Slices
Prepare
What’s the hottest day you can remember? Try to recall your feelings and how your thirst was quenched!
Bible passage
For the director of music. A maskil of the Sons of Korah.
1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
‘Where is your God?’
4 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.
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Saviour and my God.
6 My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon – from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.
8 By day the Lord directs his love,
at night his song is with me –
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock,
‘Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?’
10 My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
‘Where is your God?’
11 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Saviour and my God.
Psalm 43
1 Vindicate me, my God,
and plead my cause
against an unfaithful nation.
Rescue me from those who are
deceitful and wicked.
2 You are God my stronghold.
Why have you rejected me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?
3 Send me your light and your faithful care,
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to the place where you dwell.
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God, my joy and my delight.
I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God.
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Saviour and my God.
Explore
Originally these two psalms were probably one and it’s helpful to read them that way. A big clue to this is the repeated refrain (42:5,11; 43:5). Can you see any other clues?
This psalm comes out of an experience which many (most?) of us have at one time or another. The psalmist is spiritually thirsty – he feels dry (42:1,2). He is homesick, a long way from his beloved Jerusalem (42:4,6; 43:3) and feeling depressed (42:5,11; 43:5). God seems distant. It seems that the only water he has is his tears, a night and day experience (42:3). The joy of worship has disappeared (42:4). Foes, within or without, taunt him saying, ‘Where is your God?’ (42:10).
So thousands of years before it became a recognised treatment for conditions such as depression, the writer engages in some talking therapy. First he talks to himself, ‘Why, my soul, are you downcast?’ (42:5,11; 43:5). And he also talks honestly to God, ‘Why have you forgotten me?’ (42:9). This psalm gives us a useful prescription for such times: pour out your soul to God (42:4), put your hope in God (42:5), remember him (42:6), ask for his help (43:1,3).
Respond
Can you identify with the experience in these psalms? Perhaps you or someone you know is going through a similar experience right now. Read the psalms again and turn them into prayer.
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: 2 Chronicles 10–12; Ephesians 1
Pray for Scripture Union
Pray that there would be open doors for SU Papua New Guinea to reach the 22 provinces, many accessible only by air or sea. Pray for the establishment of strong volunteer bases in the regions.
