How to have hope in a hopeless world?

There is a heavy cloud of grief, frustration, and fear hanging over our city. The weight of this heavy cloud is only multiplied by the grief, frustration, and fear in our own lives, in our own circumstances. With that picture in our minds, with that truth, it’s good for us to say that right here is the best place for you to be. Not because our church is magic and you come in and flick on the big magic fan and the heavy clouds go away and now our lives are happy and puppies and all the things, but because church is a place where we can sit in the cloud together. We can face it together and navigate it together. As we sing together, as we pray together, have food and coffee, sit next to each other, and hear God’s word together, what we’re doing is we are steadying each other. We’re teaching each other, encouraging each other, and we’re dragging each other onward towards the goal, towards Jesus. Thanks so much for being here. In the very wise words we hear so often in December, “All I want for Christmas is you.” Let’s pray as we get into God’s word.

Lord, help us now to listen. Help us to listen to what you have to say and help us to respond in obedience and in faith. Amen.

If you were here last week, you might remember that I started my sermon by pointing out the Christmas contrast. Because Christmas is so loud, so festive, and so celebrated, it can often make the darkness in our lives feel sharper, feel heightened, like a single missing piece in a jigsaw puzzle. At Christmas, our struggles are magnified. They’re highlighted. They’re more noticeable. How much more does that seem true for our city this week? How much more does it seem true for us this week? How much more out of place do the words joy, peace, and hope that are everywhere seem? They seem hollow, lacking substance.

With that contrast in mind, last time we answered two questions from Psalm 16. Here they are. First, why do we need an unshakable refuge? And second, how do we get an unshakable refuge? Why do we need one? Because nothing in this world can offer any kind of unshakable refuge for us. There’s stuff and money and intellect and relationships and family and health and houses. They’re all temporary. They’re all fleeting. How do we get one? Psalm 16 said there were three things that we needed. We needed the repeated sermon to repeatedly preach to ourselves that God is our ultimate good and that anything else that is good comes from him. We needed the honest reflection to recognize what it is that we’re prone to elevating over God. You might remember the same way that my dog Smither’s pants for, focuses on going for a walk when I say that word, our heart pants for, focuses on things other than God. Then we need the future confidence to trust that God’s love for us is so great that even the barrier of death cannot separate us from him. That’s Psalm 16.

By what can only be attributed to God’s kindness, today we are in Psalm 42 and 43 where we get to answer a follow-up question. What do you do if you just don’t feel like it? What do you do if you know the truth of Psalm 16, but how you feel doesn’t line up? What do I do when I know in my head that I am safe and I am secure in God’s unshakable refuge, but the volume of my circumstances is overwhelming? What do I do when, like the autofocus on a camera, my heart can’t help but focus on what I’m feeling and the truth of God’s word is blurry in the background? What do I do when I hear a sermon on Psalm 16 on a Sunday morning, and I’m convinced and convicted by God’s word, and I stick around for a coffee and community, and then a few hours later there’s a terrorist attack in my city? What do I do? What do you do when what you feel doesn’t align with what you know?

As you heard the Bible read out, you would have noticed that Psalm 42 and 43 have very similar language, a very similar vibe, and they’re often looked at together. This morning, we’re going to focus mainly on Psalm 43. Have a look in your Bibles there. Have a look at Psalm 43:2. You can see the psalmist is wrestling with this question. “For you are my God, my only safe haven.” That’s true. “Why have you tossed me aside?” It doesn’t feel like this is true. From verse one, we learn that there’s some kind of evil at work against him. It’s wearing him down. It’s draining him. Verse two makes a lot of sense to us. It really resonates with us. “For you are God, my only safe haven. Why have you tossed me aside? Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies?” You see, the psalmist’s heart is divided. What do you do? What do you do when what you feel doesn’t align with what we know from God’s word? What do we do when our hearts are divided?

Four things that Psalm 43 points out to us. The four things that we need. We need the reluctant prayer, the revealing light, the right trophy, and the recited hope. I did a good job making them all start with the same letter. Pretty proud of myself with that one. That’s what we need. This is what we need when our hearts are divided.

The Reluctant Prayer

On Tuesday night, my wife Morgan and I invited all of our connect group to our house to take part in a very important Christmas tradition. We watched a Christmas movie together. We watched Home Alone and it was fine. Then we watched Die Hard, the best Christmas movie. It was perfect. In Die Hard, there’s this scene where John McClane is trying to get away from the baddies and it becomes clear that his only option is to escape through the ventilation system. You know the famous scene where he pulls out the lighter and he says, “Come to the coast. We’ll get together, have a couple laughs.” He is very reluctant. Getting into the ventilation system is super dangerous, but he does it because the alternative is deadly.

In a similar way, the psalmist must be very reluctant to pray. Have a look again at the language. Psalm 42:3, “Day and night I have only tears for food.” Psalm 42:4, “My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be.” Psalm 42:6, “I am deeply discouraged.” Psalm 43:2, we already said, “God, you have tossed me aside.” Of course, there’s the repeated phrase in Psalm 42, verses 5 and 11, and in Psalm 43:5, we see that he is discouraged and his heart, his whole inner being is sad. In other translations, the language is much stronger. “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?” He’s sleepless. He’s anxious. He’s churned up and divided and distracted. Yet he knows that the alternative is much worse. The alternative is deadly. Maybe the psalmist has seen Die Hard. That would make sense. The Bible is divinely inspired after all. He must be reluctant to pray. Yet the alternative to keep away from God, to not pray, is far worse.

What do you do when what you feel doesn’t align with what you know? The first thing is you pray. Even if you don’t want to, that’s what you do. Even if the tank is empty, even if you’re convinced that God is to blame, you pray. It doesn’t have to be crafted or tempered. It might be as simple as, “God, I feel like trash. Would you please help me?” “God, I don’t understand what you’re doing. Please help me.” God is our father who loves us, who loves to listen to us, who wants us to be drawn towards him. The alternative to keep distance, to not pray, is far worse. What do you do when what you feel doesn’t align with what you know? You pray a reluctant prayer. That’s the first thing.

The Revealing Light

One of the things that light does is expose what’s hiding in the dark. I’ve only ever had one major car accident in my life. I was on my green P-plates driving home after midnight on Mulawa Road in my parents’ car and suddenly a huge kangaroo appeared out of nowhere, jumped in front of my car, and I hit it straight on at almost 80 kilometers an hour. I was okay. The front of my parents’ car was not okay. The kangaroo got up and jumped away. I did manage to drive home, even though it was very slow. Had it been daytime or had Mulawa Road had some street lights, I probably would have seen the kangaroo much earlier because light exposes, it reveals what’s hiding in the dark.

This is one of the reasons why the psalmist prays that God would give him his light. He’s wrestling with his divided heart and he knows that God has not tossed him aside like he has said in verse two. He knows it. What he needs, what he’s asking God for, is his light to expose and reveal his heart, to expose what has really happened. It’s not that God tossed him out. It’s that he has wandered away. That’s what’s really happened. By asking for God’s light, he’s asking for help. He’s asking to expose what’s hiding in the dark of his heart. He’s asking to reveal why there is a disjoint between what he feels and what he knows. What he’s asking God to help him with is to reveal the excuses, to reveal the self-pity, the misplaced blame, the unhealthy attitude. He’s asking God to reveal the self-built barriers between us and God so that they can be dismantled.

One of the reasons you might go to the doctor is you need some clarity or you need a diagnosis, even though it’s uncomfortable, even if the tests aren’t very nice. In a similar way, the psalmist is asking God for clarity, for a diagnosis, even if it comes with the uncomfortable reality, the uncomfortable revelation about the darkness in my heart. That brings us to the second reason that the psalmist wants God’s light. It’s to guide him back to God. To guide him back to God’s holy mountain, the place where he lives, to his presence.

One of the safety features of a large corporate building, maybe like a tower or a plaza perhaps, is they have emergency lighting to guide people to safety when the power is lost. This happens in Die Hard, of course. When the FBI arrive at Nakatomi Plaza, they cut the power to the building, which is what the baddies want. It’s part of their plan. At that point, the emergency lighting activates so that the movie can go on. The light that exposes and reveals is also the light that guides. Once these self-built barriers have been exposed and dismantled, the path back toward God is made clear again. We can be drawn back to him.

Of course, we know something that the psalmist doesn’t. We know that God’s holy mountain isn’t a place. It’s a person. We know that God’s presence isn’t found in a temple building, but in the Lord Jesus. The guidance that we need, the direction we need our compass to point to, is towards Jesus who died and rose for us. What do you do when what you feel doesn’t align with what you know? You ask God for his light. The light that reveals and exposes what’s really happening in here and the light that guides us back toward Jesus. That’s the second thing.

The Right Trophy

Imagine you’re at home with your brother or your sister and you’re doing some homework or something important on your computer and you have a big problem. You’re feeling pretty hungry, but you’re well into your work, so you call out to your brother or your sister who’s also home and you’re like, “Hey brother, hey sister, I’m pretty hungry. Could you please bring me some food?” Now, if you’re here and you’re an only child, you might be thinking, “Oh, how reasonable. What could go wrong?” If you’re here and you do have siblings, you know exactly what’s about to happen. A few minutes later, they come into your room with a single frozen pea and they shove it in your ear and they steal your copy of Die Hard from your desk. Unforgivable. They drop a massive fart and then go to the door and turn the lights off and on until you get up and chase them out of your room. I’m sure none of you were ever like that.

It’s annoying, isn’t it? When you have a problem that isn’t solved, especially when you ask for help. Yet, one of the striking things about Psalm 43 is that the psalmist has a problem. There are these evil people attacking him and it isn’t solved. It doesn’t conclude. It doesn’t even seem to lessen. There’s no indication of relief. Yet in verse four, he makes it clear what he really wants, what he really needs. He makes it clear what the main goal is, what the right trophy is. He wants to be with God, the source of all his joy. That’s what he wants. That’s what he needs. Joy that supersedes his circumstances.

He’s not minimizing his problems, saying that they don’t matter, that he’ll get over them. We know that’s true because in the very next verse, in verse 5, he’s still crying out and admitting his discouragement and his sadness. He’s not minimizing or reducing his problems. He’s maximizing the joy that can only be found in God. He’s elevating this joy to its proper place. That’s what he’s doing.

This week I came across a fascinating sermon by John Piper. He was preaching on Psalm 43 and it was the first sermon that he preached right after he got some cancer removal surgery and the results were still a bit unsure. It was about 20 years ago and in his sermon he said something that only a follower of Jesus would possibly dare to say. Let me share with you some of his reflections. Here they are on the screen. Reflections on verse 3 and 4. He says, “This is an amazing prayer. It reveals a man with much rich spiritual experience. His vocabulary, his view of reality, the sequence of his thought, the God-centeredness of his goal. Isn’t it amazing that even such a man can feel that God is distant as if he has rejected him.”

And notice that there is not a whiff here of praying for vindication over the enemy. That’s not in view anymore. Something far greater is at stake. Now there is a much more important victory to be won than victory over people or disaster or cancer. That’s why I said don’t think of beating cancer mainly as being healed. There is a victory far more important and you can win it even if you die. That is what the psalmist is fighting for.

Only a follower of Jesus could possibly say that there is a much more important victory to be won than victory over people or disaster or even cancer. What do you do when what you feel doesn’t align with what you know? You check that you’re chasing after the right trophy. You run for the right victory.

The Recited Hope

There are so many great moments from Die Hard. They’re fresh in my mind. I watched it on Tuesday. One classic memorable moment is where John McClane is on the roof and the roof’s about to blow up. The bad guys are about to blow it up. He ties a fire hose around his waist and he jumps off the 35-story Nakatomi Plaza. Just before he jumps, he asks himself a question. He says, “What are you doing, John?” There might be some extra words in that question that match the vibe of the moment, but “What are you doing, John?” That question makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? What are you doing? He’s surprised at himself. He’s wrestling with himself. Is he actually going to go through with this? Of course, somehow it works out and he goes on to save Christmas.

Believe it or not, there’s a very similar moment in Psalm 43. Let me read again this repeated language we’re now seeing for the third time in verse 5. “Why am I so discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God. I will praise him again. My savior and my God.” The psalmist is questioning himself. He’s surprised at himself, not because he’s about to match a John McClane moment or something, but because he’s wrestling. This doesn’t make any sense. The wisdom here, the part that I want us to see, is that the psalmist doesn’t let this wrestling happen in the background. He doesn’t ignore it or neglect it or underestimate it. Instead, he confronts it and he questions himself. “Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?” That is, “What am I doing? The God of the universe is with me. The God of all peace is on my side and I am with him in his unshakable refuge.” Or to take it further for us, “What am I doing? The Lord Jesus loves me and he took on humanity for me and he lived for me and died for me and rose for me that I can be forgiven and have the good life both now and forever.”

You see the psalmist doesn’t listen to himself. He talks to himself. He questions himself. He convinces himself. That is exactly what we need. Before he became a famous preacher, Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a doctor. He worked with a lot of people, a lot of patients who were struggling with mental health. I’d like to let him tell us why this is important. Let’s have a look at this quote.

“I say that we must talk to ourselves instead of allowing ourselves to talk to us. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you. They bring back the problems of yesterday. Somebody is talking. Who’s talking to you? Yourself is talking to you. Now the psalmist’s treatment was this. Instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. And so he stands up and says, ‘Hey self, listen for a moment. I will speak to you.’”

What do you do when what you feel doesn’t align with what you know? You need the recited hope. You need to talk to yourself and question yourself. Convince yourself. Let your conscious words overcome your unconscious impression so that you too can declare the final words of Psalm 43. “I will put my hope in God. I will praise him again, my Savior and my God.”

What do you do when what you feel doesn’t align with what you know? What do I do when I know in my head that I’m safe and secure in God’s unshakable refuge, but the volume of my circumstances is deafening? What do I do when, like the autofocus on a camera, my heart can’t help but focus on what I’m feeling and the truth of God’s word is blurry in the background? What do I do when I hear a sermon on Psalm 16 on a Sunday morning? I’m convinced and convicted by God’s word. I stick around after church for coffee and then a few hours later, there’s a terrorist attack in my city. What do I do?

Here’s what Psalm 42 and 43 teach us. We need:

• The reluctant prayer
• The revealing light
• The right trophy
• The recited hope

Let’s pray that God would empower us to live in light of this truth. Let’s pray together.

Loving Father, thank you so much for your word and for the way that it speaks to us. Father, we pray for us now that you would help us to have heard what you have said and to respond with faith and with obedience. Father, help us when we are reluctant to pray to do it anyway, to draw near to you. Father, please give us your revealing light that we might be exposed and that we can be guided back to the Lord Jesus. Father, help us to chase after the right trophy. Help us to find joy in you. And Father, help us to recite the hope that we have over and over again. Help us to not listen to ourselves, but to talk to ourselves. Father, we pray this that we might live lives that bring more honor and more glory to the Lord Jesus. Amen.