God Leads to God #1

Welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, Founding Pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hello, I'm Bill Wright. Thanks for joining us as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.

Don begins a new message today, so without further delay, let's join him right now in the Truth Pulpit. You know, we all know something about the feeling of mourning, the feeling of going through difficult times, the feeling of struggle, and wondering where God is in the midst of that, and Psalm 43 kind of gives us a path to follow, to go through that, and to be able to come out well on the other side. As we mentioned last time as we studied Psalm 42, many commentators take Psalm 42 and 43 together. In fact, some or in fact many actually will say that these two were originally one Psalm.

They see that because there are common themes in 42 and 43. If you look at verse 5, for example, as we just kind of introduced things here, Psalm 42 verse 5 says, Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence. Verse 11 of Psalm 42, Why are you in despair, O my soul? Why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God. And then in verse 5, Why are you in despair, O my soul?

And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God. And so you have a repeated refrain in these two Psalms that are now separate in our English text, and so commentators look at that. They look at the fact that Psalm 42 has a heading and Psalm 43 does not, and they say, We think that this was originally one Psalm that should be read and studied together.

There are some early manuscripts that put them together. So that's not an unreasonable view, and it's held by so many good men that I wouldn't say anything critical about it. But there is something at stake here, and it's worth noting that that opinion is not unanimous, that these two were originally one Psalm. Charles Spurgeon said this, and he says something about the nature of Scripture that I think is important for you to hear that goes beyond simply Psalm 42 and verse 43. Listen to what Charles Spurgeon said, because this goes to a critical matter of the way that we consider the biblical text and the deference that we give to the Bible as we have received it. Charles Spurgeon said, On account of the similarity of the structure of this Psalm to that of Psalm 42, it has been supposed to be a fragment wrongly separated from the preceding Psalm.

So what he's saying is commentators say it was originally one, they never should have been separated. Listen to what he says, and let this inform your high view of Scripture. Spurgeon said, and I continue to quote, But it is always dangerous to allow these theories of error in Holy Scripture.

In this instance, it would be very difficult to show why this Psalm should have been broken. Its similarity would have secured its unity had it ever been part and parcel of Psalm 42. In other words, if these were originally together, why would they have ever been broken apart from one another is his point. And he says, Is it not far more likely that some in their fancied wisdom united them wrongly in the few manuscripts in which they are found as one? Spurgeon says, We believe the fact is that the style of the poetry was pleasant to the writer, and therefore in later life he wrote this supplemental hymn after the same manner. In other words, what he's saying is, Let's not suppose that something went wrong in the composition of the Bible. Let's not suppose that error took place, and that explains why we have two Psalms that sound alike instead of one.

Let's not do that. Let's just assume that there's another explanation, and frankly it's an explanation that you can relate to, and I want you to, there's a pastoral reason that we would make a point like this and dwell on it a little bit. Isn't it true in your own life that there are certain scriptures that you go back to again and again because they give you comfort in different seasons of life? It ministers to you at one point in life, you live on for a while, and then something else comes back, and you go back to that same passage of scripture because it gives you comfort, it gives you strength, it gives you wisdom and insight. You know something about that, don't you? There are certain texts that you go back to that have ministered to you personally again and again.

Well, you know something about the fact that you go back to the same fountain that you drank from that quenched your thirst before. Well, isn't it reasonable to think that a psalmist would have a similar experience in his own life? Psalm 42 was written, composed, and the theme and the manner of argument of Psalm 42 was effective, and so he comes back to it at another point in time and makes the same argument to his soul once again.

That's not unreasonable. The writer draws upon spiritual principles that helped him earlier in life and has them now to help him again. Well, whatever the history of the composition of Psalm 42 and 43 are, tonight we're going to turn to its exposition, and we're going to treat Psalm 43 as a stand-alone Psalm, and I think by the end of the night we'll be glad that we did. And what we're going to see here is very, very sweet and precious, and ultimately what Psalm 43 does is this. Psalm 43, written probably close to 2,500, 3,000 years ago, Psalm 43 is going to be like a rocket launch pad that launches us clear into eternity with its perspective on God. And with these five brief verses, we're going to break into three parts here tonight. First of all, we're going to see the morning of the psalmist as we open in the first two verses. The morning, m-o-u-r-n-i-n-g, his sadness, his grief, his sorrow, his difficulty, and that's what opens the psalm. This is one really cool psalm. I can't believe that we're finally able to exposit it here together tonight.

I'm very happy about that. As Psalm 43 opens, the psalmist is under attack. He is being criticized and undermined by men who were misrepresenting him and causing problems, and so he appeals to God who knows all things. He appeals to God and asks for God's help in the midst of his sorrow and difficulty.

Look at verse 1. He says, Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation. O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

The word could also be translated from an ungodly people. And he's saying vindicate me or plead my case. He makes both requests.

And these are like legal terms. He's asking God to act like a righteous judge and to declare a verdict in his favor, to show him to be innocent of the attacks that are being made against him. He said, God, help me like that. Be a judge and declare my case to be innocent. Plead my case, he says, kind of from another side of the courtroom analogy, saying, God, be my defense attorney. Defend me against the deceptive charges that are being made against me. He says, this is unjust.

This is not right. This is premised on falsehood, the attacks that are being made against me. And so he says, God, I ask you from your position of omniscience, your attribute of holiness, your faithfulness to your people, God, I ask you to step into this situation and help me and vindicate me from what's going on around me. Deliver me, he says.

Look at verse 1 again. Deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. He says, rescue me from the insinuations that are being made that are grounded in deceit and misrepresentation.

God, I am in a position where I cannot defend myself. God, I ask you to defend me, to help me and to manifest the justness of my cause, he says. And so, whatever the historical background was, this godly psalmist finds himself in a position where some kind of unfair personal battle, not of his own making, is being waged against him. And he is calling upon God to help him.

Now watch what happens as you go on in the text. Here in verse 1, he is appealing to God to help him, appealing to the power, to the loyal love of God to come to his aid. Now on what basis, on what ground does he approach God in that way?

What is his right to step into the presence of God and to ask God to come to his assistance? Well, look at verse 2. He says, for I'm making this request, O God, because you are the God of my strength. You are over me. I belong to you. And you belong to me. And so I come to you in your capacity of my God of power, my God of protection, and I ask you to exercise the obligations of our relationship to one another.

I ask you to exercise those on my behalf. You're the God of my strength, God. Bring your power to bear to answer my prayer. Now, that's a little bit of a hinge point in the text.

And watch this. The fact that God is his God and God is a God of strength is both a help to him at this time and it is also a perplexity to him at this time. As his help, it becomes the ground of the request that he makes in verse 1, saying, God, I need help. You are the God of my strength.

Therefore, on that basis I ask you to intervene on my behalf. That's a help that he's got a God like that to call upon, but it is also perplexing to him. And those of you that have been through some chronic long-term difficulties and it seems like the ear of God is brass to your prayers and it just kind of rings off his ear and nothing seems to happen as you call out to him, you can understand the sense of perplexity that is here. It is perplexity for this reason the psalmist cannot understand why God has not already delivered him when the sorrow has been so great and so deep and the waves have just come again and again to crush him time and time again. So you look at verse 2 again with me.

It says, You're the God of my strength. Notice how he pivots and the fact that God is strong leaves him with an unanswered question. Why have you rejected me? Why haven't you done anything to intervene and change the course of these circumstances? Look at verse 2 again. Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? God, if you're the God of my strength, why is it that my soul is continually crushed before you and there's no sense of comfort that comes? God, why do you allow these things to go on so that it seems as though you have rejected me? God, I cannot understand this prolonged deep crisis at the hands of a deceitful and unjust man. I can't understand why this is developing and continuing when you're a God of strength.

The strength of God would seem to be at odds with the difficulty that the psalmist is going through. Well, can't you relate something somehow to that kind of pain? You've felt this kind of pain before, haven't you? The pain of just repeated sorrows coming down upon you and it seems as though nothing changes. Perhaps you're discouraged in your isolation, discouraged in your physical weakness, discouraged by abandonment, and it seems like you've got nowhere to turn for comfort. There's no one with the strength or power to help you, no one with the ability to comfort your isolated and sorrowing heart.

Don't you know something about that? I have in times gone by and so I can look at this psalm and I can see my own sorrows in the past being played out before my own eyes. And if you can, then this psalm should become precious to you as we go along.

Here's what I want you to see, beloved. Two things, really, is that Scripture understands your sorrow. The Bible understands your weakness.

The Bible even allows for these kinds of questions to be articulated. You know, the psalms are given to us as a pattern that would help us express the sorrows and the deep movements of our heart in times of great affliction. And you should draw a sense of strength and comfort from that, that somehow you hold in your hands, or have on your iPad, a book that understands you, a book that can read you, a book that identifies with you and expresses the deepest thoughts of your heart in a way that nothing else does. A book from God, and God says, I get it.

I understand this is a common experience of the people of God. Once again, we're left with looking at this book and saying, this is so precious. And you just draw it close to your heart to realize that we have something like this from God.

Because. Why is that so precious? It's precious because it is another assurance that God sympathizes with you in your weakness, that God understands it and that God has compassion and that God cares. That's why a psalm like this would be in the Psalter in the first place. It's not there for God's benefit. God is perfect and unchanging. God is immutable.

God is not affected by things that happen. It's here for us. It's here for you to look and say, this is my entrance way into an understanding God. But there's something that this psalm also teaches us as it understands our mourning, as it expresses the mourning of the psalmist. And this is something that in my earlier years in particularly intense times of mourning, I missed.

I didn't get this. And I stayed in a stunted place of growth for far too long, far more than I needed to, that's for sure. You see. And now I'm I here I am in my mid 50s preaching, as it were, to the young Don in his late 20s. Here's what you need to understand, beloved, and those of you that that that struggle and that you're you know, and you're in the midst of depression. Take comfort from the fact that scripture understands this. Scripture makes allowance for it. God understands God's not threatened by your your questions. Our Lord Jesus Christ, it says in Hebrews chapter four, sympathizes with our weaknesses.

We have a high priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses because in his humanity he also suffered with the exception of sin. And so you ask the questions. But here's the thing that I missed for far too long. There is a way forward beyond the questions, and it is your responsibility and your opportunity and your prerogative to move beyond the questions. And maybe I was maybe I was just particularly bad and weird and all of that in the remote chance that perhaps some of you are now like I was back then. I kind of I kind of, you know, looking back on it, I willingly stayed in the questioning stage too long. And I engaged the questions longer than I needed to.

And it prolonged my agony and prolonged the difficulty, this talking about things from many, many years ago. Here's the thing, beloved. God understands the questions, but you have a responsibility and God has laid forth very clearly here in Psalm 43 the way to move beyond those questions. And it is your spiritual duty to do so, to not simply collapse under the weight of your questions and to stay there as if there wasn't provision that would help you to move beyond them. This is so crucial for you to see.

There is a way forward out of your questions that you must appropriate. It is your responsibility to do so if you are a Christian. Well, my friend, thank you for joining us here on The Truth Pulpit. And I just wanted to let you know of an additional ministry that you may want to take advantage of. A few years ago, over a period of years, I taught through all 150 Psalms, generally doing one message per Psalm. And we turned that into a separate podcast for all of those messages. It's titled Through the Psalms.

And it goes through all 150 Psalms over a course of about three years. And if that's something that you would like to use and benefit from, you can go to our website and find the podcast link and subscribe there. That's at thetruthpulpit.com. Once again, that's through the Psalms podcast. You can find it on our website at thetruthpulpit.com. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.