Psalms 42

Psalms 42:1

II. BOOK 2 (Psalms 4272)Psalm 42: Thirsting for GodSome people hear the voice of David in this Psalm as he wandered in exile during the rebellion of his own son, Absalom. Others recognize the voice of the Messiah during the time of His rejection and suffering. Still others detect the plaintive sob of the Jewish remnant during the future Tribulation Period. Then there are those who like to apply it to the believer as he looks back on the days of his first love and longs for the renewal of that kind of fellowship with the Lord. Fortunately, it is not necessary to isolate one view, since all of them are legitimate applications. This is typical of the versatility of the Psalms. 42:1 Our inner longing for fellowship with God can be compared to the vehement craving of the deer as it wanders through the parched countryside, its sides throbbing and its breathing quickened as it longs for the brooks. Gamaliel Bradford transferred the picture to himself when he said: My one unchanged ambition Wheresoe’er my feet have trod Is a keen, enormous, haunting, Never-sated thirst for God. 42:2 Our thirst is for God alone; no one else will do. And it is for the living Godnot for a dead idol. It is a desire that will only be fully satisfied by a personal appearance before the Lord and the privilege of gazing on His face. Show me Thy face, one transient gleam of loveliness divine, And I shall never think or dream of other love than thine; All lesser lights shall darken quite, all lower glories dim, The beautiful of earth will ne’er seem beautiful again. Author unknown42:3 Who can describe the bitterness of separation from the Lord? It is like a continual diet of tears, a life of unalleviated misery. As if that were not enough, there is the added grief of the enemies’ taunts, “Where is your God?” This is what Shimei meant when he said to David, “So now you are caught in your own evil, because you are a bloodthirsty man!” (2Sa_16:8). And this is what the chief priests meant when they said of the crucified Messiah, “He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him . . .” (Mat_27:43). 42:4 Then, of course, there is the memory of better days. It is the remembrance of how wonderful it was to walk in unbroken fellowship with God that makes the absence of this fellowship so intolerable. Knox wonderfully captures the mood in his translation of verse 4: Memories come back to me yet, melting the heart; how once I would join with the throng, leading the way to God’s house, amid cries of joy and thanksgiving, and all the bustle of holiday. 42:5 The thought of the happy past leads to spiritual depression and activates a ping-pong struggle between pessimism and faith. The soul becomes downcast and disquieted, but faith challenges the tension of this burdened state of mind. Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.If this were just a pious optimism that “everything will turn out all right,” it would be an utterly worthless sentiment. What makes this hope 100% valid is that it is based on the promise of God’s Word that His people will see His face (Psa_17:15; Rev_22:4). 42:6 The depression recurs in cycles. But faith strikes back with the confident assertion that it will remember God from the land of the Jordan and of Hermon and from the Hill Mizar. Perhaps these three places symbolize three spiritual experiences; we do not know. What does seem clear is that they represent the land of exile, far removed from the house of God in Jerusalem. And the thought seems to be that even when we cannot visit the house of God, we can still remember the God of the house! 42:7 When we come to the seventh verse, our spiritual instincts tell us that in a very special way we are at Calvary, hearing the cries of the Lord Jesus as the waves and billows of God’s judgment rolled over Him. The cataracts of divine wrath cascaded down upon Him with resounding thunder as He bore our sins in His own body on the cross. View that closing scene of anguish: All God’s waves and billows roll Over Him, there left to languish On the Cross, to save my soul. Matchless love! how vast! how free! Jesus gave Himself for me. J. J. Hopkins42:8 Yet, as George Mfcller said, “Trials are food for faith to feed on.” So we hear the confident believer affirm: The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with mea prayer to the God of my life.This is the answer to the day-and-night sequence in verse 3. There the psalmist had said, “My tears have been my food day and night. . . .” But now the day is filled with God’s steadfast love and the night is filled with song and prayer. So by day and by night God’s goodness is proven. 42:9, 10 Once again discouragement returns, this time because of the relentless oppression of the enemy. It seems that God has forgotten His child. The forlorn believer wanders about like a mourner. He says, “With cries that pierce me to the heart, my enemies revile me” (Gelineau). From all outward appearances it would seem that God has forsaken His child. So the enemies taunt him continually with the question, “Where is your God?“42:11 But faith always has the last word. Don’t be discouraged. Don’t be unsettled. Hope in God; you will be delivered from your enemies and from your depression as well. And you’ll praise Him once again as your Savior and your God. As someone has said: The remedychallenge depression, look up, hope. The Christian life is alertness, upward striving, activity, the running of a race. It is never downcast eyes, folded hands and the acceptance of defeat.