Psalm 42:1–11

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” 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 songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and 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 do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

Two truths about spiritual dryness

1. The test of spiritual dryness

Psalm 42:1-2

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

Psalm 42:5

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?

Psalm 42:4

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 songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

Psalm 42:3

My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

“Now, it may surprise you to learn that in His efforts to get permanent possession of a soul, [God] relies on the troughs even more than on the peaks; some of His special favorites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else… It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be… He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles.” (CS Lewis)

1 Peter 1:6-7

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

2. The treatment for spiritual dryness

Seek God wholeheartedly

Psalm 42:4

These things I remember, as I pour out my soul…

Psalm 42:9

I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

Pursue community regularly

Psalm 42:4

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 songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

Preach the gospel (to yourself) fervently

Psalm 42:11

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

Psalm 42:11

You are my salvation and my God.

Psalm 42:8

By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

For this week’s application guide click this URL: https://storage2.snappages.site/QG8D8X/assets/files/Sermon-Application-Guide_Psalm-42_June-2-59.docx

Resources Cited

Books/Articles
The Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. Harper Publishing, San Francisco. 1998.
Spiritual Depression by Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Eerdmans Publishing. Grand Rapids, 1965.
The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis. Barbour and Company, Inc. Uhrichsville, OH. 1990.

Commentaries
Be Worshipful by Warren Wiersbe. 1st ed. “Be” Commentary Series. Colorado Springs, CO: Cook Communications Ministries, 2004.

Sermons
Finding God by Tim Keller. A Sermon on Psalm 42. https://gospelinlife.com/sermon/finding-god/
Remember to Hope by Jao Moraes. A Sermon on Psalm 42. https://www.preachingtoday.com/sermons/sermons/2021/september/remember-to-hope.html