This week it's Psalm 42 (New International Version)
1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while men say to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"
4 These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go with the multitude,
leading the procession to the house of God,
with shouts of joy and thanksgiving
among the festive throng.
5 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and 6 my God.
My [c] soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.
8 By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock,
"Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?"
10 My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"
11 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
Now in English...what is the author saying...
Verses 1 - 2: The *hart, or male deer, is *thirsty. It is in a desert place where there is no water. It cries while it looks for water. The *psalmist says that he is *like the *hart. The *psalmist is the person that wrote the psalm. His enemy has taken him through a desert where he saw the *thirsty animal. The *psalmist is *thirsty too. But he is not *thirsty for water, but for God. His body is not *thirsty, but his *soul inside him is *thirsty. He is a hostage so that he cannot go to the *temple and see God. In the psalm, "not seeing God" means "not *worshipping God". He did not really see God, he only saw the place where he believed that God lived.
Verses 3 - 4: His enemies laugh at him and ask, "Where is your God?" They are saying, "God is not with you now". The *psalmist remembers how he *worshipped God in the *temple. There were crowds of people there. They all *worshipped God with singing and dancing. It was *like a great party or festival. But now he thought that his enemies were right: he had left God in Jerusalem.
Verse 5: The *psalmist tells his *soul that although he is sad and *restless he will still hope in God. Our *soul is that part of us that makes us feel happy or sad. It will still live when our bodies die. Jesus repeated some of these words the week before he died. They are at the top of the psalm. They are not quite the same because Jesus repeated words from the Greek Old Testament, not the Hebrew Old Testament. People made this about 200 years before Jesus came to the earth. Many Jews lived in Egypt where they spoke Greek, not Hebrew. So they translated their Bible (our Old Testament) into Greek. This is the Bible that most of the New Testament quotations are in. A quotation is when someone repeats words from another book. The words are not always the same in the Greek and Hebrew Bibles. Both sets of words are true!
Verses 6 - 7: In verses 1 - 5 the *psalmist was in dry country, what we call a desert. Now, in verses 6-11, we are in a different country. There is a river and mountains. Where are we? 200 kilometres north of Jerusalem is a group of mountains called the Hermons. Maybe they called one of the hills Mizar, we are not sure. But we do know that the River Jordan started in the Hermons. When it rained a lot the river ran over the rocks and made *waterfalls. In places, it was very deep. When he saw the deep water, it made the *psalmist think of his life. He felt that his enemy was pushing him along *like the water would push him if he fell in! The Hermons were in Israel, where Jehoash was king. Jehoash may have taken the *psalmist hostage in Jerusalem. Then he took him through the deserts of Judah to the hills of Israel.
If this is true, an interesting thing may have happened. In the chapter of Kings that tells us the story of Jehoash (2 Kings 14) we read about a man called Jonah. Maybe Jonah knew Psalm 42. He repeated a bit of verse 7 when the fish swallowed him. You will find it in the book of Jonah, chapter 2. Did Jonah learn the psalm from the hostage? Jonah did live in Israel!
Verse 8: This is the turning-point of the psalm. A turning-point is when something changes. You will see two important changes in this verse. First, he calls God by the name *LORD. Only God’s friends did this in the Old Testament. What happened to make him do this? Everywhere else he used the name God. We believe that what happened was this. He found God was with him in the Hermons. God did not only live in Jerusalem. God was everywhere!
Verses 9 - 10: But there were still questions. (A question is something that you ask.) He asked why God had forgotten him and why he was so sad. He asked why God let his enemies hurt him. And the enemies asked the same question as in verse 3, ‘Where is your God?’ But things are different now. The *psalmist is sure that God is with him and he hopes that things will get better.
Verse 11: So he repeats verse 5. But this time we think that he said it with more belief that it was true. Another way to say this is that he was more sure of it.
Verses 5 and 11 and verse 5 of Psalm 43 are all exactly the same. We think that this is a good reason for thinking that they are really two parts of one psalm.
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So, my story this week:
We moved to New Bern in January 2008. It took us a while to get settled and then we started searching for a Church family. We tried many different ones. In October 2008 we tried Temple Baptist. At first I didn't like it. I grew up Methodist and I only wanted to go to a Methodist church. Well, we just couldn't find one where we felt we "fit" in. In March 2009 we went back to Temple and when we walked thru the doors I had a feeling of calm and peacefulness...this was now home. I have worked thru my "must be Methodist" issues and have been loving Temple since. Okay, so we found a Bible Fellowship Group we love, we love to go to Wednesday night Awana's and I felt pulled to volunteer with the kids.
So, I am going to help Wednesday nights in Cubbies and on Sundays in the Pre-K class. I wasn't so sure Pre-K was right for me because Logan would be in that class. Usually it is not a good combination for me to be in the same class with one of my kids. I trusted that Robin was putting me where she really needed me and I had my first class today. It was great. Logan was so glad I was there but didn't cling to me or push my buttons. It was like he was so glad to be with me without Landon or Lindsey. It was special "alone" time with the two of us. Not that we are alone with 15 - 20 other 4yr olds but it was just us from our immediate family. I didn't realize how in only 4 short weeks he was already getting lost as the middle child. I praise God and Robin for giving me this gift of time with my Loggy.
Anyway, I'd love to hear how God worked in your life this week.
Peace and Love,
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