Psalm 42-42: Christ Our Hope Amid Despair

Christmas is “the most wonderful time of year!” At least until it is not. Christmas is not always about celebration, joy, and peace. At times despair overwhelms people during such times of the year.

One such story of despair surrounds one of the classic Christmas carols – “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” [1] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow sensed despair for a number of reasons during the Christmas of 1863.

Fannie dies from fire. Less than two years earlier, Henry’s wife, Fannie, had tragically died after her dress caught on fire. Her husband, Henry, awakened from a nap, tried to extinguish the flames as best he could, first with a rug and then his own body, but she had already suffered severe burns. She died the next morning (July 10, 1861), and Henry Longfellow’s own burns were severe enough that he was unable even to attend his own wife’s funeral. He stopped shaving on account of the burns, growing a beard that would become associated with his image. At times he feared that he would be sent to an asylum on account of his grief. [He expressed his grief in the sonnet "The Cross of Snow" (1879) which he wrote 18 years later to commemorate her death: Such is the cross I wear upon my breast These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes and seasons, changeless since the day she died.]

Charles severely injured in war. In December of 1863, Charles after having, unbeknown to his family, joined Lincoln’s Union army to fight in the Civil War, was severely wounded in battle. Longfellow received a telegram informing him of his son’s injuries, inaccurately stating that he had been shot in the face—four days earlier. Longfellow and his son, Ernest, immediately set out for Washington D.C. to care for Charles.

Longfellow pens the poem. Nearly a month later, on December 25, 1863, Longfellow — a 57-year-old widowed father of six children, wrote a poem seeking to capture the dynamic and dissonance in his own heart and the world he observes around him that Christmas Day. He heard the Christmas bells ringing in Cambridge and the singing of “peace on earth”, but he observed the world of injustice and violence that seemed to mock the truthfulness of this optimistic outlook.

I heard the bells on Christmas day Their old familiar carols play, And wild and sweet the words repeat Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head: "There is no peace on earth," I said, "For hate is strong, and mocks the song Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: "God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, With peace on earth, good will to men."

Similar despair resonates from the heart of the psalmist in Psalm 42-43. In three refrains, the psalmists cries out, “why are you in despair, O my soul” (Psalm 42:5, 11, 43:5). In each refrain (with just a little variance in the last phrase[2]) he writes, “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” (Psalm 42:5).

Unusual for the psalms, Psalms 42 and 43 form a literary unit and “should be treated as one psalm.”[3] As well, unlike the previous book of psalms which is in large part authored by David, the authors for the second book of psalms vary significantly. The Sons of Korah authored chapters 42-47. The authors life situation remains unknown and controversial, but “it is evident that the psalmist was isolated from worship at the temple. He may have been a refugee, but it is more likely that he had been exiled to Aram, Assyria, or Babylon and was in the hands of taunting captors.”[4]

The Psalmist State of Despair

BDB describes the Hebrew word as “sink down . . . prob. depression . . . melt away.”[5] In Psalm 44, the psalmist uses the same word as he writes, “for our soul is bowed down to the dust” (Psa 44:25). Similarly, in the NT, Matthew “employs περίλυπος when Jesus prayed in agony in Gethsemane: ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.’” [6] [Potentially the examples of Job and Moses could be helpful.][7]

Having been deported to lands far from Jerusalem, the psalmist could not worship according to the prescribed custom and manner of the Jewish people. We do not know the specific setting of the psalmist’s despair, and it does not really matter. We do know that he was taken from a point of spiritual bliss and exhilaration to a lowly place of despair. He writes in verse four, “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” (Psa 42:4). He unfolds his present despair as he writes in the first three verses.

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” (Psa 42:1–3).

How would you characterize the state of your soul today? Do you find yourself on a mountaintop experience spiritually, or do you find yourself in a spiritual valley? As you look at the experiences that surround you, do they overwhelm you? Do you struggle grabbing hold of them and dealing with them in hope?

Of the many psalms that I could have chosen to consider this morning, this psalmist’s predicament seemed to resonate due to one similarity. He could not come to the place of worship. We have plenty of reasons to sense despair this year, but an inability to come and worship resonates with us all to some level. In fact, I stand behind a pulpit preaching to an empty auditorium this morning. Our formal worship has been acutely impacted this year. I know many of our church family grieve their inability to come in person to worship. Others come with uncertainty, and all of us sense the discomfort of 2020.

Like the psalmist, many in our church family grieve and cry out, “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.”

The Psalmist’s Reason for Despair

REASON 1. He feels God has abandoned him

Another psalmist writes in Psalm 44:23,” Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!” (Psalm 44:23). The psalmist in 42 and 43 wrestles with similar emotions. He begins by revealing how his soul pants for God. “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psa 42:1–2). A dissatisfaction settles in his soul. He longs to worship, and his inability is driving him to despair.

His enemies go unpunished. This psalmist feels further abandonment in that God does not seem to come to his rescue amid his enemies and evil people. The psalmist writes, “Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!” (Psa 43:1). We must remember that while judgment will come to enemies of God it may not come soon or even in our lifetime or their lifetime. Judgment may only come following death.

REASON 2. His enemies taunt him

The psalmist writes, “My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, ‘Where is your God?’” (Psa 42:3). And again he writes, “As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, ‘Where is your God?’” (Psa 42:10, Cf. in reverse fashion 1 Kings 18 [8]).

REASON 3. His intimate relationship with God appears to be gone

The psalmist writes, “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” (Psalm 42:4).

We do not know the specific reason why the psalmist is no longer involved in the temple worship. As mentioned before, likely the psalmist lived in captivity. However, others speculate that during the reforms of Nehemiah, this psalmist was dismissed from duty. And even others speculate that the psalmist duties had just come to an end due to the cyclical rotation of workers in the temple. We do not know. We as well do not know if the absence was to be a permanent one. We do know, however, that at present he was away from the temple, its worship, and the spiritual retreat it offered.

Have you ever had one of those spiritual highs, one of those mountaintop experiences? You may have had a wonderful experience in your devotional life, a great bible study, a great conference? At some point that mountaintop experience ended and shortly after you may have started to feel disconnected. You felt close to God during the experience, but the feeling quickly faded.

REASON 4. His state seems hopeless.

In a moment of creative transparency, the psalmist unfolds a sense of hopelessness. He writes, “Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me” (Psa 42:7).

I know next to nothing about white water rafting. However, a whitewater rafting glossary defines two interesting terms. (1) Hydraulic. “This is a general term for reversals and other places where there is a hydraulic gap. Sometimes used to refer to the whole phenomenon of big water, whom massive waves, violent currents, and large holes are the obstacles, rather than rocks.[9] (2) A similarly dangerous and treacherous situation is the “reversal.” A reversal is a “place where the current swings upward and revolves back on itself, forming a treacherous meeting of currents.”

In the same way that these type of water dangers often circulate someone around, circumstances in life can act the same way. We are often pushed down, and right when we feel like we might get a break, life pushes us down again. After getting tossed around for a while in life, we often feel like there is no way out and we find ourselves giving up or despairing.

The Psalmist Remedy for Despair

While despair rarely, if ever, has a quick fix. The psalmist does address how he deals with his despair. Three times, after having unfolded the reasons for his despair, the psalmist asks the pertinent question and then offers the appropriate response. He writes, “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence . . . The help of my countenance and my God.” (1) First, the psalmist makes a conscious effort to address his despair and draw appropriate conclusions. Instead of wallowing in his despair, he asks the simple question, “why are you in despair . . . why have you become disturbed?” (2) Secondly, he remembers God’s good work. He looks back. Twice within this psalm he acknowledges glorious past moments. “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” (Psa 42:4). And again, just two verses later he writes, “My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar” (Psa 42:6). (3) Finally, he places his hope in God. He looks forward. After having asked the questions of his despair, his faith provided the appropriate response. “Hope in God, for God is our salvation.”

Hope, in essence, is waiting for God to act (cf. 38:15; 39:7). Hope is focused on the glorious acts of salvation and victory . . . Hope longs for the “praise” of God for the acts of salvation. Hope says, “You are my God,” in anticipation of the fulfillment of the promises, even when help is far off.[10]

Christ offers hope amid despair.

“Hardship is almost as common as breathing. The question is not if but when we will find ourselves in one of the painful pits of life.”[11] We will sense despair. We will, and likely often have, felt the same emotions of the psalmists. We felt distant from God. We have been ridiculed for our trust in God. We have felt distant from God and longed to be back in his presence. We have felt the absence of hope.

The psalmist senses that God had abandoned him. He feels like his relationship with God is gone with no hope of returning. His state is hopeless. And amid his despair, his enemies taunt and ridicule him.

When we feel distant from God, we remember the importance of “Immanuel which means God with us” (Matt 1:23) and that “the word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), and that God humbled himself and “for a little while was made lower than the angels” (Heb 2:9) so that we “who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Eph 2:13).

When our enemies taunt and ridicule us, we remember “everyone who believes in [Christ] will not be put to shame” (Rom 10:11, cf. Phil 1:20) and that every man” will give a personal account to God” (Rom 14:12) and that Christ will “judge the living and the dead” (1 Tim 4:1).

When we feel like God has left us, we remember that Christ has promised that he “will never leave us or forsake us” (Heb 13:5) and that Jesus promised all his disciples that he would provide another Helper that will abide with us forever (John 14:15-18).

When we feel all hope is gone, we remember that God “caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet 1:3). We remember to “set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 1:13). Peter goes on to write a few verses later, “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God”. (1 Pet 1:20–21).

[1] Justin Taylor, “The True Story of Pain and Hope Behind ‘I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,’” (The Gospel Coalition, December 21, 2014). Accessed December 22, 2020. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/the-story-of-pain-and-hope-behind-i-heard-the-bells-on-christmas-day/

I cut and pasted this history from the article and then deleted quite a bit of it and inserted the sonnet “Cross of Snow.”

[2] 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 (Psalm 42:5).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. (Psalm 42:11).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. (Psalm 43:5).

[3] Willem VanGemeren, Psalms, ed. David E Garland and Tremper Longman III, Revised Edition, vol. 5, The Expositors Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008), 380. “Even though the MT and LXX keep them separate, there are internal arguments for their unity: (1) the absence of a superscription above Psalm 43; (2) the repetition of a refrain (42:5, 11; 43:5); (3) development of thought from remembrance (42:4, 6) to a specific hope of restoration (43:3); and (4) the lament form.”

[4] VanGemeren, 5:380.

[5] Francis Brown, Samuel Rolles Driver, and Charles Augustus Briggs, Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977), 1001.

[6] Willem VanGemeren, ed., New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), 98.

[7] Two examples of despair. (1) God allowed Satan to bring Job from a position of great prominence and comfort to a state of despair. Job writes in his first chapter (1:13-22) of how Sabeans attacked his oxen and donkeys and took them. The fire of God fell and burned up the sheep and the servants. Chaldeans raided and took the camels and killed the servants. His sons and daughters were killed by a wind striking the four corners of the house. (2) In Exodus, Moses unfolds the story of literally coming from a mountain top experience with God to descend to a state of despair as he saw the people of Israel worshipping a golden calf. He sees the people dancing and worshipping golden calf. He breaks the stones holding the ten commandments, and after melting the golden calf, puts it into water and forces people to drink it. The tribe of Levi kills at least 3000 men that day.

[8] Elijah and Prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18). Elijah is left alone with 450 prophets of Baal. Each group takes an oxen and places it on wood with no fire. The prophets of Baal called on their god. Elijah mocked them. Elijah covered the wood and the oxen and filled a trench around the altar with 4 pitchers of water (3 times). Elijah called out to God and God sent fire that consumed the offering, wood, stones, dust and water.

[9] Pinnacle Travel Attractions. “Whitewater Rafting Glossary.” Accessed December 24, 2020. https://www.pinnacle-travel.org/whitewater-rafting-glossary/

[10] VanGemeren, Psalms, 5:384.

[11] Erik Raymond. “God Has Not Abandoned You.” Blog (Desiring God, June 21, 2018). Accessed December 24, 2020. https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/god-has-not-abandoned-you