Psalm 42:2-11

“My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’ These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon – – from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God my Rock, ‘Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?’ My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’ Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

Psalm 42 teaches us how to deal with the stresses and strains of life. The Psalmist David was going through horrific depression. In this passage, he describes how God seemed so distant to him.

EVERYONE EXPERIENCES TIMES WHEN GOD SEEMS FAR AWAY: Psalm 43:2

“You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?”

1. A loss of feeling.

2. Loss of concentration.

3. Loss of fellowship.

4. Lack of practice.

EVERYONE GOES THROUGH PERIODS WHEN THEY QUESTION GOD: Psalm 43:5

“Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

1. David asked, “Why?”

2. David asked, “For what may I hope?”

“Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing” (Psalm 34:8-9).

WHEN GOD SEEMS ABSENT, IT’S TIME FOR CHARACTER-BUILDING: Psalm 46:10

1. It gives us an opportunity to grow.

2. It gives us an opportunity to increase our faith.

3. It gives us an opportunity to be generous.

4. It gives us an opportunity to know God better.

“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10).