Introduction
There is a heavy cloud of grief, frustration, and fear hanging over our city. The weight of this cloud is multiplied by the grief, frustration, and fear in our own lives and circumstances. It’s good for us to be here, not because our church is magic, but because it’s a place where we can face the cloud together. We can navigate it together. As we sing, pray, share food and coffee, and hear God’s word, we steady, teach, encourage, and drag each other towards Jesus. Thank you for being here. Let’s pray as we get into God’s word.
Church is a place where we can sit in the cloud together. We can face it together and navigate it together.
What Do You Do When You Don’t Feel Like It?
Last week, we considered the Christmas contrast, where the festive season can highlight the darkness in our lives. Our struggles are magnified, and words like joy, peace, and hope can seem hollow. We answered two questions from Psalm 16: why do we need an unshakable refuge, and how do we get one? We need an unshakable refuge because nothing in this world offers it. We get one through repeatedly preaching that God is our ultimate good, honest reflection, and future confidence in God’s love. Today, we address a follow-up question from Psalms 42 and 43: What do you do if you don’t feel like it? What do you do when your feelings don’t align with what you know? Psalm 43:2 captures this struggle: “For you are my God, my only safe haven. Why have you tossed me aside?”
The Four Things We Need
What do you do when your heart is divided? Psalm 43 points out four things we need: the reluctant prayer, the revealing light, the right trophy, and the recited hope. These are what we need when our hearts are divided. Let’s explore each one.
What do you do when what you feel doesn’t align with what you know?
The Reluctant Prayer
Pray Even When You Don’t Want To
Consider the Christmas tradition of watching Christmas movies. In the movie Die Hard, John McClane’s only option is to escape through the ventilation system. He is reluctant, but the alternative is deadly. Similarly, the psalmist must be reluctant to pray. Psalm 42:3, 4, 6, and 43:2 express deep discouragement and sadness. The psalmist is sleepless, anxious, and distracted. Yet, he knows the alternative to not praying is far worse. What do you do when what you feel doesn’t align with what you know? You pray, even if you don’t want to. 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 just be as simple as, “God, I feel like trash. Would you please help me?” God is our Father who loves us and wants us to be drawn towards Him. The alternative to keep distance, to not pray is far worse.
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.
The Revealing Light
Ask God For His Light
Light exposes what’s hidden in the dark. The psalmist prays for God’s light to expose and reveal his heart. It’s not that God tossed him out; he has wandered away. By asking for God’s light, he’s asking for help to reveal the excuses, self-pity, misplaced blame, and unhealthy attitudes. He’s asking God to reveal the self-built barriers between us and God so that they can be dismantled. The psalmist is asking God for clarity, for a diagnosis, even if it comes with the uncomfortable reality about the darkness in my heart. The light guides us back to God. 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.
The light that reveals and exposes what’s really happening in here and the light that guides us back toward Jesus.
The Right Trophy
Maximize The Joy Found In God
The psalmist has a problem, and it isn’t solved. In verse four, he makes it clear what he really wants: to be with God, the source of all his joy. He’s not minimizing his problems but maximizing the joy that can only be found in God. He’s elevating this joy to its proper place. John Piper preached on Psalm 43 after cancer surgery. He said that there is a much more important victory to be won than victory over people or disaster or even cancer. That is what the psalmist is fighting for. 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.
He’s not minimizing or like reducing his problems. He’s maximizing the joy that can only be found in God.
The Recited Hope
Talk To Yourself And Question Yourself
In Psalm 43:5, the psalmist questions himself: “Why am I so discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?” He confronts his discouragement. The wisdom here is that the psalmist doesn’t just let this wrestling happen in the background. He doesn’t just ignore it or neglect it or underestimate it. Instead, he confronts it and he questions himself. 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. 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. The psalmist doesn’t listen to himself; he talks to himself. He questions himself. He convinces himself. Martin Lloyd Jones said we must talk to ourselves instead of allowing ourselves to talk to us. 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.
Instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself.