Psalm 42
To the choirmaster. A Maskil 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 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, and 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 Hermon, from Mount Mizar. 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 with 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, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me! (ESV)
Psalm 43
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 God my exceeding joy, and I will praise You with the lyre, O God, my God. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. (ESV)
The Main Idea:
Even when the believer’s soul is cast down by spiritual dryness, overwhelming trials, and inner turmoil, true hope, anchored securely in God through Christ, is actively and repeatedly practiced by preaching truth to oneself and continually returning, again and again, to trust, seek, and praise God with the confident assurance that joy will be restored.
Introduction:
The Anchor in the Storm
• This morning: Hebrews 6:19: “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul…”
• Now tonight, we move from doctrine to experience.
• What does that anchor feel like when the winds rise and the heart sinks?
• What does it mean to have an anchored soul when everything inside you feels unstable?
1. When the Soul Feels Spiritually Dry (Psalm 42:1–5)
2. When the Soul is Overwhelmed by Trials (Psalm 42:6–11)
3. When the Soul Moves Toward Restoration (Psalm 43:1–5)