O my soul,
Why are you downcast?
Is your life not as it once was? Are you grieving for things that once were and are no longer? So was the psalmist.
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.
― Psalm 42:4
Here is a man who used to live a life of affirmation and exaltation. But things changed and he became a pariah, even in his own church.
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?”
― Psalm 42:10
Or perhaps, O my soul, does the Lord seem to have withdrawn? Are you no longer enjoying that intimacy, the sweetness of his felt presence in your life? Nor was the psalmist. But the desire for that had not left him.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”
― Psalm 42:2-3
The multitude keeping festival, those privileged and self-satisfied ones, had closed ranks, and he was no longer among them. And it seemed to him that God himself had passed him by, forgotten him, rejected him. He was oppressed, scorned, and despised.
Is there any hope? Is anything to be done?
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.
― Psalm 42:5-6, also v11 and Psalm 43:5
Why are you cast down, O my soul? This is not a question in search of an answer. This is a rebuke. It is a rebuke delivered to one who has taken their eyes off the Lord, and has become overwhelmed by their own difficulties and disappointments, defeated by them and yet dwelling in them.
Hope in God, O my soul! Hope in the only one in whom you really can!
My soul does indeed thirst for God. But where is hope?
By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
― Psalm 42:8
His love is steadfast. All his paths are steadfast love and faithfulness (Psalm 25:10). And he is the God of my life⸺the God of my whole life.
The Lord is not ignorant of nor indifferent to what is happening in my life. He has plans and purposes for me that are beyond my understanding. He is ambitious for me in ways that would blow my mind if I only knew. He is transforming me into the likeness of Christ, and he knows how to do it, O how he knows! He is the God of my life.
What must I do then? I must trust. I must trust the God of my life, who knows his work.
And what is this song that is with me through the night, when tears are my only food? The psalmist knew.
The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.
― Psalm 118:14
Isaiah knew.
“Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”
― Isaiah 12:2
But these are borrowed words. They are Moses’ words. This is Moses’ song.
The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
― Exodus 15:2
And what is the context of Moses’ song?
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses.
― Exodus 14:21, 30-31
This song must be the refrain of your life: the habit of remembering who the Lord is and what he has done. It is the habit of remembering as you do the dishes, as you drive to work, as you grapple with the challenges of life. It is the habit of remembering the God of your life and the great power that he uses to rescue those he loves. Dwell in that, my soul.
And do not underestimate the discipline and determination required to sing this song, to make it the habit of your life, but this you must do, single-mindedly, doggedly, courageously. It is a matter of life and death. Take your eyes off yourself, look to the Lord and hope in him. There is no other.
Hope in the Lord, O my soul, for there is no other! 🙏