(20-25 min)
Scripture
Psalm 42
For the director of music. A maskil of the Sons of Korah.
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng.
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon— from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
By day the LORD directs his love, 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 must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Psalm 46: 4-10
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
Come and see what the LORD has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
The troubled Korahite
I find the Psalms a pleasure to read. They are so very human. Consequently, I often breeze past the beginning attribution wanting to get to the words of the author. This time though “A maskil of the Sons of Korah” got me wondering: what’s a maskil and who are the sons of Korah? I want to know because the person or people who wrote these initial chapters of Book II of the Psalms is/are special indeed.
The NIV study Bible says a maskil is likely a literary or musical term and the sons of Korah are a “Levitical choir made up of the descendants of Korah appointed by David to serve in the temple liturgy. The Korahites represented the Levitical family of Kohath, son of Levi”.
This information helps when interpreting the meaning of these Psalms. For the author, there is a yearning to be back in the temple again where the God of his devotion lives. Back to where he spent his life in service. The study Bible goes on to explain that the author was likely unable to go to his beloved temple because he is being held captive following a recent conflict. He is now yearning for his God and temple as a deer yearns for water when being chased in the hunt.
The poignant picture the study Bible paints seems consistent with the verses that follow. The author has his whole being (soul) thirsting to meet the living God so severely that his tears have been his food day and night. His yearning is so overwhelming that even when confronted by his unfaithful captors mocking him with “where is your God”, he returns to his memories of serving in the house of God. A place where he was surrounded with shouts of joy and praise from fellow faithful followers.
The author of Psalm 42 needs his God. Yet as the Psalm unfolds the interface between humanity and faithful devotion is apparent. In verse five he opens by saying “Why my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?” This seems like a dumb question. He’s downcast because the thing he needs the most is not within reach, and he is being held from it indefinitely by his captors. Of course his soul is downcast.
But to this faithful choir member, his soul should not be downcast. He tells us all: “Put your hope in God” and then declares “for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God”, a phrase with which he concludes the Psalm. His solution to a vexing depression caused by separation from God is to remember God: “my soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan.”
Inspiring, but not so easy
Quite a few years ago I went to a wedding of a friend’s daughter. Both parents are pastors and many of the guests were clergy or leaders in the denomination. As the first hymn began, the congregation didn’t just sing. They almost shouted the hymn so that all were caught up by the Spirit of God and the celebration of His blessings over the couple. A setting reminiscent of that described by the psalmist at the temple where “shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng” were found.
Obviously not every church service is that way, but I always felt a bit of it anytime I participated in corporate worship. For some, however, church is not an option. We used to call them shut-ins and would take them communion when it occurred during the Sunday service. Like our Korahite, these faithful people long to be back with the congregation again but memories are all they have. The psalmist’s strength and faith to remember and be downcast no more is good, but hard.
We may rise to the standard set in the Psalm for a while, but staying is tough when there is something in your life that persistently keeps you away from God. This is true beyond corporate worship. Many issues separate us from God and can leave despondency in their wake. Remembering the times of God’s presence doesn’t always ease these feelings.
Not surprisingly given how human the Psalms are, chapter 42 continues with the author having a similar experience. Right after declaring that remembering God will be his goal and comfort, he evokes more disturbing images: “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls: all your waves and breakers have swept over me.” It is almost as if he is saying the flow of God’s will goes from one place to another and you are just part of it, a fleck of debris caught up in the tide.
With wonderful authenticity the author then swings back and forth between dramatic expressions of faith: “By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life” and despondency: “I say to God my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy? My bones suffer mortal agony.”
This is someone to whom we can relate. He is so very honest, simultaneously expressing his steadfast faith and inability to persistently grasp it. So authentic are his words that they have been poured over for thousands of years.
The perceptiveness of a Korahite offers more
I think there is more to this choir member than his authenticity. The author of Psalm 42 is a perceptive person. In his time of separation from God he asks why God has forsaken him, a common thought that occurs to many when something drives a potential wedge between them and God. But our Levite perceives a second question as well: “Why my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?”. While he offers the remedy of remembering the good times with God, we are left to wonder with him why are we downcast when our souls should know better. The souls of Christians should really know better because we are promised eternity with God and assured that God is always with us through the Spirit.
A tale of separation
I have a friend whose life may enlighten us about the psalmist’s keenly perceptive unanswered question. Early in my career I moved to a new location and was blessed to be with wonderful colleagues. One of them had his office directly next to mine and we hit it off splendidly. The guy had a hilarious sense of humor and laughter was part of everyday as the two of us went about our duties.
After several years he lost his wife to cancer. I watched as much of my friend’s joy withered. He soldiered through the dark time but wasn’t the same. A Christian man, his faith had been shaken and for a time he wanted nothing to do with it. Death created a wedge between him and his creator that held him captive just as the psalmist was. It took a few years, but his previous faith slowly reemerged albeit in a totally different form.
He started to pursue advanced education and several of the courses involved theological philosophy. He became powerfully affected by an anonymous author who called himself Dionysius the Areopagite. The man was a mystic who in the 14th century wrote a collection of writings known as A Book of Contemplation the Which Is Called the Cloud of Unknowing, in the Which a Soul Is One with God (I guess that’s how they talked back then). The book is known today as The Cloud of Unknowing. It started my friend’s journey back to God.
The Psalm 46 answer
I wondered what was in this book that closed the distance between my friend and God. His disappointment at God over the loss of his wife had passed, but it seemed his relationship was not restored until reading this book. He got me to read it. Back then I understood but couldn’t see. Now I think the reason this book helped my friend is because it elaborately conveys a message in Psalm 46 which I believe is the answer to the question: “Why my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?”
Today’s citation from Psalm 46 opens with: “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.” Because there is no river in Jerusalem, the NIV study Bible suspects this is a metaphor for God’s sustenance and blessings which make the city of God like the Garden of Eden.
The psalmist then says the nations are in an uproar and falling at the voice of God. Maybe the nations who would separate Israel from God’s presence and the river are analogous to the things in our lives which like these nations would separate us from the river of God. Things like the death of your spouse to cancer which can hold us captive keeping us from the river as surely as the author of Psalm 42 was prevented from returning to the temple.
Psalm 46 goes on to declare that no life event (or opposing nation) can stand against the river. God will desolate them all. Then tucked away in these bold declarations is one phrase attributed directly to God: “Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The psalmist tells us that concerns that would separate you and me from God are subservient to the Almighty. To know this and have it ease our troubled souls, all we need do is follow the Lord’s command: “Be still and know that I am God”.
The Cloud of Unknowing is a book that tells you how to be still. How to forget or unknow the things of this world while you focus on the things of God in serious contemplation. I think that’s why the book opened the door for my friend. He didn’t become a contemplative monk, but his heart opened to the Spirit of God and the power of his wife’s death to keep him from the river diminished. Little by little the Spirit spoke to him with increasing force, and he was made glad. Today, in his 70s, he serves as an Episcopalian Priest.
What holds you captive?
My friend’s transformational story illustrates how attending to God can help us with the very things that divide us from Him. Even so, the problems that occupy our minds and separate us from God can seem all consuming. Perhaps work occupies your mind and you can’t rest at night worrying about it. It’s important because the job sustains your family. Maybe you don’t have enough resources to stay in your home and you wonder desperately what tomorrow will bring. Maybe one of your children has lost their way, or there is great poverty-induced suffering in your community, or your beloved was diagnosed with cancer and you’re watching the impact of chemotherapy. These major life concerns and many more are part of being human and all of them can hold you captive in a land away from the presence of God.
Separation yields separation unless
Indeed, the nations that hold us captive from God come in many forms and God may be the last place we think to turn to settle our troubled souls. The psalmist tells us not to continue down this pathway to despondency. Instead, pause and ask: Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Asking this question makes it hard to take the road away from God that will inevitably lead to sorrow. In fact, shouldn’t you and I be asking that question with some regularity when we sense despondency within us. Reminding ourselves that we belong to God even when we feel separated from our Creator.
Be still we are instructed and know that God reigns no matter what is happening to you. God never left your side. This world just stopped you from drinking of the river of God’s spirit that flows through you. Enter the cloud of unknowing about the things of this world and be still. Then the separation we feel from God will ease. Our troubles may or may not, but we will face them confident that God is at our side regardless.
Conclusion
There is one line the psalmist had to include to ensure we would understand why the effort to diminish separation is worth making. It is said only once right in the middle of Psalm 42: By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me.
God is worth pursuing because He loves us and was never absent in the first place. I hope that the psalmist words resonate with you. I pray that when the events of this world catch you off guard and tear your attention away from God, you are able to stop long enough to ask “Why my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?” and can still your mind enough to hear the river within that makes glad the city of God you represent. May God be with you this day and every day in your faith journey.
Dave
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