When It Is Not Well | Psalm 42

Psalm 42 begins with a soul that is not just a little thirsty, not just a little parched, but desperate. The deer panting for flowing streams is not a quiet Disney scene. The deer is out of breath, needing relief, needing life, and the psalmist says his soul is like that before the living God. The sons of Korah give words to exile, loss, and the feeling that home, worship, and safety have all been pulled out from under their feet.

The psalmist feels forgotten, even though God has not forgotten him. The psalmist says out loud what many hearts feel but are scared to say: “Why have you forgotten me?” Psalm 42 does not dress up pain with pretty Christian language. The text lets tears become food day and night, and it lets the enemy ask the cruel question, “Where is your God?”

The enemy mocks the suffering soul by suggesting that faith has failed. The enemy says, in effect, “How is that working out for him now?” Psalm 42 answers that darkness is not the time to doubt what God has revealed in the light. The psalmist reminds himself that even the breakers and waves belong to God. The waters may be deep, and life may feel like a little Fisher Price boat in the Bering Sea, but God is still sovereign over the wind and the waves.

The psalmist responds to dark clouds in five ways. The psalmist goes to God first, instead of running to numbness, distraction, fixing, withdrawing, spending, drinking, scrolling, or chasing an experience. The psalmist speaks truth, remembering that by day the Lord commands his steadfast love and at night his song is with him. The psalmist remembers worship, because his happy place is not escape but the house of God, the gathered praise of God’s people.

The psalmist also gets honest. God is not too fragile for the truth of a trembling heart. The Creator already knows the fear, doubt, and loneliness that sit inside the soul, and he invites his people to bring those things before him.

The psalmist finally preaches to himself. The soul is downcast, so the psalmist does not merely listen to it. The psalmist talks back: “Hope in God, for I shall again praise him.” Jesus stands as the source of that hope, because thirsty people are invited to come to him and drink, and because the cross is the clearest evidence that God has not forgotten his people.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Go to God before fixing The desperate soul always runs somewhere when life goes sideways. Psalm 42 shows a better reflex than numbing, hiding, scrolling, or trying to repair everything first. God invites the thirsty soul to come before him, not after every other strategy has failed, but as the first and truest place of refuge. [44:31]
• 2. Speak truth in the darkness The enemy loves to ask, “Where is your God?” when pain makes God feel absent. Psalm 42 teaches the soul to answer lies with what God has already revealed in the light. The waves may be real, but they are still God’s waves, and his steadfast love is still commanded by day. [49:18]
• 3. Remember worship when isolated The suffering heart often wants distance from people, songs, handshakes, and gathered praise. Psalm 42 remembers the house of God as a place of glad shouts and songs, not because pain disappears there, but because worship reorients the soul toward what is still true. The people of God become a mercy when the dark clouds make isolation feel easier. [53:15]
• 4. Get honest before God The psalmist does not pretend, sugarcoat, or hide behind polished religious language. God already knows the emotions that never make it out loud, and he is big enough to handle honest prayer. Reverence does not require pretending, because prayer brings the real soul before the real God. [55:24]
• 5. Preach to the downcast soul Psalm 42 does not let the soul have the only microphone. The psalmist talks back to himself and commands hope in God when feelings are loud and unstable. The gospel gives the believer something objective to preach: Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ is with his people, and Christ is coming again.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [25:50] - Psalm 42 Reading
• [29:45] - Best Day Of My Life
• [31:50] - When People Give Up
• [35:02] - Fighting Well In Dark Clouds
• [36:18] - Desperate, Forgotten, Rejected
• [44:01] - Five Responses To Darkness
• [44:31] - Go To God First
• [47:56] - Speak What Is True
• [53:15] - Remember Worship
• [55:24] - Get Honest With God
• [58:25] - Preach To Yourself
• [64:35] - Hope In Jesus
• [67:27] - Closing Prayer

Bible Reading

Psalm 42
“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, ‘Where is your God?’ These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. I say to God, my rock: ‘Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?’ As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, ‘Where is your God?’ Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” [25:50]

John 7:37
“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.’” [01:05:14]

Romans 8:32
“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” [01:06:48]

2 Corinthians 10:5
“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” [01:00:42]

Observation questions

1. In Psalm 42, what words or images show that the writer is not mildly discouraged but deeply overwhelmed and desperate?
2. What repeated question do the enemies ask in Psalm 42, and what effect does that seem to have on the psalmist? [47:56]
3. In verses 4 and 5 of Psalm 42, what two things does the psalmist do with his inner pain—what does he remember, and what does he say to his own soul? [53:15]
4. What five responses to dark clouds are laid out in Psalm 42: going to God, speaking truth, remembering worship, getting honest, and preaching to the soul? [44:01]

Interpretation questions

1. Psalm 42 says, “all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.” What does it mean that the waves are still described as God’s waves, and how might that shape the way suffering is understood? [50:19]
2. The psalmist asks, “Why have you forgotten me?” even while calling God “my rock.” What does that tension show about real faith in painful seasons? [55:24]
3. The psalmist remembers going to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise. Why might worship with God’s people be especially important when someone feels isolated or spiritually dry? [54:00]
4. The psalmist does not only listen to his soul; he speaks to it: “Hope in God.” How is that different from pretending everything is fine, and how does 2 Corinthians 10:5 help explain that kind of inner fight? [58:25]

Application questions

1. When life goes sideways, the heart always runs somewhere first. Where does it tend to run right now—to fixing, scrolling, spending, withdrawing, numbing, talking to others first, or going to God? What would it look like to turn Godward sooner this week? [44:31]
2. The enemy’s question, “Where is your God?” still shows up in many forms. What lies or accusations tend to get loud in hard seasons, and what specific truths from Psalm 42 need to answer them? [49:18]
3. “By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me.” Which part of that truth is hardest to believe personally right now: that God is sovereign, that he loves his people, or that he is near in the night? Why? [52:15]
4. Isolation often feels easier when the soul is downcast. What usually makes gathering with God’s people hard in painful seasons, and what kinds of support from the church have been genuinely helpful? [53:15]
5. God is not too fragile for the truth of a trembling heart. What honest prayer has been hard to say out loud before God, and what keeps that prayer bottled up? [57:10]
6. “Hope in God” is something the soul may need to hear again and again. What sentence from the gospel would be worth preaching to the heart this week when fear, shame, or discouragement rises up? [01:06:16]
7. Jesus says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” Where is spiritual thirst showing up most clearly right now, and what would actually look like coming to Jesus instead of just trying to survive the week? [01:05:14]