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Matt Hardy
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Psalm 42 | Oh My Soul

Why Are You Cast Down, Oh My Soul?

“We should, in general, reassure Christians suffering from depression that most often their damaged spiritual relationships and feelings are not the cause of the depression, but the consequence of it.”
“I’m Not Supposed to Feel Like This”

Psalms 32:1-4
1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

Psalms 52:3-5
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Philippians 1:6
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

John 10:27-30
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

Romans 9:10-13
10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

Ephesians 2:1-5
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ

2 Corinthians 12:9-10
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

C.H. Spurgeon
“Reader, never ridicule the nervous and hypochondriacal, their pain is real; though much of the malady lies in the imagination or thought processes it is not imaginary”

Martin Lloyd Jones
“Christians don’t understand how physical, physcological, and spiritual realms interrelate because Satan muddies the boundaries. Many of our troubles are caused because we think a problem is spiritual when it physical or we think a problem is physical when it is emotional or spiritual.

Broken Minds
“David and the other psalmist often found themselves deeply depressed for various reasons. They did not, however, apologize for what they are feeling, nor did they confess it as a sin. It was a legitimate part of their relationship with God. They interacted with Him through the context of his depression”

“Spiritual Depression” Martin Lloyd Jones
“The essence of this matter is to understand that this self of ours, this other man within us, has got to be handled. Do not listen to him; turn on him; speak to him; condemn him; upbraid him; exhort him; encourage him; remind him of what you know, instead of listening placidly to him and allowing him to drag you down and depress you.”

“Spiritual Depression” Martin Lloyd Jones
Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?

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Mark Schledorn
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Psalm 139 | How Well Do You Know the God Who Knows You So Well

Exodus 20:18-19
“Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal live.

John 3:17-18
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be save through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

In light of the cross,
God’s inescapable knowledge of me becomes “He knows me!”
God’s inescapable presence becomes “He is with me!”
And God’s inescapable power becomes *“He is for me!” *

Zephaniah 3:17
The Lord your God is in your midsts, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with singing.

A.W. Tozer
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

A.W. Tozer
“God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell. ... Because God knows all things perfectly, he knows no thing better than any other thing, but all things equally well. He never discovers anything, he is never surprised, never amazed. He never wonders about anything nor (except when drawing men out for their own good) does he seek information or ask questions.”

R.C. Sproul
“To be separated from the Lord and cast into hell does not mean that a person will finally be free of God. That person will remain eternally accountable to Him. He will remain Lord over the person’s existence. But in hell, a person will be forever separated from God in His kindness, mercy, grace, and goodness. He will be consigned to deal with Him in His holy wrath.”

Derek Kidner
“David has moved on from contemplating his own thoughts and their nakedness before God, to considering God’s innumerable thoughts towards him. He is not exaggerating. Even in his own body. There is an unimaginable wealth of detail, every point of it from the mind of God. Such divine knowledge is not only ‘wonderful’ but precious, since it carries its own proof of
infinite commitment: God will not leave the work of his own hands, either to chance or to ultimate extinction.”

Will Storr
“We are living in an age of perfectionism, and perfection is the idea that kills. Whether it’s social media or pressure to be impossibly perfect twenty-first century iterations of ourselves, or pressure to have the perfect body, or pressure to be successful in our careers, or any of the myriad ways in which we place overly high expectations on ourselves and on other people, we’re creating a psychological environment that’s toxic.”
Selfie: How We Became So Obsessed and What It’s Doing to Us

R.C. Sproul
“If there is such a thing as perfect hatred it would mirror and reflect the righteousness of God. It would be perfect to the extent that it excluded sinful attitudes of malice, envy, bitterness, and other attitudes we normally associate with human hatred. In this sense a perfect hatred could be deemed compatible with a love for one’s enemies. One who hates his enemy with a perfect hatred is still called to act in a loving and righteous manner toward him.”

Charles Spurgeon
“To love all men with benevolence is our duty; but to love any wicked man with complacency would be a crime. To hate a man for his own sake, or for any evil done to us, would be wrong; but to hate a man because he is the foe of all goodness and the enemy of all righteousness, is nothing more nor less than an obligation. The more we love God the more indignant shall we grow with those who refuse Him their affection.”

John Linn
“The only way we will ever be fully loved and affirmed is if we are searched and known; yet being fully searched and known may be the exact thing that keeps us from being truly loved.”

John Linn
“But for Jesus on the cross, all David can say is verse 11. Why? Because on the cross Jesus is lost to the darkness. Jesus loses the light of His Father’s approval so you can receive he light of the Father’s approval even in your darkness. On the cross, Jesus is utterly exposed, naked, laid bare, ashamed. People walked by. They laughed, they jeered, they yawned. Even worse, His Father hid Him in darkness so that you never need be ashamed, so that He could shine the light of His approval on you, so that even when He looks into the depths of your heart, he can delight in you.”

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Joel Fair
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Psalm 146 | Praise the Lord

*I Three Looks at the Psalm *
A. Literary Work of Art
B. Liturgy of the Psalms
C. Exposit View

II Application
A. Praise the Lord!
B. Participate in the story
C. Hallelujah

Isaiah 61:1-3
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

Colossians 1:15-17
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Hebrews 10:23
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

Romans 8:30
And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Luke 22:19-20
And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood

Romans 4:23-5:2
But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God

St Augustine
Brethren, here we receive a mighty task; it is a voice from heaven, from above it soundeth to us. For now through some kind of weakness the soul of man, whensoever it is in tribulation here, despaireth of God, and chooseth to rely on man. Let it be said to one when set in some affliction, "There is a great man, by whom thou mayest be set free;" he smileth, he rejoiceth, he is lifted up. But if it is said to him, "God freeth thee," he is chilled, so to speak, by despair. The aid of a mortal is promised, and thou rejoicest; the aid of the Immortal is promised, and art thou sad? It is promised thee that thou shalt be freed by one who needeth to be freed with thee, and thou exultest, as at some great aid: thou art promised that Liberator, who needeth none to free Him, and thou despairest, as though it were but a fable. Woe to such thoughts: they wander far; truly there is sad and great death in them. Approach, begin to long, begin to seek and to know Him by whom thou wast made.