandon you. He is and He was and He will always be your God of steadfast love. At the end of the psalm, it is hope that wins. And here is why. Hope will win because God has won. We suffer in this life and we don’t have all the answers of “when” and “where” and “why”. But we know the “who”! We know who God is. We know that God is not a distant God that stays far away from our suffering. We serve a covenant God who gives us Psalm 42 and who has entered into our suffering in Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ cried out in agony, “My God my God, why have you abandoned me?” so that God would rejoice over you with gladness and loud singing. Jesus Christ descended on the teeter-totter into hell, but rose again from the dead so that God could command his steadfast hesed love to you.  Jesus Christ won, so that hope would win in your life, so that He could one day wipe every tear from your eyes.

Conclusion

So, when despair surges up in your life, fight for joy! Dig in your feet to stop the toboggan. Turn down the volume of your emotions. Listen for His singing, reminding you of His steadfast love and His salvation. Trust Him. Hold tight to His promises. Preach to yourself and remember who your God is in Jesus Christ. This psalm was designed to be sung. Sing it with your voice and with your heart. Sing it for yourself, for your family and friends, and for those struggling with despair and depression. Sing it with tears; sing it with hope. Fight for joy in the hour of discouragement.