2021 03 07
The Fall of Man.
Soul defeated thoroughly.
Psalm 42:1-11 (NKJV) 1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, “Where is your God?”
4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.
6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me; Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, And from the heights of Hermon, From the Hill Mizar.
7 Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
8 The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall be with me– A prayer to the God of my life.
9 I will 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 breaking of my bones, My enemies reproach me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.
Psalm 42 and 43 were originally one psalm, sharing the repeated refrain (42:5, 11; 43:5).
These psalms begin a section of the book (Pss 42-83) in which it appears that “God” (Elohim) has frequently been substituted, in textual transmission, for the divine name Yahweh.
The author of this Psalm is uncertain. as not being named in the title. It was composed either,
- By David, when he was banished from the house of God, either by Saul’s tyranny, or by Absalom’s rebellion; Or,
- By the sons of Korah, in the time of the captivity of Babylon;
Separation from God has consequences.
- Death.
- Conflict in our soul that leads to
a. Sleeplessness.
b. Strife.
c. Anxiety.
d. Depression.
(Can lead to Spiritual issues!)
Division, Destitution & Deliverance
This Psalm is a good example.
Our struggle is not against flesh & blood.
Overcome by faith in God, and in Christ Jesus.
Division
- Faith begins with holy desires towards God and communion with him (v. 1,2).
1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV) But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
- Flesh complains of the darkness and cloudiness of the present condition, aggravated by the remembrance of the former enjoyments (v. 3,4).
3 My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, “Where is your God?”
4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.
Numbers 11:4-6 (NKJV) 4 Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat? 5 We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; 6 but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!”
Hebrews 11:15 (NKJV) And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.
James 3:16 (NKJV) For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.
Proverbs 22:10 (NKJV) Cast out the scoffer, and contention will leave; Yes, strife and reproach will cease.
- Do not tolerate strife.
- Scoffer brings strife and reproach .
- Cast it out.
- Part of the effect of the Fall of Man.
Spiritual Destitution
- Faith silences the complaint with the assurance of good matter at last (v. 5).
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.
1 Thessalonians 1:5-7 (NKJV) 5 For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. 6 And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe.
- Flesh renews its complaints of the present dark and melancholy state (v. 6,7).
6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me; Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, And from the heights of Hermon, From the Hill Mizar.
7 Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
Not an illusion though heavy waves of sorrow which overwhelm you.
- Hang in there.
- You are not alone.
- Depression is one of the most common emotional ailments confronting the Fallen Man.
- We need to renew our mind – Stage 1.
- We need to sharpen our Axe – Stage 2.
The antidote for depression is the word/promises of God.
How He has come through thus far.
1 Samuel 7:12 (NKJV) Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”
His Faithfulness towards us.
2 Timothy 2:13 (NKJV) If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.
How we are created by Him.
Psalm 139:13-17 (NKJV) 13 For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. 17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
How He is close to us when we need him the most etc
Psalm 34:18 (NKJV) The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
Psalm 147:3 (NKJV) He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.
Deliverance
- Faith holds up the heart, notwithstanding, with hope that the day will dawn (v. 8).
8 The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall be with me– A prayer to the God of my life.
1 Thessalonians 2:19 (NKJV) For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?
Titus 2:13 (NKJV) looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
Hebrews 6:18-19 (NKJV) that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,
Hebrews 10:23 (NKJV) Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
1 Peter 1:13 (NKJV) Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
1 Peter 3:15 (KJV) But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
- Flesh repeats its lamentations (v. 9,10) and sighs out the same remonstrance it had before made of its grievances.
9 I will 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 breaking of my bones, My enemies reproach me, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
Romans 7:15-25 (NKJV) 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Romans 8:1 (NKJV) There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
- Faith gets the last word (v. 11), for the silencing of the complaints of Flesh, and, though it be almost the same with that (v. 5) yet now it prevails and carries the day.
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.
Hebrews 10:39 (NKJV) But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.
Hebrews 11:1-3 (NKJV) 1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
This Psalm summarize what Jesus had to do to overcome.
We are to thirst for:
- The living God (Ps. 42:2; 63:1; 143:6)
Psalm 42:2 (NKJV) My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
Psalm 63:1 (NKJV) O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.
Psalm 143:6 (NKJV) I spread out my hands to You; My soul longs for You like a thirsty land. Selah
- Righteousness (Mt. 5:6)
Matthew 5:6 (NKJV) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
- Spiritual waters of salvation (Jn. 4:14; 6:35; Rev. 22:17; Isa. 55:1-3)
John 4:14 (NKJV) but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
John 6:35 (NKJV) And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
Revelation 22:17 (NKJV) And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.
Isaiah 55:1-3 (NKJV) 1 “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance. 3 Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you– The sure mercies of David.
- Wisdom and knowledge (Prov. 2:1-11)
Proverbs 2:1-11 (NKJV) 1 My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you,
2 So that you incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding;
3 Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding,
4 If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures;
5 Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, And find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly;
8 He guards the paths of justice, And preserves the way of His saints.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice, Equity and every good path.
10 When wisdom enters your heart, And knowledge is pleasant to your soul,
11 Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you,
- Daily Dose
- The Holy Spirit baptism (Jn. 7:37-39)
John 7:37-39 (NKJV) 37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
We need to meditate on the record of God’s goodness to his people. This will take your mind off the present situation as you focus your thoughts on God’s ability to help you rather than on your inability to help yourself.
When you feel depressed, take advantage of this psalm’s antidepressant: Read the Bible’s accounts of God’s goodness, and meditate on them.
Psalm 23:1-6 (NKJV) 1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.
3 He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.