Well, good morning. So great to be here with you this morning. My name is Josh. I am a pastor at Port City Church, and it is a blessing to be with you and to be able to worship with you. I bring you greetings from our church, Port City Church, which is meeting right now and praising the same God that you praise through the preaching of the Word, through singing and prayers. It's just so amazing that we get to partner together as the Church of God to see God's glory. And so thank you so much for the opportunity to be here. It is my privilege to be able to bring God's Word to you this morning. I'm here with my family, my wife, Krista, my daughter, Ella, who is 15, my son, Emmett, who is 14, and my son, Jude, who is 9. And I won't give you my wife's age because she told me not to. We're the same age. But it is, again, just a blessing to be with you. Thank you so much. I'm so thankful for Jim. I've just gotten to know Jim over the last couple of months, and I'm truly thankful already for his brotherhood in the Lord. He has been a gift, I know, to me and just an encouragement to me. And so I'm honored that he would ask me to be able to serve you in this way and bring God's Word to you. If you have your Bibles with you, I'm going to ask you to turn to Psalm 42. We're going to be looking at Psalm 42 and 43. And I'm going to read it before we begin, and we'll pray once more just as we begin our time together in His Word, looking at these two Psalms, which originally were one Psalm together. So let me read for us Psalm 42 and 43. I'll be reading from the English Standard Version. If you have a different version, that's fine. Let me read this for us from God's Word. It says, to the choir master, a masculine of the sons of Korah, as a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, Where is your God? These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead them in the procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me. Therefore, I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Herman, from Mount Mazar, deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls. All your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the Lord commands His steadfast love, and at night His song is within 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, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. And Psalm 43 vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against ungodly people from the deceitful and unjust man. 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 my God, my exceeding joy. I will praise you with the liar, O God, my God. Why are you cast down, O my soul? 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. Let me pray for us once more. Our God, as we look to your word, we know that you are the one who speaks to us. Let your Holy Spirit lead us and guide us. I pray that Jesus would be exalted among us. We pray this in the name of your Son. Father, we give all honor and glory to you. Amen. Every day, we all have to face hard questions, don't we? We all have to find the answers for questions that come our way. And there's probably one question in particular that may be the hardest question that I guarantee you we all hear every single day. And that question is, how are you doing? How are you doing? Now most of us, we answer when someone asks, hey, how are you doing? How is it going? We answer, good. How many times have you gotten people to say to you, really? Are you doing good? Maybe commonly, as would be our tendency as North Americans, we might say, well, how am I doing? You know, good. Really? No, but I'm Canadian. I have to say something, right? Now that might be a joke about our tendency to typically just make it look like everything is going well. We laugh, but most of us, if we're honest, more than just polite, if we're honest, we are experts at managing appearances, aren't we? We do a good job of hiding what's really going on on the inside. And that's why I love the Psalms. That's why I love the Psalms, because the Psalms don't settle for appearances, do they? The Psalms are really showing us what's going on inside. The Psalms are about managing the soul of a person, more than managing the appearance of a person. The Psalms give voice to the soul, and they reveal what's really going on inside. I read an article a couple of years ago that was an interview of Michael Phelps. I don't know if you know the name Michael Phelps, but he is a world-class swimmer. In fact, he is the most decorated Olympian to ever compete in the Olympics. He has received 28 medals, 23 of which are gold medals. Michael Phelps, the world-renowned swimming swimmer. And one of the things in this article he talked about was how after every Olympics, when he would have these great successes, he would enter into a slump of depression. A slump of depression. Now you might think, this is one of the moments that he's been looking forward to, like he's been training these many years for, and it's this great victory that's just proven how good he is at his craft, at his sport. How on earth could you go into such a depression after this incredible victory? Well, Michael Phelps says it's like you get to the edge of a cliff, and then you say, okay, cool, now what? Now what? I think there's something very honest and revealing about Michael Phelps that really speaks to all of us in this, is that life with gold can still be heavy, can it? Life with victory, life with excitement, life with success, no matter what it might look like on the outside, can still be heavy. And see, the reality for us today is this, the greatest threat for you is not what's around you, whether things are going on really well in your life or going really badly in your life, whether you are success after success after success or whether you are suffering right now, the greatest threat is not what's going on around you, it's what's going on within you. The truth of the matter is, if you've lived any course of time in this life, you'll recognize very quickly that our feelings are prone to fail us, aren't they? Our feelings are prone to fail us. And so the question is that we must answer is the same question that this Psalm written so many years ago brings to us, what is it that we can do? What do we do when our hearts or our eyes tell us that God is nowhere to be found and his word says he's not? His word says he's right there. Psalm 42 and 43 gives voice to this fight within us against the feelings that we feel or maybe even the lack of feelings that we don't feel. And it reveals why we need the gospel, especially for us today, why we need good news, why we need the gospel of Jesus Christ. So the main point that I'm going to push through this Psalm that I would like us to see is that the gospel doesn't change when our feelings or circumstances do. The gospel doesn't change when our feelings or circumstances do. And as we look at this Psalm, Psalm 42 and 43, which is originally, as I said, it was one Psalm, one of the things we're going to notice is that there's different settings in each stanza. The psalmist is sharing and describing a circumstance that he finds himself in and his reaction to that circumstance. And then he arrives at this refrain that he repeats three times. He begins with the words, why are you cast down, oh my soul? And we'll notice that there's three movements in this Psalm, which very much speaks to us metaphorically where we often find ourselves, doesn't it? And if through each of these setting changes, each of these developments, we will find that God meets us there. The first setting is that of the desert in Psalm 42 verses one to five. This first stanza where the psalmist expresses this distance he feels from God. And if you could sum up those first five or first four verses, it would be this, I feel distant from God, which is a common phrase, a common thing as a pastor I hear. It's a common expression that I myself wrestle with those moments that in your life, where if you were honest, you'd say, I feel distant from God. Maybe that's you this morning. And so Psalm 42 begins with this beautiful image. We've sung that chorus before, right? As the deer, as the deer pants for flowing streams. It's this beautiful picture of a deer in the meadow and this rushing water. But if we look closely, what is going on beneath it is a description of dryness and drought. This beautiful picture on the outside reveals inside thirst, a sense of longing. Verse two, it shows us what's going on in the psalmist that his soul thirsts for the living God, the living God, the God he knows to be very much alive and well, the God he knows to be present. And this discomfort, this feeling within his soul doesn't merely stay inward, it starts to make its way outward, which is very telling for us as we read this Psalm that explains a little bit of who we are as human beings. We are living souls, but we also have bodies. We also have physical bodies and we cannot in any way cut the two off from one another. We are not a dualistic nature, we are a duality in that God has made us body and soul and those two things affect one another. Those two things affect one another. I mean, look at verses three and four. This feeling that the psalmist has within his soul comes out in his tears, in his lack of sleep, even in his relationships. It says, while they say to me all the day long, where is your God? It becomes evident. And I think that these verses very much make clear to us that God cares about our whole being. God cares about our whole being. He cares about the soul. He cares about the body. He cares about us as human beings. You know, the Christian life is one that is both requires treatment and training, doesn't it? Just like in our physical lives, we have doctors who help us get well when we get sick and there's also physical trainers that help us actually get ahead and develop further in our health. In the same way the scriptures teach us that God is a good physician, that when we become ill spiritually speaking, he is the one who brings us and restores us and he is also the trainer who helps us get ahead in our growth, in our development as followers of Jesus. And one of the ways that he trains us, one of the ways he treats us is through remembrance. Look at verse 4. The psalmist says this, these things I remember. Now that word is very important in scriptural language because the word remember is far more than just calling to mind. The word remember carries with it a connotation of action. Not merely a mental assent but rather a whole, full life action. And so when the psalmist says these things I remember or even when the scripture says God remembers his people, it's not merely that he is forgotten and he brings them back to his mind. It's rather, because the Lord does not forget, but rather it's that the Lord acts upon this. And in the same way the psalmist is saying these things I remember I am putting into action as I pour out my soul. There are three things very quickly that we can do to actively remember the God, the God who is living and active, the God who is present that we can put into practice that call these things to mind. The first of these is as we see here in verse 4, pouring out of the soul. The psalmist is expressing here to pray to God. If you are in a place where you are just, you do not see the presence of God in the sense that you are like, God where are you? Tell him, tell him, pray to him, come before him in prayer. Secondly the psalmist says how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God. One of the things we can do if we are sensing this distance from God is place ourselves with God's people. Place ourselves with God's people. Proceed in the community. Don't miss time together in worship. Sunday after Sunday, week after week. Don't miss it. And then lastly as the psalmist says with glad shouts and songs of praise a multitude keeping festival. Here the psalmist is praising God in accordance with who God has revealed him to be. And friends we can know who God is by looking to his word. By looking to his word. Essentially what the psalmist is saying here is when you sense distance from God put yourself in the place where God is. Put yourself in the way. In the same way Bartimaeus or Zacchaeus in the New Testament put themselves in the way of Jesus. That they might see more of him. As followers of Jesus instead of pulling back it's time for us to lean in. To put ourselves in the way so to speak of the presence of God. And then we reach this refrain that seems to find itself all throughout this psalm where the psalmist turns now not merely to God but inwardly to himself. He stops listening to himself and starts talking to himself. Here's the thing I've noticed in my own life is that if you don't start talking to yourself about what is true your feelings will start to talk for you, won't they? Your feelings will start to talk for you. Now here's the truth about feelings and emotions. Feelings and emotions are wonderful passengers, aren't they? In the road of life. But they should not be in the driver's seat. They should not be in the driver's seat. They should not be the ones who determine every which way to go because as we well know our emotions at times can become like a yo-yo, right? Based on whatever circumstances we find ourselves in we would look to God and we would play that game that people would play with flowers as they pluck off each petal. He loves me, he loves me not. He loves me, he loves me not. How easy it is for us to get in this place where our emotions when they're driving we have this feeling of like God must love me today but tomorrow I don't know. Oh, my life is hard today. I don't know if God loves me. The truth is, friends, that is evidence that we feel like it's about more about our feelings rather than who God is that determines our place before God. And that, the Bible has a word for that. That is essentially a legalistic understanding of the gospel. And so we have to confront ourselves when we are leading ourselves astray. Michael Reeves, a British theologian, has said this, people will often tell you that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness but I assure you it's the opposite. Talking to yourself is the first sign of wisdom. Talking to yourself is the first sign of wisdom. Now some of you might say, well, I already do that. I talk to myself. But I want to ask you this morning, who's winning the conversation? Who's winning the conversation? The psalmist himself turns inward but he doesn't turn inward for the answers. He has the answers when he looks upward. It says here, 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. His hope is in God. His praise is fixed on God. And even that last phrase there, my salvation, it carries with it in the original language this meaning of the countenance of God's face. That God is there. God is aware. And God is before the face of God. He recognizes that salvation is before the face of God. So the real application we can take from this is that we must, as followers of Jesus who often find ourselves in weak moments, we must take a hold of ourselves. Martin Lloyd-Jones has said this, the main art of the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself, to know how to handle yourself, how to preach to yourself instead of listening to yourself. So in the desert we see that God is still present. He is still accessible. And when we see this, when we see this, we start to see a change in the setting. And that's what happens in the Psalm. The dryness turns into a troubling flood. Look with me at verses 6 to 11. The second stanza as we see the depths, the depths. I know in your bulletin it says the dual, but it should be actually the depths. I had to make a change there. Now the psalmist is saying, I may know God is present, but I don't have a footing to stand on. I don't have a footing to stand on. The struggle or search within the soul to grab a hold of the self and God reveals this spiritual dual going on within the psalmist. He starts in verse 6 by saying, my soul is cast down within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Herman. What he referred to as he remembered God in the land where he worshiped. Now he's far away distant, likely in captivity, likely finding himself in this foreign land. And he's calling himself to remember this God even in unfamiliar territory, which begs the question for us here today, is it comfortable surroundings or something more that stabilizes our faith? Is it our surroundings, the places where we're comfortable, or is it something more that ought to stabilize our faith? When the pressure rises, where is it that you find your footing? It's interesting, isn't it? As you read verses 6 and 7 and then also 9 and 10, there's just this chaotic scene, waters, and troubles surrounding the psalmist. There's this push and pull. He's tossed and turned. And yet in verse 8 he says this, by day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is within me, a prayer to the God of my life, the God who is my rock. I think the psalmist here is employing a very powerful word picture known amongst literary and biblical scholars as chiasm, where he bookends and creates this visible picture. He bookends this verse that we should be focusing on with two other verses that start to reveal the struggles that's going on. The psalmist here is showing in verses 6 to 7 and 9 to 10 how he's pulled down by himself. He's even pulled down by God, by the waterfalls of God, the waves that pour over him, and even for others the wounds that they inflict on him in verses 9 and 10. And the psalmist in verse 8 reveals where his footing ought to be, that God is not absent, God is not inactive, he's deeper. He's deeper. Because you'll notice in verse 7 when it says, deep calls out to deep at the roar of your waterfalls, all your breakers, your waves have gone over me. The psalmist acknowledges while he might be in turmoil he knows the one who is in control. He knows the one who has the power over all of these things. And so his perspective in the matter is starting to change. It's starting to change. Though it might not be apparently visible to him, he is able to trust the God who's at work beneath the surface. It's like if you plant a young tree, right? You plant a young tree or you put a seed in the ground as we often do at this time of year, planting gardens, planting plants. For the first little while there's no visible growth, isn't there? There's no visible growth. We don't see what's going on because it's beneath the surface. But if you could look in underneath that soil without disturbing it, there's a lot going on, isn't there? That seed is starting to sprout and the roots are starting to go deep. They're starting to find their footing and they're growing ever deeper so that as that starts to shoot up, as we start to see that visible growth, they have something they can stand firmly on as they grow. Here the psalmist in verse 8 understands that while he might not see it does not mean God is not active, which gives him a foundational change in perspective. Now that's not easy. That's not easy. But it doesn't mean it's not better. And then with that new perspective we can then look at everything that we've read in verses 6 and 7 and 9 and 10 and have a different perspective. You start to look at verse 7 where it says, "'Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.'" You know, commentators have struggled to know how to interpret this verse, but some have arrived at this conclusion that there's a dual meaning in this verse. As F.B. Meyer, the old Bible teacher, has said this, it's as if the depths of God are answering the depths of human need. Deep calls to deep. And in verse 9 we see the psalmist has found his footing because he's able to say, "'God is my rock.'" Even in his questioning. Even in his questioning. And so as we arrive at verse 11, this repeated refrain, it becomes stronger, a stronger confrontation and confidence in God, seeing even if slightly the God who's at work beneath the surface. You know the Christian life far more often is more like a crock pot, isn't it? Not a microwave. Although we might wish sometimes that things were quicker. The truth is, if you use a crock pot instead of, if you use a crock pot, that gives an opportunity for the true flavors of life or flavors of that meal to come out, doesn't it? It's easy for a microwave to make your meal blend. In the same way, the Christian life is slow at times. It's a slow growth, but it brings out the flavors, the essence of this God who's created this world, who will have his way, who is about his glory in this world. You see, in the depths of where you are, God is still at work. He's still active. He's still present. He's still powerful. And this reveals the movement that he begins in us. This final setting we see in Psalm 43, verses 1 to 5, reveals the direction. You've had the desert, the depths, now the direction where the psalmist is saying, God, bring me back to the light. God lead me where you want me. You notice the subtle shift in Psalm 42 to Psalm 43 from where are you, God, to lead me. Lead me, O God. You know, it's one thing for us to find our footing, to find our foundation, but finding the next step is quite another, isn't it? Finding the next step is quite another. We need a path to walk. And it's important as we look at Psalm 43 to notice the question still remain. God, why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning? And this gives us a powerful truth about hope, isn't it? Hope in God is not the absence of fear. It is not the absence of questions. But it is an assurance of the God who is over all things, who is with us in all things. And so the psalmist can confidently say, send out your light, send out your truth. Later on in Psalm 119, verse 105, a very familiar verse where it says, your word is a light to my feet. It is a light to my path. You see, God provides what it is we need, what we need more than anything, His revealed word. And in this word we are brought to Jesus who is the rock beneath our feet, who is the shepherd who guides us home. And so we can say, as the psalmist does in Psalm 43.5, in a stronger, in a louder, in a more sure, steadfast manner, why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. The psalmist can be assured that God's light and truth will lead him home, will lead him to the place where God is, will lead him to the place of worship and praise, because he trusts in the promise of God. Consider a master craftsman. We often, when we go to shows or art shows of some kind or when we're acknowledging a building or we see someone who has a great talent for building some kind of structure, we admire the finished product, don't we? But it's only the master craftsman who knows every step of the process, every step of the way. For us, we might find ourselves in our lives asking, questioning, struggling, because we don't see the finished product. We don't see the finished product. We don't see the masterpiece. So we must trust the master. We must trust the master who is building within each one of us in Christ, building us up to be this holy structure, to be the church, this place where God dwells. You know, there's something about when we've gone through seasons of spiritual dryness, together. There's something about that, that when we get back on track, in some way, we're further ahead. Like, think about the moments where you have had many struggles in your life, where you've sensed a distance from God, where you've asked those deep questions. When God has led you along his way and revealed to you his presence, his power, his promise to you, it's almost like you didn't know where you were, but somehow when you look back, you're further than where you were when you began this so-called downward spiral. You see, God uses even these moments to make us stronger, wiser, humble, more close to Him, so that we might see that along the journey, no matter what we face, God is still leading. How do we conclude these two Psalms? Well, as we began, the truth is the gospel doesn't change when our feelings, our circumstances do. Maybe for you today, maybe you are exhausted. Maybe you've wandered. Maybe today you've never trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior. Wherever you might be along the journey, there is one answer. There's one answer to all the questions you have. And the answer is the promise of God. That is your only hope. That is the only thing that will lead you, guide you, strengthen you, transform you, change you. That's the promise of God. Maybe you've heard of the English classic, Pilgrim's Progress, written by John Bunyan back in the 1600s. Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory of the Christian life that reveals the life of the Christian. It can be likened to one pilgrim on the path from the city of destruction to the celestial city and all of the things that we encounter along the way, the good, the bad, and the ugly. In one particular point in Pilgrim's Progress, Christian, the main character, and his companion, Hopeful, have lost their way and they've gone off route. They're wearied, they're cast down, and they tried to find a place to rest and fell asleep. However, they didn't realize that where they had chosen to sleep, where they'd chosen to rest was a, in doing so, they've trespassed on the grounds of Doubting Castle. And they were awakened by a forceful giant named Despair, who captures them and locks them in his dark, miserable dungeon. In great distress, abused and mistreated for four days, far away from society, there were beaten down with sorrow, fear, and doubt. Christian and Hopeful see no way out of this stronghold that is so horrible, they expect themselves to die in that dungeon. When the prisoners are just about to be killed by the giant, Christian suddenly remembers that he is a key in his pocket. That key is called Promise. Promise. And that key will open all the doors and the gates of the castle and causes and allows Christian and Hopeful to escape this dungeon, to escape the giant Despair and find their way back to the Holy Way. You see, there is a promise for each one of us here. The gospel is God's promise made accessible, made active, and that advances us in the Christian life. May you know today that in the desert, God is still present. May you know today that maybe you're in the depths, God is still at work. May you know today that even along the journey, God is still leading. This is his promise to you. And friends, his promise is more than a mere concept. It's more than a mere thought. His promise has a name. That name is Jesus Christ the Righteous. He is a person. May you pray with me.