Psalms 42-44

Thoughts

Psalm 42

START OF BOOK TWO

 From https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/psalm-42/ “According to Franz Delitsch, in book one the name Jehovah (YHWH) occurs 272 times and Elohim only 15. But in book two, Elohim occurs 164 times and Jehovah (YHWH) only 30 times.” 

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

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?

• The psalmist craves God not just blessings or relief.

My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

• His enemies weaponize his suffering

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.

• He remembers happier times and joyful worship and now can’t participate (?)

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.

• He preaches to himself: “Hope in God. I will praise Him again.”
  

My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.

• He’s far from Jerusalem so maybe feeling spiritually exiled.
• “Deep calls to deep”,  overwhelming chaos, visually drowning

By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

• Even when he feels abandoned, he chooses to see God’s love.

I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
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?”

• He calls God “my rock,” then immediately asks, “Why have You forgotten me?” Faith mixed with pain. 

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.

• Same refrain as v. 5 

Psalm 43

Send Out Your Light and Your Truth

• Could  be a continuation of Psalm 42 (same themes, same refrain).

Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people,
from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!

• The psalmist is facing slander and injustice.

For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you rejected me?
Why do I go about mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

• This honesty similar to Psalm 42’s “Why have You forgotten me?”

Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!

• He wants to go back to Zion (Jerusalem), back to worship.

Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.

• The psalmist believes God will restore him to worship

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.

• Same refrain as Psalm 42:5, 11 

Psalm 44

Come to Our Help O God. To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.

O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old: you with your own hand drove out the nations, but them you planted; you afflicted the peoples, but them you set free; for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm save them, but your right hand and your arm, and the light of your face, for you delighted in them.

• Israel starts with memory of God’s faithfulness

You are my King, O God; ordain salvation for Jacob! Through you we push down our foes; through your name we tread down those who rise up against us. For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me. But you have saved us from our foes and have put to shame those who hate us. In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah

• Only God can save, not any human weapons. 

But you have rejected us and disgraced us and have not gone out with our armies. You have made us turn back from the foe, and those who hate us have gotten spoil. You have made us like sheep for slaughter and have scattered us among the nations. You have sold your people for a trifle, demanding no high price for them. You have made us the taunt of our neighbors, the derision and scorn of those around us. You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples. All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face at the sound of the taunter and reviler, at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.

• Brutally honest lament. God allowed this to happen
• “Sheep for slaughter” is later quoted in Romans 8:36.

All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way; yet you have broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death. If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart. Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

• They insist they have not broken covenant.
• The suffering seems undeserved.
• Paul uses v.22 to describe Christian persecution, suffering “for Your sake.”

Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever! Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly clings to the ground. Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!

• Even at the lowest point (“belly clings to the ground”), they cry for help

Questions

Application

Psalm 42 is for seasons when you believe in God but feel far from Him. Our depression and faith can coexist. Psalm 43 continues the  struggles when we feel rejected by God. God’s light will always pull us out of the darkness. Rounding out these sad Psalms is Psalm 44 when we suffer. Sometimes hardship has nothing to do with sin, but it can feel like abandonment. We can always anchor ourselves in God and His steadfast love.