4. Balm for the Depressed, Psalm 42
Hymns: RHC 542 Saved by Grace, O Love that Will Not Let Me Go, Help Me Lord, I Plea (See Below)
Psalm 42
Balm for the Depressed
1 To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. 2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? 3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? 4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday. 5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. 6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar. 7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. 8 Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. 9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? 10 As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? 11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
OUTLINE
- State of Utter Despair (v1-5a, 6-7)
- Solace in God (v5b, 8-11)
- Experience His Goodness (v8a)
- Experience His Comfort in Song (v8b)
- Experience the Living God in Prayer (v8c)
- Experience Renewed Hope in God (v5b, 11)
INTRODUCTION
The psalmist’s longing for God is expressed here as a great yearning from the bottom of his soul. There is an intense yearning for communion with God in public worship which he seemed to be deprived of. As a result, this psalm[1] speaks of the unhappy state of the psalmist.
The depression of soul is expressed in repeated use of the phrase “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” (v5a, 6a, 11a).
The word “cast down” means “to sink down”, “to be depressed”. This word is used to picture the sinking of a person’s soul and life possibly due to discouraging, difficult and distressing circumstances.
This word literally means “bowed down, prostrate oneself, humbled”. In the Hithpael stem, it means despairing (BDB).
What are the reasons for the psalmist’s despair?
Verses 1-7 tells us that he had been aliened from the assembly of God’s people. Being away from the worship of God, in the assembly of His saints, is the cause for the psalmist’s depression.
How does he get out of this sad state? The psalmist provides for us the heavenly balm for the depressed soul.
Verses 8-11 tells us the psalmist lifts himself out of the state of depression when he seeks solace in God.
(1) The State of Utter Despair (v1-5a, 6-7)
1 To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. 2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? 3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? 4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday. 5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me?
Verse 1 speaks of the feeling of the psalmist who articulates his intense desire for more intimate communion God by the imagery of a hunted deer frantically seeking to quench its thirst, looking for water supply, needful for its very survival. A similar visual picture described in Psalm 63:1 A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.
He sought for the divine presence of God to calm his downcast soul. A picture of true human need that finds its true contentment and satisfaction with the living God. The living waters that forever quenches that thirsty soul yearns. Recall the Samaritan woman who met Jesus at the well in John 4, found in Jesus her Saviour, full satisfaction, fullness of life. She had a longing to find true love, she has had five husbands yet finds not the love that her soul so badly needs until she met Jesus who imparted to her God’s love. She was so happy, went about sharing her joy with everyone in the village and city.
“My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?” (v2) is called an interjection or something thrown in between.
The phrase “when shall I come and appear before God?” is thrown in, parenthetically as an exclamation. This literally device is called an interjection – “a parenthetic addition by way of feeling.”
The spiritual longing that accompanied exile for a person whose religion centered around pilgrimages to worship God in the temple in Jerusalem is captured” in this psalm (Dictionary of Biblical Imagery). Here denotes the inner spiritual state of the heart – being cast down.
Geographically, in the Holy Land, apart from the sea of Galilee and the Jordan River and a few fertile plains, it is dependent on springs, wells and cisterns thus the frequent experience of the thirst and the anticipation of water.
Spurgeon made a good observation concerning our spiritual need when he wrote commenting on Psalm 42:1 “As the hart panteth after the water brooks…”.
“A camel does not pant after water brooks, because it carries its own water within. But the hart does, because it has no inward resources. After being hunted on a hot day, it has no inward supplies; it is drained of its moisture. So are we. We do not carry a store of grace within of our own on which we can rely. We need to come again and again and again to the divine fountain and drink of the eternal spring. Hence it is because we have a new life, and that life is dependent on God, and has all its fresh springs in Him, therefore we pant and thirst after Him.” (Edited)
The prophet Jeremiah draws the contrast to distinguish true worship from idolatry. He acknowledges God as the fountain of living waters while the latter rely on one’s own cisterns, which in fact do not hold water in Jeremiah 2:13 “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.“
3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
The psalmist speaks of his sadness and tears that flowed all day long when he is being challenged, “Where is your God when you need him most?”, “Is is not able to help you and make a way for you?” “Where is He?”!
4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.
He remembered how that he was with the company of the saints in the house of God. He remembered the voices of joy and praise when he was able to be physically present for worship in the house of God.
6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.
The Psalmist was longing for the company of the saints as he was away from the centre of worship in Jersusalem dwelling in the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.
Isn’t it a true experience when we are in the hospital and how we long for a visitor, a church member, a friend to see us, remembering the times when we had that precious freedom of mobility.
Testimony
Dr John Sung testified when he was hospitalized in 1940, “I will not get to read the Bible freely once I am hospitalized. I have been keeping my diary for some 5000 days now, and this would have to the discontinued…” He wrote his poem on 20th May 1940.
AS I LAY ILL
Glory that we’re, bearing the Cross!
Sweetly often do our tears flow!
Narrow indeed, Way of the Cross
God clears the path I now go!
Trials, suff’rings and agonies,
In these I see God’s great care;
Accusations, tribulations,
Anguish of the Cross I bear!
Look up to God, Precious God,
Heavy burdens, now behind me!
Running onwards, the path ahead,
To heav’n, I go, Lord, with Thee!
(The Journal Once Lost, complied by Levi, pg 461 & 464)
7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
He describes the deep waters of sore affliction that his soul is experiencing like the destructive waters of the sea threaten to drown him.
Jesus was crucified at the third hour (9am in the morning). There was a supernatural darkness that covered the land from 12 pm – 3pm, a sign of God’s judgment upon the land, our Saviour suffered the most excruciating pain and agony on the cross. The nails were driven through the middle of the palm and the sole of the foot, where the nerves converge, the most painful torture for any man.
The feeling of being forsaken was so intense when Jesus bore all our sins on the cross. Its was the ninth hour (3pm in the afternoon) when Jesus gave a most agonizing cry “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani” “My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46 , Mark 15:34 ). The waters of affliction overflowed. But is Jesus really forsaken by God? Jesus was left to bear the weight of all our sins. This work Jesus alone can do, to purchase our redemption!
Alone upon the cross He hung
That others He might save;
Forsaken then by God and man
Alone, His life He gave.
Alone, alone, He bore it all alone;
He gave Himself to save His own,
He suffered, bled and died alone, alone.
Where is the hope of the afflicted? Where is the solace of the dejected in his despair?
(2) Solace in Our All-Sufficient God (5b, v8-11)
(a) Experience His Goodness (v8a)
8 Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime…
Loving kindness means the goodness, kindness of God that He commands to be the portion of His child. This is the outworking of God’s love toward His children. The psalmist says God commands the bestowal of His blessing.
Between the justice and love of God, the love of God stands as first among equals. This is His unchallenged position as God and LORD. God is love. This truth stilled the heart of the psalmist in his depression.
The emphasis in the Hebrew sentence is the adverb “in daytime” or “by day” placed at the beginning of the sentence. The LORD commanded the cloud to lead the Israelites by day in the wilderness (Numbers 31:35), the outworking of His goodness. It provided shed and shelter from the scourging sun that can literally burn the life of a person!
The Apostle affirms this truth of God’s unfailing love toward His children in Romans 8:35 , 38-39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?…For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.“
(b) Experience His Comfort in Song (v8b)
– and in the night his song shall be with me…
The psalmist testified “in the night, his song shall be with me“. What can lift the ailing heart better than a song that stirs the heart to the blessed assurance of God’s promises.
Testimony
I remembered Preacher Harrison was driving us from Brunei to Miri in a truck, it was getting dark, the road ahead was perhaps another hour’s drive. He was also praying asking the LORD for guidance with regard to his ministry work ahead, whether to stay in Miri to start a work to his people the Kayans.
We sang this song that comforted his heart – “I know the Lord will make a way for me, I know the Lord will make a way for me, if I look to him in prayer, darkest night will turn to day, I know the Lord will make a way for me.“
(c) Experience the living God in prayer (v8c, 9-10)
– 8… and my prayer unto the God of my life…9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? 10 As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?
Prayer is power over depression. The psalmist brought all his grievances and petitions to God in prayer. He cried from his heart to God in, “I will say unto God my rock…
God is described as the Rock of stability on which to anchor his soul. He found support, refuge, strength in his God, his Rock!
What was his cry? What was bothering his heart?
… Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?” (v9-10)
He pleaded with God to hearken to his cry! He wrestles with God in prayer, praying through until victory as did Jacob with the angel all night until day break, the angel blessed him, before proceeding to meet his angry brother Esau.
The psalmist speaks of the oppression of his enemy, like thrusting the sword through to the bones, fatal. The torrential bombardment of words from his enemies overwhelmed him.
Yet did he prevail in prayer. The Holy Spirit, the divine Comforter, help to lift us out of our depression when we pray. “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26).
(d) Experience Renewed Hope in God (v5b, 11)
– 5 …hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance…
The believer who puts his faith in God to trust His guidance and help will never be disappointed. God will certainly help. He shall experience God’s presence to strengthen his heart. Faith to trust God to take care of whatever situation that he confided in Him through prayer. There is a calmness and peace that abided in the heart of the psalmist when he transitioned from despair to delight!
11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
To hope in God, is to trust and wait upon Him, to tarry with Him, come what may. Taking God at His promises, awaiting to see God’s glory. In the words of Job in Job 13:15 “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.“
When the physical eyes cannot see God’s hand, the spiritual eyes see God’s deliverance by faith. Hence, the psalmist declares, his countenance will turn from despair to hope, from grief to joy, for God has restored his spiritual health.
The final response is one of praise in gratefulness – “for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”
Saved by Grace
Words: Fanny Crosby, 1891.
Music: George C. Stebbins, 1894
The hymn “Saved by Grace”…was called into being through…a sermon preached by Dr. Howard Crosby who was a distant relative and dear friend of Fanny Crosby. He said that no Christian should fear death, for if each of us was faithful to the grace given us by Christ, the same grace that teaches us how to live would also teach us how to die. His remarks were afterward published in a newspaper, and they were read to Fanny Crosby by Mr. Biglow. Not many hours after she heard them she began to write the hymn.
However, these words almost didn’t see light of day. They came to public notice by “accident”, during a conference Fanny attended at Northfield, Massachusetts. During the meeting, the great evangelist, Dwight Moody, asked if Fanny, like so many others would give a personal testimony to the audience. Not wanting to draw attention to herself, she almost declined, but finally got up to speak, and said:
There is one hymn I have written which has never been published. I call it my soul’s poem. Sometimes when I am troubled, I repeat it to myself, for it brings comfort to my heart.
Some day the silver cord will break,
And I no more as now shall sing;
But oh, the joy when I shall wake
Within the palace of the King!
Refrain
And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story-Saved by grace;
And I shall see Him face to face,
And tell the story-Saved by grace.
Some day my earthly house will fall.
I cannot tell how soon ’twill be;
But this I know my All in All
Has now a place in Heav’n for me.
Refrain
Some day, when fades the golden sun
Beneath the rosy tinted west,
My blessèd Lord will say, “Well done!”
And I shall enter into rest.
Refrain
Some day: till then I’ll watch and wait,
My lamp all trimmed and burning bright,
That when my Savior opens the gate,
My soul to Him may take its flight.
CONCLUSION
The psalmist described his state of utter despair (v1-5a, 6-7) and his experience of solace from God (v5b, 8-11).
[1] A Maschil is a Hebrew poem – a contemplative poem, for didactic purpose to provide instruction (BDB). It is written for the sons of Korah. Who are the sons of Korah? They are the descendents of Levi. This is from the line of Korah that rebelled against Moses in Numbers 16:1, 11 and 32) who escaped God’s punishment. It refers to company of Psalm-collectors or singers. We notice here for the first time after a series with exception of Psalm 1, Psalm 2, Psalm 10, Psalm 33 with no mention of David as the inspired writer. Their descendents were recorded in 1 Chronicles 6:22, 1 Chronicles 6:31-33 “And these are they whom David set over the service of song in the house of the LORD, after that the ark had rest. And they ministered before the dwelling place of the tabernacle of the congregation with singing, until Solomon had built the house of the LORD in Jerusalem: and then they waited on their office according to their order. And these are they that waited with their children. Of the sons of the Kohathites: Heman a singer, the son of Joel, the son of Shemuel.” This psalm was written for the expressed purpose of ministering in song in the house of God.
