Home > Sermons > June 24, 2007

I.  Psalm 42:1-5

We have heard the Old Testament and New Testament passages read this morning.  Two stories that involve human relationship with the supernatural.  The Old Testament story prominently features angels and the New, demons.  I don’t intend to spend much energy on either of them this morning, but rather to work with you on the Psalm for the day – in the manner of a Bible study. 

The Psalm reading is numbered as two Psalms in our translation of the Bible, (Psalms 42 and 43). But as we get into them, I think that you will agree with Biblical scholars, that these two bits of poetry belong together – they are one piece of literature, really one Psalm.   

You can find these Psalms in your pew Bibles, perhaps you would like to open your Bibles to that place.  Psalm 42 can also be found in the hymnal as number 190 (in Hymns and Songs, 1990, Westminster, John Knox Press) and I would invite you to have that open as well.  As we read through these Psalms, I am going to ask our musician to do a few verses of this psalm.  There is a musical refrain in the book, and after you hear it once, you might like to join in at the places marked “R” the text.  Psalm singing like this is deep in the reformed tradition, and surely is one of the things that Pilgrim forebears did all the time. 

The Psalm begins with the imagery of thirst (verse 1):

Psalm 42  

      1As a deer longs for flowing streams,

            so my soul longs for you, O God.

      2My soul thirsts for God,

            for the living God.

      When shall I come and behold

            the face of God?

(All of the Scripture reading is from NRSV © Division of Christian Education National Council of Church of Christ in United States.) 

It is not hard for us to imagine the deer longing for the streams – all kinds of animals make a path to the water to drink.  Any living being – human or animal – needs water.  It’s not just a desire, it is a necessity.    

We are told that a human being can live for 40 days without food. But only 10 days without water.  Other animals have higher or lower tolerance levels.  Camels who are adapted to the desert can go much longer without water than most of the rest of us. But everyone needs water. 

But this Psalm is not really about water, but about our need for God:  Our souls thirst for the living God.  St. Augustine the theologian and bishop of the 4th Century Church made much of this notion. He said that in each of us there is hole that is God-shaped. And our souls will be unsatisfied unless that hole is filled by God.  

Some never recognize their need for God, but go blithely (or not so blithely) on their way without faith.  They are one set.  But there is another set of people – and surely the sentiment of the psalmist is with these – who believe in God, but they find God missing in their lives.  They are searching, but they cannot find God. 

Perhaps they are depressed.  It is hard to deal with the missing God.  Beginning with verse 3, the Psalm says:

      3My tears have been my food

            day and night,

      while people say to me continually,

            “Where is your God?”

      4These things I remember,

            as I pour out my soul:

      how I went with the throng,

            and led them in procession to the house of God,

      with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,

            a multitude keeping festival.  

For those depressed because God seems far away –  or is it that God seems far away because they are depressed? – there is a memory of meaningful worship.  The psalmist may be one who is deprived of worship in the temple.  Is this a Psalm of the exile – is it geographical? Or is it a physical or psychological disability that prevents worship?  Has the temple worship been interrupted? There are various possibilities, but we can imagine, even today, how it is for those not able to worship.  It has been important, but one can can no longer be there.  A modern person could echo the experience of the psalmist – remembering how it was to know God’s presence, and wondering where God is now.  Is it hopeless? 

A human being can live 40 days without food, 10 days without water, and only 3 minutes without oxygen.  But a human being can’t live at all without hope.  And so the one in despair about God’s absence, hangs onto a shred of hope, and sings the Psalm’s refrain.  It is verse 5, which you will notice is identical to verse 11 and to Psalm 43 verse 5.

      5Why 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 6 and my God. 

(At this point verses 1 & 2 of #190 in the hymnal were sung.) 

II.  Psalm 42: 6-11

In the Old Testament story we heard, Elijah had been through a tremendous experience.  He was locked into a battle between the God of Israel and the Baals.  It was, also, a contest between him and Jezebell the queen.  Elijah had won a contest –  he had brought down fire from heaven to light the sacrifices drenched by barrels of water – proving decisively that YHWH was supreme.  Then he had called on the rain to come back to the drought-stricken land.   

Elijah should have been sitting on the top of the world.  But the queen had threatened his life. Elijah, exhausted, burned out and now frightened, fled far away to the mountains – to the place where God had been revealed to Moses twice.  But Elijah wanted to die. 

On the mountain Elijah looked for God in the power of the storms – thunder, lightning, earthquake, wind.  But in the noise of nature, he did not find God.  It was finally in the stillness that he knew God’s presence. 

In the second section of the Psalm, the water imagery changes from the longing of desert thirst to the danger of chaotic water. Beginning with verse 6 it goes like this:  

       My soul is cast down within me;

            therefore I remember you [God]

      from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,

            from Mount Mizar.

      7Deep calls to deep

            at the thunder of your cataracts;

      all your waves and your billows

            have gone over me.  

The overpowering chaos of too much water symbolizes for us the things that can get to be too much – so much that we can’t see God.  Whether it is the overpowering force of changes in our lives or in the lives of loved ones –by accident, disease or death. Or whether it is the demands of raising kids –  always trying to do what’s best for them. Or pressures at work.  Or pressures in the church.  Things can be overpowering. We can be caught in a flood.  And God seems far, far away. 

But even then we might remember God’s promises expressed in verse 8:

      8By day the Lord commands his [God’s] steadfast love,

            and at night his [God’s] song is with me,

            a prayer to the God of my life. 

But, even though you believe in God, that God may seem far away, and any of us might echo psalmist in the words of verse 9:

   9I say to God, my rock,

            “Why have you forgotten me?

      Why must I walk about mournfully

            because the enemy oppresses me?”

      10As with a deadly wound in my body,

            my adversaries taunt me,

      while they say to me continually,

            “Where is your God?”  

And then the psalmist returns to the psalm’s refrain:

      11Why 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.  

(At this point verses 6 & 7 of #190 in the hymnal were sung.) 

III.  Psalm 43:1-5

Finally after two sections of complaint, the psalm moves into the petitions.  Even though God seems distant or invisible, the person of faith pleads with for God. The psalmist asks for God’s vindication and defense – for rescue from the storm – Psalm 43 verse 1

      Psalm 43:1 Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause

            against an ungodly people;

      from those who are deceitful and unjust

            deliver me!

      2For you are the God in whom I take refuge;

            why have you cast me off?

      Why must I walk about mournfully

            because of the oppression of the enemy?

Then the Psalm pleads for God to be present with us.  

      3 O send out your light and your truth;

            let them lead me;  

The Light symbolizes God’s face. It is a prayer for God’s presence. 

      let them [God’s light and truth]  bring me to your holy hill

            and to your dwelling.

      4Then I will go to the altar of God,

            to God my exceeding joy;

      and I will praise you with the harp,

            O God, my God.  

It is a continuation of the promise to worship God, and the Psalm ends with same refrain we have heard already: 

      5Why 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. 

(At this point the final verse of #190 was sung.) 

Amen.