Sharon Reformed Presbyterian Church · Sermon study sheet

Hope in Your God!

George Gregory · July 30, 2022

Psalm 42

sharonrpc.org/sermons/hope-in-your-god

Summary

Psalm 42 shows that believers can suffer so deeply that they feel separated from God, and such grief should not be mistaken for proof that faith is absent.
The psalmist thirsts for the living God and mourns his separation from public worship while enemies intensify his pain by asking, ‘Where is your God?’
Instead of surrendering to despair, he speaks truth to his own soul: ‘Hope in God,’ deliberately reorienting his attention toward God's help.
The sermon gives six responses to desperation: admit brokenness, acknowledge God's sovereignty, recall his promises, recognize emotional instability, remember that the Lord is your God, and praise him.
God's waves and billows remain under God's rule; suffering is not outside his providence, and he works even painful circumstances for his people's good.
Because emotions are changeable and cannot establish truth, believers need God's Word and the help of other Christians when they cannot steady their own souls.
Calling God ‘my rock’ and ‘the God of my life’ expresses covenant belonging: the believer is held by God even when his nearness is not felt.
The psalm ultimately directs hope to Jesus Christ, who entered suffering and God-forsakenness for sinners, died, rose, and now gives secure hope to those united to him.

Why should severe grief in a believer not be treated as proof of unbelief?
How does separation from public worship deepen the psalmist's distress?
What makes the question ‘Where is your God?’ spiritually dangerous during suffering?
What does it mean to speak to your own soul and command it to hope in God?
Why is admitting brokenness an act of humility rather than spiritual failure?
How does naming the waves as God's waves change the way suffering is understood?
Why are emotions inadequate as the final measure of spiritual truth?
How can another believer help when a suffering Christian cannot reorient alone?
Which promises of God should you prepare to recall in a season of despair?
How does Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection secure a hope greater than David's experience alone?

Lament: Faithful prayer that speaks grief and confusion honestly to God while continuing to seek him.
Desperation: The profound spiritual and emotional distress portrayed by thirst, tears, oppression, and repeated questions in Psalm 42.
Hope: Confident expectation fixed on God's character, promises, and saving help rather than on present feelings.
Providence: God's wise, holy, and powerful government of every creature, action, and circumstance.
Covenant love: God's steadfast commitment to his people, which the psalmist recalls even in the night of suffering.
Assurance: Confidence grounded in God's promises and the Spirit's witness that believers belong to God and will be saved.
Emotional instability: The changeability of human feelings, which can return from hope to distress and therefore must be tested by God's Word.
Union with Christ: The believer's saving bond with the crucified and risen Christ, through whom suffering is met with sympathy, atonement, and hope.