Psalm 42

Psalm 42 
New Living Translation (NLT)

  1 As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. 2 I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him? 3 Day and night I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, “Where is this God of yours?”
  4 My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be: I walked among the crowds of worshipers, leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration! 5 Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and 6 my God!
  Now I am deeply discouraged, but I will remember you— even from distant Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan, from the land of Mount Mizar. 7 I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me.
  8 But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life. 9 “O God my rock,” I cry, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies?” 10 Their taunts break my bones. They scoff, “Where is this God of yours?”
   11 Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!

*********************

  I am always astounded at this Psalm.  The Psalmist says that he has only tears for food as his enemies taunt him continually, and yet here, in the midst of darkness and sorrow and what can best be described as depression, we have a declaration of faith and a confidence that God is pouring his unfailing love upon the Psalmist.  Here, the Psalmist is praising God each night in song in response to the gift of life itself, no matter how difficult that life may be.  The Psalmist cries out to God in grief, and yet remembers to place his hope in God.

  I know that life is difficult.  Each of us could gather up more than a lifetime's worth of sorrow.  Our own arms and hearts are overloaded with the burdens we carry, and as if those were not enough, others often pile their loads upon us, or we voluntarily pick up another's burden and carry it for them.
  In the midst of this, we sometimes wonder where God is.  Here, the Bible tells us that this is ok.  There is a prayer for that.  There is a faithful cry that teaches us how to lament the grief in life.  God is not deaf to our cries.
  In the valley of the shadow of death, however, God abides.  He has neither abandoned nor forsaken you.  You shall again praise him, even if there are only tears for food.  Do not abandon hope--the sun shall rise again, and when the light shines forth, I am confidant that we will recognize that God has been with us throughout the dark night and into the dawn.

May you know God's light today