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Be Worshipful Psalms 42 and 43

The psalms are intensely personal, containing over fifty personal pronouns; and the writer fluctuated between faith and despair as he wrestled with the Lord. He questions the Lord eleven times as he wonders why God doesn’t do something for him. We see him passing through three stages before he comes to victory and peace.

The Bible Knowledge Commentary A. Longing For the Living God (42:1–5)

In the first stanza, the psalmist wrote that he longed for the living God as he was taunted by his enemies, but was confident that he would yet praise Him.

Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 19: Psalms 1–50 (Revised Edition) The Compilation of the Psalter

(iii) Psalms of the Sons of Korah. There may have been two such collections: Pss 42–49 (with the exception of Ps 43) and Pss 84–88 (with the exception of Ps 86). The Korahites were Levites, descended through Kohath (1 Chr 6:22), who were involved in the music of the temple.

Other psalms are identified as belonging to collections, not on the basis of association with a particular person or group, but on the basis of common type or subject matter, for example:

Psalms: A Bible Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition Chapter 41: “Put Your Hope in God” (Psalms 42:1–43:5)

The psalmist’s unfulfilled longing to worship in God’s house suggests he was a Temple singer prevented for some unknown reason from returning to Jerusalem. Oppressed by those around him who saw his exile as evidence that Yahweh was powerless, this son of Korah prayed to return.

Psalm 42:1 GW

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.

His prayer begins with a powerful word picture.

Which he compares his desire to be in God’s house to a deer

The animal’s need for water to sustain its life forms a fitting simile for a soul’s need of the living God

Something has blocked his flow.

The animal’s need for water to sustain its life forms a fitting simile for a soul’s need of the living God

My soul Pants for God

Ross, A. P. (1985). Psalms. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 825). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

Psalm 42:2 ESV

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

The Psalmist sings of his drought:a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water.

His Need of Refreshment

Something has blocked his flow.

He had no Sweet water

Psalm 42:3 ESV

My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”

Deferred Hope

Disappointments

Daunting Criticize

He had to much bitter water

Ps

Psalm 42:4 ESV

These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

His attempt through reminiscence

Debilitating Memories

Psalm 42:5 ESV

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

Ps

Ps 42

Psalm 42:6 ESV

and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

Psalm 42:7 ESV

Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.

Detailed Agglomeration

agglomeration: the action or process of collecting in a mass 2: a heap or cluster of usually disparate elements 〈urban agglomerations knit together by the new railways—Times Lit. Supp.〉—ag•glom•er•a•tive \-ˈglä-mə-ˌrā-tiv\ adjective

Deeply Self Absorbed

■ verb

1 soak up (liquid or another substance).

2 take in (information).

3 assimilate (a lesser entity) into a larger one.

4 use up (time or resources).

5 reduce the effect or intensity of (sound or an impact).

6 [usually as adjective absorbed or absorbing] engross the attention of.

Soanes, C., & Stevenson, A. (Eds.). (2004). Concise Oxford English dictionary (11th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary Absorb

absorb /əbˈzɔːb, -ˈsɔːb/

■ verb

1 soak up (liquid or another substance).

2 take in (information).

3 assimilate (a lesser entity) into a larger one.

4 use up (time or resources).

5 reduce the effect or intensity of (sound or an impact).

6 [usually as adjective absorbed or absorbing] engross the attention of.

Psalm 42:8 ESV

By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

Psalm 42:9 ESV

I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

Psalm 42:10 The Message

They’re out for the kill, these tormentors with their obscenities, Taunting day after day, “Where is this God of yours?”

Ps 42:1

Psalm 42:11 ESV

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

Shift from your thoughts to His Word

2 Corinthians 10:4 ESV

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

2 Cor 12:

2 Corinthians 10:5 KJV 1900

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Shift from being Self Centered to Being Kingdom Focused

Matthew 6:33 ESV

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Shift from the Former Things to the Future Things

Philippians 3:13 ESV

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

Isaiah 43:19 ESV

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.