Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?

 

Psalm 42: 1-11

 

June 6, 2023

 

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? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” 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.  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.  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.  By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.  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?” 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.

 

It seems David is in a dark place at this time we refer to that as depression.  But unlike many who find themselves in that place, David understands that he has one need and that is the living God.  He recalls the many time God has watched over him, the many time God fought his battles and gave him victories, and he cannot understand why his soul is cast down.

 

If you are a follower of Christ, many are watching your life, not just the angels and demons, but your family and friends, and they are hoping to witness your God, whose Spirit lives in you.  My heart's desire is to thirst for God in the way King David has done, often I find myself not watching for Him, and letting a busy life keep me from seeking His face.  But as our world gets dark, as evil is being called good and good evil, I see a lost world ask followers of Christ “Where is your God” and yet it should be why are you at peace when all hell is breaking out around you.  Many followers of Christ have been taken captive by the empty concept of this world, and to them, it is a wake-up call, for the world is saying I do not see you any different than me, so “Where is your God?

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice