Week 7 Psalm 42+43
If somebody said I could only have 149 psalms I think my solution would be to combine 42 & 43. Presto! 149 psalms (but with the contents of all 150). It’s really not even that big a cheat. If the bible didn’t have a white-space and say “Psalm 43” then 42 & 43 would fit back-to-back seamlessly. Hand-in-glove.
A couple of days ago when I was reading 42 the idea of Hope really jumped-out as the big idea. Korah was distressed by his Absentee Lord. But in spite of that he instinctively sensed that he had to keep hoping – he couldn’t roll-over into despair. It was pretty impressive. But reading 42 & 43 together I see he was figuring out other things too:
1. He recalled his past (good) experiences of faith
2. He prayed a Question Prayer: why have you forsaken me? (a kind of what’s-happening reflection)
3. He asked the Lord for help Right-Now against his opponents
4. Unexpectedly he also decided to praise the Lord (he couldn’t afford to let current circumstances be the prime determiners)
5. He wanted to get back home: send your light and your truth; let them guide me to the place where you live
6. Surprisingly he seemed pretty confident of better days ahead.
The list is in the order I found them. But thinking about them in order of Ease-of-Doing I think #2 & #3 would come first for me. Then #5.
#1 #4 & #6 have a higher-degree of difficulty. Which isn’t a big surprise since I don’t figure Korah was featuring only simple solutions.
Note: quotes from Psalm 42:9 43:3 (NLT) (“Korah” = “the descendants of Korah”)