What Makes You Tick?
Psalm 42-43
Main Idea: Jesus satisfies our soul’s greatest desires and disarms our deepest doubts so we can hope in Him.
Four reasons why Psalm 42 & Psalm 43 should be read as one unit:
In a number of Hebrew manuscripts, the psalms are joined together as one unit.
Psalm 43 has no introductory title, although every other psalm in book two does (except Psalm 71).
The common refrain repeated three times at the end of each stanza links the composition as one cohesive whole (42:5; 42:11; 43:5).
The content and themes of both psalms are consistent and united.
I. A Deer and Our Soul’s Desires (42:1-6a)
2 Corinthians 10:5: We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problem of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man's treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself, Why art thou cast down, O my soul?' he asks. His soul had been repressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: 'Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you'.”
~ Martin Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure
Matthew 6:19-23: Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
II. The Deep and Our Sin’s Destruction (42:6b-11)
“We sometimes forget that the kind of thirst for God of which the Bible speaks is also a terrible experience. It means that we feel a famine of his presence, and absence of his grace and power. Spiritual thirst is painful, not pleasant; it may produce melancholy, not melody in our lives.”
~ Sinclair Ferguson, Deserted by God
It is normal to hurt. When Jesus says “my soul is very sorrowful” (Matt. 26:38; Mark 14:34), the word “very sorrowful” is the same as that of “cast down” (Psalm 42:6b). Elsewhere we see Jesus echoing this Psalm using the words “my soul … in turmoil” (John 12:27). Therefore, this psalm is a window into the life and mind of our Lord Jesus.
Christ, as our high priest, is always able to sympathize with us (Heb. 2:17-18). He himself enters into the crashing waves of grief so common to God’s people. “Most of the Lord’s family have sailed on the sea which is here so graphically described” (Charles Spurgeon).
III. Our Defender and Our Savior’s Delight (43:1-5)
“Prayer is yoked with praise. He who is the living God, is the God of our life, from him we derive it, with him in prayer and praise we spend it, to him we devote it, in him we shall perfect it. To be assured that our sighs and songs shall both have free access to our glorious Lord is to have reason for hope in the most deplorable condition.”
~ Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David: Psalms 22–57
Jesus is the vindicator (43:1), the defender (43:1), the deliverer (43:1), the refuge (43:2), the one whom we cry out to in prayer (43:2), the light (43:3), the truth (43:3), the fulfillment of the tabernacle on the holy hill (43:3), the final dwelling place (43:3), the perfect altar (43:4) sacrificed on our behalf. He is and ought to be our exceeding joy (43:4). He is our God, and he is our hope.
