Perhaps it's easy to smile in the light, but what do you do when the night comes? And it will come! What do you do when trouble comes that you were unprepared for and that you do not understand? What do you do in those moments when it seems like God is distant and the heavens are brass? What do you do when you feel alone and under attack? What do you do when it seems like no one knows and no one understands, like faith flickers as if it's going to go out? Turn in your order of worship; I believe it's to page 9 to Psalm 42.
A Psalm of Spiritual Struggle
This is a Psalm of spiritual struggle, a Psalm of the wrestling of the soul. This is an honest and provocative Psalm. Perhaps it's in the Bible to unsettle us; it's in the Bible to alert us that perhaps the life of faith is not always one of celebration and joy. Yes, this is part of the walk of faith. Perhaps this Psalm was written during the Babylonian Captivity; it has a lot of that feel. And God's people were separate from Jerusalem, separate from the Temple of God's presence. And this Psalm is laden with graphic images, the deer, parched, running through the bush looking for some kind of brook, some kind of pond, even a dirty puddle, to somehow get something to drink, weaker and weaker with every step.
A picture of such strong emotion that you don't want to eat, and crying so hard that your tears stream down your face and into your mouth, and your tears actually are your food, of the waterfalls of grief, the waves of grief rolling over you. Oh, you get a minute of respite only to know, only to feel the waves come over you again--provocative images. Do you wish that Psalm 42 weren't in the Bible? Well, it is. A picture of being spiritually parched, a picture of feeling shut out from God, a picture of not knowing where relief is to be found, of emotions that you can't escape from, of feeling under attack.
Maybe you would think, "Well, this can't happen to the life of a believer; this has to be outside of the life of faith; surely one of God's people couldn't go through this experience." I want to take a moment to read for you from a dear friend of Tenth Church, R. C. Sproul. I don't read something normally of this length, but I thought his words were more forth while than mine. 'The dark night of the soul.' This phenomenon describes a malady that the greatest of Christians have suffered from time to time.
It was the malady that provoked David to soak his pillow with tears. It was the malady that earned for Jeremiah the sobriquet, 'The Weeping Prophet.' It was the malady that so afflicted Martin Luther that his melancholy threatened to destroy him. This is no ordinary fit of depression, but it is a depression that is linked to a crisis of faith, a crisis that comes when one senses the absence of God or gives rise to a feeling of abandonment by Him. Spiritual depression is real and can be acute. We ask how a person of faith could experience such spiritual lows, but whatever provokes it does not take away from its reality.
Our faith is not a constant action. It is mobile. It vacillates. We move from faith to faith, and in between we may have periods of doubt when we cry, "Lord, I believe, help Thou my unbelief." We may also think that the dark night of the soul is something completely incompatible with the fruit of the Spirit, not only that of faith but also that of joy. Once the Holy Spirit has flooded our hearts with a joy unspeakable, how can there be room in that chamber for such darkness? It is important for us to make a distinction between the spiritual fruit of joy and the cultural concept of happiness.
A Christian can have joy in his heart while there is still spiritual depression in his head. The joy that we have sustains us through these dark nights and is not quenched by spiritual depression. The joy of the Christian is one that survives all downturns in life. In writing to the Corinthians in his second letter, Paul commends to his readers the importance of preaching and of communicating the Gospel to people. But in the midst of that, he reminds the church that the treasure we have from God is a treasure that is contained not in vessels of gold and silver but in what the apostle calls 'jars of clay.' For this reason he says, 'that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.' Immediately after this reminder, the apostle adds, 'We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.' This passage indicates the limits of depression that we experience.
The depression may be profound, but it is not permanent, nor is it fatal. Notice that the apostle Paul describes our condition in a variety of ways. He says that we are 'afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down.' These are powerful images that describe the conflict that Christians must endure, but in every place that he describes this phenomenon, he describes at the same time its limits. Afflicted, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed.
Faith Does Not Guarantee No Struggle
Now hear this, the presence of faith gives no guarantee of the absence of spiritual struggle. However, the dark night of the soul always gives way to the brightness of the noonday light of the presence of God. What will you do, what have you done when the dark night of the soul comes? I want to look just with you for a moment at verse eight because I think there's wonderful instruction for us in how to respond at these hard moments when you don't understand what God is doing, when you're facing the unthinkable, when you feel separate from Him.
When Psalm 42 is much more of a descriptive Psalm for you than you ever thought it would be. "By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life." One of the most important things to do in those moments of darkness is to remember the things that you've learned in the light. It is very easy, when darkness comes, to think that somehow God has changed, somehow His promises have changed, somehow God has moved. If on a bright and sunny day, you walk down into your basement where there is no light, and you're surrounded by darkness, the reality that you left is still reality, the sun still shines.
You just happen to be in a place of darkness. It would be wrong to panic and say, "The light is gone, the light is gone!" The light still shines. What the psalmist does here is reminds himself of something that's awesome, of the surety and the stability and the faithfulness of the covenant love of the Lord. His loving kindness is forever! I love Psalm 118; it is a friend to me. Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! Let Israel say, 'His steadfast love endures forever.' Let the house of Aaron say, 'His steadfast love endures forever.' Let those who fear the LORD say, (Say it with me.) 'His steadfast love endures forever.' Notice the image here: The Lord commands His steadfast love.
It's a metaphor. It's a military image. This is the Great Captain of love, the Great General of mercy and grace commanding the divisions of His love to invade the lives of His people. Isn't that a beautiful image? The Great Redeemer commands the divisions of His affection to march forward into our hearts, to march forward into our lives, to march forward into our souls, to invade us with the reality of covenant love. That's the picture! And that Army will not stop marching, it will not stop moving forward until all of the hearts of His people have been rescued and transformed by that love.
And hear this, in the night, listen for the steps of the Army because they march in the night as much as in the day. They march and they march and they march, even in your night. What a picture! At night, His song is with me. I'm not sure why, I don't know that I could explain it, but often when you're going through a dark night, physical night is even harder, and your mind is even more plagued, and there's a wonderful encouragement here, "At night, His song is with me." What an important thing to do, to sing the songs of redemption, to sing in the face of the night; light the candle of praise when the darkness comes.
Listen, light drives darkness away; that's its purpose. I talked to someone once who was going through one of these moments. She said, "I struggled to get a hold of my thoughts. They just raced. I couldn't harness my emotions. I couldn't read the Bible. I was so distracted." But she said, "The one thing that again and again brought peace to my soul was the music of the church of Jesus Christ. I would put on a tape, and I would sit close to the stereo, and I would rock, and I would hear, 'Great Is Thy Faithfulness,' 'It Is Well with My Soul,' 'What're My God Ordains Is Right,' and my heart would begin to lift.
Morning after morning, I would do that, night after night, I would do that." What song do you sing when the night comes? Do you light the candle of praise to drive away the darkness of the soul? And then the third phrase, "...a prayer to the God of my life." One of the awesome promises of Scripture is that the Lord is attentive to the cries of His people, that He never turns a deaf ear to His people, that the Lord of heaven and earth invites you into His presence to bring your cries before Him. This is more than a habit of prayer.
I Have Access to God
This is reminding myself that I have access to God. I have access to the ultimate source of Wisdom. I have access to the ultimate source of Power. I have access to the ultimate source of Grace. I have access to the God who rules everything; I would celebrate, and everything I would fear--He is my Father, and He welcomes me into His presence, and He hears and responds. And no matter how weak that cry is, no matter how riddled with doubt it is, no matter how faint it is, the storm of the darkness, He hears; He hears; He hears; He hears and He will answer.
What do you do in the darkness? Do you grab ahold of sturdy, available, covenant love? Do you envision the Armies of God's love invading your darkness? Do you light the candle of praise to drive away the darkness? Do you remember the awesome reality of your access to God? This is not a quick fix as we know from verse nine; the darkness may return; it may actually be a wrestle. But there is hope because this God of glory and grace will not abandon His own, and He will draw you once again to Himself.
And the light of His face will shine brightly on you once more. Maybe you're sitting there thinking, "Well, Paul, that was a hopeful meditation." Well, I would like to say this to you, "I think this is a gloriously hopeful Psalm." I think that is for two reasons: One, it is gloriously hopeful because it's in the Bible. Praise God, this is in the Bible because this is God letting you know, "I get your struggle, I understand your experience, I understand the wrestle of faith this side of eternity, I understand sometimes that war is a war being fought in the darkness; and I want you to know that I understand; and I want you to know that you need not be afraid as if something unique and weird has happened to you."
This is one of the passages of the life of faith-- sometimes it's light; sometimes it's darkness. But there's a more profound reason for hope in this Psalm. This Psalm is the narrative of the Lord Jesus. On the cross, He cried, "I thirst!"--parched and weak and alone! On the cross, perhaps His mind went to that celebration not too long before, as He came triumphantly, palm branches placed before Him, "Hosanna!" sung to His ear. No more! What his ears heard were the taunts of His enemies, "Where is your God?"
He faced separation from God, not just the separation of the confusion of the soul, actual separation from God as God turned His back on His own Son. And He did that for us as He bore our sin, crying out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" That Savior understands because He went through what you go through, but hear this, what He did was a substitution. He went through all of that so that God would never turn His back on you, so that God would never forsake you, so that guaranteed for you would ultimately be peace and rest forever.
And this Psalm reminds me that, in the dark night, there is hope because there is Jesus. Jesus is my hope! Let's Pray: Thank you, Lord, for this honest and provocative Psalm. Thank you for the reminder that, even in the darkness, there are resources that You would give us, of Your love, of Your songs of redemption, of glorious access to You even in the night. But thank you even more that this Psalm, like so many other Psalms, draws us to Jesus who went through the ultimate of darkness so we would know light and life and peace forever.
May we remember Him; may we cling to Him; may we find our forgiveness and peace and hope and rest in Him, even when the night comes. In Jesus name, Amen.
