New book of the psalms – new look title. Structurally, Psalms 42 and 43 fit together like a hand in a glove. Well, not really like that actually – more like a hand and its finger, I suppose. Psalm 43 continues the pattern established in the two halves of Psalm 42, with the same key refrain that is repeated in verses 5 and 11 of Psalm 42 also capping verse 5 at the end of Psalm 43. Indeed, a footnote to my Bible informs me that many ancient manuscripts do join the psalms. Either way, they are scheduled for the same day in my diary and so they will be considered together.
Psalm 42 starts with a very famous line – “as the deer pants for the water”, or in the translation I am using, “as a deer longs for flowing streams”. This seems to paint a picture of the deer’s main source of thirst fulfilment during the dry season. What is the point of this first verse? That in the same way “I long for you, God.” The primary need of the author (the sons of Korah) of this ‘maskil’ in a particular dry season in life is God.
As a deer, or any animal, thirsts for water – the psalmist says “I thirst for God, the living God,” asking when they will be able to “come and appear” before him (verse 2). It could be that these authors have been separated from the Temple and the ability to join in the public worship, and laments not being able to enjoy the presence of God in this way. And in a sense, Christians can look at this verse and be reminded of Jesus’ great promise at the end of Matthew’s gospel: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28 verse 20). So we can look at the desperate situation of the psalmist here and remember that we are not in that situation – Jesus promises that his presence is with us; it is not at the Temple building, and we do not need to be in a specific geographic location to know his presence.
Jesus told her [the Samaritan woman at the well], “Believe me, woman, an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. […]
But an hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.
John 4, verse 21 and 23
But at the same time, this thirst for God can be so real and so frequent in the life of the believer. How hard it can feel, at times: when our prayers feel like they’re being said to a silent brick wall; when calamity after calamity besets us; when we see the wicked prospering. Life is never short of places that we long to see God working in. We can feel very much like the psalmist often – that our tears are all we have, and those who oppose God mock us and ask where he is in all of our suffering (verse 3).
We feel this – the psalmist feels this. But the psalmist also remembers – we too ought to remember. What memory is this? Verse 4 show us two sides of this. Firstly – the psalmist remembers prior joy in the presence of God. For the ancient Israelites, this involved certain festivals of remembrance and for priestly folk like the sons of Korah, this would have been an intensely joyful time, remembering past deliverance and continual sustenance from God. Christians no longer have such festivals, but we do continue to regularly share communion together as brothers and sisters. We are reminded of the covenant we have with God, and the sacrifice that Christ gave on our behalf to secure that covenant. So we remember what God has done, above all the sacrifice of Jesus.
But the psalmist also remembers joy in the fellowship of God’s people. A “procession” to the Temple with “joyful and thankful shouts” definitely implies a great gathering of people worshipping God together at festival time – as indeed the people of Israel were commanded to do. Gathering with God’s people reminds us that we aren’t in our struggles by ourselves. It is not for nothing that the author of Hebrews encourages Christians to continue meeting together (Hebrews 10 verse 25), as the temptation to forget Christ’s sacrifice and sin in many ways can be checked as we encourage one another through our fellowship.
In view of remembering these two things, then, the psalmist has a question for their soul (verse 5): why this dejection and turmoil? God may feel distant right now, but you can still trust him as you remember what he has done and remember the fellowship of saints. So in the first five verses, we see a description of the situation – desiring the old closeness of relationship with God, the feeling of depression and rejection by people, the memory of God’s past activity and your fellow believers, so the encouragement to continue trusting God through this time.
Verses 6 to 11 sort of expand on the latter parts of the first chunk of Psalm 42. We see the description of the psalmist’s feeling: “I am deeply depressed” (verse 6). In view of this, what does the psalmist do? Remember God in the midst of their situation (verse 6). Just as the memory of what God has done (and the fellowship of the saints) is an encouragement to continue trusting in him through the depressing time in the first half, so here a memory of who he is – thoughts of his majestic character – have the same effect.
Verse 7 describes the comfort of knowing that God is all-powerful in very aquatic terms. “Deep calls to deep” seems to refer to the way that troubles in life seem to just pile up, or continuously flood. But this is happening in the roar of God’s waterfall – and this tells us two helpful things. Firstly, compared to God, these troubles are actually somewhat miniscule: the flood is the end result, but they are God’s waves and waters; God is in control of our troubles. Incidentally, this reminds me of one of William Cowper’s hymns:
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace;
behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face
William Cowper. 1774. God moves in a mysterious way. Public domain.
This reflection leads onto the second point: the flood shows us God’s love and protection. God is the one who says to the waters and to all forces of evil “You may come this far but no further; your proud waves stop here” (Job 38 verse 11), and he never lets the waves rise beyond what his people can bear (1 Corinthians 10 verse 13).
So – remembering God’s character (verse 6) reminds us of his sovereignty over and grace in our troubles (verse 7). And because we know that his character never changes, that his covenant is sure, we can know that he will continue to act in faithful love towards his people, by day and by night – and doesn’t that just encourage us to pray (verse 8)! And what is that prayer?
Verse 9 records it for us – the psalmist asks God why he feels so distant, and why he is letting the wicked continue oppressing them, resulting in depression (verse 9). But this is not a doubting prayer; it is expressed to “my rock”. It’s a great comfort to know that we can pray to God in such total honesty about how terrible things seem and how much the feeling of not having that relationship hurts. True humility involves truly communicating with God – and sometimes it will look like this.
In view of this prayer, the psalmist restates the problem of facing crushing problems and enemies who mock their trust in God (verse 10). This is the situation of life. But you know what? God is still worthy of our trust and praise; he is a saviour to his people, and so dejection and turmoil, while obvious reactions to the situation, are not the right response of faith, as we saw in verse 5 (verse 11). Know your situation, but more importantly: know your God.
Psalm 43 provides a natural continuation to this, jumping into a new prayer to God – this time for God to act in justice. This involves a petition that God would show the psalmist to be in the right by rescuing them from the situation they find themself in (verse 1). This prayer does not rest on this person’s own inherent worth, but on the fact that they trust in God for protection and salvation (verse 2), although this does make the fact that they feel rejected by God an even harder pill to swallow (verse 2).
It’s hard for the psalmist – they know they cannot make it through by themself, and so they continue to plead that God would give them wisdom, and restore the joy of his presence with them (verses 3 and 4). This is what the author needs, and even though they don’t have it, even though the situation seems terrible, they will still put their trust in God (verse 5).
Four Month Psalter 