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For director of music. A maskil by Sons of Korah.
1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng.5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.6 My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.8 By day the Lord directs his love,
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 must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?”
10 My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”11 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Saviour and my God.Psalm 43
1 Vindicate me, my God,
and plead my cause
against an unfaithful nation.
Rescue me from those who are
deceitful and wicked.
2 You are God my stronghold.
Why have you rejected me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?
3 Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God, my joy and my delight.
I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God.5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Saviour and my God. -
Daniel 4
Introduction
We have looked at two kinds of prayer by looking at two classifications of psalms. First, we looked at meditation and Psalms 1, 2, 56 and 103 which were themselves meditations on the person and work of God. Then we looked at Psalm 51 a psalm of contrition and confession of sin. Now we come to a third major classification of the Psalms:
“Laments,” one of the largest categories of psalms.
Three basic types of lamentation in the Psalms the writer may be troubled by (1) his own heart and actions, (2) the hostile, unjust actions of others, (3) the action (or inaction) of God. Most Laments are combinations of all three.
When we think of the essential forms of prayer, we think of adoration (& thanksgiving), repenting, and petitioning. “Praying our troubles” is undervalued. Most of us stop praying when we are suffering, or a brief ‘Help me’ petition asking for relief. But the lament psalms show that the right thing to do is to process our suffering through sustained prayer.
‘Psalm 42&43 share the same refrain:
‘Why, my soul, are you downcast’ Tim Keller
Read Ps 42&43, they were probably one psalm originally and should be read together as such.
1. Psalm 42:1-2. What condition is the psalmist experiencing? If the writer is likened to a deer, what do the dried-up “streams” represent?
Three times the psalmist says that he is “downcast” (42:5, 42:11; 43:5). The Hebrew word means despondent or depressed. More specifically, he describes his state as spiritual dryness. The image of a deer thirsting (42:1). Deer drink constantly and would be parched in a drought. Psalmists all lived in an arid climate where drought was a constant threat. They had all seen parched animals staggering about in unusually dry seasons. If the author is as a deer, then it is God who is represented by the dried-up streams. Or, it is the experience and presence of God that is “gone.” The psalmist calls (v. 2) for the “living” God, implying the loss of God’s reality to his soul. Of course, God is omnipresent and is everywhere. When asking “Where is God?” he means experientially, not that he doesn’t believe in him. He can’t feel the living God who we can “go and meet” (v2). There is no sensing of God in his life.
Notice two things not in the psalm. First, there is no confession of sin. Loss of fellowship with God can stem from guilt. The dryness in Ps 42 is not the result of a fall. Second, is no tragedy for which the psalmist is asking God, “WHY?” The dryness here is not the direct result of some terrible injustice or suffering. Not only that, though the “enemy” is mentioned twice (42:9; 43:2), it does not appear that the psalmist is fleeing for his life or experiencing a major threat and danger.
In summary, the condition is spiritual dryness, the loss of a sense of God’s reality and presence. Not because of some unconfessed sin or some terrible trouble in life. This psalm isolates spiritual dryness as a distinguishable spiritual condition in its own right.
2 If sin or suffering was not the cause, what has triggered the dryness? Look through Psalms 42 & 43. How does each apply to you today?
As we said guilt and tragedy do not appear to be present. However, there are other factors associated with this condition. Occasions for the dryness rather than a cause. Three triggers are evident here.
First, disruption of community and worship. The Psalmist moved from the temple and the congregation who worshiped there. He remembers going with the multitude (42:4), but now he lives in the north near Mt Hermon and Mt Mizar (42:6). His normal setting for worship and the fellowship of believing friends have been taken from him.
Practical application: It is typical to find ourselves “drying up” spiritually when we are removed from a church community in which we experienced God’s presence and grew spiritually. This is a trigger, not a cause and not something that can be “fixed.” It is difficult to thrive spiritually based on individual prayer alone. We often underestimate the importance of fellowship of believers. Many Christians today have lifestyles that isolate them, making it impossible to be part of regular corporate worship and close fellowship and in the absence of this we can become spiritually dry.
Second, the weariness of living in a spiritually hostile environment. The Psalmist is worn down by sceptics who ask him, “Where is your God?” (42:3, 10). This is not the same thing as out-and-out persecution, as in David’s case. However, it is spiritually draining when we are influenced by believers that not what they should be.
Third, not being used or useful. The writer is a musician. Note the heading - “for the director of music.” In 42:4 he remembers that he used to lead the throng into the temple. The psalmist may be unable to use his gifts in the ministry he desires. It is not enough to simply have spiritual “input” — we also need spiritual “output.” We must also serve others.
There is no simple solution. Often what triggers Spiritual dryness are things that are out of our control- a complex mix of underlying spiritual weakness and the normal disruptions and weariness of life.
3. What does the ‘parched’ psalmist do? Look through the entire psalm 42&43.
Spiritual dryness may not be due to sin but we may still handle it sinfully. For eg., we may blame ourselves, convinced that there is something wrong with us (See Psalm 3). Or we become bitter against God and fall into sin because God is not real to us anymore. What does the psalmist do?
First, longing. He pours out his soul in 42:1-4. Notice that despite his complaint that God is not real, he is praying an intense prayer! Even though he doesn’t feel anything, he prays. But his prayers are not “Help me.” He is “pouring out his soul” to God. What does that mean? (a) To “pour out the soul” means to get into one’s own heart. It means to look honestly at your doubts, desires, fears, and hopes. (b) However, it is not abstract self-examination, but rather a prayer. It is exposing one’s inner self to God. It is crying, longing, reflecting, remembering - all before God.
Second, he does self-dialogue. The psalmist does not just talk to God, but he speaks to himself. Three times, in 42:5, 11, and 43:5, he speaks to his self (“O my soul”).
D. Martyn LloydJones says, ‘The first thing we have to learn is what the Psalmist learned: take ourselves in hand… He is talking to himself. [In] spiritual depression…we allow our self to talk to us instead of talking to our self.…
Then end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this Psalmist: ‘I shall yet praise Him…for [he] is…my God. 1
In these three self-dialogues, he also questions himself. “Why are you cast down”? Then tells his soul to “put your hope in God.” We are all guilty of putting too little hope in God.
Third, he remembers and meditates on who God is and what he has done. Verse 5b is very telling. He says, “My soul is downcast . . . therefore I will remember.” He meditates on God’s love at night; the waves that have gone over him are “your” waves and billows (42:7).
He calls him “my Rock” (42:9) and “my stronghold” (43:2). Thus he is meditating on God’s name and attributes, and how God has shown him love throughout his life. (42:8: “By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me — a prayer to the God of my life.”)
Fourth, he turns to God’s truth and light to lead him home. Re: Psalm 43:3-4 Kidner suggests that the writer realises that he will still experience the presence of God in exile. God’s “light” working through his Word gives the truth of God’s presence even in exile. “Outwardly, nothing has changed: but he has won through.”
4. “Sometimes God allows dryness to strengthen and grow us.” Do you agree with this? Share an example from your own life?
We learn of God’s presence through trials and times of dryness more than when all is hunky-dory. In dry times we slowly come to see that our acceptance is based completely on Christ’s work, not the love in our hearts or strength to endure. We sing in, “The Solid Rock”: I dare not trust the sweetest frame (of heart) but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. 5
Spiritual dryness is, in the end, a trial.
5. How will Psalms 42 & 43 help you to “pray your difficulties?”
1 D. M. Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), pp. 20-21.
2 Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72 (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1973), pp. 167-168. 3 Derek Kidner, p. 168.
4 John Newton, Letters of John Newton (Banner of Truth Trust, 1976), pp. 16, 18, 22.
5 Edward Mote, “The Solid Rock,” 1834
