I’m not sure what circumstances drove the writer of Psalm 42 away from the community of God’s worshipping people. Enemies are spoken of but the precise details elude us—and there’s something wonderful about that. It means that the words of the Psalmist are just as applicable to a soldier cut off from God’s community in the days of Israel’s kings as to Aussie residents isolated because of the Corona Virus epidemic.
[1] As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O 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 men 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 with the multitude,
leading the procession to the house of God,
with shouts of joy and thanksgiving
among the festive throng.
[5] Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Saviour and my God. Psalm 42
There’s three things I want to highlight from these few verses.
First, did you notice that it’s all about God? In difficult circumstances it is O so easy to have a pity-party—and the song writer struggles with that too. In hardship our emotions plummet and on the Richter scale of personal grief they can range anywhere from a 1.0 of sadness to a 9.9 of mind-numbing depression. We can so easily relate to the “Why are you downcast O my soul?” So this Psalm becomes a song in which the song-writer rebukes himself and tells himself off for his pity-party. He reminds himself that the answer to his sadness is to put his hope in God.
Perhaps in these difficult days we need to exhort ourselves to grasp hold of the spiritual realities to which we, by nature, are so blind. When we forget to keep God central then we don’t deal very well with our problems. Do I need to remind you that some have dealt with the present crisis by hoarding toilet paper? That’s what happens when you don’t understand that there is a God on the throne of the universe. We Christians must, like the Psalmist, keep exhorting our souls to live by faith. Hope in God… for life and death, for forgiveness and salvation, for bread and butter… and, yes, even for toilet paper.
Second, it’s worth noting that our relationship with God does not depend on the church. There’s some wonderful nostalgia that comes out in this song. I want to put it even stronger. As the Psalmist remembers how he used to join the worshipping community it is not just nostalgia that is at work here. It is a real home-sickness for those days when he was involved in the joyous festivities of communal worship. There is a real sense of loss at missing out on being with God’s people in public worship.
That is a powerful reminder to us that congregational worship is a wonderful blessing. No wonder that the writer to the Hebrews admonishes us not to neglect worshipping together. My guess is that many of us will find our Sunday worship increasingly special as we are prevented by circumstances from gathering as God’s people. And the longer this present social isolation lasts the more precious our church gatherings will become to us. Communal worship is one of the gifts by which the Lord God means to bless you.
And yet… having said that, we need to add that at the end of the day our relationship with our Saviour does not depend on the church. The author of this song knows that he must not put his hope in any church gathering but only in his saving God.
Third, this song makes clear that there is a new way of being church that is available to us in our present circumstances. We’ve always been aware that the church is not just a building. At present the buildings in in which we usually meet are empty of people. And they will be for the foreseeable future. The church is people. In fact the Church is a gathered community—that’s the very meaning of the word church. So when the church can no longer gather we need to think of creative ways in which to maintain the fellowship of the saints.
So is there anything from this Psalm that helps us to learn a new way of being church in our present unsettled and restricted times? Yes! The Psalmist wrote a song. Well, of course… that’s stating the obvious. But pause and think about it. Why did the song-writer share his thoughts and his struggles in this song that he wrote? Undoubtedly for the glory of his Saviour God. But should we not also add that he wrote it too to encourage the saints in their struggles. Think of how many thousands (millions?) of people have been blessed and encouraged by the words of this brief Psalm.
Your brothers and sisters in Christ are not able to meet with you at present in communal worship. But you have a phone. Why not give someone a call and remind them to put their hope in God… for we will yet praise Him.
John Westendorp