Psalm 42 & 43 -- Remembering What It's Like To Pant

Starting chapter 42, my mind immediately goes to the song taken from these words.  That song lovingly speaks of how refreshed a believer feels in the presence of God.  Yet the psalm itself is anything but that.  It’s a cry of desperation, wanting to hear from God, yet unable to do so.

Those around him derisively ask, “Where is Your God?”  His heart is broken, remembering what it used to be like to praise God.  “I am very sad … troubles have come again and again … I say to God, ‘Why have You forgotten me?’ … My enemies’ insults make me feel as if my bones were broken…”

Unable to connect to God, he still has faith, though.  Questioning his own sadness, he knows what he should be doing:  “I should put my hop in God and keep praising Him, my Savior and my God … So I remember You … the Lord shows His true love every day (at least by the very fact that we’re kept alive).  At night I have a son, and I pray to  my living God.”  (Unable to connect with God while awake, he seems to know that he can in sleep.) 

Again, asking himself why he should be so upset, he remembers:  “I should put my hope in God and keep praising Him, my Savior and my God. (Even when we don’t feel the connection, God still deserves the praise.)

We all face a desperation of soul when we feel unable to connect with Him.  Our souls know worship and long for it instinctively.  God wants our worship, but at times He must feel it necessary to deny us that connection in order to shake us up and show us what sin does in our lives.  For we can easily let familiarity creep in and devalue our relationship.  We can presume on God and on His mercies, and we forget what it cost God to be able to offer it to us.

God wants to bring us back to the place of worshiping Him far more than we want to get there.  He’s pulling on this thing from the other direction, but He also needs us to see what impedes our travel back to Him.

Father, help me not to crave sin so much that You find it necessary to cut me off from Your throne room to get Your point across.  Help me to live connected to You deeply every day.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford