Resources: Lesson Manuscript, PowerPoint, and Devotional
Franklin Heights Church Connect Groups: https://franklinheights.org/connect/groups/
Review: Last week, we looked at how for the believer, God’s presence is inescapable and ever-present; he’s always with us. Because God is our very righteousness He makes our path straight. God’s enemies—the liars and flatterers—fall prey to their own schemes. Those who in contrast find their refuge in God alone are blessed with great joy.
Title: God’s Presence
Text: Psalm 42:1-11
Key Verse: Psalm 42:1, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.”
Theme: God’s presence brings peace and comfort even in times of adversity.
Introduction: Almost 1/3 f the psalms were written as cries to God, laments, written, prayed, and sung from places of heartache and discouragement. Ever been discouraged? Maybe you’re discouraged right now. Let God speak to your heart and lift you up anew from Psalm 42.
Main Points:
- In Times of Longing (Ps. 42:1-5)
Though mocked and taunted, the psalmist recounts prior times of traveling up to the house of God and joyously worshiping, and that encourages his heart now. The psalmist shows us what it means to long for God, something we should emulate.
1As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.”
Streams of water were essential for the deer to maintain it’s very life. With that same intensity, urgency, and priority, we should long for God, as well.
“2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?”
The psalmist’s spiritual thirst was vital for his life. We can trust in God to meet our deepest needs and longings. We know who to point fellow believers to, and we know where to point the lost to, in order to have their deepest longings met.
“3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
‘Where is your God?’”
His longings are unceasing and unabated.
“4 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.”
These would be the Jewish feasts and festivals of remembrance that all followers of God were to prioritize. They consisted of Passover, Pentecost, the Feast of Tabernacles, filling up Jerusalem every year. We don’t have to travel far to find joy in the people of God and presence of God through the one-time sacrifice of Jesus.
“5 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”
“Cast down” here (CSB) “dejected” here means mourning and bowed dow, prostrate.
“In turmoil” means upheaval. There was intense angst and unrest within.
Application: In the Christian life we all face times of longing like this. It should not come as a surprise to us.
II. In Overwhelming Times (vv. 6-8)
The psalmist compares his times of feeling overwhelmed to being in deep waters while recalling the joyful memories in worship in Jerusalem and recalling God’s immense love for him.
“6 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.”
This was the highest mountain in Israel from which the river Jordan flowed, a key source of life for the landscape, even a picture of the spiritual life flowing down to the valleys we face.
“7 Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.”
He’s describing being caught in an overwhelming flood that he’s being tossed around in the midst of. It’s like a scene on wicked tuna or the movie The Perfect Storm when one of the shipmates gets tossed overboard. Even when we feel tossed overboard and everything seems to us fearful and out of control, we know Who made those ways and controls them, and even in these torrential moments we can have peace and trust in our providentially watchful God.
“8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.”
The “faithful love’ here is God’s hesed love, his faithful, covenant-keeping, loyal love.
Let these truths serve as reminders to us when we’re feeling overwhelmed.
III. In Seasons of Waiting (vv. 9-11)
The Psalmist expresses grievances that many of us can relate to. His deliverance doesn’t come as quickly as he wishes and it’s not something he’s ok with. The enemy is still taunting. Yet, the psalmist preaches to himself that he needs to place his hope in God His Lord and Savior.
“9 I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 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?’”
The enemy was verbally taunting him and mocking him and his hope in God. Just because people doubt your hope in God isn’t an excuse to stop hoping in God. There’s a part of the Christian life that in dependence on the Holy Spirit calls for persevering grit. Keep trusting in God. Keep hoping in God. Don’t listen to your and His enemies.
“11 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.”
Even those his enemies taunted him and questioned his hope in God over-and-over again, he wouldn’t allow it to quench His soul from hoping in God. He had every reason to hope in God.
Gospel Conversation Transition Statement: “I haven’t dealt with that exact overwhelming circumstance, but I have been overwhelmed. May I share with you the hope I have fund in Jesus?” Discussion Question:
Gospel: Without God due to our sin and rebellion against His design we are without hope, we’re hopeless. But when we repent and believe in Jesus as He died on the cross, was buried and rose again defeating sin and death, when we repent and believe the gospel we then have the greatest of hope in Him. We all go through season of intense waiting: Waiting for that wayward child to come home? Waiting for that neighbor to finally give their life to Christ and be saved? Waiting for a breakthrough in a spoken/unspoken conflict, a resolution to an issue? Seasons of waiting…Let’s take a cue from the psalmist to hope in God our Lord and our Savior, knowing He’s got it all under control.
Keep longing for God.
Keep resting in His covenant keeping love.
Keep preaching the gospel to yourself.
Doctrine: Our key doctrine for this week is the Holy Spirit.
Lifeway says, “The Holy Spirit cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. The Holy Spirit’s presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ.”
Romans 8:9-11, “9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus[a] from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”
Discussion Questions:
- Based on this psalm, how would you counsel someone struggling with discouragement?
- How should we deal with overwhelming circumstances?
Big Takeaway(s):
- Lean on God for comfort.
- Remember God’s love for you.
- God’s timing is always perfect.
Caleb Walker 
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