Cast Down
There are Psalms I sometimes read that just make me angry.
“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”
- Psalm 42:5
Maybe I am just that spiritually immature, but I can’t grok how David can step outside himself to just *tell* his soul to have hope in the midst of turmoil. Just hope! Do it!
I’ve heard many a preacher speak on this Psalm, and I don’t think they get it either. I doubt they've lived it themselves. But it makes a killer message, so they’ll rip through it anyway. They can eat their scripts. People don’t work that way. I don’t, at least. But again, maybe that’s on me.
More:
“My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.”
- Psalm 42:6-7
Just *remembering* His works and blessings is positioned as an antidote to a downcast soul. That sounds good until the blessings you’re remembering are the ones being threatened with devastation. Sometimes remembrance does nothing but make really vivid to you what you can’t protect or have already lost.
End of the Psalm:
“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”
- Psalm 42:11
Ok. Maybe that future praise is a promise for me too. Hard to buy it when your pleas feel all but forgotten (v.9), though. Guess we'll see.