Text: Psalm 142

Topic: How to deal with loneliness

• Illustration: David Jeremiah quotes a preacher who quit his ministry after 18 years because of the loneliness he felt as a leader.

This preacher's words resemble David's cry of loneliness in Psalm 142.

• Psalm 142 is a beautiful presentation of the cycle of discouragement everyone goes through at some point in life.
• David writes these words in a cave in which he is hiding from Saul, who wants to kill him.

David gives a detailed description of his loneliness in Psalm 142.

• David says he is disoriented; his spirit is muffled within him.
• David says he has been deserted.
• David says his feelings of disorientation and desertion have resulted in depression.
• David says he is defeated; he has no hope for the future.

David verbalizes his emotions.

• David teaches us that it is okay to tell God how we feel.

Illustration: In the book Psalms of My Life, the author is staying in a motel by himself, and records a prayer to God describing his loneliness.

Illustration: David Jeremiah recalls the first time he had the courage to tell God he didn't feel like talking to the Father. He then explains that God can meet us at a place like this and deliver us out of it.

David visualizes his emotions.

• David paints God a picture of how he feels, and teaches us that it is okay to visualize your problem if you keep it in perspective.

Illustration: When the Israelites went to KBarnea to look at the Promised Land, they painted a picture of themselves and the giants and the problems there. But when Joshua and Caleb visited the same place, they painted a picture with themselves and the giants and the problems, but included God in it.

David recognizes God already knows what David is telling him.

• We can take comfort in the fact that God already is aware of our problems before we even approach him, and he understands.

David realizes God's provision.

• When he sees God's strength, his problem begins to fade away.

Illustration: Someone wrote, "Friend, there's no living in the land of the living like living on the living God."

Illustration: In the book of Daniel, the Hebrew children in the furnace saw the Son of God in the midst of a flame: a message to us that God will never leave us nor forsake us.

Illustration: Isaiah tells us in verse 43:13 that God goes through the fires, floods, and difficulties with us.

David summarizes his victory.

• However, many of us try to get to the victory step without walking through the other steps first to deal with our loneliness.

Illustration: David Jeremiah talks of a woman with a troubled soul who watches a bird trapped inside her house trying in vain to escape from the closed windows encircling her vaulted ceiling. She realizes that she is like this bird, refusing to lower herself to be humbled, enabling her to fly out the open door of God's provision.