.svg)
In Psalm 42, the writer expresses feelings familiar to many of us: sadness, profound despondency, emptiness, isolation, depression.
My tears have been my food day and night… (v3)
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? (v5)
These are feelings that are experienced by most people. There are many causes, sometimes linked to circumstances, often exacerbated by temperament (what used to be called melancholy). Recently understanding has grown about chemistry in the brain, and we also know more about neural pathways created by habits of thinking. New trends in the past 20 years: internet and social media use, and family breakdown, have surely made this worse.
If you are one of those fortunate people who never feel low and perhaps are tempted to judge those who do, the bible speaks a lot of it. It’s here, described by the anonymous Psalmist. Job felt it, as did Jonah, after the Ninevites repented. Even Jesus in Gethsemane said “my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death”. The agony that is part of being human, when the soul is “downcast”, is a universal experience.
The problem is, we often don’t diagnose our need properly, and then take the wrong medicine. Just as if someone is suffering from chronic dehydration. They feel terrible. Internal organs start to be seriously damaged. “I feel I need …a paracetamol. A holiday would be nice. Steak and chips! A sip of whiskey maybe!” These are false satisfiers. Actually this person needs water.
In verse 2 the Psalmist says “My soul thirsts for God.” This is not how he feels. He feels downcast and in psychological distress, and actually God seems distant. But like a dehydrated person recognising what is happening, he realises the problem is a warning sign that he needs spiritual water. Here in the psalm is the godly person not pretending to be happy, but saying “I feel downcast, and whatever the reason, and whether I’m going to immediately feel better or not, my soul needs to be refreshed by the living God.”
This writer was expressing his feelings and his faith hundreds of years before God revealed and made satisfaction for our needs clearer in Jesus, who said “whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). And in the temple, amid the crowds of the festival, he stood up and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink” (John 7:37).
Because of the death of Christ for our sin, we can enter into the Lord’s presence and drink of the living water. Why is my soul so downcast within me? There may be many reasons, and the feelings are real. What’s happening underneath it all is that my soul thirsts for the living God, and in Jesus it can be satisfied, in the quietness of our hearts. However we are feeling today, whether we are discouraged, or positive, or neutral, we have this wonderful privilege and gift. We can come to him and drink. Let’s all commit to do it more!
Bishop Andy Lines
Anglican Network in Europe (ANiE)
