Psalms 42

The speaker begins by reminiscing about a previous time they visited and preached at the church. They mention their history with Donnie and their previous youth ministry experiences. The speaker then talks about the importance of spiritual hydration and how our souls can become dehydrated, leading to a spiritual thirst. They mention that most people go through periods of spiritual thirst and discuss the significance of thirst in the book of Psalms. They speculate that King Hezekiah may have written Psalm 42 and provide some background on his life and experiences. The speaker emphasizes the need for God's help in times of spiritual thirst and concludes by highlighting the importance of turning to God for spiritual hydration. As an old music director, I like that, you know, I do. Well, I appreciate the opportunity to be here today. I've been here before. You're not going to remember, I'm pretty sure, but it's probably been 10 or 12 years ago. We were living in Arcadeltia doing the MDSF college ministry there. And early one Sunday morning, Lisa called me and said, well Kelvin said Donnie has been sick all night, he's not going to be able to make it. Can you by any chance come and preach for him today? And I was able to and came and enjoyed our time. And Donnie goes way back in my history. Austin and I were talking about it a while ago. I had him in two different youth ministries. Ambassador of Louisiana, we were there and he was a teenager then. And his family moved and then my family moved. And so I got a second shot at him. It's like the Lord said, you didn't do good the first time, let's see if you can do it better this time. And so he's been a teenager in our youth ministry. But I take none of the credit for anything. I take none of the blame. OK, so I'll just lay that on the table this morning. But it's good to come and visit with you again. It's good to have Paul and Nancy Halbert and their dear friends for, I started to say 100 years, but not quite, a pretty good part of 100 years. But Paul and I are two old music guys that go way back and both of us have stories we could tell. And so I'm not going to tell any on him because he's got some he probably could tell on me. And so we'll just we'll leave that where it is. But well, when the choir got up and sang their song this morning, I just almost cried. I worked on a message pretty much all week this week and wanted to do it and had stuff going and studying and preparing. And it just didn't come together. It just it just didn't work. It's like God said, put the brakes on, let's go a different direction. And so I went a different direction. And you're going to see in just a minute what what got to me. It's just the Holy Spirit's all I can say. And you'll recognize that in just a minute. Well, in the book Sahara Unveiled, the story is told of an Algerian named Lag-Lag. Now, you don't see many kids named Lag-Lag today, but Lag-Lag and his assistant were driving across the Sahara Desert and their old truck broke down. Now, if there's any place you don't want to have vehicle problems, it's in the middle of a desert. I don't say that from experience. I just say it from common sense. And so their truck broke down. And so while they were waiting to be rescued, and they felt sure they would be, they just didn't know when, they had to actually crawl under their truck to avoid the sun. And so they got under the truck and watered down a little bit of a dip in there so they could lay down under the truck and just wait. They had food, but they didn't eat it because they were afraid it would make them more thirsty. And they'd run out of water, and so they just laid under that truck in the hot Sahara sun and just waited. Well, as they waited, what happens is that they start to dehydrate. You don't take any moisture in, you're going to dehydrate, especially in those conditions. And so even though there was food there, they didn't eat it. But because of that, they didn't have any water to quench their terrible thirst. And so it gets to a place where you're willing to drink anything, I'm told, anything. For them, it became the rusty radiator water out of the truck, antifreeze. They were willing to drink basically poison to stay alive. Now, I don't know which would kill you faster, the poison or the antifreeze or the dehydration, but that's what they came to. And so sure enough, then after three weeks, they were rescued. Physical dehydration is very dangerous. People die from it. Spiritual dehydration is a whole other story. And that's what we're going to talk about this morning. See, our soul can dehydrate. Our soul can wilt like a flower that doesn't get water. Now, you don't tell from the outside. I mean, it's not visible. One of those things, oh man, they've got a dehydrated soul. You can't tell from outward appearance. But boy, deep inside, you know that you're thirsty spiritually. And the truth is, most people go through a spell of that at times. I don't know anybody that can't say, well, I've never had any kind of... Most of us do. It can be brought on by circumstances or situations or anything, and our soul just gets parched. And so today, I want to talk about thirst. You know, God arranged this whole thing, I'm telling you. When I saw I thirst, I thought, man, thank you, Lord. But I want to talk about thirst from the book of Psalms. And you can go ahead and find that. It's just about the middle of your Bible. If you just turn to the middle, you're going to be pretty close. But let me give you some background before we get into that. Of the 150 Psalms, or divisions in Psalms, only about half of those were actually written by David. We say Psalms, and only David wrote it. But actually, he wrote only about half of them. But the other half, some of the contributors were Solomon. You know, David's son. And then Moses actually wrote one or two of the Psalms. And Asaph and others contributed to that other half of the Psalms. And some of those that there's no author attributed, and some of your Bibles will have a little heading, maybe underneath what's written by so-and-so, and here's the situation. Some that don't have that. You can read the Psalms and look down in there and see events or situations. And you can pretty much tell who wrote it, even though their name is not listed at the heading of that Psalm. Well, that's where we're going to be today as we look at Psalm 42. Go ahead and find that. Now, this is one of those that there's no author ascribed to it. It says, for the sons of Korah, it's who it's to, but it doesn't say who it's from. And so, you know, scholars have speculated on it, and one says, well, I think this one did, and one thinks that one did. My personal opinion, which is really worth not very much, but also the opinion of people way smarter than me, is that perhaps Hezekiah wrote 42. King Hezekiah. He is one of my favorites. I'm just telling you, of all the kings, he's one of my favorites. And he became king at age 25, and he turned a backslidden nation. The nation of Israel were headed as far away from God as fast as they could, and Hezekiah is the one that came in and turned them an about face, headed back toward God. That was Hezekiah. Of all the kings in Israel, and God never intended for them to have a king to start with, you know that, but they just kept on and kept on and kept whining, and finally God gave them what they asked for. You know, sometimes one of the worst things God can do is give us what we ask for. But He did, and we want a king just like all the other nations. God didn't want them to be like the other nations, and so finally He gave them kings, and most of Israel's kings are described using the phrase, He did evil in the sight of God. You just barely get into His reign, and it's like He did evil in the sight of God. Time after time after time, He did evil in the sight of God. Hezekiah was an exception. He was a godly king. Even to the tune of going against his family. Hezekiah's daddy was a dud of a king. Hezekiah's son was a dud of a king. And so here comes Hezekiah right between those two, and he does what pleases God. And he went through some things because of that, and there's a couple of things in his life that make me and some others believe that he could actually have penned this Psalm 42. First, the prophet Isaiah told Hezekiah, God said you're going to die. You know that story. God says you're going to die. Well, that news would get to any of us. And so Hezekiah went into his room and turned his head to the wall and just cried and prayed. You know, trying to get God to change his mind. And so he just cried and prayed, and sure enough, God heard him. He heard Hezekiah's repentant heart. And he answered his prayer. Granted him 15 more years. Now, as it turns out, those 15 years, he might have been better if he didn't even have those. But he heard Hezekiah's prayer as he hears ours when we pray from a sincere heart. And so he granted him an extended life. And this Psalm 42 could have been written after that death sentence and before God came and said I'm going to grant you more time. He could have written this Psalm during that time and God promised him a recovery. Or there's another situation that he could have penned as Hezekiah was verbally assaulted by the king of Assyria, King Sennacherib. Now, don't go to Rib Crib BBQ and look for that on the menu. That's not Snack-a-Ribs, OK? Sennacherib. He was an evil king, king of Assyria. And so he had threatened Hezekiah through a letter. And the letter basically said, surely you don't think your God is going to deliver you. You know, just, you know, jabbing at him. He said, look at all the other nations and cities that have said God would deliver them. You know, and they were piled up, you know. Who can stand before us? Sennacherib writes. Your God is nothing. You might as well surrender now because your God cannot deliver you. Man, that just shows how evil this king Sennacherib was. And he said nothing that wasn't true. I mean, enemy after enemy, they had just wiped him out. And so he thinks Israel is going to be the same way. And so Hezekiah, here he is, and he thinks, well, Hezekiah may be trying to do something different. And so he's taunting him through his messengers and through this letter. Well, when Hezekiah read that letter, it broke his heart because he knew, I am serving the true God, the God above all gods. And that other god is with a little g, by the way. And so it broke his heart. And so he ran to the temple and fell face down on the temple floor and just spread that letter out in front of him and just poured his heart out to God. At this point, only God can help them. Otherwise, they're going to wind up like all these other nations. And so again, God heard his prayer and God responded. And 185,000 enemy soldiers died in their sleep that night at God's hand. 2 Kings 19, verse 35 says, the other soldiers that didn't die woke up the next morning and saw the corpses all dead. I love the way... Have you ever seen a corpse that wasn't dead, you know? But they looked out and saw them, you know? And Sennacherib was later then to show how evil he was. He was killed by his own sons. That's how evil he is. Now, I've said all that to get us into Psalm 42, assuming that Hezekiah wrote it. So Psalm 42, verse 1, As the heart or the deer 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? And so here you see that Hezekiah, whatever the setting, whatever, you know, whether it's after his death sentence that God intervened, or whether it's facing the evil Assyrians, Hezekiah is desperate for God here in this psalm, just like a deer that's running through the woods with dogs chasing him and barking, and he knows he's in trouble. Hezekiah is desperate in his soul for God, just like a deer would physically be desperate for water. Now, there's two observations, and we'll go through these pretty quickly. The first is this. Thirst is a sign of longing. Thirst is a sign of longing. Thirst is a driving force. You ever been so thirsty, man? You had a cotton mouth and all that. Man, I'd give anything for it. When I was a kid growing up, I remember drinking water out of a dipper. Any of you been there? Oh, come on, I know better. You know, a metal dipper in a metal bucket, and everybody in the whole community drinks out of the same bucket and the same dipper. It's a wonder we're all even still living, you know. But man, you just get so thirsty, you'd do anything. They say now you're not supposed to drink out of a water hose. Well, if that be the case, I would have been gone a long time ago. But you just get so thirsty, you just do anything. Back when I was playing high school football in Mountain View to go Yellow Jackets, my cousin, John, was a senior. I guess I was a freshman or a sophomore. Anyway, we played one year there on the same team. And John, bless his heart, may have just been the Richardson in him, but every day during practice, he would suddenly develop a headache and he needed some aspirins. Well, you know, you got two little aspirins. And the thing is, we've always got the rest of those. John had to have a quart Gatorade jar full of water to wash those two little aspirins down, you know. Well, I doubt it, but he thought they did. And the coach pretty quickly caught on to him. And so you heard about Ed. Ed was wandering through the drugstore, you know, and the manager asked if he needed help. He said, yes, I do. I'm looking for acetylsalicylic acid. And the manager said, do you mean aspirin? And Ed said, oh, thank you. I can never think of that word. Well, and so when you get really thirsty, I mean, nothing satisfies like water. You know, you see people grab Coca-Cola or Pepsi-Cola or Dr. Pepper's or even the Gatorade and all that. Nothing satisfies like water. It just does. You know, that's the ticket right there. But here Hezekiah is not speaking of physical thirst. He's speaking of spiritual thirst. Even water can't satisfy that. Spiritual thirst. And again, our souls get thirsty. We come to church, you know, and we get fed and watered, if you will, those that hunger and thirst. And so the spiritual thirst, and there may be some even here in this congregation that you just have a thirsty soul. Dehydrated soul. If that just continues to go, you get past the thirst and you get to the dehydration. And our souls get thirsty. So maybe you're struggling here this morning with a dry soul. What causes that anyway? Well, you know, there's a few things. I know people that neglect God's house, you know, not once in a while, but continuously. You know, they go for weeks and months and never enter the doors of the church. You know, and if that's their practice, no wonder why they have a dehydrated soul. You know, some people, you know, they never pick up God's word. You know, they get through church and they throw it up on the dashboard. And when they come to church next night, right there it is. You know, they never open God's word. And, you know, we eat every day. We eat, you know, if we miss a meal, we got to try to catch up. But some people go days and weeks and even months and never feed their soul spiritually from the word of God or prayer. You know, a lot of people's prayers is just, you know, hey, God's me again. Here's what I want. Thank you. Amen. Goodbye. Those things will contribute to a dehydrated soul. Now, for some reason, Hezekiah felt that in this Psalm 42. And so there should be a longing in our soul for the things of God. You know, sometimes somebody will come to church, maybe a visitor or whatever, and you can just tell they're uncomfortable. Don't shake your head or punch nobody next to you. You can just tell they don't feel like they don't fit. And so there should be a longing. And only God can satisfy that longing. So thirst is a sign of longing. Secondly, thirst is a sign of life. Dead people don't thirst. You never see somebody buried with a bottle of water, you know, in their casket. They don't. And so thirst is a sign of life. Hezekiah saw himself as a desperate deer fleeing from a pack of hounds. It was urgent, you know. Then suddenly realizing that his enemy is not the dogs. His enemy is death. If they catch him, he's dead. He's a goner. And so his enemy is death. The deer is desperate until he finds a stream that he can plunge himself into and just suck up that water, you know. And then he realizes, you know, I made it. I'm alive. You know, I'm living. And so thirst is a sign of life. If you don't have life, you're not going to be thirsty. If you have no thirst for God or the things of God, you really should evaluate whether you even have life in God. I know of church members who've been saved. I was one. There's no better church member than a saved church member. You know, and so it don't matter how long you may have been a member of the Kentucky Missionary Baptist or wherever. You know, it has nothing to do with whether you're going to heaven or not. And so make sure that you have life in God. And if you do have, how extensive is your thirst for God? You know, some folks, it just doesn't seem to take as much of God. You know, I'm just happy with a little bit. William Reeves wrote a little book. And in his book, he said, I would like to buy three dollars worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I want a pound of the eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy three dollars worth of God, please. Some folks, it don't even take three dollars worth. They just get by on a little bit or so it seems. That is not Hezekiah. That is just the opposite of Hezekiah. Four times in two verses, Hezekiah cries out to God, desperate as a deer running from dogs, expressing his desire to be with him. The end of that second verse, when shall I come and appear before God? How much longer, God, is it going to be before? We should be that way about our Bible time and our prayer time and our church time. You know, how much longer is it until I wake up in the morning and I read through my Bible every year and I know when I wake up, okay, today I'm in the book of Job. That's a labor of love reading through John. It really is. I'm going to make it though, you know. Don't feel sorry for me. Don't feel sorry for me. And then I just finished this morning the book of Romans, you know. Going from Job and then a little bit of Psalms, a little bit of Proverbs, and then the book of Romans. And I know when I wake up, man, here's my assignment for today, you know. And so, how much longer? Or our prayer time or our church time. And so, who or what do you look to to supply your needs? If it's anything but God, you're looking at the wrong thing. We should be willing to allow God to bring into our lives whatever He desires so that we will long for Him more. When I was 13 years old, I'm starting to not tell this, but I think I'm going to go ahead though. You don't know any of them anyway. I was 13 years old. It was a Wednesday afternoon growing up in Mountain View and our phone rang. Well, my dad answered the phone and we were all there pretty close, you know. Getting ready to go to church, matter of fact. And boy, you could tell as soon as he answered the tone of his voice, something's wrong. Well, really long story short, my cousin that lived in Missouri, him who was 16 at the time, and some of his buddies were... ...and played with a gun. Well, the gun accidentally went off and he shot a bullet in his stomach. So, he was a little bit like a lot of the rest of us Richardsons in the midsection, and he didn't even know it, you know. He's standing there, that gun goes off and it hits him, he didn't know it. And finally, one of the other guys that was there said, you know, you're bleeding there. So, sure enough, that gun had shot him and he died from it. And so, on the phone that day, it was my dad's sister. I still don't call him to tell him what had happened. And so, I never will forget, daddy called all of us in, my mom and my sister and I, and we got down there and my dad told us what had happened. And he said, we need to pray. My daddy was a very quiet man. So, whenever he said something or spoke, it was worth paying attention to. And so, his prayer, and I don't remember the whole thing, but I remember this part of it. He prayed, dear God, please help me live my life in a way that you'll never have to do something like this to get my attention. Now, did God cause my cousin Lowell to get shot and die? I don't think so. Did he allow that as a lesson to my aunt and uncle to maybe make adjustments in their lives? I doubt it. But that's what my daddy took from that. And God, by the way, he will do things like that. Don't misunderstand, he'll do whatever it takes sometimes to get our attention. To get our attention. But let's be open to whatever God brings to our lives in order to draw us to a closer walk with him so that we will thirst more for him. Stories told of a shipwrecked crew out on their boat and they'd lost direction and they'd drunk all their water and they'd been drifting for days. And just that little small boat off the coast of Brazil. They were there on a mission trip of sorts, I suppose. And so they were out there and even with the severe thirst that set in those several days, they didn't drink the seawater. You know, they said, well, that'll make us more thirsty and just make things worse. And so here they are several days and they're just, you know, dying of thirst. And one day a boat approached, you know, I say out of nowhere, but I don't think stuff like that happens out of nowhere. And so this boat approached and so they saw the boat and they began to call out, water, water! That was their number one need right now, water! And so they're calling and yelling this to the other boat. And the response came from that boat, dip your bucket over the side. And come to find out a few days earlier, they had drifted in to the flow of the Amazon River. Fresh water. Fresh water. And so they were dying of thirst, surrounded by the very thing that could save their lives. And they didn't even know it. And so maybe here this morning, you're struggling with a desperate situation or a parched soul, and you just don't see any way out. And yet the very thing that can help you is so near. God is always near. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, God is always near. God's grace is just a prayer away. It really is. Grace is like an ambulance, you know, it shows up at the scene of an emergency. And so, you know, if you're not right with God, either you've never been saved and you know you need to be, or you're struggling with a parched soul, whatever your need is, that is an emergency. And God's grace is the thing that can help you through that. And so why not just stop needlessly struggling this morning? If you've never been saved, your greatest need is to trust Christ as your Savior. Eternity is long, and it's approaching rapidly, I think. And so make sure you're right with God. Make sure you're saved if you have other needs. Maybe you're saved and you've never been baptized. This church will baptize you, I'm pretty sure. You know, you say, well, Brother Don, he's not here today. No, but the church can still vote to accept you for baptism. And so maybe you need to be baptized. Maybe you're not. I don't know enough of you to know who's supposed to be here and who's not. Maybe you're distant here and you've visited for a while. You know, man, that's where God wants me to be. Why not just come on and join up with these good folks and get to work for God? Whatever we're going to do for God, we need to get on with it. We really do. And so whatever your need is, if there are adjustments in your life spiritually, we're going to ask our musicians to come. We're going to stand very quietly and reverently. And Brother Austin is going to stand here at the front. And so if we can help you in any way, I want to invite you and encourage you to do that. Father, thank you for our time this morning as we looked into your word on the subject of thirst. A thirst far more important than just not having something to drink in a little while, but thirst of the soul. And I pray that if there's one that struggles with that right now, that they'll approach your throne of grace and do business with you this morning. And they'll take care of that. I pray if there's one that's never been saved, that maybe this time, these few moments, these moments of decision, they'll trust in your son as their savior. I pray you'll forgive our sins, that you will be pleased with what we do in Christ's name. Amen. Brother, let's stand. Page 631. For things that could not satisfy, and then I heard my Savior speaking, draw from my well that never shall run dry. Till my cup poured, I lifted up for