Why so downcast...
“Hope in God, for I Shall Yet Praise Him”
Psalms 42 & 43
Psa 42.1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for Thee, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" 4 These things I remember, and I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. 5 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. 6 O my God, my soul is in despair within me; Therefore I remember Thee from the land of the
Psa 43.1 Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation; O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! 2 For Thou art the God of my strength; why hast Thou rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? 3 O send out Thy light and Thy truth, let them lead me; Let them bring me to Thy holy hill, And to Thy dwelling places. 4 Then I will go to the altar of God, To God my exceeding joy; And upon the lyre I shall praise Thee, O God, my God. 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. [NASB]
Sermon preached at
the Service of Worship
in memory and celebration of
the life of Samuel S. Magee
April 23, 1985 – August 4, 2007
Rev. Chris Robinson
Hope Presbyterian Church
8/8/2007
I. Introduction
Look around you. Behold, a great throng. And there is no place that the head of the deepest grieving household today would prefer to lead you than to the house of God. Behold, a great throng. Some among this throng have led other throngs in other places in procession to the house of God with the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. They and the throngs they have led, have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. But perhaps for some here that taste is difficult to recall today.
And there are five, yes six… or twenty-five… here today, who perhaps even feel excluded from the procession. Strange sentiment! Alien feeling! Unwelcome emotion! A leader and his family for so long at the head of the procession… and now does it appear that the streaming up to the mountain of the house of the Lord excludes you, you who have led so many in that great stream? There is one who has gone before you who led a great throng to the house of God, but for a time was excluded from the one thing he yearned above all else. The uninspired subheading attributes this Psalm to the sons of Korah. But I would side with such as Calvin and Sibbes who saw David as the more likely author, in his prolonged persecution under Saul.
And though you may feel excluded, barred from conversation and communion with God, severed from the comfort you have known and exulted in, yet you have come to the right place. And the door is not shut against you. But likely that statement does not dissipate the strange and alien and unwelcome waves that would seem to crush you. Now let another lead you to the throne of grace, that you may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. For this one uttered a longing cry; articulated a longing plea; and declared a longing expectation.
II. A Longing Cry
First, he uttered a longing cry. This cry is based on deep, deep experimental knowledge. In this longing cry there is intensity, there is an object, and there is an aggravation. David cries out, and being a man acquainted with the wild he knew the intensely mournful braying of the deer suffering want of water. Strange language perhaps, to one who has not tasted of the Lord’s mercies. But to you who have so tasted, you know some measure of this intensity. You have known the road of emptiness and where it leads, and you abhor the thought of abandonment to that road again.
What is the object of such intense longing? “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. In particular, to behold the glory of the only begotten from the Lord, full of grace and truth. Such glory was veiled from the eyes of David, but has brilliantly shone upon us in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. But God has been pleased to use means by which He allows us to behold His glory, and herein lies the aggravation. The aggravation for David was that he was cut off from access to the sanctuary, access to the holy place of meeting with God, access to the exercises of religion with the people of God.
Mockers say, “Aha! Where is your God now? If He cares for you, why does He make you suffer so? What kind of a God is that? Look at us, we’re not crying. Look at you, you have nothing and you’re eating your tears! So where is this God before whom you would dance and sing with all your might? What kind of a shepherd are you? What kind of a God did you lead people to; a God who leaves you crying in the wilderness?”
Perhaps some here today feel cut off from access to meeting with God. It is true for those who would not enter by the door, namely by trusting in Jesus Christ. Such have no access to meeting with God on any gracious terms—though the invitation is free to whosoever will believe. And to that I urge you: Call upon the name of the Lord! But for those who have rested in Christ, there is nothing the enemy of your soul would more prefer for you to believe, than that God has cut you off from access to Him.
But the longing cry appeals to its memory. This God—the living God—is good. He is True. He has before brought me into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. He has not forsaken me. I have been buffeted on every side. The enemy has assaulted me with fiery arrows of condemnation. My weakness, perhaps even disease darkening the thoughts of my mind and my heart, has crumpled my resistance and I am overcome in this world.
Perhaps even the dim, dim spark upon the smoking wick has become imperceptible to the eyes of my soul. Though I have no sense of it, that spark has not been extinguished; and it never will be, whatever becomes of me. Whether I do so or not again in this world, yet I shall praise Him for the help of His presence. And I will behold the glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. He has risen from the dead, and in Him I shall arise as well, to His everlasting praise.
III. A Longing Plea
Second, the psalmist articulated a longing plea. This plea is based on sound reason. In this plea there is a ground, there is a situation, and there is a covenant. “Oh my God, my soul is in despair within me.” There is the ground: He is God… and He is my God. If He is not my God, then I have no reason to expect Him to hear my plea. “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God,” He said. Why should He answer if you call upon other gods? But He is my God and He answers those who call upon Him.
The situation—David was separated from the place of meeting with God. Fleeing, hiding in the wilderness across the
The ground and the situation do not appear consistent with the covenant, the relationship forged by My God. “Why hast thou forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” As if to say, “You are my God. I am overwhelmed with trouble. You anointed me to be king over your people, and I can’t even come to the place where your people worship you. And now my adversaries mock me—but O my God, they are mocking you—saying ‘Where is your God? Why can’t He overcome us? Why can’t He even make a way for you to worship Him?’”
Calvin says “The soul of man serves the purpose, as it were, of a workshop to Satan in which to forge a thousand methods of despair.” And David reasons; “Why are you in despair, O my soul? Hope in God for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance, and my God.”
What is going on in your workshop? At such a time as this, does the enemy behold a field black unto the harvest of despair? Now is not the time to afford him that advantage. Now is the time to behold the glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Now is the time to behold my God, your God, whose grace and mercy have overcome the world. Now is the time to behold the King who cried, “My God, why have you forsaken Me?”
And the silence in response proclaimed for all to hear: “In order that I might never forsake those I have called My People. Though they be bowed down with despair, though they be hounded and chased unto the grave by the works of the enemy who would mock Me… I AM their God, and I will NEVER leave them nor forsake them. By the power with which I raise You up—My Only Begotten Son in whom I am well pleased—I shall raise them up as well, that they may behold your Glory, full of grace and truth, forever.”
IV. A Longing Expectation
Third, the psalmist declared a longing expectation. This expectation is based on faithful promise. “Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation. O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man! For Thou art the God of my strength; why hast Thou rejected me?” As if he said, “There is a deceitful and unjust man… but that man is not me!” You, O God of my strength, took a man named Abram from idolatry and caused him to believe in You, caused him to embrace your promises though he would not see their fulfillment in this world. And You, O God of my strength, accounted him righteous. And You, O God of my strength, set me among Abraham’s seed, and have given me the same faith as you gave him. And therefore You, O God of my strength have accounted me as righteous before You. There is a deceitful and unjust man… but that man is not me!”
Yet I am cast out, and blind. All is darkness when I cannot find a way to the house of God. All is distasteful when I cannot partake of the Word which is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb! All is unsteady when I cannot partake of the sacraments which seal Your promises to me! All is insecure when I cannot partake of the discipline of wise counsel! And now, O God, the enemy would cut off my hearing so I cannot seem to listen and make sense of what I hear. Now, O God, the enemy would have me excommunicate myself from Your grace. Now, O God, the enemy would have me starve myself of Your instruction.
Now, O God of my strength, I am very weak. There is one thing needful. I must behold the glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth! Send out the light of Thy grace and Thy truth, let them lead me!” And here… here is the hope—here the longing and confident expectation: “I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and upon my lyre or with my trumpet I shall praise Thee, O God, my God.
So 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.
V. Conclusion
Yes, there is One who has gone before you who has led a great throng to the house of God, but for a time was excluded from the one thing He yearned above all else. His name is not David, but was called his son. He thirsted, so intensely that His tongue cleaved to His jaw. He cried, for the silent glare of the Father’s wrath pressed great drops of blood from the pores of His skin. He pleaded, that His people whom the Father had given Him, might be with Him where He is, in order that they might behold His glory, on the ground that the Father had loved Him before the foundation of the world. And He expected, because He had come to do the will of the Father, and the Father had said to Him, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” His name is Jesus.
The enemy taunted Him, saying, “What kind of a shepherd are you? To what disappointment have you led the children who followed you?” “He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” Yes, He hoped in God, that He should yet praise Him.
The enemy expected to have gained a great victory. But the day of that victory is not today. Indeed the enemy’s expectation has been dashed forever. For Christ, who did the will of the Father, has risen from the dead. He has defeated forever the power of death over those for whom He bled and died. And whoever has trusted in the Lord, has done so because God, of His own goodness, has given to them a glimpse, however veiled it may have been, of the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
That was enough to convince us of our sin and misery, to enlighten our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and to renew our wills. It was powerful to persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered in the gospel. Those who have embraced Christ have been embraced by Christ. Nothing can separate them from His embrace, and therefore they must needs be raised up from the dead to the house of God, where they shall behold His glory forever, full of grace and truth. And they shall yet praise Him. Even if for a time on this earth they found themselves excluded from the joy of the throng streaming up to the mountain of the house of the Lord.
VI. Prayer
Multiply the fruit resulting through Sam’s Christian testimony while on this earth. What Sam planted, and others watered, please give growth. What others planted and Sam watered, please give growth
Katie and Jonathan: Grant, according to the riches of Your glory, that they might be strengthened with power through Your Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith, and that they, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that they may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Jeff: Grant that he might stand fast in the liberty for which Christ has made Him free, and not to be subject again to a yoke of slavery. That he would find deep and abiding joy in the blessed truth that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set him free from the law of sin and of death.
Kristin: Grant that through her diligence to handle accurately the word of truth, she might bear worthy witness to those who would satisfy themselves with worldly and empty chatter which leads to ungodliness. Let the sincere faith within her be a bright testimony to the glorious faithfulness with which Christ has loved her.
Steve and Candy: Uphold and strengthen their resolve unto contentment in Him, in whom all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Whom they have been made complete. Grant to them contentment in not being able to comprehend the great things which You do wondrously by the word of your power. Restore unto them in due time the great delight of leading the throng of Exeter Presbyterian in procession to the house of God, with the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
To all the extended Magee and Dupont family a special measure of contentment with weakness, that they might know the fullness of joy for Christ’s sake, that when in Him we are weak, then are we strong.
To all here who have come with expectations of one sort or another, grant that we might set all things aside for the one thing needful, that we might behold the glory of Christ, the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. For it is in His name we pray, Amen.
posted by Pastor Magee at 3:32 AM
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