“Hope in God…”

A sermon based upon Psalm 42, CEB

By Rev. Charles J. Tomlin, BA, MDiv, DMin.

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership, 

July 28th, 2019

Why, I ask myself, are you so depressed? Why are you so upset inside?

(Ps. 42:11 CEB). Why? I’ll tell you why.  It’s can be a depressing world out there.

You pick up a paper or turn on the evening news and what do we encounter daily, but death, disaster, pain, misery, despair?  The stories that make news seem to be constantly about disaster, violence, abuse, struggle, corruption, or it’s about those daily, personal obituary notices.   I recall asking my Father what he was reading in the paper.  He told me there was nothing worth reading but the obituaries.  How depressing!  A person told me recently that he stopped watching the news for mental health reasons!

The Psalm we are considering today is about what we all experience, at least at certain times in our lives.  Somewhere, even on a good day, there are always those who have hurting, aching, yearning and even depressed hearts and souls.  Here, in our text today, the psalmist pictures himself, like a deer, frantic, exhausted, having run from danger through a barren, parched desert, now craving for, searching for, as the old devotionals called it, ‘streams in the desert’.  This is, the psalmist says, how ‘my whole being craves” for God. 

If your honest, we’ve all been to such a barren place.  We’ve all yearned and craved for meaning, purpose, hope, and of course, to be sure that God is there.  We’ve all been in this negative space, unless, that is, we are still living in denial or we’ve found a way to try to numb and deaden ourselves.  Life can surely be depressing at times.  God can seem absent.  Sometimes it seems like nothing matters at all.  Even in the summer, when the weather is nice, the grass is green, and the pool is warm, and you’ve got a nice glass of iced tea in your hand; in spite of all that is good, glorious and wonderful in your life at the moment, life can still hurt, it can still get dark, and you may sometimes wonder to yourself, as the Psalmist does, asking himself, where is God? 

What I want to consider is how the Psalmist dealt with the negative feelings that arose within.  Now, please understand, I’m not a medical doctor, nor a psychiatrist, or a legally licensed counselor.  I have had professional training in psychology and pastoral counseling to know when to refer; to discern the difference between having occasional negative feelings or having a more serious, chemically induced depression.  “Clinical Depression” may require not only extended sessions of professional counseling, but may also need medications prescribed by a medical doctor.  I have an adopted daughter who was medically diagnosed with what is also called “Manic Depression”.   I know a lot more than I want to know about what it means for a person to be chemically, chronically, and genetically depressed, so that no amount counseling or therapy that will help without some sort of medicine.  If negative feelings occur too often, or if it interferes with how you should be able to live your life, then you need to be recommended to see a doctor, not only a preacher or a counselor.  

The feelings this Psalm addresses are not chronic, but occasional.    The Psalmist speaks of certain times when we are ‘upset inside’; when the ‘tears come’.  Like when are made fun of, or when we feel like the world is against us.  What do we do when life gets dark, difficult, and depressing?  Do we deny these feelings?  Do we, as some do, drink to forget?  Do we bury ourselves in distractions, drugs, or resort to scanning social media?  Getting lost in unhealthy choices can make life even more depressing, then, actually changing the chemical make-up of your brain.  In other words, without facing your demons, and without tackling the ‘black dog’ of depression, you can find yourself at an even darker place.

So, what are the kinds of healthy, spiritual habits that we can follow, especially when we feel depressed?  How did the Psalmist work through a day that he would like to forget, but it hung over him like a very dark cloud?

SING!  “TO THE CHOIR LEADER” (v. 1).

If you haven’t noticed, this Psalm was not originally written to be read, but it was originally written as a song, to be sung.  Did you notice that it is addressed ‘to the music leader, to direct the ‘sons of Korah?  That sounds a lot like the German word for Choir: Chor.  The ‘sons of Korah’ were the both the choir and the orchestra in ancient Israel.  Interestingly, they were descendants of their forefather, Korah, who rebelled against God and followed idols, but the ‘sons of Korah were spared (Numbers 26: 9-11).  They certainly had something to sing about, and ultimately, this became their role in Israel’s worship, to lead the people in making music to the praise of God.

Now, it might sound a bit strange to our ears; to sing about being depressed, empty, and thirsting for God.  It sounds strange because most of our songs in our hymnals don’t acknowledge this ‘dark side’ of life.   Most of our spiritual songs tend to be written to lift us up, rather than help us face describe in spiritual terms, how we might feel when are when we are down and out.   You know how some of our great hymns go: “What a Fellowship, what a Joy Divine!  Leaning on the Everlasting Arms!”  Great song!   We certainly do need to ‘lean on his everlasting arms, especially when we feel depressed!  Another great song is “Love Lifted Me” : “I was sinking, beneath the waves, far from the peaceful shore…”  The song tells does a good job at telling it like it was, but it doesn’t dwell much on how it is, how it can still be, even after his love has ‘lifted’ us, and we feel like we’re sinking down into sin or sadness again.  What do we do then?  

Another great cheerful song is “Joyful, Joyful, we adore thee, God of glory, Lord of love, Hearts unfold like flowers before thee, opening to the sun above.’  Again, a great song, and we do need to keep singing these songs, especially when we are feeling down.   They can really help to ‘melt the clouds of sin and sadness’.  They can help to ‘drive the dark of doubt away.’  Through music, as Henry van Dyke’s song says, God is ‘giver of immortal gladness’ to ‘fill us with the light’ and to call us to ‘rejoice’ and to ‘lift us’ up to ‘the joy divine’. 

Music is one of the most important, universal, human and divine gifts, that helps us deal with the dark places of life.  But what we encounter in this Psalm is a different kind of song, that might even sound too depressing to be sung.   How can we be cheered up when we are singing a sad song? 

Well, interestingly, while there may not be very many ‘sad songs’ in our hymnal, there are an awful lot of sad songs out there in the world, and people want to, and perhaps even need to hear them too.  Have you ever wondered why people like to sing songs like, ‘heartbreak hotel’?

“Since my baby left, I’ve found a new place to dwell,

Down at the end of lonely street they call ‘heartbreak hotel’. 

I get so lonely baby, I get so lonely, I get so lonely, I could die.”

That song goes on, with words that are even more prophetic:

Although its always crowded, you can still find a room,

For the broken hearted… to cry away the gloom.

I get so lonely baby, I get so lonely, I could die.”

Or what if you are a country music fan, you can find the same kind of song, like the song Merle Haggard recorded,

“Sing Me a Sad Song, sing it as blue as I feel,

If a tear should appear, it’s because she’s not here

Sing me a sad song, sing it for me…  

And even stranger the song continues;

Sing me a song of sadness, pretend it’s the end of the world,

Sing it sweet, and sing it low,  and then I’ll have to go.

Sing a sad song and sing it for me.

And what did they call the title for the Biography of the Life of the first breakthrough country artist, Hank Willaims?  “Sing a Sad Song!”   Folks, I’m not making this up.  And what’s the saddest song Hank Williams every wrote?  Get ready, this is not pretty, but it’s how many people still try to deal with and wrongly ‘medicate’ their sadness.  The song goes: “There's a tear in my beer, 'cause I'm cryin' for you, dear, you are on my lonely mind. Into these last nine beers I have shed a million tears. You are on my lonely mind I'm gonna keep drinkin' until I'm petrified. And then maybe these tears

will leave my eyes.”

Now, that’s very depressing, and even dangerous too.  You do know that Hank Williams died at age 29!  But the tunes were catchy, weren’t they?  And there still a long of sad, depressing songs, that people still stream and listen to.  Why on earth do people want to hear a ‘sad song’?  I’ll tell you why, and it’s not just the rhymes and rhythms.  People need to hear a sad song because we are need to know that we are not alone in our struggles, and that we are all in this together.  Especially, when we come to a dark, difficult place, we need to know that someone else has been there, where we are now.

While there are not many ‘sad’ songs in our hymnals, like on the airwaves, I did encountered several in the German hymnals we used in Germany.  In those hymnals, there a lot of very candid, honest, questioning songs that didn’t always end on a high noe.  They often ended in minor or dissonant tones, rather than major keys.  They still had the uplifting songs, too, but do you know why they included the sad ones too?  Europeans Christians had lived through some very dark, depressing, and difficult times; like two world wars.  But most of these songs went all the way back to an even darker war, that lasted 30 years, when Christians were at war against each other; when Catholics were killing Protestants, and Protestants were killing Catholics.  It was a difficult, dark time for the Christian faith, and it’s part of the reason that Christianity has died in Europe.  The people who did not learn to ‘sing’ through their pain, lost their faith and it never returned.

ASK!   WHY HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN ME…. (v.9)

One of the important things those ‘sad’ songs did for those who kept their faith, is to help them to be honest with their deepest feelings of doubt and frustration.  This is something that was not just part of old Germany, but it was also true among the Psalmist and among the biblical prophets, who were not afraid to bring their questions directly to God.  

We often need to be reminded that much of the Psalms and all the Bible is not simply about finding answers, but its also about asking the right kind of questions.  The prophets were very honest in their approach to God, often asking God ‘why’, about as much as they returned to tell the people ‘how’ they should live.  “How Long”.  “My God, My God Why?”  Where are you God?  As verse 9, says, sounding just like Jesus, or should I say, sounding like where (cp. Psalm 22:1) Jesus found his own words for his cross: “I will say to God, my rock, why have your forgotten me?”

Do you notice, that even when the Psalmist feels forgotten or forsaken, he still calls God ‘my rock’.  He is not cursing God in this Psalm, but he is talking to God; he is talking to himself, and he is praying.  He is doing what anyone should do when they are down cast, depressed, and sad.  They shouldn’t hold it in, but they should find a way to express it, to sing it, to say it, or to pray about it.  They should, we should, as the great old hymn says, “Take it to the Lord in Prayer!”

Isn’t this what prayer is supposed to be.  Prayer is not simply saying nice religious words, nor is it magic words that make everything alright, or words that force God to give us what we need or want.  No, prayer, more than anything else is what we should do, as dependent, breakable, and fallible human beings.  We should ‘take’ our deepest longings, hurts, and cravings to God.  We should not keep them to ourselves.  We should not bury them deep in our hearts.  We should, as the Israelites did, just before God delivered them in the Exodus,  we must ‘cry out’ our ‘grief’ to God; not because God must hear it, nor simple to hear ourselves whine, but we ‘take it to the Lord in prayer’ so that we can, as the book of Peter says, ‘cast our care upon him’ to be reassured that ‘he cares for us’, even when in the moment, it seems like he doesn’t, or he’s far away.  This is the way Satan works on our minds, Peter continues.  Then Peter says something I think this Psalmist doing by writing and asking this song to be sung and prayed by the people together.  Peter wrote:  “Resist….stand firm in the faith.  Do so in the knowledge that your fellow believers are enduring the same kind of suffering throughout the world….” Then Peter gives some very remarkable words, that point directly to what the Psalmist is saying:  After you have resisted, and stood firm, knowing that others are with you,  then ‘the God of all grace, the one who called you into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will himself restore, empower, strengthen, and establish you.” (1 Peter. 5: 7-10)

FIGHT!   “THE LORD COMMANDS HIS FAITHFUL LOVE…”

When Peter uses the word ‘resist’ he means exactly what the Psalmist is implying with this Psalm.  When the dark moments come, when the ‘black dog’ is pulling on your leg, then fight back.  Don’t give up, don’t give in, but resist the devil, resist the darkness, because the light of hope and fullness of God’s presence will return.

Again, sometimes, if we have chronic bouts of depression, we may need medicine to help us, but please know, that even the best psychiatrists know that ‘meds’ can’t do it alone.  You have to want to get better.  You have to fight against the down moods.  You have to do your part in having faith, and putting up a good fight.   But what does that mean to fight against the darkness, the loneliness, or the against the feelings that God is not there?  

In her wonderful book of sermons, “Gospel Medicine”, Barbara Taylor wrote about what the prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 58, when he echoed what the people where saying when they fasted and prayed, and God was silent; either absent, or not willing to answer.  "Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?"  Dr. Taylor speaks of the time we too have a story to tell, like Israel sometimes told, when have prayed, ‘even prayed for all its worth’, but nothing happened.  Taylor goes on to say that “God’s silence is especially stunning for those who like to talk a lot.”  How do we begin to ‘fight against’ feelings like this, feelings of darkness and disillusionment?  She suggests that we start, exactly here, by taking apart the word, ‘dis-illusionment’; which mean the ‘loss of an illusion’.   And often we need to start right where God started, by confronting the illusion of his own people.  The answer God gave to ‘why’ God doesn’t take notice, or ‘where’ God is wait a minute, you want me to be close, then why don’t you move closer to me?  God says, through the prophet: “Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers (Isa. 58:3 NRS).  Maybe the reason they couldn’t find God, was because they were not willing to go where God was.  As someone has said, “It’s a great mistake to think that God is chiefly interested in religion’.  God is much more interested in how we live our lives every day; how we treat our neighbors, our family, our friends, our co-workers and especially those under our care.  If you want to know where God is go, where God is; don’t wait for God to come to you. Listen to what the prophet prescribed for how to ‘fight’ against the dark feelings.  These words are more telling than anything I can say to you:

“Isn't it sharing your bread with the hungry and bringing the homeless poor into your house, covering the naked when you see them, and not hiding from your own family?    

8 Then your light will break out like the dawn, and you will be healed quickly. Your own righteousness will walk before you, and the LORD's glory will be your rear guard.

 9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and God will say, "I'm here." If you remove the yoke from among you, the finger-pointing, the wicked speech;

 10 if you open your heart to the hungry, and provide abundantly for those who are afflicted, your light will shine in the darkness, and your gloom will be like the noon.

 11 The LORD will guide you continually and provide for you, even in parched places. He will rescue your bones. You will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water that won't run dry (Isa. 58:7-11 CEB).

Isn’t the Prophet’s prescription for dark feelings of God’s absence and silence, exactly what the Psalmist means in verse in verse 7, when he writes about ‘deep calling to deep’ so that “By day the LORD commands his faithful love; by night his song is with me-- a prayer to the God of my life (Ps. 42:8 CEB).  The point the Psalmist makes is more than good advice.  The Psalmist is reminding us of what you should already know; that when you are with God who commands his faithful love by day; that is who calling us to live in the light of that love, by doing good, right and needful things, like reaching out to help those who are hurting around you, then ‘by night his song’ will be with you.  In other words, the best way to ‘fight’ against and resists the ‘darkness’ and the ‘demon’ of the ‘black dog’ of depression, is not by getting all religious, but by simply living in the love God has given to us, for ‘goodness sakes’, which directs us to love our neighbor daily ways that ‘get you out of yourself’ and put the focus of God’s love is needed in the world.

REMEMBER!

When you live in God’s faithful love, by reaching out to others, you will also ‘make your way into God’s house’, where you hear the ‘glorious shouts’ or the ‘thanksgiving songs’ so you can faithfully worship him.  When you do this, the Psalmist implies, then, when the dark days comes, you can spark and ignite your faith because you have something to ‘remember’.  Twice in this text the Psalmist speaks of remembering.  In verse 4 and then again in verse six, he says: ‘my whole being is depressed. That's why I remember you (Ps. 42:6 CEB).  But it is what and how he remembers that is most important.  When he is depressed the Psalmist says he can remember sounds of worship; the music, the prayers, the crowds, where everyone else comes to worship, because they have exactly where you are, but they are still there; they are still here, in your memory and in your heart.  Worship is the way we keep refreshing our memory that keeps blessing our hearts, so that ‘deep’ continues to speak to ‘deep’ so that through worship and the memory of worship, we overcome the darkness and dark moments that can enter the human heart.

CHOOSE!

But perhaps the most important spiritual and psychological insight into overcoming our dark feelings is heard throughout this Psalm.  We have to decide. We have to choose. We have to, as the old song says we must have and show ‘resolve’.  You can hear the Psalmist own ‘resolve’, fight, and determination to overcome throughout this Psalm, but his most obvious need to ‘choose’ and make a decision is reinforced at the end: “Why, I ask myself, are you so depressed? Why are you so upset inside? Hope in God! Because I will again give him thanks, my saving presence and my God” (Ps. 42:11 CEB).  Finally, after he expresses all his thoughts, feelings, and frustrations, in the end he knows, what we all need to know, is that ‘happiness is a choice.’   As the great America psychologist William James once said: “The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude."  In other words, no matter how difficult or dark it gets, you must know that you always have a choice.

Not too many years ago, Magazine Editor and Christian political activists, Jim Wallis was speaking to young people at a graduation ceremony, making the key note commencement address.   He told those graduates, how as a young Christian, he once thought that the great choices in the world were between God and atheism.  But now, he says, after traveling the world, he understands that this choice is also about hope or cynicism.  Some people he says, come to God to give up, when they need to come to God and get started, that is, to go out there, and to decide not just to make a living, but to make a life, and to make a difference. Wallis challenged those youth saying: "For the first time in history we have the information, knowledge, technology, and resources to bring the worst problems in the world to an end. What we don't have is the moral and political will to do so. And it is becoming clear that it will take a new moral energy to create that political will."

Where do we get the moral and political will to make a difference?  Isn’t it the same place we get the emotional will to see things differently?  Doesn’t it come with the decision we make ‘deep’ down in our heart of hearts? The Psalmist concludes this Psalm by challenging, deciding and telling his own soul what he must decide to do, to “HOPE in God!”, because he knows and believes that things will change.

In that speech, Jim Wallis began his address by recounting another speaking engagement, this one not at a university, but rather at Sing Sing Prison, one of the first prisons in the state of New York.

Wallis received an invitation letter from the prisoners themselves and it sounded like a good idea, so he wrote back asking when they wanted him to come. In his return letter, the young Sing Sing resident replied, "Well, we're free most nights! We're kind of a captive audience here."

So, arrangements were made – for just Jim to come and to spend 4 hours out 80 guys incarcerated in that dark prison.   Wallis especially recalled, now what he said, but what one of those young prisoners said to him that night,

"Jim, all of us at Sing Sing are from only about five neighborhoods in New York City. It's like a train. You get on the train when you are about 9 or 10 years old. And the train ends up here at Sing Sing."

Many of those prisoners were not just inmates, but now, they were students too, studying in a unique program of the New York Theological Seminary to obtain their Master of Divinity degree – right there in that dark place, behind the walls of the prison. They were going to graduate about the time when their sentences were up.  Here's what that young man at Sing Sing told Jim Wallis he would after his graduation: "When I get out, I'm going to go back and stop that train." (http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=news.display_archives&mode=current_ opinion&article=CO_040616_wallis).

You might not recognize the name of Horatio G. Spafford, but you will remember the obvious decision he also made to sing in his own night.   Mr. Spafford was a successful Chicago lawyer who lost most of his wealth in the financial crisis of 1873. He had sent his wife and four daughters on a trip to France, but on their way, their ship was struck by another, and sank. Of 225 passengers, only 87 of them survived. Mrs. Spafford was among the survivors, but the four daughters perished. As soon as Mrs. Spafford reached land, she telegraphed to her husband with these words: "Saved alone. Children lost. What shall I do?"

Spafford left for France to join his wife and return her to Chicago. It was in the depth of his loss and grief, that he wrote his song in his night, that still speaks to us when the darkness comes, and it will come:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrow like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot,Thou hast taught me to say, "It is well, it is well with my soul.”

"I ask myself, soul, why are you so depressed?  Why are you so upset inside? The Psalmist continues, in so many words: “It will again be “Well with your Soul”, but first you must make the right choice, to sing, keep praying, keep fighting, and to keep remembering, not to forget, so you can prove that you have decided to do what you must do, and what we all must do, especially when it gets dark; that we must continue to: ‘Hope in God.”   Amen.