UNIFYING LINE - What pulls Psalm 42 and 43 together as a single unit is the refrain that closes each of the three strophes: 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 (42:5, 42:11, 43:5).

ON REMEMBERING - Notice the prominence that the memory plays in this psalm-I remember (42:4); therefore I remember you (42:5); and its opposite, forget-why have you forgotten me? (42:9). Unable to visit the Temple, all the psalmist can do is to remember. Such remembering becomes the catalyst to move the suppliant back to confident trust in God on one hand, but also despair; happy memories exacerbate the present sad state of exile.

POWERFUL HOPE - For Christians who live in a world that constantly raises the question, ‘Where is your God?’ these psalms are indispensable liturgy and Scripture. They disclose the real nature of our souls’ disquiet as thirst for God. They turn us toward the worship of praise, sacraments, and preaching in and through which our Lord wills to be present for the congregation. [1]

One way to recover a bit of the rhetorical impact of Psalms 42 and 43 might be to recall similarities of experience and emotion from your own life: What do you find best quenches you r thirst? When have you been homesick? What would correspondence from that time reveal about your inner most yearnings and fears? What causes God to seem far away at times? Of the adjectives and titles which this person ascribed to God, which ones best describe your relationship with God? [2]

This psalm has the ring of truth to it because it is so authentic and vulnerable in the sharing of emotion and inner feeling and conversation. One current concern that could relate well to the psalms is depression. Such is a wide spread phenomenon and one that people rarely talk about. This psalm honestly names a depressive state of the prayer-why are you cast down, O my soul . . .

Do some work to get the basic idea of depression down and then re-enter the text to forge a view that holds fairly what the medical profession is doing to help persons who struggle with depression with what our faith says to the human condition.

You might also parallel-track Psalm 42 and 43 with the story about Elijah for this week. The prophet seems to be in his own quagmire of depression.

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[1] James L. Mays as cited in New Interpreter’s Bible IV (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), page 854.
[2] Serendipity Bible (Zondervan, 1998), pp. 779-780.