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- [00:00]
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Foreign.
- [00:05]
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Hey, you're listening to A Year in the Bible With Daily Grace. We hope that you are enjoying our walk through the Psalms. Leave us a comment or review. Let us know what you're learning. What God is showing you through His Word. We'd love to know. Today we're in Psalms 41, 45, and Paul. Where do we want to focus in our episode today? What psalms are we highlighting?
- [00:26]
A
Yeah, today I want to sit with Psalms 42 and 43 specifically. And if you read closely today, you would see why I would treat them together. Scholars kind of think that these were once one psalm. And the biggest reason for that is that there's a repeated refrain that we get in both 42 and 43. So we'll get into that. So this is a lament psalm that really does not pull its punches. It's using all kinds of literary devices to talk about just how sorrowful. And really, I mean, I think depressed is a good word for how the psalmist is feeling in this. And it conveys that level of sadness I think all of us have at some point in our lives felt. And so I think it's an encouragement, even just the fact that the writers of the Bible felt the way that we feel sometimes and that God has something to say to us in the midst of that. So the thing I want to point out, though, is that it doesn't just give us words to say, but actually, I think a structure even for lament when we find ourselves in a place like this. And so I want to point out the fact that the psalmist doesn't just address God with his sadness. He also addresses his own soul with truth, which is kind of interesting. And I mentioned that there's this refrain that comes up in both Psalms, and so it's in verse 5 and 11 of 42, but then also verse 5 of 43, and it reads, 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. I think all of us have been at this point before where we're just asking, why? How, or where do I go from here? But when we feel that way, the psalm gives us good instructions for what to do. The psalmist addresses himself with truth, saying, hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. I really like what theologian John Stott says about this psalm. He says the cure for depression is neither to look in at our grief, nor back to our past, nor round at our problems, but away and up to the living God. And I think it's important to say we don't always look for a cure for depression sometimes. And I think this psalm expresses the fact that there is value in expressing our depression to God. But in the end, we. We need at some point to turn back to God. We can't sit in our depression forever. And so looking up to God and telling our soul hope in God. Right. Commanding ourselves even to do that. And I just want to point out finally, some of the language in verse 6 that says, My soul is cast down within me, therefore I remember you, God, essentially there. It's precisely our sorrow that actually is the thing that prompts us to turn back to God.
- [03:15]
B
Yeah. As you're talking about that, I'm remembering times when I was cast down, when I was sorrowful, when I felt hopeless. And I read this psalm, and it was a reminder to me that there is hope in God. Okay, that's really fantastic. What else do we want to hit on today in this episode?
- [03:36]
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Yeah. Last thing I'll say about the psalm to notice is that it was written by the sons of Korah. So most of the psalms we've been reading are David, but they were probably a group of sons that were musicians of some kind. But obviously they're composing this for a community to sing the psalm. Right. It's not just meant to be an individual prayer that we pray. And I think that just shows us something really important about lament and depression and just other strife is that they're meant to be sung communally, that God doesn't intend for us to go through sorrow alone. Right. He gives us the church. And it honestly makes me think back to the Garden of Eden, because when Adam was created, it was just him. And because he's alone, that's the one thing God said was not good, that Adam was alone. So he creates Eve. And so we all need a space to express our sorrows and community. Not just to someone who isn't feeling the same way as us, maybe someone that can hold that for us, but also when communities as a whole experience, lament to come together and point each other back to God, to sing communal sorrows together. And I think it's hard, but God doesn't always answer that question of why or how or where do I go from here? But he gives us himself and he gives us people to walk through that sorrow with.
- [05:00]
B
Yeah. And I think that's such a good reminder because we. I think probably a lot of people read the psalms very independently. But that communal reminder, we need that. And that is an expression of community that probably many of us in the Western world have an opportunity to grow in. I think that my takeaway for today is this. We see this command almost to put our hope in God when we're in distress, when we're in turmoil. But what I'm taking away from that is that there is always hope in God. And I think hopeless is an emotion that I can grasp onto. And when I can see no possible way out of whatever it is that I'm facing, I conclude, oh, this is hopeless. This is hopeless, you know? But no, because God is sovereign, because God is all powerful, there is hope in him. And so I'm taking that away today. There is always in every circumstance, hope in God.
- [05:57]
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Yes.
- [05:58]
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All right, thanks, Paul, so much. We're about at the midway point through the book of Psalms. Tomorrow we'll get to Psalm 50, which gets us one third of the way through the book. So we'll be back to talk through the next five Psalms tomorrow.