Where is God?

Series: Dealing With Depression and Doubt

Leslie Basham: Here's Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Wouldn't you admit that there have been moments of your life when it felt as if God was nowhere to be found? You knew in your head it wasn't true, but your emotions were screaming out to you--God is not here!

Leslie Basham: Welcome to Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss. Have you ever felt forsaken? You're in good company--even Jesus felt that way. Today we'll learn how to continue walking with God even when we feel like we're all alone. Here's Nancy.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: We're looking this week at a pair of Psalms--Psalm 42 and 43--which I think minister real encouragement to those of us who know what it is to go through desperate, difficult, distressing circumstances.

We've seen that the psalmist--probably David--feels that he's in a time of drought, dryness, desert and also that he's in a season of life where he feels like he's drowning. He's overwhelmed by the circumstances of life. We said that he was in a time of life where he was cut off from fellowship with the people that he had known who walked with God, and that he was having to live far away from Jerusalem.

He was not able to go to the house of God to worship the Lord, and he was feeling keenly the loss of that fellowship with God and with others. He was in a place in his life where he had no visible means of support for his faith. God is wanting to move the psalmist--and move us--to a place where our hope is fully grounded in who God is and not in any visible evidence of God's presence in our lives.

Today we want to look at some other reasons that David was feeling depressed, that he was going through doubts. The first three days of this series could seem pretty negative, and I hate ending each day the way we are--but isn't life kind of like that? Our program goes a quarter hour, and you don't dissolve problems in a quarter hour. We'd like to just have our problem--okay, have your problem for two minutes--then get it solved by the end of the program. That's the way TV is.

But life isn't that way. The Psalms aren't that way; the Scripture doesn't promise us that the circumstances that have been distressing to us are going to go away any time soon. Some of those circumstances may not go away this side of heaven. You're going to have to choose: Am I going to live the rest of my life depressed and in doubt, or are there some choices I can make that will enable me in the midst of the distressing circumstances of my life to walk in faith?

Let me read, beginning at Psalm 42:1. "As the deer pants for the water brooks, 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?" Or, as one translation says it, "When shall I see the face of God? That's what I really want."

"My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, 'Where is your God?'" Look down at verse 9: "I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy." Verse 10--"As with a breaking [or a shattering] of my bones, my enemies reproach me [they revile me], while they say to me all day long, 'Where is your God?'"

He's surrounded by people who are not people of faith. His friends have concluded that God has abandoned him. That just adds to his distress and his affliction. They try to shake his confidence in God.

I think of a friend who is one of the very few believers in a large, unbelieving family. When she goes to be with her family for family gatherings--or reunions or whatever--there's profanity and immorality. It surrounds her, and they don't understand her faith. They don't share her faith, and that's a hard set of circumstances to face. She knows it's the right thing to do, but there's a natural response of depression and doubt when you're having to be surrounded by unbelievers.

Then we see in 42:4 that the psalmist has memories of past mercies and joys. He remembers what it used to be like. He says, "I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with the multitude that kept a pilgrim feast." He's saying, "There was a day when it was different. There was a day when I had warm Christian fellowship." Those memories that could bring him joy in fact add to his despair because everything has changed.

You can just sense the hopelessness. I'll never experience that again must be what he was feeling. Then he realizes that it's not just people who are oppressing him. He realizes that the storms are actually coming from God, and that can--in a sense--be harder to endure.

He says in verse 7, "Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and billows have gone over me." God's the One who controls the rain. Then he says, "All these waves and these billows that are tempestuous and threatening to overcome me, they're God's waves and billows."

Who made the sea? Who stirs up the storm? Who sends the rain?

It's one thing to have people or circumstances in your life that are overwhelming, that are painful, that are grievous. But, at least if you can look at them and say, "It's their fault," you take some small comfort in that. But when you step back and realize that nothing comes into the life of a child of God that is not ordered and ordained sovereignly by the hand of God himself--that there really are no second causes--then you've got an issue with God.

You say, "Lord, I'm in this trouble. I'm in this mess, and it wasn't directly my sin that got me here." You look back, and you say, "Lord, You're in charge of this." Then the temptation is to be angry, to be bitter with God:

"Lord, You made this child who has a physical disability. The doctor didn't do this. You could have made this child different."

"How did You let my husband get into this addictive habit? You could change his heart; but You haven't."

"This child I can't control"¦"

"Lord, You could change my circumstances, but You haven't."

We start to realize that it's not just man and circumstances that are oppressing us, it's ultimately God who has His hand in this. That can create a sense of greater despair until you step back and look at who that God is.

One commentator says about this verse, "We need to remember that sufferings are not the touch of an alien hand." The very thing that brings us distress is also the thing that can bring us comfort in the midst of those circumstances, and we're going to see that as the psalm unfolds.

In the midst of this storm, it seems as if God has forgotten and forsaken him. That's the way he feels. Wouldn't you admit that there have been moments of your life when it felt as if God was nowhere to be found? You knew in your head it wasn't true and you'd never dare to say it out loud; but your emotions were screaming out to you, God is not here. He's forgotten me. He's forsaken me.

He says in 42:9, "I will say to God my Rock [my steady One, my steadfast One], "Why have you forgotten me?" That's what his emotions are telling him. Chapter 43:2, "Why do you cast me off?"

"God, why have You forsaken me?" Wasn't that the supreme anguish that the Lord Jesus Himself went through there on the cross? He entered into our despair. He entered into our storm. He took upon Himself all the wrath of God against our sin, and He came to the point where he felt abandoned. In fact, God the Father did have to turn His back on His son.

The psalmist says, "This brings me to despair. This brings me to depression. This brings me to doubt." The problems are relentless. There doesn't seem to be any end in sight. They're not going away. Psalm 42:3, "My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, 'Where is your God?'"

Verse 10--"My enemies reproach me, they say to me all day long, 'Where is your God?'" This is not just a problem that comes--a little squall on the sea of life. This is a storm that stays. Some of you are in a storm that is staying. Some of you have issues, and you've shared with me that you're dealing with grown children who have had years of sinful bondages, years of waywardness.

Some of you have health issues that aren't going away. Some of you have marriage issues that aren't going away. You're wanting to be faithful to your marriage, but this storm in your marriage is not going away. It's been there for years, and there's no end in sight.

The psalmist says this is emotionally distressing. This is spiritually distressing. This is mentally distressing. This is physically distressing. His enemies don't share his longing for God. They constantly taunt him so the psalmist is despondent. He's plagued with questions and doubts as a result of his tumultuous circumstances and the seeming absence of God. No visible means of support for his faith.

In the next session we're going to look at what he does about it. We'll see that he's faced with a choice. But for now, I want to keep bringing us back to the chorus that appears in this song--not one time, not two times--but three times. Look at 42:11. "Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of countenance and my God."

The One that seems to be wrecking your life is in fact, your truest hope. Hope in God.

Leslie Basham: Before Nancy comes back to pray, we want to offer you some help in remembering that God is always with you. Sometimes it's easy to forget that, isn't it? We hope you'll get a copy of the book called God's Promises for Your Every Need. It's a leather-bound book filled with over 2,000 Scripture verses and indexed by topic for quick and easy reference.

It's a great tool to have on hand in times of doubt or simply when you need a word of truth to encourage your heart. God's Promises for Your Every Need would also make a great gift for a friend. To order for a suggested donation of $15, call 1-800/569-5959 or visit us on the Internet at ReviveOurHearts.com.

I hope that if you ever feel alone or abandoned, this radio program can provide some companionship--and more importantly, remind you about God's constant faithfulness. We're able to be with you every day because of listeners who believe in this ministry and support the program financially. If God is speaking to your heart, would you send a financial gift?

Do you ever ask God why? Join us tomorrow when we'll learn that God sometimes doesn't give us an answer so that He can give us something better. Now, here's Nancy to pray with us.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Father, You are truly our Rock. We look to You. And we know that even in very desperate, discouraging, depressing circumstances, You do not fail. You are faithful. You have proved it to us and to countless others. For one who is listening today who is discouraged, would You take her back to this chorus? May she hope in God. May she know that You will not fail. I pray in Jesus' Name. Amen

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss is a ministry partnership of Life Action Ministries.

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