Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Speaker 2: 0:20

So we've all been there. We're sitting in the waiting room in some random office, or we're perusing the aisles of a Christian bookstore, or we're, you know, walking down the hallway of a random church and there it is, on the wall, A painting of a deer. What's the deer doing? Standing there peacefully by a body of water, and somewhere on that painting is the inscription that reads as the deer panteth for the water, oh, my soul, it pants for thee. And you might actually think to yourself yeah, that's nice. Oh, but to be like that peaceful deer and if you've had that thought before, you need to smack yourself, okay, Because you missed the boat entirely. So let's dig in a little bit here the Psalm of Lament that we, Because you missed the boat entirely. So let's dig in a little bit here.

Speaker 2: 1:05

The Psalm of Lament that we're covering today is Psalm 42. So let's read the first two verses here in the English Standard Version 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? Now? I grew up not really understanding what's going on here, because I didn't grow up in a family of hunters. In fact, I didn't hunt for the first time until I was in my 20s, and now I try to hunt as often as I can so that my two sons will grow up knowing how to hunt, so that they can provide for themselves, their families and others. But Pastor Joby actually taught me this because for years and years I completely missed the all-important word in this verse, and that's pants or panteth. Right, Because in Psalm 42, this deer isn't just chilling, enjoying the serenity of the water. This deer is exhausted. I mean, this deer is panting from exertion, right? I think we've all been there. Some of us haven't been there as much as we would need to. Right, you need to be in shape, guys. But let me digress a little bit. But again, going back to those dumb paintings, in Psalm 42, the deer hasn't found water yet. It's panting for the water, the water that it so desperately needs but does not have.

Speaker 2: 2:26

When we're in that position, what is it that we desire? Water. What does that water provide for us? Sustenance relief, life, really. The psalmist here is desperate for some of those same things. The psalmist here is desperate for some of those same things Sustenance relief, life. And throughout Psalm 42 and even into Psalm 43, we see this desperation expressed as thirst and discouragement.

Speaker 2: 2:55

And to prove my point, I'm going to go ahead and read verse 3. I mean, it's incredibly sad. My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all day long food day and night. While they say to me all day long where is your God? Now, this is a description of deep and abiding depression, Not, like you know, temporary sadness brought on by temporary circumstances, but a true dark night of the soul and inherent in these words you can see that this person is also having their faith challenged by outside influences and this person is having trouble not buckling under that weight.

Speaker 2: 3:25

Now, when we're in times like this, we are tempted to put our hope in a lot of things Hope that our circumstances are going to improve, Hope that our luck is going to change, Hope that meeting that special someone will solve it all, Hope that, if we could just reach that next tier of success, that everything will start to fall into place. But most of us already know that all of that hope is misplaced. I mean, some of those things may happen, but you will still be the same, you in those circumstances. It is where we put our hope. That makes the difference, for sure, and the psalmist tells us exactly where that should be. Verse 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. Hope in God. He is truly our only hope. Remember that today.