Psalms of the Season–Psalms 42/43
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Psalm 42:11 and 43:5
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
The traditional psalms for the second Sunday in Lent are companion Psalms 42 & 43 written by The Sons of Korah. The opening lines of Psalm 42, describing a deer panting for water, are probably the most familiar words of these psalms for most. But exploring or explaining the deer and it’s desire is just the very basic beginnings of what requires a much fuller and deeper commitment of the reader. To fully grasp the profound nature of these dark– and to be completely honest, depressing–psalms. These Psalms take more than just exploring and explaining, they take thorough exegesis.
What is exegesis? When pastors prepare sermons, we do thorough text studies and practice what is called exegesis–mining the original words for God’s truths–first for ourselves, and then to share with the people that God has entrusted to us. In this original language study, we look at text and context, grammar and syntax.
In addition to this we draw insights from commentaries, and discuss the readings with other pastors and lay people. All of this helps a pastor be ready to share from a text not just about a text when he stands up before his people.
After practicing these exegetical habits, I also explore both classical and modern works of art, music, and meditation in preparation to preach or teach from a portion of God’s Word.
This week, rather than providing my own devotional thoughts on the psalm, I am going to let you experience what I call “visual exegesis” and let the following sights, sounds, and stories based on Psalm 42/43 draw you into their depths. It is my prayer that from this visual exegesis the Holy Spirit would both convict and comfort you with the words he inspired The Sons of Korah to compose for your edification.
If you have limited time or interest be sure to skip ahead to the last video which is a unique combination of sight, song, and story. Please leave your comments and questions below. I would love to hear you thoughts.
Sight
Chris explains his artwork:
The “dark night of the soul” is a valley through which most Christians have walked or will soon walk. It is that bleak experience where the presence of God seems withdrawn, our soul’s joy in the Lord is diminished, the intimacy and weighty reality of the eternal unseen has evaporated from our affections and we are left, like David, saying, “when shall I come and appear before God?” I love these verses in Psalm 42 because it shows how the Lord sovereignly ordains even these dark nights for His glory and our joy.
Chris Powers
(Psalm 42:5-6)
“Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and waves have gone over me.”
(Psalm 42:7)
Chris explains his artwork:
In this
image the darkness and waves all but engulf the floundering sufferer framed at the bottom of the scene. Both the man’s size and position are intended to evoke the sense of abandonment and desperation we hear from the Psalmist in 42:7. However, standing over all the darkness and chaos of the storm is a single point of not-quite-eclipsed light. This light—which is in the sufferer’s direct line of sight—alludes to the hope that the Psalmist clings to even in his separation from the Lord’s presence (42:8-11). Though it is night, YHWH still gives his covenant-people a song, a prayer to their God that ends with the hopeful refrain, “I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.”Of course, we have this hope in the midst of our suffering only because Christ has gone before us. We know that God will not forsake us, even in our darkest night, because Jesus bore our final
Chris Powersgod-forsakenness on the cross. The cruciform posture of the sufferer points to the fact that Jesus is ultimately the one who bears the waves and breakers of God’s wrath, and the light of hope is in the form of an opened tomb because Christ’s hope on the cross—and our hope in Him—was that, after being submerged in the waters of death, He would be raised by the glory of the Father (Rom.6:4).
Jesus’ death is more than death, it is damnation…and damnation IS hopelessness. The damnation he bore–the hopelessness he bore–in his death was that of his people, of his Bride–of you and me… There is no depth, no horror, no suffering, no exile, no darkness, no terror, no malevolence, no shame, no loss, no sorrow, no weakness, no indignity that our Lord has not endured in himself as he died as the enemy of God in our place.
And then–beyond all conceivable hope–he rose again…..and he didn’t rise with a whimper, or as a bedraggled sufferer who barely survived…He rose again as the Beloved of the Father, as the Captain of the Church, as the Groom of the Bride, as the Son of God in Power, as the Lamb who was
slain, and yet lives forevermore. And with that resurrection, he secured HOPE for his people. Christ has irreparably bent the arc of our lives so that, with everydescent there WILL be an ascent, with every evening there WILL be a morning, with every deaththeir WILL be a resurrection.And I cannot close without saying this….what Jesus did on the cross SAVES us from our sins and SECURES invincible hope for us….but more fundamentally than either of those things, what He did on the cross SHOWS us our God. God is like this….the substitutionary, hell-absorbing death of Christ shows us the heart and glory of God toward His people (John 12:27-28, 17:1-5,26).
Chris Powers
Song
From Brian Eichelberger of Mars Hill Church’s Sing Team:
On Sundays, we often come to church thinking we have something to offer to God as we’re serving or leading, but really, God wants us to be needy and thirsty for him. “Satisfied in You” is inspired by Psalm 42 and a sermon I heard by John Piper that hits on this theme. I was at a point in my life where I was taking a break from leading worship and God was revealing many of the idols I was finding my identity in. These idols were good things in my life, but I had turned them into gods, which couldn’t satisfy.
The song begins by following closely to Psalm 42 singing, “As the deer pants for water so my soul thirsts for you.” The second verse then dives more into my personal response to the Psalm. A lot of times my tendency is to go into a depression looking into myself which only spirals me further down. The song is meant to preach to myself and call me to remember the times when I experienced the glory and goodness of God which can help bounce me out of that vicious cycle. It’s meant to get my eyes off of me and be satisfied in God alone.
Brian Eichelberger of Sing Team
Story
See the Face of God in the Gospel of Christ
A likely translation of the end of verse 2 is: “When will I come and see the face of God.” The final answer to that question was given in John 14:9 and 2 Corinthians 4:4.
Jesus said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). And Paul said that when we are converted to Christ we see “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
When we see the face of Christ, we see the face of God. And we see the glory of his face when we hear the story of the gospel of his death and resurrection. It is “the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.”
May the Lord increase your hunger and your thirst to see the face of God. And may he grant your desire through the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
John Piper
Mark Parsons
Originally from Montrose, Colorado, Mark served the family of believers at Christ the King Lutheran in Port Charlotte, FL from 2009-2013 and since January of 2014 has been serving as Pastor of School, Youth and Family Ministry at Faith Lutheran in Fond du Lac, WI. He and his wife Molly have three children, Jonas, Annabella, and Emmalyn. He enjoys dance parties with his children, working out in his basement with his wife, and running around Fond du Lac training for Tough Mudder or a marathon. Pastor Parsons and his family are faithful Denver Broncos fans in a sea of green and gold. In addition to his roles and responsibilities at Faith, Pastor Parsons is the chief content curator for Bread for Beggars and the director of Fuel Student Ministry.
One Comment
Greta Watkins
Here are some more comments I have about the dance piece at the end of the Psalms 42/43 devotion. At first I thought, “Are the dancers ever going to stop rolling around on the ground” and then as the Psalm went on, that I realized that is exactly what the dance portrays–being in the pit (of depression, despair, etc.). So, I think that works. (Personally, I like to see levels of dance that include choreography floor-level). I really like how different dancers are incorporated throughout this piece. The Psalm and dance definitely move together into the joy and hope we have in Christ. I personally like what the dancers are wearing, but I’m thinking they should have a little more coverage due to how reluctant some Christians are to accept dance as an art form expressing faith. But this is pretty typical of what many people wear in worship dance. On the other hand, if dancers wear turtlenecks and skirts down to their ankles, that could be seen by the younger generation as really not relatable. I think there is a happy medium somewhere.
Do you want me to see what our 18- and 21-year-old- daughters (dancers) think about this piece? That would give you some feedback from younger folks. They may say, “Oh this looks like the typical angsty contemporary dance we are so tired of seeing.” But I think the choreography reflects well what the Psalm is communicating. A really cool thing I saw once in class when I was training with Refuge Dance Company in Atlanta was a piece where the dance was “performed” (hate that word but for lack of a better one right now) to a spoken Psalm. I’m trying to remember which one, but it had a similar tone to Psalm 42.
I hope this helps. If I think of anything else, I’ll let you know. Feel free to ask if I can give you additional feedback.