PSALM 42 FOR THE DISCOURAGED SOUL By Pastor Scott Henry

“Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance” (Psalm 42:5).

Psalm 42, which was written by the Sons of Korah, aptly applied to the life of King David, the sweet psalmist of Israel.  David had many occasions of heaviness of heart because of the constant turmoil in his life.  He suffered the cruel persecution of Saul who hunted him like a wild animal; he suffered the betrayal of his trusted friend Ahithophel; David suffered the heartache of his son Absalom who rebelled against his rule as king; and besides all these things, David had to deal with the daily remembrance of his own sins, and all these things are enough to overwhelm the strongest child of God.  David was a man with sinful passions like us.  He was not always on the mountain-top of joy, but spent many seasons in the slough of despond.  However, David did not give way to despair, nor was he swallowed up by his sorrows.  Rather, he responded like a rational creature, created as God’s image, by speaking to himself in order to discover the cause of his depression.  He said to himself, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?” David sought to know the reason for his despair.  This is often the first step toward recovery from a heavy, depressed heart.  As we all know, murmuring and complaining gets us nowhere. There needs to be serious self-examination as we ask ourselves the plain question, “Why are you cast down, O my soul?  And why are you disquieted within me?”  What good is giving way to despair?  To sit and sulk and feel sorry for yourself is not “redeeming the time” (Ephesians 5:16), nor does it produce the joy of the Lord.  

Whatever the reason for your depressed soul, Psalm 42 brings the only cure when it says, “Hope in God.”  Whether your trouble arises because of your finances, your family, your friends, or your own sin, Psalm 42 declares the only cure, “Hope in God”, for He lives and reigns forever over the whole universe.  Hope in God because He is the One who fed two million Israelites in the wilderness for forty years.  Do you think His arm is too short to care for you and your family?  God sustained Elijah in the time of famine — can He not also supply your needs?  “Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:30).  The immediate outlook of our circumstances may be dark, but the promises of God to every believer dispel the darkness of despair.  Our God is “a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).  Therefore, “Hope in God.”  Get your eyes off the circumstances of life, and set your focus upon the God who ordains, orders, and controls every circumstance.  Remember that “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19).  Remember that “weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5).  Therefore, “Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance” (Psalm 42:5).