Psalm 42:6-8 "O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar. (7) Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. (8) Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life."
It seems that confusion, discouragement, sadness, and so many other negative
thoughts can come crashing into our minds at a moment's notice. David was at
that place in life. For whatever reason, he was deeply concerned with his state
of mind. He felt God had forsaken him and he was left to himself to cope. I
pray you have never experienced that. But if you have, David has given us a key
to unlock our minds from the negative and place them on the positive.
The first key is to confess our state of mind to the Lord. You might say,
"He already knows how I feel." And that is true; yet, there is
purpose in our stating, openly confessing, to the Lord that we just don't feel
right about life and its circumstances. "O my God, my soul is cast
down within me." Father, I am concerned about my life and where it
has taken me. I am discouraged and cannot seem to find my way back to the right
path. David states twice in this Psalm that the world keeps asking, "Where
is now thy God?" He almost gets carried away with those thoughts. He
says In verse 9, "I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten
me?"
But then he gives us the second key to combat that feeling, "Therefore
will I remember thee." Quite honestly, sometimes we must force
ourselves to move outside our discouragement and sadness, to remember the past
blessings of the Lord. David thought back to those places in his life
when he knew the Lord had been with him in a most definite manner. The
Lord had met with David in "the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, and
the hill Mizar." He had known at those places the very deep power of
God that was manifested to him. He had called out to the Lord from the
depth of his heart and the Lord had heard and answered in great power. It was
as David remembered those times, that his hope was renewed . "Yet the LORD
will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall
be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life."
He had spoken it earlier in the Psalm and as he remembered the past blessings
of the Lord, David once again spoke this great truth: "Hope thou in God:
for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my
God." Christ Jesus is our hope! He has never failed, nor will
He ever fail us. May we be as David and stay strong in that hope and assurance
that has been given us. Jesus Christ is Lord!