Perspective: Reflecting on the Psalms (Part 1)

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Reflecting on the Psalms
(Part 1)

My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?

Psalm 42:2 (NRSV)

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Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?

Psalm 139:7 (NRSV)

I will swim in the deep
'Cause You'll be next to me
You're in the eye of the storm
And the calm of the sea
You're never out of reach

God, You know where I've been
You were there with me then
You were faithful before
You'll be faithful again
I'm holding Your hand

From "Let the Waters Rise" by MIKESCHAIR

As you may or may not know, I am one of the two leaders of my Sunday school class.  I say that I am a leader of the class as opposed to a teacher because our meetings are discussion-driven.  Though my job is primarily to facilitate class discussions, sometimes I cannot suppress my urge to teach.  I suppose such instances cannot be avoided, since my two primary spiritual gifts are knowledge and teaching.

The last time I led the class, we discussed an article about whether 2023 was a good year or a bad year.  Our curriculum for the week included passages from the Psalms, and, as I prepared for class, I found myself wanting to discuss the Psalms in general.  The Psalms are essentially the ancient Hebrew hymnal and prayer book.  They are an important part of not only Jewish liturgy but also Christian liturgy.  In fact, the Psalms are sometimes included in Christian hymnals, like the one published by my denomination, and in Christian prayer books, like the Anglican Communion's Book of Common Prayer.

I recommended the praying of the Psalms to my Sunday school class, because they cover a wide range of emotions and experiences.

Psalm 42

One of the psalms my class discussed that Sunday is the forty-second psalm, which is described as "a Maskil of the Korahites."¹  The word maskil is thought to mean "wise saying,"² so evidently there is something instructional about this psalm.  The Korahites, who served in the temple, were descendants of Moses' cousin Korah.  Eleven of the Psalms are attributed to them.³

In the forty-second psalm, the psalmist expresses a longing for God.  He begins,

As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
the face of God?⁴

The psalmist compares his longing for God to the thirst of an animal.  To experience thirst is to experience dehydration, a deficiency of water within the body.  A person who experiences a longing for God experiences a perceived absence of God.

The psalmist continues,

My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me continually,
"Where is your God?"⁵

It seems to me that the psalmist is struggling with depression.  Evidently he feels as though people are mocking him.  As someone who goes through bouts of depression, I know that depression can distort one's perceptions of reality.  It can even make people feel as though God has abandoned them.

In this psalm there is a repeated refrain.  The psalmist says to himself,

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.⁶

One commentator describes this repeated refrain, as "an inner monologue... by which the psalmist reminds himself to keep waiting for God's salvation."⁷  The psalmist might be depressed, and he might feel as though God is far away, but he is not giving up on God.


Psalm 139

Interestingly, on the same Sunday my class discussed a psalm about a perceived absence of God, the Psalm prescribed by the Revised Common Lectionary was the one hundred thirty-ninth psalm, which all about God's closeness.  Like many of the Psalms, this one is attributed to David,⁸ a shepherd, poet, musician, and military leader who became the most famous king of Israel.

David begins his prayer,

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
O LORD, you know it completely.⁹

God knows everything there is to know about a person - everything a person has ever done, everything a person has ever said, and everything a person has ever thought.  Nothing about us is hidden from God.

David goes on to pray,

Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol [the grave], you are there...
If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night,"
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.¹⁰

We cannot hide anything from God, and we cannot hide from God.  There is nowhere a person can go, in this world or beyond this world, to escape God's presence.  Wherever a person goes, God will already be there.

David then prays,

For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.¹¹

It only makes sense that God would know each of us so completely, since God is our Creator.  God created each of us meticulously and intentionally.  Each of us is, in the words of Christine Yi Suh, "made uniquely and perfectly to reflect the image of God."¹²

With knowledge of God comes humility.  David prays,

How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them - they are more than the sand;
I come to the end - I am still with you.¹³

God fully understands each of us; however, none of us will ever fully comprehend God.  It is important to remember that God is God and that we are not.

David expresses his utter disdain for evildoers¹⁴ and then prays that God would purge him of evil.  He closes his prayer,

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.¹⁵

I think there is a beautiful irony in the closing of this psalm.  David hates evil so much that he wants God to purge him of it, but, for him, to be purged of evil will mean trading his wishes that evildoers are destroyed for prayers for their redemption.  As God says through one ancient prophet, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live."¹⁶


These two psalms highlight what I wanted to teach my Sunday school class, that the Psalms cover a wide range of emotions and experiences.  The forty-second psalm acknowledges that there will be times in our lives when, for some reason, we feel that God is far away, and it encourages us to trust in God despite how we feel.  The one hundred thirty-ninth psalm reminds us that there will be times when we realize how close God truly is - one might say, inescapably close.  The life of faith has both mountaintops and valleys, and the Psalms help us to pray in both.


Notes:

1. From the superscription to Psalm 42 (NRSV)
2. Wikipedia: "Psalms"
3. Wikipedia: "Korahites"
4. Psalm 42:1-2 (NRSV)
5. Psalm 42:3 (NRSV)
6. Psalm 42:5-6a, 11 (NRSV)
7. Joel B. Green, William H. Willimon, et al.  The Wesley Study Bible (NRSV).  2009, Abingdon Press.  p. 683
8. From the superscription to Psalm 139
9. Psalm 139:1-4 (NRSV)
10. Psalm 139:7-8, 11-12 (NRSV)
11. Psalm 139:13-14 (NRSV)
12. Christine Yi Suh.  Forty Days on Being a Four.  2021, IVP.  p. 64
13. Psalm 139:17-18 (NRSV)
14. Psalm 139:19-22
15. Psalm 139:23-24 (NRSV)
16. Ezekiel 33:11 (NRSV)

The photograph of the open Bible was taken by Lynn Greyling, and it has been released to the public domain.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.