Meditation
Psalm 42:1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
6 My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon-- from Mount Mizar. 7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. 8 By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me-- a prayer to the God of my life.
What is wonderful about this attribute:
The psalmist uses the image of water both for God’s grace and God’s chastisement. He longs for cool, refreshing, satisfying, living water from God’s spring but instead gets waves, breakers, waterfalls and the ominous deep. He is in the most helpless state imaginable. Nothing can rescue a boat overcome by huge waves and breakers. Nothing can stop a massive waterfall.
Nothing was more fearful than the deep – the embodiment of chaos and uncontrollable evil. And for him deep called out to deep – redoubling its forces to overwhelm him.
Yet he continues to remember God. So often it takes the desperate pain of overwhelming breakers on our lives before we really begin to learn what it means to remember the Lord. Any whole-hearted seeking would result in nearness to Him, but when things are going along smoothly we rarely have the motivation to seek with all our hearts like we do when we suffer.
In verse six the psalmist switches from talking to his soul to talking directly to God about his soul. It is not enough to merely preach to your soul about God; you must also speak to God. The former is useless unless it is preparation for the latter. To tell my soul to shape up will do nothing. Preaching to your soul is useful only if it is followed by a direct attending to God.
Dear Lord, I am so prone to think about You and Your truth while ignoring You.
Many times I have imagined I was communing with You when all I was doing was reviewing information. Teach my dull soul not to stop until I have met with You. Make my soul thirst like the psalmist’s.
What effect would it have on your heart if you were to consciously experience God’s waves and breakers today?
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Experiencing this attribute:
Take careful note of the word “therefore” in v.6. The solution to a downcast soul is always remembering the Lord and seeking hard after Him day and night (v.8).
The psalmist remembers God in every place and in every circumstance – through the highs and lows.[1] He is preoccupied with God. Preoccupation is an amazing thing. When you are preoccupied with something it takes zero effort to think about it. In fact it takes all the effort you have not to think about it.
Oh dear Father, how can I become preoccupied with Your glory? Oh please, show me
how! The attitude of my soul toward Your glory is almost the opposite of preoccupation. It takes hard work to think deeply about it or to even remember to think about it at all during the day. Use the delights of Your cool, refreshing spring of living water or the horrors of Your awesome waves and breakers – whatever it takes to teach Your servant how to become preoccupied with his God.
Think: Can you think of anything you could possibly do that would bring you a step closer to preoccupation with God?
Promise to trust today:
Psalm 42:8 By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me-- a prayer to the God of my life.
Write your own prayer:
[1] The land of the Jordan most likely refers to Israel. Hermon is northeast of Israel and is the headwaters of the Jordan. Mizar is unknown. If these are all referring to the same place it would be an example of unparalleled geographical specificity for no apparent purpose. Hermon is plural in the Greek, probably referring to the entire range.
Mt. Hermon is a very high mountain, and Mizar means “smallness.” I think the psalmist is most likely saying something like, “I will remember You no matter where I am – at home, away, atop the highest peak, on the smallest hill.”
