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HOPE FOR THE HOPELESS

by Drew Hunter

Scripture: Psalm 42, Psalm 43


Hope for the Hopeless
Drew Hunter
Psalm 42-43


Shifting Our Focus To Prayer

This morning we're taking a slight turn within our series in the Psalms. For the next few weeks, we're going to focus on Prayer within the Psalms. We're not going to be thinking through all the aspects of prayer. We're going to look at a handful of Psalms that model how to pray when we're dealing with certain issues in our lives.

The Psalms cover the whole range of life situations and emotions. It's not just a book for people who are in the mood to sing and praise God. Many psalms are clearly written out the midst of suffering, depression, anxiety, doubt, and fear. So, we're going to focus on some of these. This will be a series of sermons within a series of sermons - a series on prayer within our series on the Psalms.

But while we're going to be focusing on prayer, I hope we don't just see these as simply prayers to pray. These are here to teach us - to teach us not just how to pray, but how to think and live and counsel one another.

Depression and Psalms 42-43

This morning, we're going to look at Psalm 42-43. These psalms were written out the darkness of depression. We can see this in a phrase repeated three times here. It first shows up in 42:5, ''Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?'' We see it again in verse 11. And again in verse 5 of the next psalm. This is one of the reason why we know these two psalms belong together. They are linked by this repeated refrain.

[Read Psalms 42-43]

[42:1] As a deer pants for flowing streams,
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 say to me all the day long,
''Where is your God?''
[4] These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and song ...

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