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At Sandals Church, our vision is to be real with ourselves, God and others. This channel features sermons and teaching from Pastor Matt Brown and other members of the Sandals Church preaching team. You can find sermon notes, videos and more content at http://sandalschurch.com/watch
For whatever reason, I have always struggled to pray. And so as this new year begins and as many of you think about new routines that you wanna give yourself to, especially for those of you who follow Jesus, I wanna invite you to learn to pray the Psalms with us. It's a practice I picked up years ago that really saved, my ability to learn to pray, to speak to God honestly about how I was feeling and what I was thinking. And so every single day on sandalschurch.tv on YouTube, we're gonna be releasing, praying the Psalms, a Psalm a day. We started in January 1, and every day you're gonna get a new Psalm with the opportunity to read the Psalm with us, to reflect on a phrase, and then to respond to God in prayer, how to pray through the Psalms.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:This has been a gift to me in my own journey with Jesus. I pray that it's a gift to you, and so would you join us. Grace and peace. We continue praying the Psalms, and today we come to Psalm 42. David writes, as the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, oh God.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him? Day and night, I have only tears for food while my enemies continually taunt me saying, where is this God of yours? My heart is breaking as I remember how I used to be. I I used to walk among the crowds of worshipers leading a a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God. I will praise him again, my savior and my God. Now I am deeply discouraged, but I will remember you.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Verse eight, but each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me. And through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who lit who gives me life. Oh, God, my rock, I cry. Why have you forgotten me? Why must I wander around in grief oppressed by my enemies?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Verse 11. Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God. I will praise him again, my savior and my God.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:By way of reflection, I love Psalm 42. It's been reflected on by so many over the years. And they they draw attention to the fact that this deer who's going to the streams is looking for a refreshment, but is not finding it anymore. And David is saying in the same way that the deer is going to the stream that it knows where to find refreshment, so too am I doing the things that will refresh my soul, but they are not. You see, he's acknowledging a kind of sadness and a state maybe of depression, but he's unsure as to why.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He asked twice, why am I so discouraged? And I love the honesty. Again, this prayer gives us permission to be honest about how we're feeling even when we don't quite understand the root or the cause of it. And I love that David has this desire to twice say, I will put my hope in God. So he's holding together the sadness of his heart, but the declaration of faith, saying those two things can coexist.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You can be sad today and still put your hope in God. Because the person who you and I are having a conversation with the most every day of our lives is ourselves. And so David in this prayer almost models for us what self talk can look like. Where you're like, man, why am I discouraged? Why am I sad?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:But in the same time, hearing the the voice of God invite us to name that before him and to still declare faith. That even in sadness, even when I'm not sure as to what's going on, why the streams are dry when they used to replenish me, to name that before God. And Jesus, we hear you inviting now us to respond to you, to maybe name the ways where we're trying to be spiritually replenished. We're going to the streams, but we're not experiencing the life like we used to. And so we acknowledge maybe some areas of sadness, but we ask now, god, that you would meet us in this place.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:If you're being quiet in prayer, God, would you now speak? If it feels distant, would you draw close? If we just are navigating confusion, would your spirit guide us through what feels like a confusing time and day? And we pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen.