Psalm 42

“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 42:5,11; NRSV)

The Psalmist in Psalm 42 is in deep distress. “My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, ‘Where is your God?’(v. 3) He remembers better times and voices his despair over circumstances that are overwhelming him. Yet even as he questions the presence of God, he expresses the hope that God will help and that he will someday be able to praise Him again. Sometimes everything is going backwards for us, or we have suffered a great loss or a deep wound. God seems far away or is absent. In times like this we can call to mind the trust of the Psalmist that even though they did not feel the presence of God, they trusted that God was still present and had not forgotten them. We, too, can pray:

 “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.”  Amen.

– Father Larry Parrish, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Falls City