Taken from the book, Psalms: The Pilgrims Ascent, by A. B. Saint
Sustained by Hope
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him,
who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”
Psalm 42: 11
A member of my family had just returned home from their usual weekly swim and handed me a back-dated copy of a Christian newspaper, in fact there was a small bundle of them which they informed me had been given them by another member of the swimming pool that same day. Lying on the top of the pile was a front page article relating to a young woman, who after years of struggling with depression had at last found her healing in Jesus.
Curious, I began to read the whole of the article and found that this awful condition had been part of her life since the young age of 16. It seemed she did not come from a Christian background and so never grew up going to Church therefore never learning about the Lord. It was only after a friend of hers who had nearly died after being set upon and beaten up very badly, that she made the decision that it was time to seek the Lord for herself and she offered up her very first prayer which happened to be on his behalf.
Amazingly her friend recovered, which set her on a journey to find out more about the Christian Faith. Being a Jewish lady, she looked firstly into the Jewish faith, and this led on or progressed to her also studying manuscripts to do with Islam, but in the end the Jesus she was seeking was only found in the Christian Bible.
A little while later whilst going through a particularly bad bout of depression she was prompted in her heart to take things a little further and she began to attend Church and so it unfolded that someone came alongside her and befriended her and pointed the way of Salvation to her. Today she is now happy and rejoicing in Jesus and no longer lives the miserable life she used to. She no longer suffers from depression and in fact her heart’s desire now is to be a missionary and tell others about her Saviour and Lord.
Our God can meet us in many different places and at many different stages in our life. It is amazing that it was her hopelessness and her depression which brought her to this turning point in her life in the which she began to seriously seek after Christ along with the Hope of Salvation which He brings. Her picture posted alongside the article showed a lovely, bright, and happy individual. Praise God this is what Jesus can do with a life turned over to Him. He surely is a wonderful Saviour, Healer, and Deliverer.
On that cold and crisp yet sunny wintery morning this particular article remained with me, and Psalm 42 and its connecting 43rd Psalm which I had been reading and re-reading only a day or two before, gravitated back to mind and I began to look at them again through the lens of faith. As I did so, David the sweet Psalmist of Israel came into the viewfinder.
However, I must add at this point that the Psalm reverberating around David does not sit well with all men and there are those who point out that this Psalm was written for everyone and in this they are surely correct. Whatever our point of view, it is likely that those of us who have read the Psalms before us today at some point or chapter in our own life will more than likely have identified with their sentiments. It is obvious that the writer has found himself in the ‘slough of despond’ which place if you remember first originated in one of John Bunyan’s creative writings which he named ‘The Pilgrims Progress.’ It is a fictional place as we know, but a place which spiritually also alludes to the burden of sin and such burdens accompanying the Christian on his way to Heaven, that if it were not for the help of Christ Himself none would ever surface but would forever sink into the eager arms of this boggy mire.
Our Psalmist finds himself as it were in a place of exile, far from the House of God and the worship of God which he truly loved. What, I wonder, had brought him to this point? There are differences of opinion of course as it seems these days there always are, but perhaps it could tally with the time of the rebellion of David’s son Absalom? The Psalm does not tell us and carries no such revelation with it, for if indeed it is written for all men then really there is absolutely no need for us to know.
If we were to look at David’s life as we would a musical composition or a work of art, we would find both light and dark tones at work here. Like us all, history records some episodes in his life that were written in the major key with its bright and cheerful sounds, but at other times written in the minor key with those haunting, melancholic tones. Some experiences in life are pleasant and some are unpleasant as well we know.
It seems it was given to the sons of Korah to arrange it and set it to music and to help in the singing of it in the Sanctuary along with the people of God. I often read it as a kind of musical score where little rills and joyous notes of hope and trust in God accompany those many sustained notes of sadness and concern over what is happening in his life mixed with a deep longing for what was before and what is yet to be. To me, these verses are filled with assorted pen strokes using wonderfully descriptive words.
Due to his circumstances, it would seem a sombre depression had set in, and he had become perplexed and even baffled. As I continue reading on I also sense that he writes as a man who is moving in and out of sleep, tossing and turning upon his bed when he recalls the darkness he is in and yet comforted and happy indeed when he recalls past times of close communion with his Maker. Whether in or out of sleep at that moment he is in despair. He has set sail on life’s ocean voyage where one day there is turbulence and the next day calm. Around him it seems he has none to encourage him yet plenty of people who are actively seeking to discourage him; therefore, David makes the decision that it is high time for him to encourage himself in the Lord, and in these Psalms we see him going about this. He must take a firmer grip of the situation before he sinks even lower. It seems he had the same mindset at that time as did George Muller that great man of faith who said: “There is never a time when we may not hope in God! Whatever the necessities, however great our difficulties, and though to all appearances help is impossible, yet our business is to ‘hope in God’ and it will be found that it is not in vain.”
Have not we all been in the place the Psalmist found himself in at some time or other, where a million and one things can disturb our peace of mind and we perhaps lose the joy of our salvation and thus a spiritual depression quickly sets in? Listen to any doctor and they will tell you that sometimes depression is known to run in families and sometimes has to do with our temperament type and so on.
Spiritual depression, of which we are speaking today, can oftentimes be the result of the consciousness of sin within the life, or perhaps the need for assurance of sins forgiven. Often bodily afflictions can quickly wear us down as can fear or anxiety over our present circumstances. The pressures of life or the weariness of the way can often bring us to this point and so I suppose can a good dose of persecution. What of those times when sorrow has ripped through our very souls and in its wake brought about the death of a friend or loved one? All of these with the accompanying distress of sometimes not feeling the Presence of the Lord in the life can greatly add to the burden.
It is strange but yet it is also true that these ‘low feelings’ can follow a ‘high’ or even descend upon us when it seems there is no reason for them at all, but I have found in my own life as I am certain so will some of you, that these occasions serve an increasingly useful purpose for they cause us to hunger and thirst and seek after the Lord and His Presence perhaps like never before. I think we can certainly see this in the life of the Psalmist as he likens himself to the hart or the deer which needing its thirst to be slaked longs for that cool drink of life giving water in order to sustain it. Our writer feels so ‘out of sorts’ as he longs for that fellowship which he has previously enjoyed with the Lord. He speaks of his tears being his meat; I wonder by this is he referring to the fact that in his depression he has totally lost interest in food?
Friends, nothing satisfies like Jesus, even on the good days when the sun is shining bright around us, and it seems everything we put our hand to prospers. However, how much more the joy He brings and how much sweeter the fellowship with Him when the dark days pass and we become reunited again with Him? It is obvious to us that the man in the Psalm is a man who, as possible as it is in this life to know God, knew Him. For him God was a very personal God. David was no pretender; no whited sepulchre, no hypocrite is before us here. Like all men and women of God, he knew that the God with whom he had dialogue on a daily basis was the Living God and was certain even then in this unhappy stage in his life, was interested in every aspect of his life. He saw the Almighty as being the God of his past, the God of his present and also the God of his future. Praise God David too knew the power of Prayer and the necessity for Praise within his life.
Sometimes there hangs upon a church wall a plaque with the words ‘PRAYER AND PRAISE BRINGS THE VICTORY’ upon it. How true. It has been said that these two things should be the very paddles of the Christian life for indeed prayer and praise go together for a reason. Men write of these things and share of these truths mostly because they have proved them for themselves.
For those of us who have traveled with the Lord for some considerable time, during which times in life we have experienced both the invigorating and refreshing seasons upon the mountain peaks of life, as well as experiencing the sometimes lonely and dry seasons found in the valleys below, should have learned the necessity or the requirement of using these two valuable tools labelled in the Christian Workshop as ‘Prayer’ and ‘Praise.’ This is what David did when the waves of life crashed over him and when he was in deep distress.
In difficult times we too have to remember to run to God and not to run from Him. I once read a quote from Matthew Henry, whose writings I have loved for a long time, and it so blessed me that I took particular note of it and wrote it down. Here it is: “The way to forget our miseries is to remember the God of mercies.”
Dear Ones, even though at times we may not feel Him or hear Him, and things may seem to be going on forever, He is there; He is always there and working on our behalf. David’s hope was in God. Both at the end of Psalms 42 and 43 the sentiment of the text is the same, which is to hope in God. Hope is a very beautiful thing, for if a man is bereft of this how sad a man he is.
Hope thou in God though day and night be long,
Hope thou in God although you’ve lost your song,
Hope thou in God and pray and praise alway,
Hope thou in God until the Break of Day!
Remember: When you cannot rejoice in feelings, circumstances, or conditions, rejoice in the Lord!
R. B. Simpson
Taken from the book, Psalms: The Pilgrims Ascent, by A. B. Saint
LIFE ON THE ALTAR 