Psalm 42--Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?

Psalm 42
English Standard Version

Book Two
​
Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?
To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.

42 As a deer pants for flowing streams,
    so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
    for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
    “Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember,
    as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
    and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
    a multitude keeping festival.

5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation 6 and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
    therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
    from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
    at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
    have gone over me.
8 By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
    and at night his song is with me,
    a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock:
    “Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
    because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,
    my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
    “Where is your God?”

​11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation and my God.

---

Today, we return to the book of Psalms.  Earlier, we had finished "Book 1" (Psalms 1 through 41) and now we are starting "Book 2" (Psalms 42-72) --meaning we'll spend about a month here in the Psalms.  This first Psalm of Book 2 is one that most of us are familiar with as we get songs like "As the Deer" from it.  It speaks of a soul that thirst for the LORD and nothing else will quench that thirst.  That thirst is also just as natural as a deer that has been running and gets thirsty for water.  We were made to hunger and thirst for a relationship with the LORD.  Many will try other substitutes, but none of them will satisfy this insatiable thirst.

David specifically longs for God in times of trouble in this passage. He has been crying day and night.  The crowd of people around him asks him where His God is that loves and protects him if He is letting these bad things happen to the one that He has anointed to be king.  David leads the country to the Tabernacle to worship, but he feels like God is far away from him.  He's doing his job as the king to lead people in singing and sacrificing and even in celebrating the feasts, but David is depressed, and it just feels like he's going through the motions.  He doesn't feel the LORD's presence, nor is he feeling joy from his worship like he used to.

David knows the issue is with his own soul and not with the LORD, so he speaks to himself, "Why so downcast O my soul?  Put your hope in God!"

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation and my God. (vs. 5-6a)

​David tells himself that he will remember the LORD and all the blessings the LORD has given to His people, specifically the Promised Land that is all around them.  From the fertile land of the Jordan River Valley to the mountains of the northern border at Mount Hermon and another mountain named Mount Mizar that we only hear about here--possibly this is a smaller mountain in the same range as Mount Hermon with these mountains forming the farthest reaches of the Promised Land belonging to the inheritance that the LORD had given to the Twelve Tribes (there was other land that belonged to the kingdom of Israel, but was not divided between the Twelve Tribes).

David then recounts all the ways in which God's creation worships Him no matter what is going on--the crashing waves, the roaring of a waterfall, they may feel overwhelming and like they are trying to drown us, but they are making a long praising the LORD which we can join in.

David then stops focusing on himself and moves towards the attributes of God.  He adores God for who He is--His steadfast lovingkindness (the Hebrew word is hased, and it has a much deeper, fuller meaning than any one English word can convey).

David then has a very candid conversation with God.  "Why have you forgotten me?" David's reason for this question is that his enemies (and presumably the enemies of Israel) appear to be having victory.  Where is the LORD who is supposed to fight for His people?  If the people obeyed His covenant, they were supposed to have peace and their enemies were supposed to be defeated on every side.  So, where is the LORD?  Why does it appear that He is not keeping up His end of the covenant?

David cries out to the LORD and asks that He act for the sake of His own Name, because the enemies of the LORD are using this situation as an opportunity to blaspheme Him.  They are asking "Where is the LORD?" Does He even exist?  Is He not powerful enough to save His people?  Is not really good?  Has He decided those He made a covenant with aren't worth it, and abandoned them?  These are all the kinds of questions that the Gentiles and many of the Jews were asking.  David tells his own soul to rest in the fact that he is certain that he can hope in the LORD and the salvation that only He can provide, but we don't see a resolution to the issue that made David feel this way.  We just see David hoping and resting in God alone like we have to do as well.

There are many examples of this Psalm set to music, and I have included just a few here.  There's also a good advice from Tim Keller called "Talk to Yourself, Don't Listen to Yourself" that I'll link to here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZQQwAActog&pp=ygUIUHNhbG0gNDI%3D.  David realizes that he has to process his feelings, but that his feelings are not what determines absolute truth, so he speaks what he knows to be absolute truth to his feelings and tells them to get in line.  "Emotions make great foot soldiers, but they make terrible generals." (I can't remember who I heard say this, but it has stuck with me).