Psalm 42
Part 2 of 2
Verses 5-11
5     Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and 6 my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7     Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
8     By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life.
9     I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?”
10     My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
11     Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
II. Stay Trusting in God
·         Verse five poses a rhetorical question.
o   Why, o soul, are you so down?  Trust in God and praise Him!  He hasn’t changed and he will bring you up out of this pit!
o   Notice the Psalmist doesn’t minimize the pain.  He says (verse 6), “because my soul is so down, I will REMEMBER the Lord!
·         Verses 7 through 11, then, are the thrust of these verses: keep trusting!
o   The situation changes from a drought (in the first 4 verses) to a storm!
o   He is overwhelmed.
o   He even calls out (v. 9) “Why have you forgotten me?  Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy”.  This was the same cry our Lord made at calvary when He cried out, “My God, my God why have you forsaken (or forgotten me).
o   Then, verse 11, this beautiful bookend and the challenge to use today as we face storms and drought: Why be so down.  Put your hope in God.  Praise Him because He is your Savior and your God.