Psalm 43 - Downcast?

Read: Psalm 43 vs 1-5

There are seasons in life when the days go by quickly, months slip round and before we know it we’re saying ‘We’re into May’ or ‘It’ll not be long until we’re away on holidays.’ Those are the kind of times when life is relatively uneventful, uneventful in a good kind of way. Psalm 42 (which we read yesterday) and Psalm 43 (our reading for today) may originally have been one Psalm. In these two Psalms an unwelcome word makes its way into the Psalmist’s vocabulary. It is the word ‘downcast’ (42:5,6,11, 43:5). Interesting this word first enters the Bible story very early on in Genesis 4:5. In a world without sin, in a good world, there would be reason to be downcast. As it is we live in a world where there are times, moments in life, when this is how we feel (Lamentations 3:20). Again as in all the Psalms, Psalm 43, takes this experience and directs it back to God. ‘Rescue me’ (vs 1), the Psalmist cries, looking to God as a much needed stronghold (vs 2). 

In the book of Job, when Job suffered we read ‘Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.’ (Job 1:22). Faith trusts, faith believes in God’s goodness. It is the lie of the devil that says God is bad (Genesis 3:4-5). However Psalm 43, is one of many Psalms, that remind us it is often a sign of true faith to not be afraid to ask questions of God:

‘Why have you rejected me?

Why must I go about mourning oppressed by the enemy?’

The more we read and the more we live we begin to realise more and more that God does not just want our trust, He wants our hearts, He wants to know us, and He wants us to know Him. The Psalmist knows enough to know that ‘light’ and ‘faithful care’ will come from the LORD. True joy and delight are found in Him (vs 4). Praise will come (vs 5). But today, to be honest, the person writing these words feel downcast, and the questions that life is throwing at them are disturbing them, and that’s ok.

Prayer: LORD I put my hope in you … I will yet praise you, my Saviour and my God.