Saturday, April 12, 2014

Psalm 42 and 43

So, my mom's and mine journey through these two chapters was a little more challenging than chapter one in Psalm. We gain quite a bit of knowledge with these two chapters but memorizing them was difficult. Chapter 42 was our goal and we ended up adding chapter 43 to the list because it is the conclusion to chapter 42. It felt incomplete to leave it out. We talked about what made these difficult and decided that it was because the verses and thoughts are disconnected emotionally. For a couple of verses the writer is depressed then he is joyful then back to depressed. It does reflect many a walk with Christ, even ours. Memorizing this journey of the writer was not easy. We'd lose our place because it didn't flow a lot.

We picked chapter 42 because of verse one: "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for you, O God." We love this song and thought that knowing the Psalm it comes from would be nice. For myself the verse that stuck out was the end of verse 5 "...for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence." Just God's presence is help to this writer and he praises God for it. I remembered that just God being near me is worthy of praise, whether He does anything I see or not, doesn't matter. Mom was amazed that the writer always came back to praising God even though it was obvious the writer was in some sort of trouble. No matter how bad it got, in the end he would praise God. We did some background research on this chapter and discovered that it is possible that the writer is taken from his home and from the Temple due to captivity. The writer recalls "...You from the land of Jordan and the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar." (verse 6) as if he is no longer there. Back in verse 4 he remembers leading a "procession to the house of Go, with the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival." It seems to us that he not only longed to be in God's Temple again but also with God's people. Verse 10 speaks of his adversaries and how they taunt him. Based on what we found it could have been his and his people's captors.

As you can see chapter 42 ends sad. Chapter 43 gives the rest of the story. Verses 1 and 2 are still mourning the situation he is in and he is asking where God is, but in verses 3-5 he puts his trust in God's light and truth to lead him back to God's dwelling place. He knows that he will be filled with joy again and that he will hope in God again! I am working on verses 3 and 4. I am memorizing these a little slower and with our other memorizing chapters. For some reason, I feel that I am digesting these slower and much closer to my heart than the others.

We still wonder what Chapter 42 verse 7 means. "Deep calls to deep at the sound of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have rolled over me." If anyone has any thoughts our resources they'd like to share, we'd love to do more research!

On to Psalm 4!

2 comments:

  1. I started memorizing Psalm 42 last week because I was reading a chapter in Calvin Miller's book, "A Hunger for the Holy" that is based on it. The part that caught my attention was "My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you...." It's as if he needed a downcast soul before he could remember God. My soul was downcast at the time, so that's why it spoke to me.
    Miller begins the section on verse 7 this way: "When 'deep calls to deep,' we echo the passion of the thirsty deer. We are no longer content with shallow prayer. We want to move into a more satisfying, more intimate walk with God." I think that as I go deeper into the knowledge of God, his call to me reaches me at a deeper, more intimate level. Or maybe it's that the deeper depths that my soul has reached now better understand the depths of God. What do you think?
    I can't wait to see you and the kids next Sunday!

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    1. Thanks for replying here! We hadn't come across your interpretation of verse 7 yet. That is interesting. I will bring my notebook with me this weekend to show my my notes on that verse. There was a lot between mom and me. Can I share your insights with mom?

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