May 27, 2023 – Psalm 42

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng. 

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon —from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy? ”My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?” Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Psalm 42 

“Does it seem to you that there are a whole lot more bad days than good days? When nothing seems to be going right, who do we blame? You’ve heard the questions before. If there is a God, why does He allow bad things to happen to good people? Is that what the Psalmist did here in the 42nd Psalm? We see no blame expressed in this Psalm; instead, the Psalmist yearns for God. Even when his enemies taunt him by asking, “Where is Your God?” the Psalmist still does not complain against God. We see him remembering the days that he went with the multitude to the house of God in joy and praise. Then, he responds by saying, Why are you cast down, O my soul? . . . . Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.” (devotional-reflections-from-the-bible.com; Psalm 42)

We all know that there are some mornings where we seem to come alive as soon as our feet hit the floor — we hit the day saying “Good morning, G-d.” And then, there are those other mornings, those days where we can hardly drag our bodies out of bed — where we can only manage to pry open our eyelids, sit dejectedly on the side of the bed and say, “Good G-d, it’s morning.” 

It is the later of my examples that are in view here — those mornings of dejection and self-pity. The Psalmist comes to us with an answer for each blue mood, each bad day, each time we want to give up: “Hope in G-d;” in other words, wait for G-d. G-d is in control — even when everything around us seems to be telling us different. G-d is working out G-d’s purposes — we just need to hang in and hang on — and to continue to praise G-d for all G-d has blessed us with. 

Prayer: Lord God, never-failing fountain of life, through the saving waters of baptism you called us from the depth of sin to the depths of mercy. Do not forget the trials of our exile, but from the wellspring of the Word satisfy our thirst for you, so that we may come rejoicing to your holy mountain, where you live and reign now and forever. 

Amen.