Yearning For God

 Psalm 42 is the Psalm of a desperate person who yearns to be restored to God’s presence.  His immediate circumstances are not known, except that he is far from Jerusalem, the sanctuary and the people of God.  He suffers the taunts of the ungodly who oppress him with such questions, as “So now where is your God?”  The psalmist suffers immensely and he cries out for the living God with absolute confidence that God will be faithful to his covenant promises.  The psalmist’s longing for God and his desire to worship along with the people of God is admirable and provides an example for the saints to imitate.

This psalm demonstrates that the faithful can be discouraged and cry out to God with feelings of deep agitation and yet be sustained by God.  On the one hand he says to God “Why have you forgotten me?  Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”  Yet he can say “By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life” (verse 8).

Often as believers in Christ we may feel that we simply lack faith when we have similar questions.  Our discouragement or depression may make us think that we do not have enough faith in God.  We often ask, “why,” or  “where are you God?”  “Have you forgotten me?”  These questions and thoughts are not necessarily indicators of a loss of faith or a deficient faith.  We share a common humanity and struggle along with other believers throughout history.  The psalmist had great faith in God and at the same time struggled intensely with many questions and discouragement.

If you are someone who is presently suffering and wonder if God has forgotten you, don’t listen to the thousands of inward voices of self-accusation.  Instead, focus on who God has revealed himself to be in his Word and meditate on his promises and past mercies.  God understands so much more than you can imagine.  He is loving, kind and tender.   We may not understand his ways, but he is revealed as eternally and infinitely good and merciful.

 

Psalm 42:

“As a deer pants for flowing streams,

so pants my soul for you, O God.

2  My soul thirsts for God,

for the living God.

When shall I come and appear before God?

3  My tears have been my food

day and night,

while they say to me all the day long,

‘Where is your God?’

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 6 and 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 all the day long,

‘Where is your God?’

 

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.”

 

(ESV, Crossway Publishers)