Project 119: Psalms 42-43 & Psalm 44
| Project 119 | Amy Hirsch
Morning: Psalms 42-43
Lord,
My soul thirsts for You, and only You can satisfy that longing. Yet I confess that so often I try to fill that thirst with anything but You - seeking to quench my desires with the things of the world, or even with the gifts You have given me. Forgive me for worshipping the gift rather than the Giver. Help me to remember that every good and perfect gift comes from You. Cleanse me from my idolatry, from seeking worth and satisfaction in anyone or anything but You.
As I meditate on today’s psalms, while I may not be able to identify with the psalmist’s particular situation of being separated from corporate worship, unable to enter the sanctuary, I can identify with the longing of the
psalmist as he experiences the brokenness of this life. I too have experienced the mocking of others who do not believe in You. I have heard their taunts, asking “Where is your God?” in the midst of my suffering. I have found myself in situations where I am desperate for You to act and to make all things right. I too have had to wait for You to act and reveal Yourself in Your perfect timing.
Father, in the midst of suffering and distress, help these psalms to guide the way I think about You and to meditate on Your faithfulness. Even now I recall the ways I have seen You work in my life in the past, and I stand certain that You will continue to work and act in due time. I reflect on all of the ways I have seen You command
Your steadfast love over me. Even in the darkest of nights, I remember the song You sing over me. I cling to the hope I have in Your love, that You loved me enough to send us Christ, and that You promise that You will never abandon or forsake me.
Lord, help me to preach the truth of the gospel back to myself over and over again, in times of joy and in times of sorrow. Why is my soul cast down? I confess that my hope is in You, even in situations that seem hopeless! Help me to wait patiently and expectantly for You to act, trusting that You are the One who vindicates us, and that You are the living God who is always at work. Even when I can’t trace Your hand, I trust Your plan.
And Lord, I do pray for those who find themselves, like the psalmist, separated from corporate worship. I pray for those who are homebound because of sickness. I pray for those who live in remote locations and aren’t able to worship with a local body of believers. I pray for those who gather quietly to worship under the threat of
persecution. Help me not to take opportunity to participate in corporate worship for granted, that I can easily travel to my local church, where I can study Your word, worship, and fellowship with other believers. What a gift it is!
I thank You for the gift of the Holy Spirit given at Pentecost, that Your Spirit lives inside all who believe in Christ. No matter where we may be on this earth, or what we may face, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. And yet Your love is a love that understands the feeling of forsakenness, that cried out on the cross, that
groans along with me while I wait for the Father to make all things right. I praise You that one day I will live in a place where grief is no more, where I will dwell in Your presence and light, and where You will wipe every one of my tears away. Amen.
Psalm 42
Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?
To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.
1 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.
Psalm 43
Send Out Your Light and Your Truth
1 Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
against an ungodly people,
from the deceitful and unjust man
deliver me!
2 For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
why have you rejected me?
Why do I go about mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 Send out your light and your truth;
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
and to your dwelling!
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God.
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 and my God.
Evening: Psalm 44
Come to Our Help
To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.
1 O God, we have heard with our ears,
our fathers have told us,
what deeds you performed in their days,
in the days of old:
2 you with your own hand drove out the nations,
but them you planted;
you afflicted the peoples,
but them you set free;
3 for not by their own sword did they win the land,
nor did their own arm save them,
but your right hand and your arm,
and the light of your face,
for you delighted in them.
4 You are my King, O God;
ordain salvation for Jacob!
5 Through you we push down our foes;
through your name we tread down those who rise up against us.
6 For not in my bow do I trust,
nor can my sword save me.
7 But you have saved us from our foes
and have put to shame those who hate us.
8 In God we have boasted continually,
and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah
9 But you have rejected us and disgraced us
and have not gone out with our armies.
10 You have made us turn back from the foe,
and those who hate us have gotten spoil.
11 You have made us like sheep for slaughter
and have scattered us among the nations.
12 You have sold your people for a trifle,
demanding no high price for them.
13 You have made us the taunt of our neighbors,
the derision and scorn of those around us.
14 You have made us a byword among the nations,
a laughingstock[fn] among the peoples.
15 All day long my disgrace is before me,
and shame has covered my face
16 at the sound of the taunter and reviler,
at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.
17 All this has come upon us,
though we have not forgotten you,
and we have not been false to your covenant.
18 Our heart has not turned back,
nor have our steps departed from your way;
19 yet you have broken us in the place of jackals
and covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21 would not God discover this?
For he knows the secrets of the heart.
22 Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
23 Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
24 Why do you hide your face?
Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
our belly clings to the ground.
26 Rise up; come to our help!
Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!