Read Psalm 42:6-11. 6My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. 7Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. 8By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. 9I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” 10As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” 11Why 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.
The psalmist has gone from wandering in a dry desert without any water (42:1-5) to drowning in a cascading river that is about to send him over the falls. Verses 8 and 9 present such a stark contrast that we are left wondering how the same person could write both refrains and place them back to back.
But then we remember our own lives, how on Saturday our souls ask God, Why have you forgotten me? But on Sunday our souls return to the commanding steadfast love of God over us. Living in this contrast is the normal Christian life. Honest emotion bounded by conviction. Feelings commanded by faith.
Does that describe you? Do you ever challenge the feelings of your own soul – My soul is cast down…Why are you cast down, O my soul? Are you actively challenging your soul with the truth of God’s salvation?
By the Spirit of Christ within us soul communion is the necessary spiritual discipline for moving the truth of our union with Christ from head to heart. The gospel doesn’t make that journey on its own apart from our preaching it to ourselves – O my soul.
To live is Christ is preaching this sermon to our own hearts – Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
You: Can you relate to the Psalmist’s experience of feeling abandoned at times?
You in Christ: The normal Christian life is part “cast down,” and part “hope in God.” How is this consistent with Christ on the cross?
Christ in you: Are you able to preach the gospel to yourself?Practice doing it today.
Pray: Jesus, you are my God, my soul’s hope. Help me to praise you today no matter what rapids I find myself in. Amen.
To Live is Christ 