We all need lament

Psalm 42 is first of all a psalm of lament. The writer is struggling. Struggling with a sense of being physically separated from God as the God who lives in the Jerusalem Temple. He might be exiled. He might be a prisoner of war. He might be sick and physically incapable of going with the throng to worship. We cant say but what we can say is that instead of drinking the refreshing water of worship he feeds on tears of sorrow. We cant always be happy. It is not honest to force a false smile, when you are suffering deep sorrow.

He remembers the good days when he used to go with the multitude to worship, even to lead the procession – perhaps he was a priest or a Levite musician. There was joy and thanksgiving in joining the throng of God’s people going to worship. But that has gone. Now he is depressed. Downcast to use his word. Longing for God’s life-quenching waters he is overwhelmed by the deeps, the waterfalls, the waves and the breakers of sweeping waters.

He clings to God. He knows that by day God directs His love, and at night His song is with him. That God even prays though him. But the night is the time of darkness, not the day-time of the festival throng. So, despite his knowledge, he feels forgotten; he feels oppressed. It is a deep hurting - His bones suffer agonies in the taunts of his enemy - who cry the old old song of the enemy of the faithful: where is your God?

We know that all people everywhere may suffer the absence of God. But many who do not trust in Him turn suffering outward into a taunt of those who do believe: where is your God?

Their mockery of others protects themselves from seeking God. It often breeds a coldness in their hearts, and a selfishness in their ego. They will be downcast to where they will not want to be. It reminds me of Jesus parable of the rich man who died and was buried and went Hell. There he was in torment. He saw Abraham far away, with the poor man Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ But in his response Abraham points out that “between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can any one cross over from there to us.’” Luke 26:22ff In life & death he is downcast from God

All Christians also suffer experiences of feeling the absence of God. When a child dies. When a spouse slips into dementia. Maybe when you come into a care home. The examples are multiple but the experience is always personal. The remembered days of joy in worship become overwhelmed by present sorrows. Faith is taunted. The soul is downcast.

In an attempt to re-set his thinking the psalmist twice [thrice with Psalm 43 seen as a psalm that was once united with 42] seeks to counteract his felt depression with his hope in God, writing Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Saviour & my God.

Was his hope to go back to the physical Temple? As Christians we have the advantage of being God's living temple. God cannot be separated from us for He fellowships with us. Trouble may cut us off from God. But where is our God? He is with us. The psalmist glimpses this when he writes that in the night God’s song is with Him, even as a prayer to the God of his life. Words which reminds me of God’s words in Zephaniah c3 v esp 17:

The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves.

He will take great delight in you;

He will quiet you with His love;

He will rejoice over you with singing.”

As Warren Wiersbe in his thoughts on these verses observes: God is with us. God’s power is working for us. God holds us next to His heart. He quiets us with His love and rejoices over us with song. However downcast we may be, we have nothing to fear.