Sunday Sermon introduces Psalm 42, a "mascul" ode likely authored by David during his flight from Saul or Absalom, contrasting his isolation with Korah's fatal rebellion where 250 leaders faced divine fire for demanding egalitarian priesthood. The speaker argues that the psalmist's thirst for God stems from separation from the corporate assembly, warning against modern isolated worship and affirming Matthew 18:20's promise that God's presence resides among gathered believers, ultimately promoting a conference on Theonomy and Postmillennialism featuring Dr. James White and others. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Hope in God's Salvation00:03:40
Hey guys, real quick before we get started, I have a small request.
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This is quite possibly the most effective thing that you can do to ensure that this content gets out to as many people as possible.
Thanks.
We're continuing our series today through the Psalter.
Today's text is Psalm chapter 42.
Again, that's Psalm chapter 42.
Would you join me now in standing for the reading of God's Word?
I'll read our text in its entirety.
When I finish reading the text, I'll say, This is the word of the Lord.
At which point, I would appreciate if you would respond by saying, Thanks be to God.
One final time, our text for today is Psalm chapter 42.
The Bible says this 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 my God?
My tears have been my food day and night.
While they say to me all day long, Where is your God?
These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with a 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 downcast, O my soul?
And why so disturbed 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 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 within me a prayer to the God of my life.
I say to God, My rock, why have you forsaken 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 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.
This is the word of the Lord.
All right, please be seated and join me as I pray one final time.
Father, we pray that indeed through the preaching of your word today, your people would arrive at a more accurate, faithful, biblical knowledge of who you are, of what you've done, and what it is that you require from us as a proper, that is, a right response.
But, Father, we pray that this knowledge would not be an end in itself, but rather it would serve as the necessary means propelling your people not merely into right knowledge of you, but a right love for you.
The heart cannot love what the mind does not know.
And so, by your grace and the power of your Spirit today, we feast our minds on your word so that our hearts might be fueled by this knowledge to love you like never before.
And we pray that the words of our Savior would ring true, that in our love for you, we would trust you and obey you.
We pray this ultimately that you might be glorified in all the earth, but we also pray this for the good of those people that you're saving across the globe, in our city, and perhaps if you would be so kind, even in this very room, especially among our children.
We pray these things in the name of your Son Jesus.
Amen.
Lessons from the Sons of Korah00:14:58
All right, quickly, I'm not going to go over the first page that is front and back of your notes, but what I am going to do is I'm going to give you a brief summary.
The first thing that we see.
As a prelude to our text, are these few words.
To the choir master, a mascul of the sons of Korah.
There's three phrases here.
To the choir master, that's the first.
A mascul, that's the second, of the sons of Korah.
A mascul was meant to be an instructive song or an instructive ode.
So a mascul is not just poetry that's meant to be read, but it is a song that is meant to be.
Sung corporately by the people of God in worship of God.
But it's not just a song, and in the way that many people in our culture and even Christian culture today think of music, that its highlight, its emphasis is just the beauty of a melody.
But no, the emphasis is not merely on the melody, but first and foremost on the content.
It's the lyrics, it's the teaching, the lesson that is contained in the song.
So this is an instructive song, it's meant to be sung.
To the Lord in worship corporately with the people of God, but it's not only meant to be a part of our arsenal to equip us to praise God, but it also is meant to benefit us by instructing us.
We see in worship in Ephesians, we see that there is a dual dynamic of worship.
Our worship is vertical, it is given up to God in praise, but it is also horizontal in the sense that we're commanded to not merely address God in our worship.
But as we worship corporately, especially as the church on the Lord's Day, we are meant to address one another with spiritual songs and psalms and hymns.
So worship has this dual function of addressing God in praise and adoration and thanksgiving.
But worship also has the function of addressing our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
And it is meant to not only praise God, but to instruct man.
So this is a masculine, it is a song meant to.
Be used to praise God, but also it is an instructive song, an instructive ode meant to inform from God's truth the hearts and minds of God's people.
So it's a mascal, but also we see this phrase that it's given to the choir master.
That simply means that it's to the choir master, meaning that it's given to the chief leader of the musicians, the worship leader, if you will, to be led by him.
For the whole choir and the whole corporate assembly of Israel to be sung in praise to God and in instruction to one another.
So it's given to the choir master to lead the charge.
And what is it that is given?
An instructive melody, an instructive ode.
And it's also of the sons of Korah.
Now, that last phrase is interesting.
And we need to understand it rightly.
The word of, that prepositional phrase of, it can be misleading.
Because the way that we can take that, if we're not careful, is we can say it's of the sons of Korah, meaning.
It came from them, it originated from them.
So it's easy for us to think that the sons of Korah were the ones who wrote this particular masculine, this particular instructive psalm, and it was given from the sons of Korah, originating with them.
They wrote it, and it was assigned to or given to the choir master.
But in checking with commentaries and church history and what they've thought about this particular psalm, Psalm 42, most scholars, especially those who I would deem as being trustworthy, would say.
That this psalm actually originated with King David.
And that it was so often sung by the sons of Korah, those particular musicians, that it was eventually attributed to them.
It became one of their peculiarities.
It was so regularly sung by this particular worship team, if you will, namely the Sons of Korah, that when you thought of this psalm, you thought of the Sons of Korah because think of the Sons of Korah, for lack of a better term, as a cover band.
And this is one of their favorite psalms or songs to cover.
So the Sons of Korah did not write this particular song, but it was a psalm that the Sons of Korah loved deeply.
And often sang.
So it's given to the choir master, the worship leader, to lead the people of Israel in singing this particular song.
And what kind of song is it?
It's a masculine, that is, it's worship to God, but also instruction to one another, the people of God.
And it is often sung by the sons of Korah to the extent that it was attributed to them.
Now, the final thing that I want to say as we dive into the text, or before diving into the text, is who were the sons of Korah?
Korah, if you remember, was a man who took his stand in opposition against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
Now, Aaron was the brother of Moses.
Many of us are familiar with that.
But what you may not be familiar with is the fact that Korah was actually the cousin of Moses and, of course, by proxy, Aaron.
And Korah had this sense of familiarity that often breeds contempt.
This is the same thing that we have happen, at least in principle, with Moses' sister, Miriam.
Miriam, she goes and confronts Moses over his marriage to a woman who was not a part of the people of Israel.
She was a part, but not by biological descent.
And so the sister of Moses, Miriam, confronts and corrects.
She admonishes her brother Moses.
The result is that she breaks out immediately with leprosy and almost dies until Moses prays for her healing.
The lesson of the story is don't mess with Moses.
Doesn't matter if he's your brother, your cousin, doesn't matter.
Moses is the man.
Moses is a type of Christ.
He was the leader of Israel.
And so Korah, he has this familiarity breeding contempt.
He's the cousin of Moses and Aaron.
And this is particularly what Korah is upset about.
Korah, just like Aaron, he is a descendant of the Levites.
So if you remember, we have Abraham and the patriarchs.
Abraham.
Isaac and Jacob.
Now, Jacob has 12 sons, Levi being the third son, and the Levites were selected by God through Moses.
Moses declared this, but God decided it that the Levites should serve as the priesthood in Israel.
And so Korah is a member of the Levitical priesthood, but even though there are many priests, servants, serving the Lord in the tabernacle, the place where God's presence dwelt, even though there are many priests, there is only one high priest.
And there's a reason for that.
One of the biggest reasons for there only being one high priest is because the high priest, like the ark with Noah, like Moses himself, like the rock of ages, the high priest was also a type of Christ.
And just as there is one beloved Son of God, eternal Son of God, one Savior, one Redeemer, there was one high priest.
And the high priest who was selected from the Levites, the Levitical tribe, was Christ.
Aaron, not Korah.
And this is precisely why Korah is so angry.
Now, Korah, the defense that he makes, well, not really a defense, the supporting content for his accusation against Moses that he makes is not this, and you'll notice this is something that you'll find to be common, not only among unbelievers, but even Christians in the church.
He knows better, he's craftier than to go to Moses and say, Aaron shouldn't be high priest, I should.
Well, that's just so blatantly self righteous.
Right?
It's too visibly arrogant and selfish.
So, the people of God, not just unbelievers, not just the pagan, but the people of God, in our sin, in our arrogance, we do the very same thing.
But what we do is we veil our selfishness, we veil our arrogance.
So, what does Korah say?
He doesn't say, I should be the exclusive lone high priest rather than Aaron.
No, he goes to Moses and he says, We should all be priests.
We should all be high priests.
What makes you think that you're better than us?
So rather than saying I'm better than you, which is a very difficult accusation to defend, to substantiate, rather than that, what Korah says is Korah brings in this novel idea.
It's called egalitarianism.
That's what Korah does.
I don't like hierarchy, I don't like authority.
I don't like this idea that God appoints among men some to rule over others.
It's not fair.
Let's be egalitarian.
Let's all be high priests.
Let's all do it together.
You see, churches do this.
Don't preach at me, just share, Pastor.
And honestly, why are you always preaching?
Why don't we take turns?
Let's sit around in a circle and let's all, you know, doesn't the Bible say when you gather together, each one should bring a hymn or a word?
Let's be biblical.
No, what you mean is let's twist the scripture and be egalitarian.
Why?
Because you're arrogant.
Those who should teach are those who, by grace, not anything inherent in me or any other pastor, but those who, by God's grace, are qualified to teach.
Meaning, they're able to teach.
That's the qualification given in Titus chapter 1 and 1 Timothy chapter 3.
See, here's the deal the egalitarian idea doesn't work.
We even try to do it among elders.
I'm all for biblically the model of a plurality of elders.
I think that is a biblical principle.
But I think some churches, without realizing it, have bought into the egalitarian mindset to the point where they think all the elders should take equal turns.
Why?
See, because the reality is that God makes individuals.
And he makes them uniquely.
And so, even among, not just among the whole congregation, the members of the church, but even among the elders, whether there be three of them or 30 of them, it stands to logically reason that one of those elders will be endowed by God, by God's grace, with a higher teaching capacity than the others.
Meaning, he's more apt to teach.
He is better in exegeting and preaching the Word of God.
Now, if he is actually better in preaching the Word of God, what does that mean as a result?
The logical result of that is that if he's better at preaching the word of God, then the people of God would benefit more by his preaching than the other elders.
And if we love the people of God, then he should preach more than the other elders.
It's not arrogance, it's not an unrighteous, sinful competition.
It's simply recognizing what God has established and not fighting against it, but welcoming it.
And you know who does welcome these kinds of things, hierarchies, whether it be ecclesiastical hierarchies in the church, elders, deacons, members?
Or whether it be a hierarchy in the civil state sphere, or whether it be a hierarchy in the family with the husband who is the head of the wife, and then the husband and the wife over the children.
You know who welcomes hierarchy, who welcomes the way that God structures authority in every aspect of human society?
The humble.
That's who welcomes it.
The humble don't have any objection.
The humble don't get angry.
I believe it was C.S. Lewis who once said that pride, although one of the worst of all sins, Augustine said it's the pregnant womb from which all other sins come.
But Lewis said, although it's the worst of sins, it is perhaps the most difficult to see.
The most difficult to see, namely in yourself.
And Lewis says that perhaps the easiest way to detect pride within yourself is to see how bothered you are by the pride that you perceive in others.
The people who are always talking about pride, I just, I really don't like this person because I think they're proud, or I'm just really concerned about this person's pride, or I think this person's really arrogant.
The people who are most concerned about pride in others are the people who are prideful themselves.
Now, the humble can still be concerned because pride does damage.
But the way that the humble, the way in which they're concerned about pride is very different than someone like Korah.
Korah's not concerned for everybody's equality and fairness.
No, Korah's concerned about himself.
If Moses had appointed Korah as high priest instead of Aaron, Korah wouldn't have been making any objection.
He wouldn't be going to Moses and say, I don't think it's fair or right that I should be alone the high priest when there are many in the Levitical tribe and Think we should all share the high priestly duties together?
No, he only makes this objection not because he actually believes it by conviction, but because someone else was selected instead of him, namely Aaron.
If he was selected, he wouldn't have a problem at all.
And so Moses says this, all right, because ultimately what Korah is saying is he's saying, there's no question about what you did, Moses, who you appointed.
The question is this is who Moses appointed, namely Aaron as high priest, actually synonymous with what God appointed?
You claim that you speak for God.
You claim that your appointment of your brother, isn't this nepotism?
You're claiming that your appointment of your brother was God's doing through you.
But I think that you are working on your own.
I think this was your doing.
I think you did this in and of yourself, apart from the prompting, the leading, the instruction of God.
So Moses says, I'll prove it to you.
And Corey, he's already arrived with two primary henchmen and also 250 other men who were influential leaders in.
The community of Israel.
So he's already got his band, his bandwagon.
Right?
This is how division works.
This is how mutinies work.
Right?
Nobody just goes to the leader and says, I've got a problem.
The Danger of Division00:12:35
No, usually what they do is they talk to 15 other people first and they try to rally as many people on their side as possible in secret, in the night, right?
Not publicly, not visibly, not with courage, but cowardly.
And then they go to the pastor.
Now, let's be honest.
Usually it's not 15, it's two or three.
And then what do they say?
A lot of people are saying.
Anytime you hear a lot of people are saying, you can count on it being two or three.
One other person besides this person has said.
Or this person has discipled and catechized their own wife and children to where a lot of people are saying.
You mean the five people in your immediate family?
A lot of people?
That's probably what they mean.
And so, Kor, what he does is beforehand, Kor actually says a lot of people are saying.
And in this sense, Kor is actually not lying.
Kor did some homework.
He prepared.
He got 250 of the rulers, the influential people in the community, right?
The kind of people that if you want to get something done, you got to get them on board first.
The busybodies, the gossipers, the talkers, the ones that if you want to spread a virus through the whole assembly, you got to spread it to them first and then they'll do all the rest.
They're those kinds of people.
And so Korah gets those people.
He enlists them in his mutiny, in his rebellion against Moses and his brother Aaron.
And he appears before Moses and Aaron with 250 influential leaders in the community of Israel.
And he says, Let's be egalitarian.
This isn't fair.
What makes you better than us?
And he says, You appointed your brother, and you should have appointed everyone, right?
He's not so foolish to say you should have appointed me, because that can easily be seen through for the pride that it is.
No, you just, not me, but everyone.
You should have appointed everyone.
And his big claim is, You did this, Moses, not God.
So Moses says, I'll prove it to you.
He says, The next morning, I want you to return, sleep on it, take a night.
I want you to return, and each of these 250 men with you bring censers, which were pans, special bronze pans for worship, and fill them with incense.
And come before the tent of meeting, the tabernacle at the entrance.
And Moses says, I and my brother Aaron will meet you there.
And so the next day they do, and the scripture actually says even further that the whole assembly is gathered also.
So it's as though Korah's already got the leaders, 250 influential leaders in the community, and then overnight, him and those leaders go and get everyone else on board also.
And everyone, they're not just showing up kind of as a neutral third party to see who's right, Moses and Aaron or Korah and his rebels.
No, they show up on the side of Korah.
So Korah not only at this point has the 250 men with him that he already had when he initially confronts Moses, but now the next morning, he's got all the assembly of Israel.
He's got the whole assembly, the whole church, right?
That's, I mean, the term that's used in the scripture is assembly.
The other term that's used is congregation, the congregation of Israel.
It's the church.
Korah gets the whole church on his side, and they show up.
And then Moses says, out of, well, first he hears from the Lord.
The Lord says to Moses, separate yourself.
Not metaphorically, not spiritually, not emotionally, not theologically.
No, literally, physically separate yourself, you and Aaron, from all the congregation because I'm going to kill them all and start over with you.
I can't take them.
I cannot take it.
And Moses and Aaron plead for mercy.
This is another example of Moses being a type of Christ, an intermediate, a mediator, an intercessor.
He prays and pleads with the Lord.
Please.
And he says, Don't let the sin of one man.
Punish, be punishable in the whole congregation, in the whole people of Israel.
Even though the whole people of Israel have joined this one man by this point in his sin.
But Moses still says it's this man's fault.
Everyone is complicit, everyone is culpable in some sense, but he's the bad seed.
He's ground zero where the virus started and the contagion began to spread.
He's the one who is sowing discord among the brethren.
He's the divisive person that Titus warns about.
Warn a divisive person once and then twice and then have nothing more to do with him.
Other people will jump on board.
That's what makes them divisive.
They're not divisive and no one listens.
What makes them divisive is that they're effective in their sowing of division.
And yet, it's the divisive person who's warned once and then twice and then cast out.
Not everybody else.
Everybody else is given a chance, an opportunity of repentance and submitting themselves once again to God, first and foremost, and to the authority and leadership that he has appointed.
So Moses prays the Lord, grants his request, and he says, All right, I won't destroy them all, but Kor is going down him and his household and the two henchmen, not the whole 250, but the two primary henchmen that he has with him.
Korah and these two men and their households are going down.
So Moses then speaks to the congregation, the assembly of Israel, and he says, Separate yourselves.
The same thing that God said to Moses and Aaron, physically separate yourself because they're all going down.
Now Moses says, after conversing with the Lord, He says, You people of Israel who have joined with Korah, separate yourselves physically, run away from their households, from their tents, from their dwelling places.
Run away from Korah and his two henchmen and their households right now.
Because this is about to happen.
And he then prophesies, he speaks specifically what's going to happen.
The earth is going to open up and it's going to swallow up Korah, his household, his two henchmen, and their households.
They will be taken down to Sheol, that is the belly of the earth, alive.
Run away.
And the people of Israel, God gives them repentance.
They turn and they physically run as an outworking of that repentance, doing good works in keeping with the repentance.
They physically begin to run away from Korah.
And as soon as Moses finishes speaking, boom, precisely what he says comes to pass.
The earth opens up and it swallows Korah and his two henchmen rebels and their households and devours them and closes back up.
And then immediately, immediately in response to that, if that were not enough, the 250 men holding the censures, the bronze pans for worship filled with incense.
Because Moses said, You come and the Lord, kind of like an Elijah scenario, Elijah, his face off of the prophets of Baal, Baal, Elijah says, Whoever the Lord ignites, whichever altar, whichever sacrifice, that is the true God.
And so that's the scenario that Moses was setting up.
Come with your bowls, your censers of incense, and the one who the Lord lights, that will be the high priest.
Then you'll know that I did not act on my own accord, but the Lord has appointed Aaron.
Another thing that Moses does later on is he takes the 12 staffs for the 12 tribes and Aaron's staff is taken into the place of meeting, and the next day when it comes out, it is budded and producing almonds.
And that's why Aaron was another visible sign for God to prove to Israel that Moses didn't just pick his brother out of nepotism, but that God actually selected Aaron to be the high priest.
But these bowls of incense and these 250 men, Korah, his household, the other two men, their households, all swallowed up.
And then immediately, right after that, God sends fire.
To light all these censers of the 250 men.
He doesn't just light one of them to say this guy's the guy.
No, he lights all of them.
And guess how he does it?
He sends fire from heaven and he doesn't just burn up their incense, he burns the men.
And all 250 men are incinerated.
So you have three households swallowed up into Sheol alive and then 250 other men burned alive to death.
And again, just like Miriam, the moral of the story is don't mess with Moses.
Not a good thing to do.
To the choir master, a math school of the sons of Korah.
Well, I thought Korah and his whole household were swallowed up.
Who are the sons of Korah, right?
All this, what I just told you, the narrative in the wilderness with Israel and Moses and Aaron and Korah, that all predates by a few hundred years our particular song written by King David in the time of David.
So, who are the sons of Korah?
Well, apparently, what most scholars say is that there were some sons of Korah, most argue all three, had three sons that initially had joined their father in his rebellion, in his quest for establishing socialism and egalitarianism across the board in Israel.
There were three sons that initially joined their father in this rebellion, but after Moses warned the congregation to separate from Korah because the earth would swallow him whole, Korah's own sons listened to the preaching of Moses and responded with repentance.
Rather than doubling down in their sin and rebellion, rather than hardening their hearts and standing by their father, they listened to the preaching of Moses and they repented and ran away from their own father and were spared.
And Charles Spurgeon says it like this Psalm 42 is written to the chief musician, a mascal for the sons of Korah, dedicated to the master of music.
This psalm is worthy of his office.
He who can sing best can have nothing better to sing.
It is called a mascal or an instructive ode, and full as it is of deep experimental expressions, it is calculated to instruct those pilgrims whose road to heaven is.
Is just the same trying kind as David's was.
The choice band of singers, the sons of Korah, are bidden to make this delightful psalm one of their peculiars, a regular in their song selection.
They had been spared when their father and all his company and all the children of his associates were swallowed up alive in their sin.
They were the spared ones of sovereign grace, preserved, we know not why, by the distinguishing favor of God.
It may be surmised that after their remarkable election to mercy, these sons of Korah became so filled, listen to this church, so filled with gratitude that they became, or that they addicted themselves to the sacred music in order that their spared lives might be consecrated to the glory of God.
At any rate, we who have been rescued as they were from going down into the pit, that's literally what happened with Korah, down into the pit.
We, as the sons of Korah, who have been rescued from going down into the pit out of the mere good pleasure of Jehovah, his election, his mercy, we, like the sons of Korah, can heartily join in this psalm and indeed in all the songs which show forth the praises of our God and the pantings of our hearts after him.
Although David is not mentioned as the author, this psalm must be the offspring of his pen.
It is so Davidic, it smells of the son of Jesse, it bears the marks of his style and question.
An experience in every letter.
We could sooner doubt the authorship of the second part of Pilgrim's Progress than question David's title to be the composer of Psalm 42.
It is the cry of a man far removed from the outward ordinances and worship of God, sighing for the long loved house of his God, and at the same time, it is the voice of a man under deep depressions, longing for the renewal of the divine presence, struggling with doubts and fears, but yet holding his ground by faith.
David's Flight and Faith00:04:11
Faith in the living God.
Most of the Lord's family have sailed on the sea which is here so graphically described.
It is probable that David's flight from Absalom, that is his son, his own son who rebelled against him, may have been the occasion for composing this masculine.
David was the author.
I believe that.
Charles Spurgeon says it.
Matthew Henry says it.
And there was one other.
Oh, and John Gill.
John Gill, if you're not familiar with John Gill, he was the preacher in the church, the same church, 100 years prior to Spurgeon.
He is known as the Baptist equivalent to John Calvin, which means, in typical Baptist fashion, not as good.
But the best that we Baptists can do.
So he's not quite as good as the Presbyterian counterpart, but he's still pretty good.
So, John Gill, Matthew Henry, and Charles Spurgeon, if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me.
David, I believe, was the author.
And David likely wrote this particular psalm as he was either on the run from King Saul or on the run from his son Absalom.
David is the author.
But this song was regularly sung by the sons of Korah, who knew what it was.
They knew what it was for someone to rise up in rebellion against the Lord's anointed.
See, whether it's Saul, who was actually in the office of king, but David was anointed to take his place, or Absalom, who is the son of David, and I tend to think it was Absalom, but Absalom was the son of David.
The word says of Absalom this.
What Absalom did was, the Bible says, in so doing, he won over the hearts of Israel.
What did he do?
What he did was, as his father, David, was sitting on the throne in the palace, Absalom would stand out by the gates.
And everyone in Israel who was disgruntled, everyone who had a problem, all the angry people, all the critical people in Israel, they would come to meet with David to get some kind of closure, some kind of resolution for their frustration, their criticism, their problem.
But Absalom would stand in between his father and Israel, the people.
And he would make amends with them before they got to David so that they would be satisfied by Absalom's solution.
And you know what Absalom's solution was?
To tell them whatever they wanted to hear.
Absalom was a false prophet.
Absalom positioned himself between the people and a true preacher of God's word, the true king, David.
And what he did was, as the people would come to meet with his father, the true leader, who would tell them the truth because he was a man after God's own heart, Absalom would intercept.
These people, and he would tell them what they wanted to hear.
And so, by doing so, the scripture says he won all the hearts of Israel.
And by doing so, in rallying the troops, he then had a full blown mutiny against his father, exiled his father, was trying to kill his own dad.
David had to run just like he did with King Saul, he had to run for his life.
And on the run, after being betrayed by his own son, David writes Psalm 42.
And this psalm is most often sung by the sons of Korah, who also knew what it was like to rebel against the Lord's anointed.
Not because people rebelled against them, but because their own father was the rebel who rebelled against Moses.
So David writes a psalm about what it's like to be in the midst of deep depression and what it's like to live in a season of betrayal.
And the sons of Korah pick it up as one of their most commonly sung. Songs as they lead the people of Israel in worship because they too know what it's like for someone to betray, to rebel against the Lord and his anointed.
Suffering Amidst Betrayal00:04:54
And this song is a mascal, it's praise to the Lord and it instructs the people of God.
The final thing I want us to see today is this.
This is going to be two parts.
I decided that about 15 minutes ago.
So, what we're going to do is next week we'll hop into the text, but notice this.
All I'm going to do is I'm going to exegete next week.
The first five verses.
And the reason why is because, in typical song fashion, this particular psalm is, for the most part, repetitive.
Not verbatim, word by word, but in principle, concept by concept.
And so, in the first five verses, we see the big idea of the psalm.
Let's read it now, just so that it's fresh in our minds.
Just the first five verses.
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants, thirsts, desires, longs for my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, the living God.
The one who is the author, the giver, and the sustainer, the one who upholds all living things, the source of life, the sustainer of life.
But then notice what he says in verse 2 When shall I come and appear before my God?
Well, David's praying right now.
When shall I come and appear before my God?
You are appearing before your God, David.
No, he's not.
Not in a vital, significant sense.
We'll see that here in just a moment.
Verse 3 My tears have been my food day and night.
Most scholars say it's not a literal sense, but what it means is he's so sad, he is so depressed, so overcome by his grief, he's lost his appetite.
My tears have become my food day and night, meaning I'm not eating.
I'm so distraught, I can't even eat any longer.
I have no desire for sustenance or food.
And I'm crying day and night as what?
While they say to me, that is the people he's surrounded by, namely Gentiles, he's been exiled from the kingdom.
Of Israel on the run, so they, being pagans, unbelievers, likely the Philistines, they say to me, Where is your God?
Like the three miserable counselors of Job who insisted that Job must be underneath God's punishment.
Job must have done something wrong, although Job continues to maintain his innocence and blamelessness.
And yet they insist God does not let bad things happen to good people.
Therefore, you can't be good, Job.
And so too, the pagan, uncircumcised Philistines are saying the very same thing to David.
That's the same thing that our culture says today.
Unbelievers, what do they do all the time to try to disprove God?
If there was a God and if he was loving, why would he let bad things happen to good people?
Here's your answer number one, no such thing as good people.
God doesn't let bad things happen to good people.
Or, as R.C. Sproul once said, that only happened once, and he volunteered.
The only time God let something bad happen to someone who was truly good was the suffering of Christ, and he volunteered.
So, bad things don't happen to good people.
But the larger answer is that God does this, first and foremost, for his good pleasure, for his glory, and for our good.
For those who are good because they've been made good by Christ through faith, not by their own works, their own discipline, their own merit, but for those like Christ who are good because they're good in Him, because of their union with Him by grace through faith in Him, for those who are good, that is the believer, the Christian, the people of God, for those who've been made good by Christ, God allows bad things to happen to them because God is bringing about their eternal good.
And just as a parent in Hebrews chapter 12 may discipline their child, their son, For a moment, it causes displeasure, discomfort, and pain for a moment.
But the good Father, the loving Father, will inflict pain for a moment for that long term benefit.
And so, too, our life is but a vapor, it's just a moment.
And for God to allow hardship into the lives of His people in this life for a moment, in order to produce hope and character and endurance, all the things that the scripture says come by trial, and to refine our faith like gold.
For God to do these things is not the absence of his love.
It does not symbolize his forsaking of his people, but rather his commitment, his covenant, and his loving fatherly discipline.
Longing for God's Presence00:10:33
But the Philistines, the enemies of God that David is hiding among, they taunt him, they mock him, and say, Where is your God?
Their point is, He's not here.
They may be saying He doesn't exist like our gods, like Dagon and all these other false gods, but likely what they're saying is, Yeah, your God exists.
They were poorest.
They believed in a multitude of gods.
Your God exists, sure, just like ours exists.
But here's the deal our God stands behind us, David.
Yours has abandoned you, he has forsaken you.
Verse 4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with a throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts of songs and praise, a multitude keeping festival.
Then, lastly, David challenges, he doesn't listen to his heart.
He doesn't follow his heart.
David's not a Disney guy.
He doesn't follow his heart.
He doesn't listen to his heart.
He doesn't sit under the tutelage of his heart.
No, David combats his heart.
He contests with his heart.
He speaks to his own heart, his own soul.
He says, Why so downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Hope in God.
Stop crying.
Stop doubting.
Stop worrying.
Stop pitying.
One of the most wretched and vile sins that are common among the people of God today is self-doubt.
Pity.
Self pity.
So sorry, unbelievably sorry for what happened to you.
Why me?
Why me?
How could this happen to me?
But David challenges that self pitying, doubting, disbelieving heart of his, soul of his, by saying, Stop it.
I'm not going to wallow in depression.
I am in control of my emotions.
I am not a slave of my heart and my feelings.
No, my feelings are shaped.
What I feel is shaped by what I know.
And so I now will, rather than allowing what I feel to dictate my mood, to dictate my state of being, rather than being led by what I feel, I will shape what I feel by what I know.
Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation.
I'll leave you with this.
I want you to think about this week, and I will go into these five verses with much greater depth.
Next Lord's Day, Lord willing, I shall again praise him.
That's the end of verse 5.
Praise him like what?
Because you might say, David, just praise him now.
Or what David says earlier, he says, My soul is panting for the living God.
At the end of verse 2, he says, When shall I appear before God?
See, David is saying, I want to appear before God.
Well, appear before Him now, David.
Aren't you appearing before Him now as you pray?
As you pray to God, aren't you coming before Him?
But no, David says, I long to appear before my God, implying I'm not appearing before Him now.
Or at the end of verse 5, I shall again praise Him.
Well, praise Him now, David.
Why don't you just praise him now?
No, I will again praise him.
There's something about the presence of God that's missing that David can't quite access.
Do you see that in these five verses?
And it repeats throughout the entirety of Psalm 42.
Here's the point God is inaccessible to David.
That's the thing.
God is inaccessible to David, and the enemies of David mock him precisely for this reality.
And it's not just the enemies mocking David, David admits it himself.
I can't see you.
I can't praise you like I used to.
I can't appear before you.
Why?
The answer is in verse 4.
These things I remember as I pour out my soul.
That means pouring out his soul to God in prayer.
As I pray to you, O God, what I'm reminded with is this how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts of songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.
David cannot access the presence of God.
Why?
Because David has been separated from the people of God.
That's the key.
David has been cut off from Israel.
He's been cut off from the tabernacle.
He's been cut off from the dwelling presence of God.
He is missing and cannot find the praise of God because he cannot find the people and the presence of God.
David cannot praise God because he has been cut off from the presence of God, and he's been cut off from the presence of God precisely because he's been cut off.
From the people of God.
And I get that this is Old Covenant.
I get that this is Old Testament.
But this principle has not changed.
Jesus reaffirms it in Matthew chapter 18, where he says, Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among you.
That Jesus, the Christ, the Spirit of the risen Lord, is pleased to tabernacle among his people.
Especially when they gather together in his name.
And we live in a church culture today that takes for granted the Lord's Day and the gathering, the assembly of the people of God.
Too many Christians believe and they are deceived.
They're wrong.
They believe that they can worship God online, they believe that they can merely listen to sermons, that they can read books, that they can just lead their family and worship with family worship without gathering with the people of God.
David didn't believe that.
David's praying to God.
And he knows that God hears his prayers because this is what we know about David.
It's the same David who says, Whether I find myself in the sea, the bottom of the sea, or in Sheol, where can I go from your presence?
Right?
So the same David, we know he's got good theology.
He understands the omnipresence of God.
The same David who said, I can't hide from your presence even if I tried.
There's nowhere I can go where you, O God, are not.
And yet, this same David, he also says, I want to appear before you.
But the ability to appear before you has been stripped from me because your people have been stripped from me.
So, the same David who believes, as modern day Christians believe today, well, God's everywhere.
His presence is everywhere.
We don't need a church for that.
We can worship him in our home, we can worship him in the backyard, just me and my wife, or me by myself.
The same David who believes all those things, who wrote them himself in the psalm, the same David who's quoted by those Christians in their deception, right?
Those same Christians would quote David and say, Whether it's the bottom of the sea or whether it's Sheol, where can I go from your presence?
Yeah, you're quoting David.
That is the scripture, right?
But let's quote another place where David speaks, namely Psalm 42, where he says this I can't praise you, but I will once more.
I'm hoping in God because I know I will be restored to access to God to be able to praise you once more in this life or, if nothing else, in the next.
And I want, I long, I'm desperate to appear before you, and I cannot now, but I know, hope in God, soul, I know one day.
This will be restored.
And what's missing in the meantime?
What have I been cut off from?
What do I remember with fondness, but it also makes my heart ache and brings me sorrow?
The throng, the multitude keeping festival, the people of God worshiping corporately with them.
Church, do not ever take for granted the church.
Let's pray.
Father God, thank you for your word.
And thank you that by the word of God, You have created in the same way that you spoke.
In the beginning, you spoke and it was.
You created ex nihilo out of nothing.
You created the world and all that is in it by speaking.
In the same way that you speak and created the physical cosmos, also by your word, by your speaking, you've created your people.
Not just mankind in the general sense, but the people of God.
You create Christians.
By your word.
And you don't just create us in isolation to live in this prolonged honeymoon phase with you.
No, you create us for community.
You create us to love you and be loved by you with each other.
That we would address you in praise, but we would also address one another with instructive songs, instructive O's, with masculine and psalms and spiritual songs.
Melodies and hymns.
Oh, how sweet it is not only to belong to you first and foremost, but to belong to one another.
We cherish that.
And we know that it is only possible because of the access we have, the access David lost, we have received by Christ.
He has reconciled us to you and to one another by making peace by the blood of his cross.
He's preached to all those who are far off.
And he has brought us near.
We thank you for this.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Oh, hi, I didn't see you there.
Thanks for sticking around.
I've got an important announcement to make.
That's the Theonomy and Postmillennialism Conference 2023, May 5th, 6th, and 7th, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Theonomy and Postmillennialism.
We've got the speakers that we've already had lined up.
That's Dr. James White, Dr. Joseph Boot, Dr. Gary DeMar, non doctor Pastor Joel Webbin.
But we also have a bonus speaker, and that is Dale Partridge.
From Real Christianity.
Perhaps you've heard of him.
If not, you should start listening to his podcast.
It's fantastic.
Dale Partridge is going to be joining our team.
Join the 2023 Conference00:00:25
We're going to have live panels on Friday night and Saturday night where you'll be able to write in questions and get them answered.
We're also going to have a catered barbecue, Texas style barbecue meal on Friday that's a part of your registration fee.
All that is covered.
So you need to get that.
This is how you do it go and register right now at rightresponseconference.com.