The Heart's Cry: Psalm 43

Psalm 43

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my help and my God.

Yesterday I wrote about the second half of this stanza that is repeated twice in Psalm 42 and shows up again here at the end of Psalm 43, which leads me to believe that the two were once one, but is quite beside the point of the moment. Today I would like to point out the importance of the whole.

In these two Psalms the author writes from a place of being in the midst of the storm. They are far from where they want to be: physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally. They point out various things that are arrayed against them: distance, feeling forgotten by God, betrayal by people once close. But then they keep coming back to the above stanza, asking why their soul is cast down, and instead of answering that particular question the answer they give is about the need to hope, remember, and reflect. If only we could do the same in times such as those.

Our, or at least my, usual response to the darkness is to focus on the darkness. In the midst of regret I focus on the failing. In the midst of sorrow I focus on the loss. In the midst of being lost I focus on how I got there. Keeping the focus on the negative, on how I got myself in the current mess, or how others got me in the current mess, or how even God may have gotten me in the current mess is not the way out of the current mess. The way out is to shift the focus from what caused it to how I can get out of it. How can I change my attitude? How can I change my action? How can I change my vision? How can I once again rely on God? The author while commenting on how they got in the mess quickly moves to how they can get out, and there way is our way, hope, remember, and reflect.

+ When you are in the middle of a mess how can you begin to hope in God and in yourself again?

+ When you are in the middle of a mess how can you best remember what God has already brought you through?

+ When you are in the middle of a mess how can you best reflect on who God is?