All glory be Thine. Bless our gathering and glorify Thy name.
May we turn to Psalm 42, the Book of Psalms. We will read the whole psalm.
You know, when we read the Book of Psalms, oftentimes we forget the little print before the psalm, and these prints are very important: “For the Chief Musician; Maschil of the sons of Korah.”
As the hart panteth after the water brooks,
So panteth my soul after Thee, O God.
My soul thirsteth 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 continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me,
How I went with the throng, and led them to the house of God,
With the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping holyday.
Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
And why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him
For the help of His countenance.
O my God, my soul is cast down within me:
Therefore do I remember Thee from the land of Jordan,
And the Hermons, from the hill Mizar.
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of Thy waterfalls:
All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me.
Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime;
And in the night His song shall be with me,
Even a prayer unto the God of my life.
I will say unto God my rock, Why hast Thou forgotten me?
Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
As with a sword in my bones, mine adversaries reproach me,
While they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
And why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him,
Who is the help of my countenance, and my God.
Let us pray.
O heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee for Thy Word. We just ask that Thy Holy Spirit will quicken Thy Word to our hearts, bring us into the spirit of Thy Word, and may Thy Spirit come and fill our hearts. And to Thee be all the praise and glory, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Of all the 150 psalms, there are about eleven—or, more accurately, twelve—psalms that are attributed to the sons of Korah.
Who are these sons of Korah? If you go back to the Book of Numbers, you will find in chapter 16 that there was a rebellion among the children of Israel. This rebellion was headed by a man called Korah.
He was of the tribe of Levi. He was a Kohathite. He was given high privilege in serving in the tabernacle, and yet he led a great rebellion, not only against Moses and Aaron, but against God Himself.
There was Korah, with Dathan and Abiram of the tribe of Reuben, and 250 leaders of the congregation of Israel. They rebelled against God, against God’s order.
They came to Moses and Aaron and said, “Why do you usurp the position? Are not the whole congregation of Israel holy?” Outwardly, it seemed to be a very spiritual protest.
But as you read the chapter, you will find Moses pointed out to Korah that God had given him great privilege in serving the tabernacle. Why was it that he desired priesthood, which God had reserved for the sons of Aaron?
Moses also reproached Dathan and Abiram and those leaders, and said, “Why do you rebel against God?”
Out of that great rebellion, God did a new thing. The earth was opened. Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and those who belonged to them were swallowed alive into Hades. The earth was opened, and they were swallowed. And the 250 leaders, as they were trying to offer incense to God, were burned to death.
This was the man Korah. But is it not strange? Here you find the sons of Korah. They became the sweet singers of Israel.
As you read Numbers 26:11, you find that the children of Korah were spared. They did not die with their father.
We do not know for sure whether these sons of Korah did not participate in the conspiracy with their father, or whether they did, but they repented. But anyway, you will find these children of Korah passed through great affliction.
They saw their father swallowed alive by the earth. They saw these people burned to death, and yet they were spared.
No doubt, they passed through such terrible experience with fear and trembling. They realized the mercy of God. It was only by the mercy of God that they were not consumed.
Because of that, they offered themselves to God in a way that seemed to be higher than many other people of God.
They were the sons of the cross. They had passed through the sufferings of the cross. They had gone through death, and out of death into resurrection—into life.
They were the children of the mercy of God and the grace of God. They were so touched by God’s mercy and grace in sparing them that they dedicated themselves to God in a very living and real way.
As you read 1 Chronicles, you will find that they became not only the doorkeepers of the tabernacle, and later on of the temple, but they also became the singers, the choir, in the house of God.
Out of their deep experience, they became the doorkeepers. In other words, they knew who could enter into the house of God and serve, and who could not. They knew who could approach the altar and who could not.
It was not theory to them; it was experience to them. Because of that, they were fit for that kind of service.
They became singers of Israel—not professional singers merely with beautiful voices, but, out of their deep experience, they knew how to sing unto the Lord a new song.
They continued in such capacity even in the days of King Hezekiah. These are the sons of Korah.
As you read these eleven or twelve psalms, you will find in them expressions of affliction, problems, death, and persecutions. Yet out of all these come hope, faith, love, and their only desire is for God—for the living God.
They want nothing but God Himself. So I do believe that in these psalms of the sons of Korah, there are spiritual and eternal lessons for us to learn, that we may be like the sons of Korah, that we may have psalms to sing unto our God.
“Of the sons of Korah,” or “for the sons of Korah.” Of course, we do not know if the sons of Korah actually composed these psalms.
On the contrary, we believe that most of these psalms were composed by David. You know, the 150 Psalms are entitled by C. H. Spurgeon The Treasury of David.
Even though you find some psalms in which the day they were written is recorded, and in many psalms David’s name was not mentioned, yet David was the sweet singer of Israel. As you read these psalms, you will find David there.
Most likely, most of these psalms were written by David—a man after God’s own heart, a man who had gone through so much, a man who had been on mountaintops and in deep valleys, a man who had passed through the valley of the shadow of death, a man who had been upon the rock, the high place.
Out of his many experiences of God, he poured out his heart in psalms to sing unto God. We believe that probably many of these psalms attributed to the sons of Korah were actually written by David.
David wrote these psalms. He gave these psalms to the chief musician to put them into music, and probably, most likely, the sons of Korah sang these psalms in the house of God.
It is not just for everyone and anyone to sing psalms unto God. It requires a certain spiritual background, history, and experience to enter into the spirit of David—to enter into the spirit of Christ—in order to sing these psalms unto God.
These sons of Korah, being experienced in a deep way, were qualified to sing these psalms unto God. So may the Lord help us. Even if we may not be the ones who compose these psalms, by the mercy of God we may have a little of what David had gone through, or what other saints of God had gone through.
Out of these little experiences, we come to know God a little bit more. Then, even though we may not compose the psalms, and may not be able to do that, yet we will be qualified to sing these psalms unto God and will be accepted.
Psalm 42 is the first of these psalms of the sons of Korah. Of course, it is an instruction—a Maschil. In other words, this psalm is to teach us, to instruct us in the things of God.
It has permanent and eternal value, and it is something that we ought to learn by heart.
This psalm begins:
As the hart panteth after the water brooks,
So panteth my soul after Thee, O God.
Now, most commentators believe that the occasion, or the background, of this psalm written by David was the time when his son Absalom rebelled against him.
If you go to 2 Samuel 15, you will find that at one time David’s son Absalom rebelled against him. He was able to gather the people against David, and David was in such danger that he had to flee from Jerusalem in haste.
A number of people fled with David. As they went over Mount Olivet, David had his head covered and his feet bare. He was weeping as he fled, and the people who fled with him also covered their heads. They were in such shame and reproach.
Then you remember the priests, who bore the ark of God, came to David. They wanted to flee with David, but David told the priests, “Go back to Jerusalem, back to the tent that I have set for the ark. For,” he said, “if God shall show mercy to me, I will come back.”
As he went over the hill, you remember Shimei of the tribe of Benjamin, how he walked on the other side of the hill, how he cursed David and threw stones at David. He said, “God is now judging you because you took the throne of Saul.”
His people wanted to kill Shimei, but David said, “No, do not touch him. It may be God who commands him to curse me. And when God sees my situation, He may have mercy on me.”
David fled from Jerusalem. He fled from the house of God. He went over the River Jordan. He came to the Mahanaim area, and out of the distress of his heart he wrote this psalm.
As the hart panteth after the water brooks,
So panteth my soul after Thee, O God.
A hart, or a hind, or a gazelle, is a beautiful animal—swift in action, very sensitive, watchful, alert. But the one great desire of a hart, or a hind, or a gazelle, is water.
A hart panteth for the water brooks. It is thirsty. There is nothing that can satisfy its thirst but water. And how a hart seeks after water brooks.
We are told that a hart seeks after water not only to satisfy its thirst, but when a hart is pursued by the hunter, it tries to find water brooks in order to cover its scent, that it may escape from the hunter.
If you ever notice a hart by the water brook, you can see how it pants. It longs. It desires with such desire that it literally pants.
Here David said:
As the hart panteth after the water brooks,
So panteth my soul after Thee, O God.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, think of the situation. David was dethroned, as it were, by his son. He was in exile.
Probably, when a person was in exile under such circumstances, he would be plotting how to regain his kingdom. He would be planning for his revenge. No doubt, he would be thinking of himself. He would be thinking of what he had lost: the kingdom, the throne.
But, dear brothers and sisters, with David it was different. Even though there was planning as to how to fight against the rebellion and regain the throne and the kingdom, yet in the very heart of David, it was not the kingdom. It was not the throne. It was not the people. It was not the glory, the honor, the wealth, or the land.
No. What was deepest in his heart was God.
He did not mind too much about the loss of a kingdom or the loss of a throne. But there was one thing that he panted after: it was God.
He was willing to lose everything except losing God. Oh, how his soul panted after God. Like a hart, he was thirsty for God. He was literally heaving, yearning in his soul for God: “O God, where are You? When can I come before You?” That was the one longing of his heart.
Dear brothers and sisters, is this not the normal condition of a child of God?
Not necessarily only when you are in a time of trouble. Certainly, when you are in a time of problem, you pant after God even more. But even in ordinary days, when everything is peaceful and calm, is it not that we should pant after God as a hart panteth after the water brooks?
He is life to us. He is water to us. We are told that people can live without food for days, but you cannot live without water for long. Thirst is even more painful than hunger.
Dear brothers and sisters, shall we not hunger and thirst after righteousness? Should we not hunger and thirst after God? Should not that be our one passion? And our one passion is God—God Himself.
There is a famous saying by Saint Augustine. In his Confessions, he said, “O God, my soul is made for Thee. I can never find rest for my soul until I rest in Thee.”
Dear brothers and sisters, are we restless? Are we panting? Is there that upheaval within our souls? And why are we restless? Why do we pant? Is it because of something—some material thing, some earthly loss—or is it because of God?
Do we ever pant after God? Do we ever have that kind of feeling that, “I am thirsty unto death”? Is there that upheaval within my soul for God?
Dear brothers and sisters, the Scripture says, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” If we hunger and thirst after God, we shall be filled with God.
The reason why there is so little of Him in us is because we are not hungry after Him. We are not thirsty after Him. We feel comfortable even if we do not have the sense of His presence. If we do not have this sweet communion with Him, we think we can live.
Oh, but if you are a hart, you will not live without water. If you are a soul who loves God like David, you will not be able to live without God—not for a moment.
My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God.
God is the God of life. He is life to us. Brothers and sisters, it is not a matter of insignificance. It is a life-and-death matter whether you have God, whether you have communion with Him, or whether you are deprived of that fellowship with Him.
It is life and death to us. David knew that. He thirsted for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
You know, it is always like a paradox. When the priests who bore the ark came to David, in typology it seemed that God was going with David into exile. But David told the priests, “No. I do not want to see the ark of God wander again.”
The ark of God had wandered enough. It had wandered through the wilderness forty years. It had wandered in the land for hundreds of years until David moved the ark to Mount Zion, in the tent of David.
His daily desire was that the ark of God should come into rest. Now David was in exile, and the ark would follow. David said, “No. Now bring the ark back. Let it rest. If it should please God, He will allow me to come back to worship there.”
It is almost like a paradox. Yet, when David was in Mahanaim, on the eastern side of Jordan, oh, how he longed and said, “When shall I come and appear before God?”
You know, in one sense, God is omnipresent. He is everywhere. Whether it is in Jerusalem or in Mahanaim, God certainly was there with David.
But on the other hand, as you read the Old Testament, you will find that God told Moses that after the children of Israel entered into the promised land, God would choose a place to put His name there. There the twelve tribes of Israel must go to offer sacrifices and to worship God.
They were not allowed to offer sacrifices anywhere in the promised land. They had to go to Jerusalem, to the place of God’s choice, and there offer sacrifice and worship God.
So, in one sense, God was with David. God had never left David. Yet, in another sense, David was away from Zion, from Jerusalem. He was away from the place where God’s name was placed. He was away from the tent. He was away from the congregation that gathered before God to worship. Because of that, he felt the loss of it.
Applying it to us today, dear brothers and sisters, wherever we are, in whatever circumstances we may be, God has never left us nor forsaken us.
You remember in John, He says that when the Comforter shall come, He shall dwell in you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. In New Testament times, we are in a better position than those Old Testament saints.
In Old Testament times, God was with them, but God was not in them. But today God is in us. He is in us. Wherever you are, in whatever circumstance you may go through, He is with you. He is always there.
Yet, on the other hand, sometimes we may lose the sense of His presence. He is present, but so far as we are concerned, we are not conscious of His presence. Sometimes we may even be conscious of His absence.
When we lose the consciousness of His presence, we lose our very life. Our strength is gone. Our joy is gone. Our faith is gone. Our hope is gone. Everything is gone.
Dear brothers and sisters, when we enter into such darkness, oh, how we cry out to God, for the living God. We cry and say, “When shall I come and appear before You?”
Yet, in another sense, it is true. Today we do not worship in Jerusalem, nor do we worship on Mount Gerizim. We worship in spirit and in truth. God is Spirit, and He is seeking true worshippers, those who worship Him in spirit and in truth.
It is not a matter of a place. It is in spirit and in truth.
Yet, on the other hand, God does say, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” We are exhorted not to forsake the assembling of the saints.
Dear brothers and sisters, God is in you; He is with you. But there is a difference when you gather with the saints. When God’s people are coming together, there is an extra presence of God that you do not find alone.
This is something that David missed. This is something that, if we keep ourselves from assembling with God’s people, we will miss.
When shall I come and appear before God?
There is another translation, which is the more literal one. It says, “When shall I see the face of God?”
When shall I see the face of God? You know, dear brothers and sisters, there is nothing more vital in our Christian life than the face of God.
What is the face of God? You remember once Moses went to intercede for the children of Israel, and God answered him. God answered him in grace and in mercy.
Then Moses dared to ask, “Let me see Thy face. I want to see You.” But God said, “No, you cannot see My face. You can see My back.” So God hid Moses in the cleft of a rock, and when the glory of God passed by, Moses saw the back of God, but not His face.
How precious must be the face of God. Do you not know that we today are privileged to see the face of God?
In 2 Corinthians 4:6:
Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness,
Who shined in our hearts,
To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
In the face of Jesus Christ.
Then 2 Corinthians 3:17-18:
Now the Lord is the Spirit:
And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord,
Are transformed into the same image from glory to glory,
Even as from the Lord the Spirit.
We today are privileged to see the face of God. We see God in the face of Jesus Christ. We can look into the glory of the Lord with unveiled face. The veil is broken; it is rent. Now we can be face to face with God. We can see His face.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is the highest privilege that God has granted to us in mercy and grace.
But what is the face of God? First of all, the face of God is the full revelation of God. If you see His face, you see Him in all His fullness.
If you see His back, you see some of His features, yes, but you do not see Him as He is. But when you see His face, you see Him in all His fullness.
Brothers and sisters, this is our privilege. We are privileged to see Him in all that He is. Why? Because the church is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.
How we need to see His face. The more you see His face, the more you know Him.
One day we shall see Him as He is, and we shall be like Him. But, dear brothers and sisters, you do not need to wait until that day. It already begins. We are seeing His face right here.
We are not veiled. If our heart is turned towards Him, then we shall see His face, and He will reveal Himself to us. We shall know Him.
Secondly, we shall be like Him. Seeing His face is not just seeing. Seeing His face is to be in His immediate presence.
When you are in His immediate presence, He will begin to communicate Himself to you, and you will be transformed from glory to glory according to His image, until you are conformed to Him.
Oh, how important it is that in our daily life we can see His face. How important it is that we may be face to face with Him—face to face—that He may be able to communicate Himself to us in such liberty that we may be transformed from glory to glory.
That is seeing His face.
Dear brothers and sisters, do you long to see Him? Do you pant to see His face? What if He hides Himself from you?
Do you have such experience, when it seems that God has hidden Himself from you? How do you feel? You feel dead. You are literally dead.
How you cry out, “I need Your face. Let me see Your face.”
You know, if I can let out a little of my own secret, sometimes my prayer before God is, when I seem to be losing His face, “God, even if I cannot see Your smiling face, let me see Your angry face. I want to see Your face.”
There is nothing more to me than the face of God. It is the cry of David: “When can I come to see the face of God?”
My tears have been my food day and night,
While they say unto me all the day, Where is thy God?
When David was in such deep trouble, it seemed that the greatest trouble to him was not his son, nor the people who rebelled against him. The greatest of his troubles was that he seemed to lose the consciousness of God’s presence.
Because of that, he could not bear it. Tears became his bread day and night.
Oftentimes, dear brothers and sisters, we shed tears. We weep. For what purpose? For what reason? It is because we pity ourselves. We love ourselves so much. When we do not get what we think we should, we weep.
But have you ever shed tears for God? You weep because you want Him.
My tears have been my food day and night.
When the enemy comes and says, “Where is your God?” oh, brothers and sisters, how important that we have the consciousness of His abiding presence.
Nothing really matters in our lives more than the consciousness of His abiding presence. If God is with you, who can be against you? There is nothing to be afraid of.
But if you lose the consciousness of His presence, you are really in the valley of the shadow of death. That troubled David more than anything else.
Where is thy God? Where?
When David was, as it were, sunk to the bottom of the pit, then he began to recall:
These things I remember, and pour out my soul within me,
How I went with the throng, and led them to the house of God,
With the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping holyday.
You know, when you are in trouble, when it seems as if God has left you, probably one thing that will deepen your distress is when you recall how, in the past, you were able to go to the house of God with a multitude, with a voice of joy and praise.
These happy times in the past seem to haunt you. They seem to add anguish to you.
But on the other hand, in remembering the past—what God has done for you—it does lift you out of your pit. So you find it is really a paradox. On the one hand, it deepens your sorrow, and yet on the other hand, it brings you back to God.
So here you find verse 5:
Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
And why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him
For the help of His countenance.
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? David was speaking to David. The spirit in David was talking to his soul. Faith was talking to fear.
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Why?”
In the literal translation, he says, “Why do you cast yourself down, my soul? Why do you cast yourself down, my soul?”
You think it is your circumstances that cast you down? No. You think it is people who cast you down? No. You think it is trouble or problems that cast you down? No. You cast yourself down.
Brothers and sisters, when you look at your circumstances, you are down. When you look at people, you are down. When you look at your problems, you are down. When you look within yourself, you are disquieted. You are disturbed.
But you are not supposed to look at all these. You are supposed to look up at God.
Whenever you are in depression, remember: it is not circumstances, it is not problems, it is not people. It is because you look within yourself and begin to pity yourself.
What you should do is look up. Look off unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.
When you look up, you are brought up. Immediately, you are lifted up. So the spirit speaks to the soul and says, “Why do you cast yourself down? Why do you disquiet yourself?”
Hope in God. Trust in God. There is hope in God.
In yourself, there is no hope. That is true. In the circumstances, they give you no hope. That is always true. In people, you have no help—no help.
For God is the God of hope. Hope in God.
You see, when his spirit began to talk to his soul, his spirit began to lift his soul out of depression. He began to look up.
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him.
That is faith. Where there is hope, there is faith. Because David hoped in God, he had faith that he would yet praise God. He knew that God would get him out of all these problems.
“For the help of His countenance.” The word help is also salvation: “for the salvation of His countenance,” His face.
In other words, David knew he would yet see the face of God. As he was talking to himself, his spirit began to rise up, hoping in God. There and then, the salvation of the face of God came upon him.
He saw God again. The clouds were lifted. He saw the face of God. How healthy is the face of God.
So, dear brothers and sisters, here you find David. Here you find these sons of Korah, who were in full sympathy with David. They had all gone through deep waters, and that only increased their longing for God.
If anyone longs for God, he will not be disappointed. He shall see the salvation of the face of God.
May God help us. Shall we pray?
O heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee for teaching us this lesson: that nothing matters but Thy face.
Oh, that we may not hunger after other things, but that we may pant after Thee, the living God.
O Lord, we pray that by Thy grace we may always be in the light of Thy face.
If Thou art angry with us, show Thy face to us, that we may repent. If Thou art pleased, smile at us and encourage us.
Oh, we do ask Thee, Lord, that Thou wilt create such hunger and thirst in our souls for Thyself.
Do not allow us to be contented if we do not have Thy abiding presence.
Give us hope. Give us faith and give us love. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.