Sermon Tone Analysis

Psalm 42-43

January 16, 2011 ~~ Tom VanderPloeg

!!! *Introduction *

Usually when we want to discover what the scripture says we take a magnifying glass and really get in there for a closer look at the text.

Today we're going to do just the opposite.

Considering the issue of prayer, we're going to use the text for today and, instead of taking a closer look, we're going to take a farther look.

So let's begin by looking at these Psalms and then keep backing up away from them until we learn a little something about prayer.

!!! *I.

What the Psalm Says*

First Let's take a look at what the Psalm itself has to say.

Don't overlook the footnote included in your Bible right at the beginning.

In my NIV Bible the note says “In many Hebrew manuscripts Psalms 42 and 43 constitute one psalm.”

How or why the numbering came to be that separated these psalms into two I don't know; but for us to see the whole picture we have to reconnect these psalms and look at them together.

This is why we are reading both of them together here this morning.

There are three sections to this psalm.

We can tell that by the common refrain that separates the sections from one another.

You can see that refrain in Verse 5, in verse 11, and again in chapter 43:5.

What's the context for this psalm?

Who wrote it and what were the circumstances of it's writing?

The title of the psalm attributes it to being written by a Levite; specifically someone who is among the “sons of Korah.”

These were Levites who had specific temple duties.

And now this person is exiled from his temple duties that he loved so much.

What's the nature of his exile?

Why is he banished?

What happened here?

The sons of Korah worked in the temple but they did not live in Jerusalem.

Keep a finger in Psalm 42 and flip back with me to Joshua 21.

In this section of scripture the land of Palestine is being divided up among the tribes of Israel.

Chapter 21 describes the various lands where the Levites are to live.

Verse 4 says, “The first lot came out for the Kohathites, clan by clan.

(these are the sons of Korah) The Levites who were descendants of Aaron the priest were allotted thirteen towns from the tribes of Judah, Simeon and Benjamin.”

Down to verse 9, “From the tribes of Judah and Simeon they allotted the following towns by name...” and I won't read them off or plot them on a map for you today.

But many of these towns were directly west of Jesusalem in a region known as Gath.

That's where the sons of Korah lived.

Now flip up with me to 2 Kings 12. Look at verse 17, “About this time Hazael king of Aram went up and attacked Gath and captured it.

Then he turned to attack Jerusalem.”

The king of Aram attacks Israel.

Aram is to the north of Israel, Gath is to the west.

He's surrounding Jerusalem.

And he nearly captures Jerusalem but King Joash pays him off by emptying the temple treasury.

In those days when a foreign power attacked, they did not kill everybody in the land they attacked, but they took hostages who were then brought into exile and made to be servants.

And these sons of Korah lived right in the path of this foreign invasion.

This is the context for psalms 42-43.

Verses 1-4 make up the first section of the psalm and paint the picture for us even further.

Verse 4 tells us that the psalmist desires once again to be home performing his temple duties by “leading the procession to the house of God.”

Each of the three sections echoes the hints that the psalmist is taken from his home and is exiled among a foreign nation.

Verse 3 says, “men say to me all day long, 'Where is your God?'”

In the second section we see it in verse 9, “I say to God my Rock, 'Why have you forgotten me?

Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?'”

And in the third section we see it in 43:1, “Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; rescue me from deceitful and wicked men.”

With each time that the psalmist repeats his case there is a move from complete hopelessness to trust in God for salvation.

This sense is shown in the repeated refrain that comes three times through the psalm.

The psalmist acknowledges his heavy and saddened soul because he longs for the presence of God again, but consistently concludes that he will trust God and put is hope in God resulting in praise for the God that will save him.

We see this hope stated again in the third section beginning at 43:3, “Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.

Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight.”

There's one more detail I want us to see in these psalms.

In Hebrew literature, each verse constitutes a sentence in the Hebrew language.

So sometimes it can be important for us to pay attention to verse numbers.

The repeated refrain of this psalm is one verse, therefore one sentence.

Sections one and three are each four verses.

But the middle section have five verses.

There's an extra sentence in that middle section.

There are various forms of Hebrew poetry.

This particular psalm happens to be symmetrical.

You know what it means for something to have symmetry?

It means that the psalm is in some sense balanced on the ends; that the beginning and end somehow mirrors itself.

The main point of the psalm then hangs in the middle where it all comes together.

It's that extra verse in the middle section that breaks from the pattern where we find the main point.

It's verse 6, “my God.

My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.”

Mount Hermon, by the way, is on the northern boarder of Israel; right against the land of Aram, where this psalmist was possible exiled to.

The psalmist again acknowledges his downcast soul and says “therefore I will remember you” The solution to his problem, the source of his his hope is to remember God.

But what specifically about God is he remembering?

Hold that thought; we'll get back to it.

!!! *II.

Seeing the Bigger Picture*

Now let's shift gears a bit.

To pull some insight and meaning from this psalm we don't need to look at it closer, but look farther.

Like close-up photographs, maybe the picture of the psalms make more sense the further we back away and look at more of the surroundings.

So let's look again at psalms 42 and 43 and start to back away and see what's there.

Look at your Bible.

Right above where it says Psalm 42 what does it say?

It says “Book II: Psalms 42-72.”

The psalms are divided into five books.

Each of the five books ends with a common theme.

They all end with a verse that says “Praise be to the Lord” and some form of “Amen and Amen.”

Those verses signal us that a new book of psalms is coming.

But why did the Israelites divide the psalms into five books?

What was the reason for this arrangement?

To begin to answer that question we need to recognize that for Israel the psalms were not just songs and not just poetry.

For God's old testament people the psalms were prayers.

These five books of psalms were Israel's prayer book.

This is how for centuries people expressed themselves to God.

The psalms were how they prayed.

Tucked right in the middle of our Bibles are the secrets of prayer; the instructions for how we are to express ourselves to God; of how we are to pray to him.

It's all there.

There are psalms of praise, psalms of thanksgiving, psalms of lament, psalms of hope, psalms of confession.

Everything is here.

You know, throughout the centuries there have been different fads of prayer.

In our own time there has been the popularity of what is called /dunamus prayer /literally meaning “power prayer.”