CHRIST

IS OUR

HOPE

UNDERSTAND YOUR SOUL’S DEEP DESIRE Psalm 42:1-5 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.	REVIEW This Psalm is like a mirror or looking-glass of pious and devout affections. Gracious desires are here strong and fervent; gracious hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, are here struggling, but the pleasing passion comes off a conqueror. Or we may take it for a conflict between sense and faith, sense objecting and faith answering. I. Faith begins with holy desires towards God and communion with him, v.1, 2. II. Sense complains of the darkness and cloudiness of the present condition, aggravated by the remembrance of the former enjoyments, v. 3, 4. III. Faith silences the complaint with the assurance of a good issue at last, v. 5. Holy love to God is the very life and soul of religion. Here we have some of the expressions of that love. He longs to come and appear before God—to make himself known to him, to attend on him, as a servant appears before his master. To appear before God is as much the desire of the upright as it is the dread of the hypocrite. Even the royal prophet was a weeping prophet when he wanted the comforts of God’s house. His tears were mingled with his meat; he fed; he feasted on his own tears. His enemies teased him: They continually say unto me, Where is thy God? Because he was absent from the ark, the token of God’s presence, they concluded he had lost his God. We know where our God is, and where to find him: it does not follow that the saints have lost their God because they have lost all their other friends. Nothing is more grievous to a gracious soul than that which is intended to shake its hope and confidence in God. A believing confidence in God is a sovereign antidote against prevailing despondency and disquietude of spirit. We shall praise him for the help of his countenance, for his favour, the support we have by it and the satisfaction we have in it.
DEPEND ON GOD’S FAITHFUL LOVE Psalm 42:6-11 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. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. I will unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.	REVIEW Complaints and comforts here take their turn, like day and night in the course of nature. His soul was, and goes to God and tells him so: O my God! My soul is cast down within me. He was now driven to the utmost borders of the land of Canaan, to shelter himself there from the land of Canaan. Wherever he went he took his religion along with him. In all these places, he remembered God, and lifted up his heart to him, and kept his secret communion with him. Deep calls unto deep, one affliction comes upon the neck of another. He expected his deliverance to come from God’s favour (v.8) Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness. After the storm there will come a calm, and the prospect of this supported him when deep called unto deep. He will rejoice in God: In the night his song shall be with me. My prayer shall be in the God of my life. God is the God of our life, in whom we live and move, the author and giver of all our comforts; and therefore to whom should we apply by prayer, but to him? They said daily unto me, Where is thy God?—a reproach which was intended to discourage his hope in God. His comfort is that God is his rock (v. 9)—a rock to build upon, a rock to take shelter in. (v. 11): Why art thou cast down, O my soul? But here, at length, his faith came off a conqueror and forced the enemies to quit the field. It may be of great use to us to think our good thoughts over again.
FOLLOW GOD’S LIGHT AND TRUTH Psalm 43:1-5 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man. For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.	REVIEW The psalm, it is likely, was penned upon the same occasion with the former, an having no title, may be looked upon as an appendix to it; the malady presently returning, he had immediate recourse to the same remedy, because he had entered it in his book. In this psalm. I. David appeals to God concerning the injuries that were done him by his enemies, ver. 1, 2 II. He prays to God to restore to him the free enjoyment of public ordinances again, and promises to make a good improvement of them. v.3, 4. III. He endeavors to still the tumult of his own spirit with a lively hope and confidence in God v. 5.