Psalms 42
Questions answered from Psalms 42
Chuck Smith on Psalms 42
Verse by verse, taught on Sunday nights: the C2000 series, 1979 to 1985, and the C3000 series, 1985 to 1999. Permission granted by The Word For Today.
Sunday Nights, 1979 to 1985 (C2000)
Chapter introduction
So we enter now into Psalm 42 into the second book of the psalms.
Verse 1
And as a hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God (42:1).
Jesus said, "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6). Here the psalmist is expressing his desire for God, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so pants my soul after thee, O God." Jesus cried out, "If any man thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink. And he who drinks of the water that I give out of his innermost being, there shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:37-38).
There is within every man a thirst for God. Down deep inside of every man there is that thirsting after a meaningful relationship with God. Now this thirst is like being hungry sometimes and not knowing exactly what you are hungry for. Your body chemistry is trying to tell you that it is needing some particular chemical. Maybe it is in enchiladas, or maybe it is in ravioli, but you are hungry for something and you can't quite pinpoint what you are hungry for. And so as a result, you are eating everything, trying to find out, "What am I hungry for?" And nothing seems to satisfy; nothing seems to fit my particular hunger. Sometimes the hunger is a little indistinguishable. Even as the thirst often is indistinguishable, in that I know that I am lacking, I know that I need something more, I know that life must have something more than what I have yet experienced. There must be more to life than this. In reality, way down deep inside my spirit is thirsting after God and a meaningful relationship with God.
Now it is amazing the many things by which people seek to satisfy this thirst. Look at the world around you in which we live and you see people trying to satisfy this spiritual thirst by all kinds of experiences; physical experiences, emotional experiences. And so often, as they are pursuing after one of their immediate goals, their idea is if I can just attain, if I can just achieve, it is going to satisfy. And oh, they become evangelists for this particular little deal that they are in right now, cause, "Oh, this is it. This is going to satisfy. This is going to bring to me all that I am looking for in life." And they are running down the trail. But when they get to the end of the trail, they find that it is empty, just like everything else. And so they are looking for another path to follow. They are running here; they are running there. They've got a thirst. They are trying to satisfy that thirst, but they don't know where. They don't know how.
Jesus, when He talked to the woman of Samaria there at the well, He said to her, "If you drink of this water you are going to thirst again" (John 4:13). Now you should inscribe that verse over every earthly ambition that you have, over every worldly pursuit. Go ahead, drink of it, but you are going to thirst again. You are not going to find the real satisfaction that your heart is yearning for, until you find God, and a meaningful relationship with God. Now it is a wise man and it is a blessed man who is able to define the thirst and know that it is a thirst for God and comes then into a meaningful relationship with God. God is the one that planted the thirst there. And only God can satisfy that thirst. And so the psalmist identifying, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so my soul panteth after Thee, O God."
Verses 2–5
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 [that is, my enemies] continually say unto me, Where is your God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them into the house of God, with a voice of joy and praise, with the multitude that kept holyday. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? why art thou disquieted in me? (42:2-5)
Now here the psalmist is talking to himself. And sometimes talking to yourself can be a very healthy thing. There is a form of talking to yourself that is not healthy. But here the psalmist is saying, "Hey, soul, why are you cast down? Why are you disquieted in me? Why am I depressed? Why am I discouraged? Why do I feel so miserable?" Now a lot of people just get depressed and they just think, "Well, I am just depressed today." And they go on in their depression, rather than talking to themselves and talking yourself out of it. You can actually talk yourself out of depression, out of discouragement, out of defeat. So many times we are talking ourselves into it. "Oh, nobody has ever had it as bad as I have it. This is the worst that ever happened to anybody in the whole world. No one's ever faced anything like this." And we just, you know, languish in our own sorrows. But the psalmist said, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me?" And then he gave his soul some advice.
Verse 5
hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance (42:5).
Now, he is saying, "All right, now don't get discouraged. Hope in God. God's on the throne." And that is when we get discouraged, when we forget that fact. You must not forget that God is ruling. God is on the throne. When I forget that and I look at the world, I think, "It's no use."
When our little girl was in first grade, just learning to write, we came home one day and there was a note that said, "There is no use. I've run away." And sometimes we feel that way. It's no use; we want to run. It is because we have forgotten that God is on the throne. God is ruling over all. Oh, I will be the first to admit that things are beyond man's control. I mean, the ship is sinking fast. It is out of man's hands, but God still reigns, God still rules. He is still on the throne, and that is my only hope today. And thus, when I start looking at the whole world scene, when I start reading what is going on and I start getting all disquieted and upset, I have to say, "Hey, what is the matter soul? Why are you so disquieted?" "Well, you fool, can't you read the papers? Don't you know what's happening?" Yea, but hope thou in God, for He is yet going to deliver. God is yet going to work. God is in control. I am glad about that, I'll tell ya!
Verse 6
O my God (42:6),
And here is an honest confession.
my soul is cast down within me (42:6):
It is important that you be honest with God. You are never going to deceive Him. You are never going to fool Him. And if you are upset, confess it. Be honest with God. "Oh God, my soul is disquieted within me." There are some people who say, "How is everything going?" "Oh great, just great, great, great." You know. But in reality they are just covering, because things are going horribly and they are really upset. They are at their wits' end. They don't know what to do. And yet, they put up a good front. And we sometimes carry this over with God. But it is best to be honest with God. "God, I am so upset. My soul is disquieted. It is cast down."
Verses 6–8
therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and from the Hermonites, and from the small hills. 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 (42:6-8).
And so, though it seems like I am being overwhelmed, the billows of grief and sorrow, and trouble are just overflowing me, yet the Lord will command His loving-kindness in the daytime and in the night His song shall be with me.
There are many references in the scripture to songs in the night. Couple of years ago I was back in Pennsylvania speaking in some special services back there, and I got hold of some bad tuna that they served for dinner and I got food poisoning. And after the service that night when I came back to my room, I was sick! Oh, I was sick. I couldn't sleep. My stomach was just churning, burning, crazy food poisoning. And as I lay there in misery, a beautiful chorus, worship chorus came to me. I never heard it before, just inspiration, just a song of worship and praise to the Lord. And I started to sing it, and I sang it over and over and over again. A song in the night, of worship, of praise, of thanksgiving to the Lord. And I thought, "Oh, that is a beautiful chorus. I better get up and write it down. I can maybe slip downstairs and pick out the tune on the piano and write it down, because I don't want to forget this. I want to teach this to everybody. Oh, such a neat chorus to worship the Lord, you know." And I thought, "Well, if I were plunking on the piano at this hour of the morning and I should awaken my host, they will think that I was crazy or something. Maybe I better not go downstairs." But, really, I was too sick to get out of bed and just turn on the light and write the thing down. So I just kept singing it over and over. And I thought, "Oh, no, I will never forget this. This is just beautiful." And I finally sang myself to sleep. In the morning when I awakened, I was healed; the Lord had touched me. I was feeling fine, except that I couldn't remember the chorus. It's sort of like the lost chord, you know. I've searched. Done my best to try and remember it. And I said, "Oh Lord, please help me to remember it." And He said, "No, that was just the song for the night. My song to get you through that rough night."
"In the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life."
Verses 9–10
I will say unto God my rock, Why have you forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones, my enemies reproach me; while they daily say unto me, Where is your God? (42:9-10)
That's one of the things that people quite often cast at the Christian when something goes wrong. "Where was your God when that tragedy happened? Where was your God?" As though God is supposed to deliver us from every problem in our lives. God doesn't promise to deliver you from every problem. In fact, there is a promise that you don't really like that says, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous" (Psalm 34:19). I hate that promise. I don't like afflictions. And in afflictions people are always saying, "Well, where was your God then? Where is your God when children are starving to death in Cambodia? Where is your God when earthquakes happen in Algeria? Where is your God when Mount St. Helens blows its top? Where is your God?" It does get discouraging sometimes when we don't have answers.
Verse 11
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? why are thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God (42:11).
Hey, I am going to come through. One of these days I will be praising God even for this trial that I am presently enduring. I will yet praise Him.
Sunday Nights, 1985 to 1999 (C3000)
Chapter introduction
Psalm forty-two begins the second book of the Psalms.
Verses 1–2
As we sang this evening these beautiful words of David,
As the hart [deer] 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? (42:1-2).
On the last day the great day of the feast, John seven thirty-seven, Jesus stood and cried saying, “If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink”. The Feast of the Tabernacles was held in the seventh month of the Jewish calendar which is equivalent to the tenth month of our calendar. The Feast of the Tabernacles was a commemorative feast, as they all were. It commemorated the forty years of wilderness wandering by their fathers, being miraculously preserved by God.
There are the Bible critics today that try to discount the forty years of the wandering of the children of Israel in the wilderness the numbers that are declared in the Bible. According to the Bible, the total number would be approximately a million and a half people. They try to discredit that because it would be an impossibility for a million and a half people to survive in the wilderness for forty years. That’s right. It would take a miracle for them to survive. That’s right, but if you don’t believe in God you have a real problem; if you believe in God you have no problem. So the Bible tells us how God fed them with manna which was on the ground each morning and how God brought them water out of the rock when they were thirsty. It was God who preserved them, it was a miracle, a miracle of God’s preservation. Thus the Feast of Tabernacles was to commemorate that miracle in their history; God preserving them for the forty years of wandering in the wilderness.
It is also called the Feast of Succoth or Booths because this is the feast where the Jews built their little booths beside their houses. They move out of their houses and they live in these little thatched booths for a weeks period during the feast to remind them how their fathers slept under the stars and slept in the open in the wilderness, slept in these temporary tents or little lean-to shacks that they would build.
There in Jerusalem on the temple mount, hundreds of thousands of Jews would gather for these feasts. The priests each day of the eight day feast would make a procession down the many steps from the temple mount to the Pool of Siloam, which is in the Kidron Valley down Mount Ophel from the temple mount area. They would come up the steps with these large water jugs on their shoulders that were filled with water from the Pool of Siloam.
As they would come through the gates and into the temple mount area, the big pavement steps of the temple mount, they would take these jugs of water and poor them out on these great steps or on these great stones. As the water would splash the people would sing the Psalms and they would remember how God gave them water out of the rock to their fathers so that they did not perish in the wilderness. A very moving experience and a memorable experience. The whole idea was to remind them of God’s miracles in the preserving of their fathers.
Now in the last day, the eighth day of the feast, there was no procession to the pool nor pouring out of water which was to acknowledge the fact that God had kept his promise. The forty years of wandering in the wilderness was over. They are now dwelling in the land God has promised to Abraham and to his descendents forever. Thus dwelling in the land that was well watered filled with milk and honey, they no longer needed the miraculous supply of water out of the rock. Thus on that eighth day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and he cried to the multitude of people that were there worshiping, “If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink”. Jesus was not talking about the physical or emotional thirst but the spiritual thirst of man for God.
Man is a threefold being of body, soul and spirit. The body of man has certain needs, our biological drives. The second strongest is the thirst drive. A very powerful drive because your body needs moisture to exist. Without the moisture, your body dehydrates. We know what it is to be extremely thirsty from a physical standpoint as our body is dehydrating but Jesus wasn’t talking about physical thirst.
We have certain emotional needs. We need security, we need love, we need to be needed, we need to be noticed, Jesus wasn’t talking about those sociological thirsts. Down deep in the spirit of every man there is a need for a meaningful relationship with God. David was talking about that here, “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God: As my soul panteth after thee O God”. David was expressing a universal thirst that is in every man, that thirst for a meaningful relationship with God.
We try to supplement it, we try to substitute and we try to fill that thirst with many things but they don’t satisfy. When Jesus met the woman of Samariah who had been around the block a few times, who knew her way around men and he was talking to her about water he said, “Give me a drink” she said, “Why do you ask me for a drink when you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan? We are not suppose to be talking to each other”. Jesus said, “Woman, if you knew who it was who asked you for a drink and if you knew the gift of God you would have asked him for a drink”. She said “Now way, that well is deep and you don’t have anything to draw water with”. He said, “Yes, but if you drink of this water you will thirst again”. Write that over the top of your ambitions, over your goals of life; “drink of the water but you will thirst again”.
There are people that are trying to satisfy that deep thirst for God with physical things. It just doesn’t work, you come up still thirsty. “Drink of that water, but it’s not going to satisfy, you’ll thirst again but he who drinks of the water I give it will be like an Artisan well” water just springing up within. She said, “I’ll take some so I don’t have to come out here every day and draw water from this well”. Jesus said, “First, go call your husband” and she said, “ I don’t have any”. He said, “Well I guess that’s true. You had five and the man that you are presently living with he just moved in and didn’t marry”. She said, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers say that we are to worship God in the mountain and you say Jerusalem. Where can I find God?”
That was the real thirst. She was cute, she had a cute exterior, she was sharp, she was smart, she was clever. As I say, she’d been around, she knew how to handle herself. She had put men on for a long time, five husbands and now just living with a guy, she knew what it’s about, how to manipulate and handle men. Suddenly she found one that could see right through her. She realized, this guy is being fooled by my little exterior. This guy could see right through me. In fact she went into town and said, “Come and meet a man who told me everything I’ve ever done”. She realized that she wasn’t hiding from him. He could see right down deep inside and so she just spilled what was inside and what was under all this façade and all this clever cuteness out here when deep down inside there was this thirst for God and she said, “Where can I find God? Our fathers say on this mountain, you say in Jerusalem. Where can I find God?” Jesus said, “Woman, the day is coming and now is. God is a spirit. They that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth and neither in this mountain or in Jerusalem. God is a spirit, they that worship him worship him in spirit and in truth”.
David is expressing that same thirst that is in every man; a thirst for a meaningful relationship with God. You may hide it behind a mask, behind a “I’ve got it made, I can handle myself macho kind of a thing” but way down deep there is a yearning for God. “My soul thirsteth after the O God, as the deer pants” Beautiful words of David, how expressive of that experience that we’ve all had in our quest and in our thirst after God.
Verse 3
My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? (42:3).
That’s a familiar taunt that is tossed by those who are upset because of your trust in the Lord. They know that your trusting in the Lord and when something goes wrong they love to taunt you saying, “Where is your God now?” So with David, as things were going wrong, the enemies were taunting him saying, “Where is your God now?” and David says< “My tears have been my meat day and night, while they are saying continually to me, Where is now your God” (42:3).
Verse 4
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 dept holyday (42:4).
David was in one of those calamities again and things were going tough and he could remember those glorious days. Those days when he went into the house to worship God with the multitude of people, the joy, the gladness that they were experiencing as they saw the power of God in their midst. Now David is going through some real turmoil and the enemies are pounding him saying, “Where is your God?” Inside, he found himself thirsting after God like a deer panting after the water brook. He had lost that consciousness of God. Sin always has that disastrous affect of causing you to lose that consciousness from God, feeling distant from God. So David spoke to himself.
Verse 5
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 (42:5).
There are scriptures where it declares that David encouraged himself in the Lord. This is one of those places where David was encouraging himself in the Lord and he did it by talking to himself, putting things in perspective. He said to himself why are you cast down? What’s your problem? Why are you disquieted. Why are you so upset man? He then gave his own solution. Put your hope in God for he will help, you will yet praise him for the help of his countenance. Put your hope in God, he’s going to help you.
The way some people act you would think that God was dead. They’re cast down, they’re upset, they’re disquieted and everytime you see them there is turmoil, there’s anxiety, there’s strife, they’ve lost perspective; hope thou in God.
Verses 6–7
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 (42:6-7).
From the depths of my being I am calling out to you. This depth from my innermost calls out for God.
Verse 7
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me (42:7).
I am drowning in the experience. I am going down.
Verse 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 (42:8).
How glorious it is when in the midst of our misery and sorrow and problems that in the night season, when things usually get more bleak, God sends a song within our hearts, a song of deliverance. It’s glorious. Daytime there always seems to be hope, the light daylight and so forth but night when you’re going through misery it seems so dark and oppressive.
Verses 9–10
I will say unto God my rock, Whey hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of enemy? As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? (42:9-10).
This taunt, David was facing it all the time and it bothered him. It made him feel discouraged and defeated. Why are you cast down o my soul? Why are you disquieted within me? Then commanding “hope thou in God for I shall yet praise him who is the help of my countenance an my God”. I know that God shall deliver me.
Well, we didn’t get to Psalms 43 but that’s where we’ll take up next Sunday night as we continue our study through the word of God.
When Jesus said, “If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink” recognizing that thirst, deep within the spirit of every man is a thirst for God, he was actually presenting the gospel in probably one of its simplest forms. You’re thirsting after God, Jesus said, “Come to me and drink”. He can quench your thirst for God because he is God. You need to make him the Lord of your life and as he becomes the Lord of your life, the thirst is not just quenched but Jesus said, “Out of their innermost beings there will begin to flow rivers of living water”.
This Thursday night when we study the Holy Spirit we will point out the difference between the in-filling of the Holy Spirit when you are saved and the out-flowing of the Holy Spirit when you are baptized with the spirit. There is a definite difference between the in-filling and the out-flowing. We’ll be looking at that this Thursday night. But the Lord wants the out-flowing. Yes the in-filling, that’s necessary, that’s a prerequisite to the out-flowing. You can’t give what you don’t got, like measles. You can’t give them unless you’ve got them. So with that power of God’s spirit, you cannot have it flowing forth from your life unless it has flowed into your life. The Lord is interested with more than just filling you with his spirit, he’s interested that you be overflowing with the spirit. We’ll be looking at that and how to be overflowing with the spirit on Thursday evening.
May you experience the over-flow. May it be like a river of living water flowing forth from your life that others this week, where you work, where you go to school, others within your own household might be touched, affected, by that over-flowing of God’s love and spirit from your life, may it have that beautiful influence. Where ever you go may you carry that influence of God’s love, over-flowing, touching, engulfing those around you as his spirit over-flows. May you know the joy and the blessing of being the instrument through which God pours forth his love to the needy world around you.