I miss baseball. I know how unspiritual that sounds, but I do, especially at this moment in our lives, even if I’m somewhat ashamed to admit it. Due to the pandemic, Linda and I have been confined at home for several weeks, while others have been home alone. Then, Easter Sunday, tornados left some of you without your homestead.
Most of us personally understand the emotions of the author of Psalms 42-43. He was one of the “sons of Korah”. The Korahites were Temple singers, and some suggest this particular Korahite accompanied David when he fled Jerusalem because of his son, Absalom’s, rebellion. Whatever the reason, he finds himself far removed from the Temple, and he’s depressed.
Three times, in 42.5, 11, and 43.5, he asks himself, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” Three times he tells himself, “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” He’s depressed, but he instructs himself to hope in the God Who is his salvation, for he will AGAIN praise Him. Is the Psalmist confessing that, in his present circumstances, he isn’t praising the Lord? No. In light of the context of the opening verses of Psalm 42, he’s telling us he longs for the opportunity to once more gather with God’s people in worship.
As Psalm 42 begins, he describes himself as a deer panting for water to drink. He then speaks of his soul panting for God, thirsting for God. Again, he doesn’t mean that he feels himself cut off from God. His thirsting after God refers to his deep longing to join with his brothers and sisters in the corporate worship of the living God.
This is made clear in the second half of verse two where he asks, “When shall I come and appear before God?” It’s not that, in the midst of trying circumstances, he thinks himself separated from God. He knows God is always with him. He may well be struggling at this moment to believe that’s true, but he knows it is. When he speaks of thirsting for God, of longing to appear before God, he’s expressing his longing to join with those of like, precious faith in the corporate and public adoration of his Lord.
Again, I don’t know his circumstances, but I do know the depth of his emotions at this particular moment in his life. He tells us in verse three, “My tears have been my food day and night.” Apparently, there are those who mockingly ask him in his painful situation, “Where is your God?” So here he is, panting after God, longing to come and appear before God. And then, in verses four and five, he remembers with profound pleasure those days when he joined “with the throng” as they entered the house of God, where with “glad shouts and songs of joy” he and the “multitude” celebrated in worship.
~ Pastor Caines
