Living toward the End: Psalms 42, 43 (7)

Opening Prayer: Psalm 42.1-5
As the deer pants for the water brooks,
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 continually say to me,
“Where is your God?”
When I remember these things,
I pour out my soul within me.
For I used to go with the multitude;
I went with them to the house of God,
With the voice of joy and praise,
With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.
Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him
For the help of His countenance.

Sing Psalm 42.1-5
(Nettleton: Come Thou Fount
As the deer pants for fresh water let my soul, Lord, pant for You!
Let my soul thirst as it ought to for the Savior, ever true!
Tears by day have been my portion, tears by night have been my food,
while my foes add to my sorrow, saying, “Where now is your God?”

Now I pour my soul out in me as these thoughts come to my mind.
And I long to once again be where true worship I might find.
Oh my soul, be not despairing!  Hope in God, and praise His Name!
For the Lord, your burden bearing, will restore your peace again.

Read Psalms 42, 43; meditate on Psalm 43.

Preparation
1. In what state or condition do we find the psalmists at the beginning of these two psalms?

2. Where do we find them at the end?

Meditation
The psalms of the sons of Korah form a kind of inclusio within the book of Psalms. That is, their psalms begin at one point and return to that point at the end.

Almost.

As we have seen, Psalms 42 and 43 were composed at a time when the psalmists were experiencing loss and pressure from enemies and perhaps cold-hearted friends. They were out of sorts and feeling as if God had forgotten them. People were mocking or rebuking them. Tears and mourning filled their days. Their sense of disquietude was so great that it seemed to be crushing them bodily (42.10).

They knew they could not continue in this state; they were seeking an end of their upset. So they took an inventory of their soul (v. 5), identified what was troubling them, and sought the light of God to lead them back to Him in worship, hope, and praise (43.3-5). This is where the sons of Korah began their service as gatekeepers in the temple. They were part of a large company appointed by God to help people who were entering the temple and to guard it from being entered by anyone who did not belong there. Undoubtedly, they began this work in the Presence of God when they were young. By the time they composed these two psalms, their service may have been at an end (42.4), and they were depressed.

What to do?

Certainly not linger in their disquietude! Instead, like a thirsting deer lapping from a refreshing brook, they hastened into the Presence of God, sought the face of their Lord, poured out their soul before Him, and renewed their hope in His promises and Word. Their disquietude ended at the place they had begun – in the Lord’s Presence, praising and thanking Him, gazing on His beauty, and awaiting His help for whatever they must do next.

Their collection of psalms will end at a similar place of disquietude (Ps. 88). Similar, but not the same. Here we see hope expressed and experienced. That will not be the case at the end of Psalm 88; instead, we will need to infer such hope against the backdrop of the entire corpus of the psalms of the sons of Korah.

Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
The sons of Korah give us great instruction in how to “talk yourself off the ledge”. When we are about to fall right into a good bout of depression, disquietude, and discomfort, we can follow their example to find respite from the thirst that plagues our soul.

First of all, they “remember these things” (Ps. 42.4). What things?

Well, they thought about all the truths that they knew about God, His faithfulness to them, and His mighty works which they could see everywhere. They contemplated His beauty. They pondered in their hearts all the love they had experienced through the years. They also remembered how many times they had been “thirsty” before, and that “changing their pants” really did help.

Then the light and truth that they prayed for turned on in their minds. Ahh. “I will go to God Who is my exceeding joy, and I shall yet praise Him!” (Ps. 43.4; 42.11) Hope in God!

Paul also helps to guide our hearts through disappointment and troubles: “…but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5.3-5).

Remembering God leads us to praise Him. Then comes “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (Phil. 4.7). And finally hope for a brighter tomorrow, “because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lam. 3.22, 23).

Reflection
1. Becoming downcast and disquieted in your soul is not sin. But it could become sin. Explain.

2. How can the light of God’s Word help to lead you out of your times of disquietude?

3. How can believers help one another to grow through such times, rather than fall through them into self-pity and sin?

Let us burn together with this thirst; let us run together to the fountain of understanding. Let us … long rather for it as a hart yearns for a spring … let us long for the wellspring of which Scripture says, “With you is the fountain of life.” … Long for the fountains of water. With God is the fountain of life, a fountain that can never dry up. Augustine (354-430), Expositions of the Psalms 42.2, 3, 5

Closing Prayer: Psalm 43.3-5
Spread your day out before the Lord in prayer. Ask Him to shed His light on how you can best serve Him in every situation. Express your hope that you will know His Presence and live for His glory. Give Him thanks and praise as you meditate on the beauty of Jesus’ face (2 Cor. 4.6).

Psalm 43.3-5
(Hyfrydol: Jesus, What a Friend for Sinners!)
Let Your light and truth precede me, bring me to Your holy hill.
To Your holy altar lead me, let me dwell within Your will.
Lord, my joy and consolation, You, Who grace to me impart,
hear my joyful adoration; I will praise You from the heart.

When my weary soul is troubled, when despair upon me falls,
let my hope in You be doubled, let me on Your mercy call.
God, my help, my great salvation, I will praise You to Your face
In Your care my soul I station; let me know Your glorious grace!

T. M. and Susie Moore

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (Williston: Waxed Tablet Publications, 2006), available by clicking here.