August 30thPsalm 42-43
Why cast down, O my soul?
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.
The psalm opens with the striking image of a doe searching desperately for water in the desert. The image of flowing channels connotes God’s sustaining presence, for which the psalmist yearns. Faith’s journey, the psalmist affirms, is a pilgrimage of deep desire, sometimes frustrated, sometimes fulfilled, but never fully. She affirms that our deepest yearning should be for God.
Our psalmist wonders when she will see God as she is taunted, ‘Where is your God?’ (v.3,10). Her adversaries project her greatest fear; being cut off from God’s saving presence. To sustain her hope she recalls two vivid images:
The first image is of the ‘multitude at worship’ (v.4-5), an experience she longs to relive.
The second image (v.6-7) is even more powerful. Far removed from the Temple setting, God’s presence is encountered at the headwaters of the Jordan river which gush from Mount Hermon, at 9,200 feet snow-capped most of the year. There she hears the cascading, turbulent waters and is, figuratively, swept away as the floodgates are opened. No cool, still waters here. Rather, she recalls a time when she was on the verge of drowning in God’s gracious presence.
It is with these memories that our psalmist can celebrate God’s ‘steadfast love’ (42.8). Though God seems distant, even elusive, her quest is for the ‘living God’ (42.2).
Three times she addresses her soul. In each case she begins with a self-rebuke, ‘Why so downcast my soul?’ followed by an admonition, ‘Hope in God.’ This is an intensely self-reflective prayer. ‘Soul’ refers to the place of her deepest emotions, an examination of her identity as a child of God.
This psalmist gives searing testimony that the journey of faith is not ‘happy trails’; rather it is a pilgrimage that moves between lament and praise. In short, she acknowledges that the life of faith is, in a sense, itself ‘bipolar.’ (William Brown).
"Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God..." Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners, a wonderful advocacy voice for the poor and for justice writes about a speaking engagement at Sing Sing prison. The invitation letter had come from the prisoners themselves and it sounded like a good idea, so he wrote back asking when they wanted him to come. In his return letter, the young Sing Sing resident replied, "Well, we're free most nights! We're kind of a captive audience here."
So, arrangements were made - just Jim and about 80 guys for four hours. He recalled one of those young prisoners saying to him that night, "Jim, all of us at Sing Sing are from only about five neighborhoods in New York City. It's like a train. You get on the train when you are about 9 or 10 years old. And the train ends up here at Sing Sing."
Many of these prisoners were students too, studying in a unique program of the New York Theological Seminary to obtain their Master of Divinity degree - behind the walls of the prison. They graduated when their sentences were up. Here's what that young man at Sing Sing told Jim Wallis he would do upon his graduation: "When I get out, I'm going to go back and stop that train."
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.
*The psalm uses an image of cascading waters; below is a story about the ‘shrinking’ Jordan river.
https://religionnews.com/2022/08/18/mideasts-jordan-river-rich-in-holiness-poor-in-water/