Psalm 42:5
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
As we saw yesterday this refrain that the psalmist repeats is the main message of this psalm—when our soul is downcast and disturbed we must put our hope in God and praise him for he is our salvation and our God.
This is a beautiful message of hope. This story of hope in exile is a story we all participate in. The NT authors plainly say that this world, the way it is, is not our home and we are longing for the fullness of God's kingdom to come. Then we will be home.
1 Peter 2:11 11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.
John 15:19 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
Hebrews 13:14 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
Philippians 3:20 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Hebrews 11:16 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
So we, as Christians, should all feel the despair of exile at times—the unsettled feeling of being away from the comforts of our true home (v. 2, 4), the taunts of those who mock God (v. 3, 9), the mourning of how worship once was and could be (v. 4) (when we closed the church at the beginning of the pandemic we all felt this in a more immediate sense), the cavernous feeling of God's distant presence (v 9). These feelings should be familiar to us. Yet, rather than remaining in our despairing and downcast state, we should put our hope in God, praise him and look for the fullness of our salvation—the coming kingdom of God, the return of Jesus our Savior. We have experienced the fulfillment of our hope in part in the coming of the Messiah, but it will be fully realized when Jesus returns.
Reflection
- Do you feel the despair of exile in this life? Or does this earth feel too much like home?
- Think of some times that you have specifically felt the Christian condition of exile. Perhaps a personal time of suffering or perhaps our current cultural moment dealing with COVID-19 and pursuing racial reconciliation.
- Pray the prayer of this refrain a few times. Write it down and pray it a couple of times throughout your day, especially after you check the news or go on social media!
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
My hope is in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.