Psalms 42:1-2 ( ESV )
When I
have been asked what my favorite verses in the Bible are these are the two
verses that I will always say are my life verses. As was brought out in an
earlier blog the pursuit of God should be our greatest obsession in life. It
should even be more important than the question of, “What would you have me to
do Lord?” Paul got it right on the Damascus road when his first question to the
Lord was, “Who are you Lord?”
David paints
a beautiful picture of this truth in verse one. There is nothing more awesome
than to be by a stream of water and to see how God provides even for a sparrow.
David brushes on the canvas a picture of a deer that is intent to satisfy its
thirst by the water that is flowing before it. Don’t miss the picture here as
the deer is drinking from flowing streams. The water was not stagnant but
rather flowing. Jesus would tell the woman from Samaria that, “whoever drinks
of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I
will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:15 Jesus is the water of eternal life and he offers it freely towards
us.
Water is
the most basic need for any living thing on this earth. The deer has to have
the water in order to live, survive and flourish. He wants us to consume Him,
to be filled with Him. Only He can satisfy our greatest need and only He can
offer us life. So we need to pant after Him.
We do not
serve some dead teacher but rather the Living God. He is not dead. He is not
silent. He does see. He does feel our sorrows and He is touched by our prayers,
thoughts and grief. The words spoken by the angels over 2,000 years ago are
still true, “He is not here, He is risen.”
As David
drinks in His relationship with Jesus, he cannot wait until the day that he
will appear before God.
Psalms 42:3-5 ( ESV )
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£
David
shifts to his current reality and life here on earth and realizes that there
are those who will mock God. The prophets spoke that this would always be true.
There will always be those who according to Psalms 14 play the part of the
fool. They will cry out, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since
the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the
beginning of creation.” II Peter 3:4
Yet, this
God who is not able to be seen by us will one day be seen. He can also be seen
as David makes note in verse 4 by the praises of His people and the joy that
they have in serving Him. He remembers how the Living God still walks among His
people.
David struggles
with the situations that he is involved in like any of us who are followers of
the Lamb. In the end though in this passage David will also say, “Why are you
cast down, O my soul and why are you in turmoil with me?” He brings this up
here in verse 5,10 and also in verse 6. In the midst of the storm and feeling
as though he is cast down, David shouts out words of hope for the weary, “HOPE
in God; for I shall again praise Him, MY SALVATION, and MY GOD.” In the midst
of the struggle brothers and sisters there is Hope. How and why can I say this
with confidence in my heart? One: He will, one day deliver us from what we are
going through. Two: He is not just somebody else’s God but MY GOD.
Psalms 42:6-10 ( ESV )
6and 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 continually, “Where is your God?”
There
are other waters in our life as well. All of a sudden we feel as though we
might be drowning. We just want to come up for air. The waters from the North
Country come swirling about our heads. Waterfalls pour over our souls and we
are covered by the waves that brake over us through the dark. Like the
disciples of old, we cry out, “Wake up master the storm is all around us,” only
to see that He is the one who is the master over the winds, and the waves.
Look
closely at verse 7 these are His waterfalls and His waves. The Lord is allowing
things in our lives to grow us, mature us and make us more dependent upon Him.
This I promise to you and believe, He will never allow anything in our lives that
through Him we can’t handle. He is there for us like Peter and we can take His
hand through it all.
David’s
struggles were real as we see in the following verses. How many of us have felt
like David did at times? Not only do we get covered by the waves and the storms
of life but sometimes we feel as though our Father has forsaken us. We go into
a state of mourning over losses in our life or how our enemies may treat us. We
may even receive verbal persecution for our faith. When those times come and
they will, we must ask ourselves the following questions in verse 11 and live
out the last part of the verse.
Psalms 42:11 ( ESV )
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.
No
matter what may happen, no matter what turmoil or pain that takes place within
our soul. HOPE IN GOD. Realize that we can PRAISE HIM, For He alone is our
SALVATION and no matter how hard the waves may break over us HE IS OUR GOD.
