At Night
His Song Is With Me
As a
deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul
thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of
God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me
continually, “Where is your God?”
These
things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led
them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of
thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. 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.
My
soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the
I say
to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully
because the enemy oppresses me?” As with a deadly wound in my body, my
adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually, “Where is your God?”
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.
Psalm 42:1-11
We
all suffer a dark night of the soul, at some point in our lives. We want to
know who we are, and what God has planned for us, but it seems that God is
quiet. Remember, in His time, not our time. We will all get to a place and time
when our views and beliefs about God are challenged. David experienced his own
dark night of the soul, which is why he may have written Psalm 42. Harried and
hounded, probably by his rebellious son Absalom, David echoed the pain and fear
that can be felt in the isolation of night. It is the place where darkness
grips us and forces us to consider the anguish of our heart and ask hard
questions of God. The psalmist lamented God’s seeming absence, yet in it all he
found a night song that gave him peace and confidence for the difficulties
ahead.
When we struggle in the night, we can be confident that
God is at work in the darkness.
When it is dark enough, men see the stars.
Our Daily Bread –