Psalm 42
I hit a low point last week. I felt as if I was under a heavy cloud and all I could see was grey. I knew the sun was there, and I would experience moments of colour. But it would all soon fade back to grey. When I was finally able to speak it out loud, a few things happened. First, close people in my life were able to speak truth and love and gentleness and more love into my life. I didn’t feel alone. Also, by speaking it out, I was able to take back some of the power the heaviness held over me. Finally, God tenderly pursued me through one particular psalm.
The first moment was as I sat on the couch browsing the New Releases For You on Spotify. Shane and Shane had just released a beautiful song based on Psalm 42. I sat there and just let the words wash over me.
The next morning, I had a text from a dear friend. She took Psalm 42 and turned it into a prayer for me. As I read it again and again I felt so seen and known and loved by God.
And then this afternoon I checked the mail. In it was a card from my sister that she had mailed before I had the courage to speak out. It was a card to put in my bible as a reminder. In it she wrote “It is a reminder that God is bigger than the current storm and He is able to hold you through…. So hang on tight dear one, it’s going to be alright because He has you.” And at the very end of the card, a verse from Psalm 42.
God is pursuing me with these words. And perhaps today you need to hear them too.
Psalm 42
As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation 6 and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and 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 do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.