Day 5: Parched - Overwhelmed - Misjudged?

Day 5 - See the point...
Further thoughts on Ps 42&43 (with the help of John Goldingay)

Throughout these two psalms the pattern has been: a venting of the frustration and pain felt; the application of the mind as the situation is put in its bigger context – i.e. he had known joy before and he will know joy again. Throughout the psalmist repeatedly argues himself back to the place of trusting in God – he reassures his soul that hoping in God is not folly.

If all this seems a grim picture of struggle, a see-saw of hope and depression – then take courage because we are following in hallowed footsteps. Jesus Himself walked this path...

Jesus was parched: ‘I thirst’ (Jn 19:28). Thirsty for water, yes. But supremely experiencing the unimaginable holocaust of God’s withdrawal, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me’ (Mt 27:46).

Jesus was overwhelmed: ‘Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say’ (Jn 12:27); ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death’ (Mt 26:38).

Jesus was misjudged: taunted with the voices of accusation: ‘He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him’ (Mt 27:43).

In Psalm 22 – that great ‘Messianic Psalm’ – there is a little space in my Bible between v21 and v22. Up to that space the psalm is an expression of despair and a plea for deliverance. After the space it is a psalm of praise celebrating vindication. But in that little gap – Jesus died.

We may not physically face death in our struggles – but sometimes just as hard is accepting that our struggles may not end before part of our old self is put to death. To end our posturing, our pretending, our self-seeking – and simply to put our hope in God. Jesus (a) died for the sins of others so (b) that they might die to self and live in Him. We love the first bit – we generally find the second a harder proposition! ‘No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it’ (Hb 12:11).

God is in control – he has promised to transform us into the image of His Son. He will move heaven and earth to do so. There is nothing that God has not harnessed to work for the good of those who love him (Rom 8:28) – even our adversity. Our circumstances are never purposeless. So ‘soul’ why are you so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, My Saviour and my God’