Amen. Last week we began a return to the Book of Psalms. Book 2 consists of Psalms 42 to 72. Not as long as Book 1, but Book 2, beginning last week, led us into Psalm 42 and we noticed a few things. We noticed that the opening psalm of Book 2 was a lament. This psalmist is grieved over a variety of circumstances outside of him. He is also inwardly sorrowful and downcast. This is a psalmist who is also seems to be separated from where he would desire to be, and that is with the people of God. While all of the details are not provided by the psalmist, even the vagueness, the generalities of some of the statements we can affirm about the psalm are helpful to us because our lives can fit into this psalm in seasons we go through. We need Psalm 42 and we need Psalm 43. You can think of Psalm 43 as like a sequel. Think of something that, you know, maybe a film that was made and somebody said that was so good, there needs to be another. Psalm 42 is so important. You have a sequel to Psalm 42. 42 and 43 go together. There's even some familiar language. Maybe you saw some of that. I want to note a few things here. There's no superscription, but there was last week. Do you notice how at the beginning of Psalm 42, right above verse one, it says to the choir master, a masculine of the sons of Korah, but it doesn't have that above Psalm 43 one. In Psalm 44, it does return to that Sons of Korah reference. Now, I don't think we should assume that Psalm 43 is anonymous. I think the superscription in Psalm 42 and the lack of it in 43 means they are pressed together under the same authorship. Not an anonymous psalm at all, but continually the Sons of Korah's composition. In fact, there are some Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament that join these two psalms as one. That's instructive and interesting because we can see how integrally together they are to be read. Lastly, notice the ending of Psalm 43. 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. That was twice repeated in Psalm 42, wasn't it? Psalm 42 verse 5, Psalm 42 verse 11. And it divided up the stanzas of Psalm 42 into two big parts. It's like Psalm 43 is part three of the other two stanzas of Psalm 42. That refrain taken over into the psalm suggests to us very strongly and be more than suggesting demands us to read these two psalms together. So this is written by the sons of Korah to remind ourselves who they are. The sons of Korah are temple musicians from the tribe of Levi. And earlier on, before the temple was even built, David had assigned these sons of Korah various roles as they sang and wrote lyrics for the Israelite corporate worship. The Psalms are the products of these musicians, these lyricists, who were active in the worship of the people of God, even in the days of David. You see that in 1 Chronicles 6. That's just a reference for you. I'm not going to turn there, but it's a reminder of who these people are that we saw last week. And in this psalm, the ending of it is important. It seems that the refrain in Psalm 42 is important because it also ended that psalm. Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? And of course, Psalm 42 mentions it at verse 5 as well. So 42.5, 42.11, 43.5, this seems to be an important takeaway. The psalmist is addressing himself. Now these psalms are prayers, they are reflections and laments, and there is even a plea in Psalm 43.1, vindicate me, and in verse 3, send out your light and your truth. He is going to speak with petition to God and not just reflection on his lamentable circumstances and his inward sorrows. But the repetition of the refrain three times in two psalms must be something we see as an interpretive key to what we're to notice. This psalmist is exhorting himself to hope in God when every circumstance around him and every inward feeling of sorrow he might have would tell him to do otherwise. Part of those externalities include taunts from ungodly people. People who are calling him to turn from the Lord or mocking his oppressed state. Spurgeon comments on Psalm 43 and says, it's as if the psalmist is two men. His faith reasons with his fears and his hope argues with his sorrows. And when Spurgeon says it's as if the psalmist is two men, he means here the way the psalmist reflects on what he's dealing with, but then also begins to talk to himself, not just someone else, but to himself, to remind himself about what is true. We see in this psalm an opening prayer for vindication. Psalm 43 verses 1 and 2 give us the opening prayer of the psalmist for vindication. The reason this is important to notice as a request is because this previous psalm that we started last week didn't exactly have a request to God made clear. There are these reflections on his soul panting for God like a deer for living water. And there's this reflection on his, with his remembrance of his former celebratory activities and his overwhelmed situation under the waves and breakers of suffering. He even asks God, his rock, why have you forgotten me and why do I go mourning? But in Psalm 42, the only command he gives or exhortation he makes is to himself, hope in God. That changes in Psalm 43. And if we're reading them all together, which I think these two Psalms are meant to be read together, then here's the plea to God. Vindicate me, oh God. Vindicate me must mean the psalmist believes I'm not in a circumstance of my own making, but I'm surrounded by people who are charging me, accusing me, or in some way drawing conclusions about me, and I need the truth to be made known. I want to be vindicated. He asked to be vindicated and his cause to be defended, and there's no greater advocate for the people of God than their God. All right, so here you have the psalmist appealing to God himself to defend his cause. What would that look like if the vindication or the defense of the psalmist's cause was fulfilled? Well, they would look something like the Lord intervening in the psalmist's circumstance. rescuing the psalmist from whatever plight he's currently in. When the psalmist says, vindicate me, oh God, and defend my cause, he has in mind something that he wants the Lord to bring about change to. And he draws attention in verse one to external conflict. Defend my cause against an ungodly people. From the deceitful and unjust man, deliver me. That parallel phrasing is important because the ungodly people are characterized here with injustice and they're characterized with deceit. No surprise there. If they're considered ungodly, we would imagine that their words could not be trusted. If they're the wicked who've aligned themselves against God, they would have aligned themselves against the people of God very easily. The psalmist is saying from this deceitful, unjust man, these ungodly people, I need you, oh Lord, to come to rescue. The psalmist does not see that he himself can pull himself out of the plight he's in. It must be God. And this is the kind of thing we see all over the Old and New Testaments. Think of the Israelites at the Red Sea. The Israelites going to the Red Sea, pursued by those angry Egyptians coming after them, they'd just been delivered through the mighty Exodus, and then there seems to be no way out with this overwhelming body of water. But pressed up against the sea, what the story shows is that when God rescues his people, he shows that there is no other hope they could ever have had than God. The most reasonable thing they can do is to turn to God, and the psalmist here is praying for God to vindicate him. To defend his cause, this is the psalmist's plea. Now, what must he assume about God? What does he know about God's character that makes this make sense? Well, if an ungodly people and a deceitful people have come against him, the psalmist knows that doesn't please the Lord. Because it must mean that God is not like those people. If these people are deceitful and unjust, God is not like that. God is just and God is truth. And God is a defender of the vulnerable and the weak. And this psalmist here is surrounded by these circumstances, calling out for vindication. And he knows the character of God is what he can count on. God is faithful. God is righteous. If God is righteous, then God cares about vindication. God cares about injustice brought against the psalmist. God is not indifferent. And therefore, the psalmist prays because of what he knows about God. He says in verse two, for you are the God in whom I take refuge. When we were traveling through book one together, One of the things I try to draw attention to is the language often seen of God being the refuge or place of standing for the psalmist. And a connection I wanted to make then and now is that one of the ways God is our refuge is we turn to him in prayer. I want us to connect here that the psalmist is praying to God and is saying in verse two, for you are the God in whom I take refuge. How is the psalmist taking refuge in God? He's turning to God with utter dependence and prayer. That's how. He turns to where his hope is. And we will all turn to where our hope is. We need to hope in God. so that as we hope in God, we shall then turn to him, because you will turn to what you find solace in. You will turn to what seems to be a refuge for you, that you think is gonna get you through. And this psalmist says, God is my refuge. And if we know what we do about God from his word, and we know of God's will of love and covenant keeping toward his people, the most reasonable thing to do is that the people of God would hope in their God. It makes all the sense in the world. And you start thinking about the various reasons the psalmist is surrounded with these people saying, well, what about your circumstance? And where's your God? And it looks like you're all alone, trying to get him to turn from God his rock. He says, you're the God in whom I take refuge. But then, the questions in verse two. Maybe they take us aback, given what he just said, you're my refuge. He then says, why have you rejected me? Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Okay, wait a second. God, you're my refuge, and then these questions here, how do these questions fit with what he knows about God? Two questions, why have you rejected me? Question number one. And then number two, why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? The psalmist described their challenging circumstances as sometimes it looks like they're on their own. He's giving questions from an earthly perspective and not an objective reality. From an earthly perspective, the sense of things, the way it can feel is that he's left out on his own. No life preserver, no rescue line, no people coming to help. So he's in these circumstances, surrounded by these taunters, inward sorrow, and he says, Lord, have you forgotten me? Why? Lord, why am I going about mourning because of the oppression of my enemy? So the oppression is there. Where is God? The inward sorrow is there. Has he been forgotten? The psalmist will frame, with these questions, their situation from an earthly perspective as if they're on their own. But the psalmist knows he's not on his own. We have this Psalm. That's how we know. He's praying to God. That's how we know that he's turning to God and hoping in God and describing his situation in these negative terms, saying, Lord, I want this to change. I want you to come through. I want you to deliver. Don't reject me. I don't want to mourn because of the oppression of my enemy. Why is this happening? This is the urgency there. You're the God in whom I take refuge. So God, I'm hoping in you. If it's not you, Lord, it's not going to happen. If you won't do it, I have no power. So he's surrounded by all of these taunts, and he's praying to God, and he's asking questions to God. But these aren't exactly the same kinds of questions his enemies are wanting him to ask. For instance, in Psalm 42, verse three, they say to me all the day long, where is your God? That's mockery. It's dismissive language. It's trying to get the psalmist to look at his circumstance and say, I guess I'm going through something because God has abandoned me. I guess this is happening to me because God doesn't love me. And the people on the outside would say, yeah, that's right. God's turned against you. God is not for you. And they're trying to cast aspersion on God's covenant and God's character. Where's your God? The psalmist doesn't want to listen to them. He calls out for God to vindicate him. God is his refuge, and he knows that he has no other to turn to. The psalmist's prayer continues. Not only did he plead for vindication in verse one, he pleads for light and truth in verses three and four. Here's how these verses work together. 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'll go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I'll praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. He's praying for light and truth. He's praying for the things that he needs with where he's at. He is groping in the darkness, that's what it feels like. He's in the valley of the shadow of death and he is going around and he can't see what's right in front of him. The sorrows and the taunts and the waves and breakers of his suffering are too much. He cannot handle it. What he needs in the darkness is light. And something else that's happened is people are casting aspersions upon God's character. They're in some way accusing him and he needs vindication. He needs the truth to prevail. So what he needs is what he prays for. He prays for light and he prays for truth. The very things that he needs, these are not, however, separate from God. Think of light and truth as representing God with metaphors or figures here. If God were to send light and if God were to send truth, these are not things separate from God, but things God gives as he makes himself known to us and leads us. The Israelites know what it is to be a people led. They come out of Egypt, out of their enslavement under the Egyptian administration. And they go through the wilderness led by God. And He leads them with a pillar of cloud by day and a fire by night. Think of the cloud and pillar as the light and truth referenced here. The psalmist is saying, Lord, I need you to lead me like you lead your people. I don't need you to redeem me and then abandon me. I don't want you to forget me. I don't want to go about mourning with a downcast soul. I need to follow you. I need you to lead me with light and truth. Lead me. Send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Now where's this psalmist want to go? The most important thing the psalmist wants to do is come before God with the people of God in worship. He wants to seek God with God's people. Last week in Psalm 42, I said that the psalmist's soul needs to seek the Lord and his body needs to do it with the people of God. And in Psalm 43, the same thing is emphasized. From Psalm 42, we notice that he says in verse two, when shall I come and appear before God? And in verse four, he seemed to remember, he says, when he used to go with the throng and lead the procession to the house of God, something has disrupted that. But he doesn't want his spiritual discipline and routine and pursuit to remain so disrupted. He wants to go before God because the one he needs above all is to seek God and with the people of God. He says, let your light and truth bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. Well, in the Old Testament, let's think about what that phrasing refers to. The Holy Hill is a catchphrase for the city of Jerusalem and the place of worship. When David brought the Ark of the Covenant to the new place of worship, he called for the Ark of Covenant in 2 Samuel 6 to be brought to Jerusalem. And later, the temple would be built there to replace the tabernacle. When he says, bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling, it's sanctuary imagery, isn't it? It's worship imagery. It's corporate worship emphasis here. I want to come, Lord, to where you are, where your glory dwells. I want to be with your people at your holy hill and your dwelling. Why is the hill holy? Plenty of hills in the promised land. Well, this hill is a holy hill because it's the place of worship set apart with the sanctuary of God. So lead me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. This light and truth refers to God and to his word. God is a light for his people, and God has made himself known in truth. When the psalmist says, send your light and your truth, it's not something separate from God and what God has made known. It has to do with the psalmist coming to understand and delight in and know what God has made known. John Piper puts it this way, the psalmist is praying for spiritual light. He says it's not physical light. Physical light helps physical eyes see physical reality. Spiritual light lets spiritual eyes, the eyes of the heart, see spiritual reality. Well, Piper's right. This is the case of the psalmist in this darkness of suffering and sorrow, and he needs the light of what it is to know God and have the truth of God upon his heart to lead him. because the darkness whispers lies to us, and our sufferings mutter untruths to us, and our feelings deceive us. You know what the psalmist needs? The psalmist needs light and truth to lead him. The psalmist is not the most trustworthy thing in his life, God is. The psalmist's feelings are not the most trustworthy thing in his life, God's word is. So you know what the psalmist needs in his darkness of sorrow is light and truth because that's what he lacks. And it's what God gives. So the psalmist says, let him lead me and I will go to the altar in verse four. I will go to the altar of God. Now you go to the altar to offer a sacrifice in the Old Testament. The altar where sacrifices were offered is fulfilled by the work of Jesus on the cross. But sometimes it wasn't a substitute sacrifice that was offered on an altar. The bronze altar in the tabernacle courtyard would receive Thanksgiving offerings and vow offerings. And it could be like something, it could be something like that where the psalmist is going with determination to show his thanksgiving to God with an offering of praise. This could be confirmed with that last line. I will praise you with the lyre, O God my God. Praising God with thanksgiving, praising God with a heart of joy. He wants to go to the altar of God because he loves God, he knows God, he trusts God, he hopes in God, and look what he calls God. I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy. It's difficult to try to overstate the stupendous, glorious, supreme language the psalmist is using there. What is God to the psalmist? There is no greater delight the psalmist has than God. The Lord has filled his creation with many joys to steward and to partake in and to give thanks for, but there's no joy God has given greater than God himself. The psalmist calls God my exceeding joy. The psalmist believes this even though it's dark. The psalmist believes this even though his soul is downcast. The psalmist exhorts himself in light of who God is. God is my exceeding joy. C.S. Lewis, in his book, Mere Christianity, remarked a lot about the happiness and desires and joys that people experience under the sun. And he noted how interesting it is to observe how our earthly desires have these corresponding fulfillments, and he gives some examples. He says creatures are not born with desires unless a satisfaction for those desires exist. A baby feels hunger, well, there's such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim, well, there's such a thing as water. Lewis says, if I find myself, if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, then the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. Because Lewis knows the way God has designed things is that those desires have a fulfillment. Lewis says, if none of my earthly pleasures satisfy, that doesn't prove the universe is a fraud. Earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to suggest the real thing. What I'm saying to you is what Lewis is saying with other words. We were made that God would be our exceeding joy. that our earthly desires that we have, have an accompanying fulfillment, but it's not in the temporary pleasures around us. It's not an ambitious pursuits that people around us would encourage us to focus and live our lives for. It is God for whom we are made. And God is the exceeding joy of the psalmist. And I wonder if that sounds weird to you, or if you say, no, I get that. The more I learn about the scriptures, the more I learn about who God is, the more I join with the people of God, the more I see the joy of what it is to know this God who's made me and saved me and delivered me and keeps me. The psalmist calls God my exceeding joy. I will praise you, he says. with the lyre. The lyre's like a harp, stringed instrument, and he says, I'm gonna praise you, O God, not just with my voice, with my hands even. I'm gonna make music to you, O God. I wanna praise you and worship you, O God. O God, my God. Such a personal element in those words, right? You hear it. God's not just some people's joy. The psalmist says he's my exceeding joy. And he's not just the God of others, he says he's my God. The psalmist is resolved to speak so personally and individualistically here, not to deny the corporate realities he's already affirmed, but he is intimately known by and loved by God. The psalmist believes this. Nothing that happens is gonna contradict that. And that's why he talks to himself in verse five. We see the psalmist self-talk. that draws an end to the short psalm this morning. He says, why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? That question appeared twice in chapter 42 that we saw. And it's a question that really got the attention of a medical doctor who became a preacher named Martin Lloyd-Jones. You may have heard of Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, a number of books perhaps that he's written and sermons he's given, some of the audio of which from the 1900s is still available. He has a book called Spiritual Depression where he reflects a lot on Psalms 42 and 43. And what stood out to Lloyd-Jones is the important action of the psalmist here as an example for us who speaks to his own heart with truth. You might hear the phrase from time to time, preaching to yourself truth, preaching the gospel to yourself, exhorting yourself with truth, exposing your mind to what you know and not just listening to what your heart feels. Lloyd-Jones was a deep believer and practitioner of this discipline. So from his book Spiritual Depression, I want to quote something that meant a lot to me many years ago when I first heard it. Closing in on 20 years ago, I first heard what was a paradigm-shifting notion for my own spiritual life and discipleship. I alluded to this last week, but I want to highlight a few lines from Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones in his book, Spiritual Depression. And I hope this will mean as much to you as it has meant to so many who have read it throughout the years. He says, the main art in spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. Now, if I didn't put yourself at the end of that sentence, but just left a blank, in the main art of spiritual living is to learn how to handle, you might say, okay, what goes in that blank? Learn how to handle other people, boy, what problems they can be, you know, other people and other circumstances and things, you know, outside of me, gotta learn how to handle that, gotta learn how to handle this. I wonder if it surprises you that what Lloyd-Jones says is the main art in spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. He says you have to take yourself in hand and address yourself, preach to yourself, and question yourself. What's the psalmist doing? Hey, self, soul, why are you cast down? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God. Not only does he start to question himself, he starts to tell himself what to do. Lloyd-Jones says, you must say to yourself, hope thou in God. You must go on to remind yourself of God, who God is, what God has done, what God has pledged himself to do, and then say with the psalmist, I shall again praise him. Lloyd-Jones talks about how so much of trouble in our lives that keeps us discouraged and despairing is listening to a lot of untrue thoughts and feelings that come through our minds and hearts unchallenged. Lloyd-Jones says, what if you just took a different position with regard to your thoughts and your mind? What if you looked at yourself and you said, hey soul, hope in God. Why are you cast down? Why are you in turmoil? Hope in God, oh God, my salvation in my God. The psalmist begins to engage in a manner of what you could call the discipline of handling your soul, handling yourself. This doesn't diminish at all the importance of the relationships and the intricacy of the body of Christ. But it is to say Lloyd-Jones is on to something when he reads this psalmist, when he sees the example the psalmist is giving. He's on to something here when he says that the main art in spiritual living is knowing how to handle yourself. Jesus says, if anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself, Take up his cross and follow after me. Because there will be no bigger spiritual obstacle in your pursuit of Christ than your own indwelling sin. Not somebody else, you. You before God. With our weaknesses and our frailties, with our sins and our shortcomings, with our shame and our corruption, we ourselves, and Jesus says, follow after me. Turn from self. Pursue me. The psalmist says, hope in God's self. Don't be downcast. Hope in God's soul. Why are you in turmoil within me? When we see the psalmist saying in verse four, I will go to the altar of God, my exceeding joy. How do we think of that as 2024 new covenant Christians? So many years removed. David lived around 1000 BC. And so these tabernacle worshipers and temple musicians that would write these psalms, and we're talking so many centuries, 3,000 years thereabouts. So we don't think, okay, where's that altar I gotta go to, to God my exceeding joy. In the storyline of scripture, this altar is caught up in the new covenant work of Christ on the cross and out of the empty tomb and in the gathering of his church as his temple. So let's think of it this way. If in the Old Testament a sanctuary or the physical temple that replaced the tabernacle was that notion of that's the place of worship, that's the temple. And in the New Testament, the people of God are the dwelling place of God, the people of God are the temple of God, indwelled by, saved by, kept by His Holy Spirit, then we, we need, as spiritual medicine for our souls, to gather with the people of God for the praise of God. And we come not to a mere bronze altar, The sacrificial place is caught up in the cross. So we come as the people of God together to worship and seek God together. The God who has come to us in Christ Jesus, crucified in our place and risen from the dead. Christ is our exceeding joy. He is our redeemer. He's the crucified risen one. We listen to language like this in verse four, and as Christian readers of the psalm, we have to ask ourselves, how does this now transpose, so to speak, all these years later with the way we conduct new covenant worship? Christ is the altar of God. He is the fulfillment of that sacrificial place. The people of God are the dwelling and temple of God by His Holy Spirit. And God remains the exceeding joy and delight of His people as they seek Him. So friends, what we must do with the psalmist is say, I will go to Christ. I will seek Christ. I will trust in Him. Hope in Christ, O soul. Why are you in turmoil within me? John Piper is right, the light and the truth, send your light and your truth, where does that lead? The light and truth leads us to Christ. and to His cross. That's where the light and truth lead us, to the place of victory, and the place of atonement, and the place of assurance, and the place where God beckons sinners to come, where mercy and life is what they find. So, O downcast soul, why are you in turmoil within me? I shall go then to Christ, I shall go to Christ, the altar of God. I shall go to his cross, the place of my salvation. For there is my redemption. There is my pardon of sin. And there is life eternal there in Christ, my exceeding joy. Let's pray.