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Sermon

Why Are You in Despair, O My Soul? Part 1

Speaker
David Capoccia
Scripture
Psalm 42, Psalm 43

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Note: This transcript and summary was autogenerated. It has not yet been proofread or edited by a human.

Summary

Psalms 42 and 43, understood as one unified song, teach us how to fight for hope in God against despair. We are reminded that even mature, faithful believers — from Job and Elijah to Martin Luther and Charles Spurgeon — have experienced deep spiritual darkness, and that such struggles are not evidence of God’s absence or our lack of faith. The psalmist models a crucial spiritual discipline: rather than passively listening to our despairing feelings, we must actively counsel our own souls with the truth of who God is and what he has done.

In times of spiritual drought, remembering past worship and God’s past faithfulness becomes an anchor that lifts our downcast faces and renews our hope.

Key Lessons:

  1. Deep spiritual struggle and even despair are normal experiences for true believers, not evidence that God has failed us or that we are not truly saved.
  2. In every trial, our deepest need is not temporal deliverance but God himself — he alone is the fountain of true life.
  3. We must actively counsel our own souls with truth rather than passively listening to our despairing feelings.
  4. Remembering past instances of God’s faithful provision and joyful worship serves as an anchor of hope for the future.

Application: We are called to stop passively wallowing in feelings of hopelessness and instead actively speak truth to our own souls. When trials crush us, we should remember God’s past faithfulness, seek him in prayer even when he feels distant, and minister to one another through honest songs of lament and encouragement — not giving up the fight for hope.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Have you experienced the two hope-destroying thoughts described in the sermon — that God has failed you, or that you must not be a real Christian? How did you respond?
  2. What does it look like practically to “talk to yourself” rather than “listen to yourself” during seasons of spiritual drought?
  3. How can our church community better practice communal counseling through songs of lament, not just songs of triumph?

Scripture Focus: Psalms 42–43, understood as one unified song, provide a three-round model of fighting despair with hope in God. James 4:7 and 2 Peter 1:3 are referenced regarding spiritual resources, and Ephesians 5:19 highlights the communal counseling purpose of singing psalms and hymns together.

Outline

Introduction

Let’s now pray for God’s help and blessing as we prepare to hear his message.

God of all comfort, comfort your people now and instruct them.

Lord, we are faced with many trials in this life. Trials ultimately sent from you, and we can easily grow weary.

But God, fortify us with your word. Buoy us with your spirit. Minister to us with the very consolation of Christ, and help us to minister to one another, even as we are moved by today’s message. In Jesus’ name, amen.

The Experience of Spiritual Victory

Have you ever had the experience when encountering a severe or prolonged trial, even though you initially feel daunted by the difficulty, you nevertheless gain quick spiritual victory?

Maybe you see the trial, you buckle down, you pray, you read a few scriptures, you speak with a brother or sister in church, and suddenly the temptation to sin or to doubt God just melts away.

James 4:7 does say, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Sometimes that is our immediate and joyful experience.

James 4:7: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

Praise the Lord for that.

The Opposite Experience: Prolonged Defeat

But have you ever had the opposite experience with a severe or prolonged trial? A great difficulty arises and you turn to prayer. You go to the scriptures and you speak with brothers and sisters in the church just as you ought, and maybe you do feel some initial success in standing firm.

But the temptations to sin or to doubt do not immediately go away. They persist and even seem to grow in power.

As the trial continues, as the severity is felt more deeply, or as the trial is joined by still other trials, cracks start to form in your spiritual defense.

You feel yourself beginning to yield at different times and in different ways to fleshly feelings.

Your peace and your joy in Christ gradually erode, and you soon find yourself wholly slipping into discouragement, defeat, and even despair.

“Cracks start to form in your spiritual defense… you soon find yourself slipping into discouragement, defeat, and despair.”

Two Hope-Destroying Thoughts

Often at such a low moment, one or two hoped destroying thoughts then appear in your mind.

The first is that God has failed you or is just not enough. After all, you really tried. You really tried the Lord, his word, and his way, and in the end, it didn’t work. They couldn’t uphold you.

If God in his power, as 2 Peter 1:3 says, has really granted you everything that you need for life and godliness and the true knowledge of him that is Christ, then why do you now feel so helpless, so anxious, so hopeless?

Where is God after all that? Where is God? Where’s his deliverance? He promised it. Where is it? Where is his supernatural comfort and grace? Through overwhelming and relentless trials doesn’t seem to be there.

With such thoughts, you can easily become bitter towards God and feel moved to embrace worldly solutions for your problems and worldly comforts for your pains.

“You can easily become bitter towards God and feel moved to embrace worldly solutions for your problems.”

The second low thought though can be even more shattering, and that’s to suddenly think and believe that you must not really be a Christian. After all, the Bible teaches that true Christians are marked by faith, by joy, by obedience.

If these are lacking in an ongoing way in my life, you might think, then the answer must be that I do not know God and I am still under his disapproval and judgment. Surely no true Christian struggles with sin like I do. No true Christian is depressed or has doubts like I do.

This second kind of thinking quickly becomes a prison of hopelessness. On the one hand, because you don’t think you’re really a believer, faith and obedience seem impossible because you don’t think you have the spirit. You don’t think the promises of Christ apply to you.

But on the other hand, getting saved seems impossible because all your previous efforts to repent for real didn’t bring about any change. So how can I believe I’m saved now? I thought I was saved before. It’s no different.

I see a number of you nodding. I think what I’m talking about.

You Are Not Alone

Have you ever found yourselves trying but failing to endure in hope and joy during trials?

Maybe even this morning we just talked about the hardships that have hit our body lately. Are some of you battling with hopelessness and not sure where to turn?

Well, if so, God’s spirit has a surprising comfort in his word. And that is that you are not alone. You are not alone even in your experience of struggling with hope.

Despite what we often assume, true Christians do sometimes struggle mightily against trials and temptations, even falling at times into extreme discouragement and despair.

“You are not alone. True Christians do sometimes struggle mightily, even falling into extreme discouragement and despair.”

Certainly, this is evident from church history.

Some of our Christian heroes like Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, and Martin Lloyd Jones famously confessed that they dealt with depression. They had times of extreme hopelessness.

But even clearer examples are in the Bible. Job, Moses, Hannah, Elijah, David, John the Baptist, and Paul all faced periods of great discouragement, shattered hope, and despair. They were no spiritual slouches.

If these stalwarts in the faith could face such deep soul troubles, surely facing the same sometimes is not so strange.

Probably the greatest proof of the normalness of even deep spiritual struggle for God’s people at times is the book of Psalms.

If you’ve become acquainted with this book—the Hymn Book of Israel, the collection of 150 God-breathed prayer poems or prayer songs—you quickly learn that it’s filled with accounts of believers coming out of or still enduring through times of deep spiritual struggle and distress.

Sometimes it’s due to their own sin, which they confess and repent of. But many times it’s not due to their sin at all. It’s just due to the trials of life or even the trials that come with following God.

And why were these psalms, these prayer songs of struggle, written and put into our Bibles?

Not only as a testimony to the normalness of such experiences, but also to provide instruction and an example as to how properly to persevere in such struggles and find one’s hope and strength ultimately renewed in God.

I would like us to begin looking at one such prayer song this morning. It’s written as two psalms in our Bibles, but we’re going to see in a little bit that it’s actually one psalm. I’d like us to look at it so that we might learn how to persevere in God against discouragement and despair.

Please take your Bibles and turn to Psalms 42 and 43.

The title of my sermon is taken from a famous line present in both psalms: “Why are you in despair, oh my soul? Why are you in despair, oh my soul?”

This will be part one of our study of these psalms. The book of Psalms is approximately in the middle of the Bible and is one of the largest books in the Bible.

If you’re using the pew Bibles that we provide, you can find our passage on page 575 or the beginning of it.

Reading Psalms 42 and 43

Let’s read these two Psalms together now, and then I’ll explain why we’re looking at two and not just one. We start with the original Hebrew title which appears before verse one in Psalm 42 for the choir director. A mascill of the sons of Korah.

As the deer pants for the waterbrooks, so my soul pants for you, oh God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

Psalm 42:1: “As the deer pants for the waterbrooks, so my soul pants for you, oh God.”

My tears have been my food day and night. Well, they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember, and I pour out my soul within me, for I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God, with the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.

Why are you in despair, oh my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me?

Hope in God for I shall again praise him for the help of his presence.

Oh my God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan and the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

Deep calls to deep at the sound of your waterfalls. All your breakers and your waves have rolled over me.

The Lord, that is Yahweh, will command his loving kindness in the daytime, and his song will be with me in the night. A prayer to the God of my life. I will say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

As a shattering of my bones, my adversaries revile me while they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

Why are you in despair, oh my soul, and why have you become disturbed within me?

Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, the help of my countenance and my God.

Vindicate me, oh God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling places.

Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and upon the lyre I shall praise you, oh God, my God.

Why are you in despair, oh my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God for I shall again praise him, the help of my countenance and my God.

Why These Two Psalms Are One Song

After our reading, you might be able to see why I say these two psalms were probably originally one.

Psalm 43 noticeably repeats or parallels some of the lines from Psalm 42, namely the questions in Psalm 42:9, which you see parallel in Psalm 43:2, and the refrain in Psalm 42:5-11. It’s found again in Psalm 43:5.

Furthermore, you may notice that Psalm 43 has no Hebrew title, which would make it the odd one out of the many sections that begin in Psalm 42. In Psalm 42 to Psalm 49, we have a number of psalms, all with titles except for 43, and all written by the sons of Korah.

Why is Psalm 43 different?

More significant is the external evidence. Some ancient Hebrew manuscripts do indeed have Psalm 42 and 43 together as one psalm. And there are also some later medieval manuscripts that do the same, seeking to correct an inadvertent separation.

“Some ancient Hebrew manuscripts do indeed have Psalm 42 and 43 together as one psalm.”

You can notice other reasons why these psalms fit together so well. Many of the same themes, many of the same issues.

If they are meant to be together, when were these psalms first separated in our passed down copies of the Old Testament? The answer is we don’t know exactly. Though we can say the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint, written in the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC, is the first place that we see them separated.

Why were they separated? Again, we don’t know for sure, but perhaps because some ancient translators noticed, maybe as even you yourselves did in the reading, that there are some differences in tone and content between Psalm 42 and Psalm 43. Psalm 43 definitely seems more confident.

But when we do take Psalms 42 and 43 together, as I believe we ought due to the evidence, certain aspects of this greater song stand out.

Seven General Observations

A Song About Hopelessness

I’d like to mention seven general observations as an introduction to further study in this psalm, this greater song. First, as is probably obvious to you now, this is a song that deals directly with the issue of hopelessness—hopelessness or despair among God’s people. Four times the speaker directly admits to despairing before God.

But the speaker also tries to confront and deal with his despair in a godly way.

“Four times the speaker directly admits to despairing before God. But he also tries to confront his despair in a godly way.”

A Mature Believer’s Struggle

Second, the speaker is evidently a mature and generally obedient follower of God.

Nowhere in these two psalms do we see the speaker admit or confess sin as the reason for his suffering.

Rather, the speaker repeatedly confesses his deep desire for God, for God’s people, and for God’s help.

“The speaker repeatedly confesses his deep desire for God, for God’s people, and for God’s help.”

The Nature of the Speaker’s Trials

Third, the exact nature of the speaker’s trials are not given, though there are some hints from the repeated references to enemies, adversaries, and tauntings.

We can see that there are other wicked people who are largely contributing to the speaker’s suffering.

We can also see from the location references in Psalm 42:2, Psalm 42:4, Psalm 42:6, and Psalm 43:3-4 that another key aspect of the speaker’s suffering is his being cut off from worship in Jerusalem.

He wants to worship with God’s people at the temple, but he apparently cannot do so.

Perhaps the reason for these grievous circumstances is that the speaker, due to invading gentile enemies, has been forced to flee Jerusalem.

Or worse, he’s been taken captive by the ungodly, and he is now living in exile.

Certainly either of these situations would be extremely distressing to someone who loves God.

Nevertheless, the mostly non-specific nature of the speaker’s suffering is likely intentional as a variety of sufferers can now identify with the speaker’s words and experience as poetically expressed.

“The mostly non-specific nature of the speaker’s suffering is likely intentional as a variety of sufferers can identify with his words.”

A Wrestling Match with Despair

Fourth, our godly speaker clearly struggles to overcome his despair.

This psalm does not proceed like many other psalms do, in which the speaker presents his problem to God, prays to God for help, and then praises God for the soon expected or soon received answer. Those are wonderful psalms. There’s something very clean, very orderly, very glorious about them.

And again, life experience sometimes does follow that pattern.

But in this song, the speaker is clearly wrestling in an ongoing way with hoping in God. This is a song that is not so clean and orderly. It’s a back and forth brawl in which the speaker is sometimes caught in laments and despair, but at other times finding glimpses of hope again, finding new reasons to trust God.

And this too is true to life, reflecting even many of our own experiences.

“This is a back and forth brawl in which the speaker is sometimes caught in despair, but at other times finding glimpses of hope.”

Gradual Progress Toward Hope

Fifth, though the contest is hard fought between hope and despair throughout this song, the speaker does make gradual progress toward hope and toward joy.

Again, I think that’s part of the reason why the section of Psalm 43 seems so different. It’s because the speaker is progressing.

As we walk through the text, we will see how what is mostly lament in the beginning becomes mostly confident prayer and expectation by the end.

“What is mostly lament in the beginning becomes mostly confident prayer and expectation by the end.”

Self-Counseling with Truth

Sixth, the speaker of this song makes a concerted effort to counsel himself with the truth, as is most obvious in the refrain of Psalm 42:5, Psalm 42:11, and Psalm 43:5.

This feature of self-counseling is part of the crucial instruction of this psalm.

If you are ever going to overcome despair, it must be by purposefully and repeatedly reminding yourself about what is true. True about you, true about life, true about God, true about the future.

In his book, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure, 20th century preacher Martin Lloyd Jones famously observes, “Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?” That’s a good observation.

Our speaker is conscious of the same issue.

Rather than merely listening to yourself, merely listening to your feelings and wallowing in those, you must talk to yourself.

You must talk to yourself until yourself and your feelings get in line with the reality of God and his word. Now, we see the speaker do so by means of prayer, lament, and song, which is what this is.

“Most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself.”

But we don’t want to miss this. Basically, we must do the same for ourselves.

Communal and Divine Counseling

But it’s not just self-counseling because, seventh, this song is an example of communal and divine counseling.

After all, this text is scripture. It’s divinely written revelation, communication from God to us. But it is also a song meant to be sung in corporate worship.

Thus, when you read it, God himself is counseling you. You’re not just counseling yourself. God is counseling you. God is instructing you.

Furthermore, when we read it together, when we sing it, when we seek to apply it specifically to one another, we are counseling one another. We are instructing one another. And this is one of God’s designs for his church and for Christian music.

You remember what Ephesians 5:19 says, right? It says that we are to speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

That is partly what we do when we gather on Sundays. We’re not just speaking to God. We are speaking to one another. And yes, even counseling one another because the songs we sing, or at least ought to sing, are not just those triumphant songs about how wonderful it is to know Jesus, how we have great victory in Jesus.

Those are good. They are appropriate that we should be singing those. But also we should be singing songs of lament—songs in which we counsel one another about how difficult trials can be, but also how God ultimately reminds us of his love and draws us back to trust through trials.

This song of Psalm 42 and 43 is just another example of that communal and divine counseling.

“We should be singing songs of lament — songs in which we counsel one another about how God draws us back to trust.”

From those general observations, we can see that we have before us this morning a profound and quite practical song to teach us, to counsel us about hope.

The Hebrew Title and Setting

Thus, the song’s Hebrew title is quite appropriate. Again, if you look back at the beginning of Psalm 42 before verse one, and if you’re using the King James Bible, you won’t see it. They don’t include that for whatever reason. This is part of the original text. It’s part of the inspired scripture.

But the title again in Psalm 42 reads, “For the choir director, a maskil of the sons of Korah.” From that beginning phrase, for the choir director, you see that this is a song that is meant for temple worship for the temple choir.

This would be sung or chanted by the Levitical choir for God’s glory and for the edification of Israel.

Now, what is a maskil?

That’s a technical musical term that the Hebrews understood but which is not totally clear to us. The term is connected to a Hebrew root meaning or having to do with understanding, contemplation, or instruction.

Probably maskil means something like instructional song or contemplative song, which is exactly what it is.

“Maskil means something like ‘instructional song’ or ‘contemplative song’ — which is exactly what it is.”

The Sons of Korah

This song comes from the sons of Kora and was probably performed by them throughout Israel’s history. Who are the sons of Kora?

Well, they are the male descendants of the Levite Kora, who famously rebelled against Moses in Numbers 16 and perished with his household under God’s judgment.

But not all of his household. His sons separated from him before the judgment and survived. They later became caretakers and even singers in God’s temple.

So the author of Psalm 42 and 43 is one of the sons or descendants of Kora. This descendant speaks no doubt from his own personal experience.

Consider how distressing it would be for a faith-filled, God-loving Levitical singer to be barred from Jerusalem and from God’s temple.

But it’s not just about those singers.

This author’s own experiences probably generalized somewhat or combined with the experiences of the other Kora singers to be made more fit for public worship and instruction.

“Consider how distressing it would be for a God-loving Levitical singer to be barred from Jerusalem and God’s temple.”

Three-Round Structure of the Song

Now, when we understand Psalms 42 and 43 to be one song together, the structure of the song becomes pretty obvious. We have before us three sections, each made up of a stanza and then a refrain.

These three sections play out like three rounds of a boxing match or a wrestling match, a duel with despair. Our speaker goes back and forth in hope, not always winning but ultimately gaining the upper hand.

If I may continue using that martial metaphor, we can describe the song’s main idea in this way: In this song, the Korahites provide a three-round example of fighting for hope in God against despair so that you will persevere in your own battling.

Yes, Christians can struggle with despair. True Christians can struggle with despair. That’s why this song was written. The Korahites provide a three-round example of fighting for hope in God against despair so that you and I will not tap out but will persevere in our own battling.

“The Korahites provide a three-round example of fighting for hope in God against despair so that you will persevere in your own battling.”

Now let’s enter the ring with the speaker and learn from this instructional song. Today we’re just going to examine round one. Later we’ll come back and look at rounds two and three.

Round One: A Soul Panting for God

Round one is verses one to five. What do we see in round one?

In desperate drought, remember past worship. This is what the speaker does and it is a model for us. In desperate drought, remember past worship. Let’s take a closer look at this starting in verse one.

As the deer pants for the waterbrooks, so my soul pants for you, oh God.

This is probably the most famous line from these two psalms because of a certain modern worship song that begins the same way. As the deer, that whole song was written in 1984.

Because of that modern song, these words might conjure for us the peaceful image of a gentle deer sipping from a bubbling brook.

Such an image does fit the words and melody of that modern song, but not the original verse.

No, the image here in Psalm 42:1 is quite different. It’s of a deer in the middle of a devastating drought, a deer that cannot find any water and will soon die of thirst.

Have any of you ever been really desperately thirsty?

In our prosperous country and circumstances, we probably only find great thirst after working outside in the yard or playing a sport or eating too many chicken wings.

But none of us probably have ever been on the verge of dying from lack of thirst. We don’t know what really great thirst is like.

But the speaker says that’s how his soul, that’s how his inner person feels.

But what will quench the speaker’s soul? Is it regaining prosperous circumstances? Is it restored relationships with those who don’t like him? Is it healing from some painful disease?

The speaker says, “My soul pants like a parched deer for you, oh God.” This statement is significant, for we see on the one hand the good theology of our speaker.

Whatever his particular trial, he knows what he ultimately needs is God himself.

And that is true for all of us and for all our trials. When your soul is weighed down to the depths by a particular problem or suffering, a sundered marriage, a cancer diagnosis, a bullying classmate, what you ultimately need is not temporal deliverance from God, but you need God himself.

“Whatever his particular trial, he knows what he ultimately needs is God himself. And that is true for all of us.”

Your temporary suffering is just exposing, making more evident your deeper spiritual need.

And even if your temporal suffering ends, your soul will not truly be quenched until you find and drink of God.

This is what the speaker understands and testifies. God, you are what I need. I need to know you. I need to walk with you and enjoy you. I need to experience your goodness and greatness. I need to behold your glory.

This understanding is correct and spiritually healthy. And until you get there, until you and I realize that and make that the regular practice of our thinking, we will have a much harder time overcoming hopelessness. For our hope will be placed in that which is mere vapor.

We will be looking for life-giving drink in what is in the end just brokenness.

Only God is the fountain. Whatever your trial, you ultimately need God. Our speaker teaches us this.

So the speaker in verse one demonstrates his good theology, his spiritual maturity, but on the other hand, he expresses his deep spiritual agony.

He knows that he needs God. So what’s the problem?

He can’t find God.

Like a desperate deer arriving to a dried up stream bed and then going to another stream bed hoping to find water there but again just finding dusty dryness, so the speaker goes to all the places that he hopes to find God but he doesn’t.

The speaker’s spiritual life has withered. It’s become dry and empty.

He’s dying of spiritual thirst for God.

Why is this? Why can’t the speaker find God? Can the speaker not pray? Can he not read scripture? Can he not talk with godly companions?

Well, as we’ll see, the speaker is removed from his preferred dwelling place. So maybe he literally does not have access to the scriptures. Maybe he doesn’t have access to the people of God. And maybe he doesn’t have a good time or place to pray.

But even if he does, you can have these and still feel like God is so far away, can’t you?

Why is that?

Because of what severe and unceasing trials seem to communicate about God: that he’s not there, that he’s forgotten you, that he’s turned against you and has become your enemy.

These things are not true, but they feel true. They feel true when you’re so crushed by circumstances.

And so then when you go to the comfort of your word or of the word of God, the words don’t give the comfort that you’re looking for. Or when you go to pray, you feel like you can’t say anything.

How can one pray or find comfort from the scriptures? How can one find comfort from the brethren of God when God himself seems so callously distant?

It’s hard. Yet notice our speaker does not give up. He is still trying because verse one is addressed to God. He hasn’t given up prayer. Even though it feels like God is so distant that he’s not getting any spiritual sustenance from God, he prays to God about it.

Thirsting for the Living God

And the speaker continues with the same theme before God in verse 2. He says, “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” Here the author repeats the idea of thirst. But now he uses a special description for the object of his thirst, not just God, but the living God.

This description, the living God, is often used in the Old Testament to contrast the real and alive God with the false, dead, empty idols of the nations.

But living is also a striking metaphor here as it brings to mind the truth that God is the source of life. God is the source of all life, true life, not just physical life.

That’s what the speaker is searching for. He confesses to needing God. He knows only God has true life, and so he thirsts for God.

Psalm 42:2: “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?”

The speaker’s question at the end of verse 2 points us to a central suffering in his situation.

He asks when he will be able to go back and be with God and with God’s people in Jerusalem. Surely of all places, that is where the speaker can find God’s true life because that is the place of God’s special dwelling, the place of God’s manifest presence.

But the speaker cannot get there.

Will he get there before it’s too late? Before he loses all hope, before he’s spiritually ruined?

He asks this of God. Some of the hardest trials that we endure are those that seem to go against God’s own expressed will and desires for us.

God, don’t you want me to go to church? Why then is my job being so difficult for me?

God, don’t you want me to serve you? Then why do I have this new debilitating health problem?

God, don’t you want me to read your Bible? Then why are the kids acting up so much?

God, when will you let me do what you command me to do and what I know I need to do for my own spiritual health and joy?

Our speaker is asking God a version of this same question. These are appropriate. This is godly lament here.

The Taunting Question: Where Is Your God?

As if his soul troubles weren’t enough thus far, we learn in verse three how others are taunting the speaker with the very question that haunts him in his own mind. Look at verse three.

My tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all day long, where is your God?

Notice in the beginning of verse three that the speaker is so distressed that he cannot eat. His only food every day and every night is tears, which is a sadly ironic meal considering his soul’s thirst and spiritual drought. All he can drink are his own tears.

Have you ever been so filled with sorrow and hopelessness that you don’t feel like eating? That’s what our speaker is feeling.

Instead of eating or drinking, he’s constantly weeping. He’s seemingly lost all happiness. He cannot contain his agony in silence. He must weep, which actually works against him because unfortunately his enemies notice.

They only add pain to the speaker with a constant question they put before him. All day long, the speaker tells us people are asking him, “Where is your God?” That is not an honest, concerned query. That is a mocking question. That is a taunt.

Where’s your God now? Sure looks like he’s abandoned you. Why do you still believe in your God?

You want me to follow your God? Why? So I can be as cursed and unhappy as you.

Your God sure takes good care of you. I can tell by how much you’re weeping.

“All day long people are asking him, ‘Where is your God?’ That is not a concerned query — that is a mocking taunt.”

How many of us have been further grieved by how our deep trials and struggles with hopelessness have given occasion for unbelievers to dismiss the gospel and even mock Christ?

I cannot help but wonder where indeed is God if he should let his own people and his name be treated with such contempt by the world.

The speaker reports the tragic situation to God.

Remembering Past Worship

In verse four, we see a slight shift in the speaker’s approach to his circumstances as he takes purposeful action in response to his feeling of soul drought. Look at verse four.

These things I remember, and I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.

The beginning phrase of verse four, “these things I remember,” could point backward to what was just said or forward to what he’s about to say.

In this case, the phrase more likely points forward since we immediately get a poignant scene of remembrance provided by the speaker.

In one sense, what the speaker now chooses to remember will only increase his sorrow.

You see the phrase “pour out my soul within me.” That’s an idiomatic expression that refers to mourning. To pour out one’s soul like this is to mourn. It is to weep.

In other words, the speaker is now going to lament and weep further at remembering something in the past that was so good but is plainly now lost.

But in another sense, what the speaker now chooses to remember will become an anchor of hope.

And what is it that the speaker remembers?

He remembers joyful worship of God in Jerusalem. Not just any old time of worship, but the joyful procession and praise of a religious festival, maybe Passover, maybe Tabernacles.

Our speaker tells God and us that he not only participated in this joyful kind of worship celebration, but he even led others in it. He processed with them. He led them up to the very house of God to God’s temple, which again was probably literally true of the Korahite singers.

“What the speaker now chooses to remember will become an anchor of hope — joyful worship of God in Jerusalem.”

The Wonder of Temple Worship

By the way, we should take a moment to consider just how wonderful the temple worship, especially during its festivals, was for true believers in Israel’s ancient days. Perhaps we just think temple worship and whatever, but remember what they were understanding, what they knew and were operating under in those days.

Jerusalem was the one chosen city and the temple was the one chosen dwelling place of God’s special presence. His glory visibly indwelt the temple, which itself was one of the most beautiful buildings in the world at that time.

Hebrew priests were constantly going about the sacrificial work according to God’s prescriptions in the law. Amazingly, God promises in the law that this brings about spiritual covering for the people of Israel. Their sins are adequately dealt with. God’s favor is allowed to shine on them. God’s wrathful justice is appeased because of this amazing and mysterious work that the priests are doing.

Meanwhile, hundreds, thousands of worshippers, mostly Jewish but with some gentile god-fearers too, are in the temple courts constantly singing praises and giving thanks to God themselves. They’re offering sacrifices for the priests to take care of, giving gifts into the temple, and praying aloud.

They’re giving public testimony of all the amazing acts that God has done in their lives.

If you were a true lover of God in those days and you wanted to experience joy and encouragement in God, there was no better place than God’s temple. No better place than Jerusalem.

That is the place of God’s face. It is the place of his glorious presence. You love God, you have to love being at the temple in Jerusalem.

“If you were a true lover of God in those days, there was no better place than God’s temple. You love God, you have to love being there.”

Now things are a little bit different today, but there is some parallel. There is some application when it comes to God’s new temple today, right? Which is God’s body, Christ’s body, the church.

There is a similarly glorious, joyful reality in operation in the gathering of God’s church. Our speaker remembers the joyful days of worship in the past.

Days that yes, we can’t help but notice and he surely notices too contrast sharply with his present situation.

The Refrain: Why Are You in Despair?

Again, we might imagine that such a memory would just turn the speaker into further despair. But not so. For notice what comes next in verse 5. It is the first appearance of the refrain.

The speaker says, “Why are you in despair, oh my soul, and why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him for the help of his presence.” As I said, this is the first of three appearances of this spiritually uplifting refrain or chorus. And if I may go back to our boxing or our wrestling metaphor, the chorus functions a bit like the coach talking to his fighter at the end of the round.

And how has round one gone for our speaker?

Not too well. He’s mostly just been lamenting before God and expressing his unrequited desire to God.

But now it’s time for the pep talk. Some reorienting words of encouragement before the speaker goes into the next round. Who’s the speaker’s coach in this situation?

It’s the speaker himself.

Rather than merely listening to himself or getting waylaid by his own feelings, the speaker addresses himself. He speaks to his own soul and he exhorts himself to hope in God. Again, the chorus begins with two rhetorical questions.

First, why are you in despair? Or we could also translate that, why are you cast down? Why do you dissolve away?

Second, why have you become disturbed within me? Or we could also translate that, why do you make noise? Why are you in such tumult?

Now by asking these two questions of himself, the speaker tacitly admits that such has been his state. He has been in agonizing despair. He has a downcast soul. He has felt a tumult within him.

But in asking these questions, he also admits that ultimately his soul is wrenched for no good reason.

And why is that?

Because there is hope. There is sure hope.

Hope in God, he tells himself. Or more literally, wait for God. And then the speaker quickly supplies the reason: I shall again praise him.

That is to say, this drought, this devastating, this desperate spiritual drought will not last. I will find God. I will drink of his life. I will know gladness again. And when I do, I will praise and give thanks to God publicly just like I used to.

“This desperate spiritual drought will not last. I will find God. I will drink of his life. I will know gladness again.”

From where has the speaker received this flash of new confidence?

Well, considering verse 5’s position after verse 4, I would say it was in remembering past worship.

For in that joyful worship of God in the past, the speaker realizes that nothing stops God from providing in such a way again in the future. If God did it once, he can do it again.

Did I not face other trials in the past? Did I not have similar longings for God? And I remember God provided. I gave him praise.

Surely he will do so again at the proper time for me. Now I can wait on God.

In the same way, brethren, we should purposefully remember and take comfort in our past instances of provision, deliverance, and joy from God.

And why is that? Because these are proof and examples of God’s ability to provide and restore in the future.

The Help of My Countenance

Now, the end of verse 5 will look a little different depending on your Bible translation. Some translations like our New American Standard 95 feature a version of the phrase “the help of his presence” or “the help of his countenance.”

Whereas other translations like the ESV have some version of “my salvation and my God.” The “my God” being pulled from the beginning of verse 6.

The difference in these translated phrases comes from the issue of how to interpret the proper positioning of a single Hebrew letter in verse 5.

I won’t go through all the details of the issue since in the end the translation options are not too different in meaning. But I can tell you I lean toward the ESV’s translation of the end of verse 5 since it makes each of our songs’ choruses exactly the same. Otherwise, Psalm 42:5 differs from Psalm 42:11 and Psalm 43:5.

I think it’s more likely that they were all the same.

In short, the author ends verse 5 by confidently referring to God as the speaker’s salvation, or more literally, the help or salvation of my face.

I don’t know if that sounds odd to you—the salvation of my face. What’s that about? Well, the idea is that God’s help, God’s saving acts are what lift up the downcast face of the speaker.

This is how the speaker has come to know God characteristically to be. My God is a saving God. He’s the one who lifts up my face. He’s the help of my countenance.

“God’s saving acts are what lift up the downcast face of the speaker. My God is a saving God — he’s the one who lifts up my face.”

And friends and brethren, the same is true for you if you are in Jesus Christ.

If by faith you are united to Jesus Christ, even when you are in the middle of spiritual drought, it can happen. Even when your soul is melting away or knocking about in noisy tumult within you, be sure that you will again lift up your countenance for the help or the salvation of your countenance. Your God will soon lift it up for you.

Hold On and Wait for God

What does that mean?

How should you respond?

Hold on. Don’t give up. Don’t leave the fight. Keep marching forward. Wait for your God.

Dark clouds may indeed seem to obscure God’s shining face of favor for a time. But they’re only clouds in the way. His face is still there. His favor is still upon you.

You just don’t feel it. You just don’t see it. Wait, keep trusting.

“Dark clouds may obscure God’s shining face of favor for a time, but his face is still there. His favor is still upon you.”

Keep seeking after God because the clouds will eventually move and you will see his face of favor again.

This is what our speaker, our singer teaches us even at the end of round one of his song.

Looking Ahead to Round Two

Well, we’ve seen round one. Round two of the speaker’s fight for joy and hope begins in verse six.

How is the second round going to go?

Well, the speaker will quickly admit to still feeling thrashed by trials and despair.

As you saw from verse 7, he talks about being bowled over by the waves of God again and again.

The suffering’s not gone. The struggle with despair is not gone.

Yet the speaker makes progress and he remembers another sure anchor point for his soul, and that is God’s steadfast love.

Whatever I’m experiencing, whatever I’m seeing, I know one thing is sure: God’s steadfast love.

“Whatever I’m experiencing, whatever I’m seeing, I know one thing is sure — God’s steadfast love.”

I’ll have to talk about that more when we revisit our passage. But for now, let us close in prayer.

Closing Prayer

Lord Jesus, I can’t help but think about the juxtaposition of this word, this message today with what we’ve seen recently in the Gospel of John.

For Jesus, you make abundantly clear that you were indeed a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. You never lost hope in your God, but you did experience the feeling of being forsaken by God.

You could testify to your disciples that your soul was troubled, yes, even to the point of death.

And why was that? Not merely because you shared our human flesh, but because you faced a trouble greater than any of us would ever face. And that is the wrath of God against sin on the cross.

Great high priest, you bore the sins of all those who believe in you. You endured the agony of hell, hell upon hell, so that we might be saved.

Jesus, we thank you. We thank you for your amazing salvation.

But also in going through what you went through, troubles greater than any of us. Though you don’t sin like we do, you don’t struggle in faith like we do, what it is to be weighed down, weighed down so deeply in the soul.

Jesus, we thank you for this word from the Psalms today. You comfort us not only in that you have experienced in a deeper way anything that we do, but the things that upheld your own heart. You teach us, Lord, by your Korahites that they are to uphold our own heart.

Lord, we look at the past faithfulness of God, the joys we have already experienced in you. But Lord, we also think of your love that never fails, proven at the cross and the joys that are promised in the future.

Oh Lord, revive us. Teach us to teach our souls as the psalmist does.

Why are we cast down? Why are we in despair? Why is there toil within us? Oh Jesus, because of you and your precious word.

Let us hope. Let us hope with that sure hope that does not disappoint. Let us wait for you, let us wait for the Father’s provision.

For we shall again praise the Father, praise the Son, and praise the Spirit.

Oh, sustain those, Lord, who are in spiritual drought right now, those, Lord, who maybe also feel buffeted by your waves. Oh Lord, they are not alone.

And you will show your face of favor again. Help us to minister to one another well, knowing these truths.

Amen.

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