Week 7 Psalm 43
I read psalm 42 yesterday; 43 today. Both of them use the same line: why am I so discouraged? Why so sad? I will put my hope in God!
The writers spell out why they’re down – they feel sad oppressed betrayed heart-broken discouraged mocked by non-friends and out-of-touch with the Lord. But when push comes to shove each one says: I will put my hope in God!
These seem like unresolved psalms to me. If they came full-circle they’d start with I-was-sad and end up at now-I’m-happy. Instead they start I-was-sad and end at but-I-trust-the-Lord. An unexpected resolution.
A different way to solve the where-is-the-Lord-when-you-need-him question is to just dump the Lord entirely. The logic there is like this…if I’m thinking that I have a powerful caring attentive advocate but he isn’t really helping me or looking out for me then either a) he can’t help or else b) he won’t. So…what good is he? Dump him! That would be one solution. A kind of solution by subtraction. Remove the Lord to solve my problem.
The two psalm-writers don’t take that route. Subtraction isn’t the solution. They’re facing the more perplexing problem of keeping the Lord in the mix.
I don’t get the sense they’ve solved that problem by the end of their psalms. But they’re hanging on to the Lord, not being too quick to pull the trigger.
Note: quotes from Psalm 42:5, 11, 43:5 (NLT)