Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 42:11
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.
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? – This closes the second strophe of the psalm, and, with one or two slight and immaterial variations, is the same as that which closes the first Psa 42:5. In this latter, the word why is inserted, and the expression the salvation of my countenance occurs instead of salvations of his countenance, with the addition of the words and my God at the close. The sense, however, is the same; and the verse contains, as before, self-reproof for being thus cast down, and self-exhortation to put trust in God. In the former part of the psalm Psa 42:5 he had addressed this language to himself, as designed to impress his own mind with the guilt of thus yielding to discouragement and sorrow; but he had then almost immediately admitted that his mind was distressed, and that he was cast down; here he rallies again, and endeavors to arouse himself to the conviction that he ought not to be thus depressed and dejected. He exhorts himself, therefore; he charges his own soul to hope in God. He expresses again the assurance that he would yet be permitted to praise him. He regards God now as the salvation of his countenance, or as his Deliverer and Friend, and expresses the conviction that he would yet make such manifestations of himself as to clear up and illuminate his countenance, at present made dark and saddened by affliction; and he appeals to him now as his God. He has reached the true source of comfort to the afflicted and the sad – the living God as his God; and his mind is calm. Why should a man be sorrowful when he feels that he has a God? Why should his heart be sad when he can pour out his sorrows before Him? Why should he be cast down and gloomy when he can hope: hope for the favor of God here; hope for immortal life in the world to come!
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 42:11
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.
Davids malady and Davids medicine
The psalm has a beauty all its own–the beauty of an April morning–full of contrasts and surprises. Extremes meet in a single verse, and are repeated over and over again, brief though the psalm is. The Kyrie and the Gloria follow each other in quick succession, whilst often there is the harmony of discord worthy of a Mendelssohn.
I. Let us examine the patient. That he is far from well there can be no doubt. The whole tenor of his language implies disease, and so distinctly are the symptoms described that we need be at no loss to discover his malady. It is depression. Now, this is–
1. An internal disease–it has to do with his soul. Of all diseases, internal ones are the worst, especially when they are spiritual. Outward trouble will not hurt a man much so long as it keeps to the outward. The sailor cares not because the green waves with crested heads curl over and dash against the vessel, shaking it from stem to stern; or because they, rising in their wrath, leap upon the deck, and with wild glee pour off again through the port holes. But his trouble is that of the sailor when from one to another the whisper passes through the ship, We have sprung a leak. The water in the hold is more dreaded than all the ocean without. Such was the case with David. He could say, The waters have come into my soul.
2. But notice next that although inward in its nature its effects are to be seen in the countenance. In our text we read that God is the health of our countenance: if, then, His presence be wanting the countenance suffers. It is so with the body: inward disease will show itself on the countenance. And so it is with inward care. The only doctor that some Christians need is their God, and the only medicine they require is hope. Great prostration is one of the signs of this disease.
3. Another sign is that of burning thirst. You get that in the first and second verses. This disease may arise from many different causes. Then there is conformity to the world, that condition so rampant in the Church of our day.
II. Let us now carefully analyze the medicine prescribed. (A. G. Brown.)
The good mans peace
I. There is such a peace. Gods people ordinarily possess it. Hence, David asks, Why art thou cast down? etc. It was not usual for him to be thus disquieted. For–
1. The Father is engaged to give peace unto them.
2. The Son also.
3. The Holy Ghost likewise. For this is He sent as the Comforter. And He is this both in heaven above and in our own bosoms (1Jn 1:2; Joh 14:16).
II. But experience seems to contradict all this, for many of Gods people have not peace, but disquietude. But, remember, general rules have always some exceptions, and in this matter note–
1. There is a fundamental peace which Gods people have, and there is an additional peace: the first arises from their justification, the second from their sense of it.
2. And there is a great difference between peace, comfort and joy. A man may have peace that hath no comfort, and comfort but no joy. One is beyond the other.
3. There is a peace which lies in opposition to what one hath been, and a peace that is in opposition to what one would be. I may be grateful that I am not that sinner I was, but I may be disquieted that I yet am not what I would be.
4. There may be a secret, dormant peace, where there is not an awakened and apparent peace. This latter may be a while absent, but the former is not.
III. Conclusion.
1. Then behold what a blessed condition Gods saints are in. This truth appeals to the ungodly. It did so once to a great man in Germany, that it was the beginning of his conversion he was a papist, a profane person; and coming occasionally to hear Peter Martyr preach, he heard him say, When ye see men at a distance skipping, leaping and dancing, ye think the men are mad; but when ye draw near to them, hear what music they have, then ye do not wonder; but ye rather wonder at yourselves that ye should wonder at them. So, when you look upon the godly at a distance, and see them running after ordinances, and frequenting the means and rejoicing in the ways of God, you think, and ye say, they are mad; but if you draw near to a godly course, and perceive what music these people have within, you say not they are mad, but you rather wonder at yourselves, that you should wonder at them. This saying struck the nobleman and led him to look to his condition and to turn to God. Yes, the saints have music within, peace and quiet within, as a rule, though here and there there may be exceptions.
2. But some are in doubt whether their peace be counterfeit. There is such a false peace (Deu 24:19).
3. But there is a true peace given of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, etc. And thus it may be known.
4. But one says, I never had this blessed peace and have it not now. What am I to do? Meditate much upon the fulness of satisfaction made by the death of Christ. Then go to Christ Himself, seeking peace not merely for the comfort of it, but as a help to your grace: and take His promise along with you. (W. Bridge, M. A.)
True peace may be interrupted
See in text the words, cast down, disquieted; three times are they repeated. And such is the frequent experience of good men. In considering this note–
I. How far the discouragements of saints may reach. They may reach–
1. To the refusing of the word of consolation brought to you–My soul refuseth to be comforted.
2. To the consequent affliction and distress of the body (Psa 102:4-6; Psa 102:9; Jer 20:7-9).
II. Why does God permit this? It is always for His peoples good.
1. So only will men come to God. So long as they find fulness in creatures they will not come (1Ti 4:5; 1Sa 30:6).
2. To make us value peace and quietness of soul.
3. God, as a tender Father, would have all the love of His children, and so removes what intercepts that love, as our earthly comforts often do.
4. Our comforts are sent to bind us to God and to wean us from the world, but sometimes we need to be weaned from these weaners that we may grow up unto more perfection.
5. To prevent over-confidence: the soul grows wanton and secure under its comforts, and then these need to be withdrawn.
6. As a wise and honest chirurgion, though he desire his patient to be soon cured, yet if he see the plaister doth not lie right, he takes it off again: so doth Christ do if He see that the comforts of His people are not laid rightly. Hence a poor soul may ere long be much discouraged, though for the present full of comfort. He will, if he lay his comfort upon internal blessings and measure Gods love by them.
III. But how can all these discouragements stand with grace? Can a man be thus to and fro in his comfort in Christ and yet be holy? Yes, for though there be evil in this, yet there is grace withal. Though they be much cast down, they still mourn after God. They long for His presence. But let such cast-down ones take heed–
1. Not to forget God.
2. Not so to seek comfort that you lose it yet more: there is such a thing as more haste and worse speed. Some seek comfort in a use of reason, and try to argue themselves into comfort. Others give up their common duty and neglect their proper callings, thinking that in their distress here is nothing to be done but prayer. But thus they lay themselves open to yet more temptations.
3. Not so to strain after some outward comfort that you lose that which is inward. I read of Francis Spira that, having denied the truth in order to get a good estate for his wife and children, he could no longer bear the sight of them, his conscience being in such horror of what he had done. They had been his comforts before, but now to see them was to be filled with misery. What comfort had Judas in his thirty pieces of silver? God forbid that we should drink the blood of our own peace and comfort.
IV. Remedies for our discouragements.
1. DO now what you would if now you were to be justified.
2. Find out why God has left you: if for some sin, be humbled for if.
3. Read much in Gods Word, and so fill your mind with thoughts of Christ and with the blessed promises of God.
4. When God restores comforts to you, take care to understand them: if you would be rid of Satan coming into your quarters, fall you upon his. Attack him and do him all the mischief you can: put your comforts into Christs hand and use them for His. (W. Bridge, M. A.)
The souls conflict with itself
I. General observations.
1. Grief gathered to a head will not be quieted at the first. What bustling there is here before David can get the victory over his own heart.
2. A gracious and living soul is most sensible of the want of spiritual means.
3. A godly soul, by reason of the grace given it, knows when it is well with it and when it is ill, when a good day and when a bad. Now, our text tells us of Davids state wherein he was, and of his carriage in that state. He was much cast down, but he bids himself trust in God. Now, Gods people are often cast down.
II. The discouragements which come to Gods people from without.
1. God Himself. He sometimes hides His face from them (Mat 27:46). It is with the godly in this case as with vapours drawn up by the sun, which, when the extracting force of the sun leaves them, fall down again to the earth. So when the soul raised up by the beams of Gods countenance is left of God, it presently begins to sink.
2. By Satan. He is all for this; being disquieted himself, he would disquiet others.
3. By Satans instruments and servants. Hear them (Psa 137:7).
4. By ourselves. There is a seminary of causes of discouragement within us. Our flesh is one of them.
III. Those that are from within. There is cause oft in the body of those in whom a melancholy temper prevaileth. But in the soul, too, there are causes of discouragement.
1. Want of knowledge in the understanding.
2. Forgetfulness (Heb 12:5).
3. Underrating our comforts (Job 15:11).
4. A childish kind of peevishness. Abraham (Gen 15:2; Jon 4:9; Jer 31:15).
5. False reasoning and error in our discourse. Many imagine their failings to be failings, and their fallings to be fallings away.
6. Proceeding by a false method and order in judging of their estate. They will begin with election, which is not the first, but the highest step of the ladder. God descends down unto us from election to calling, and so to sanctification: we must ascend to Him, beginning where He ends.
7. Seeking for their comfort too much in sanctification, neglecting justification, relying too much upon their own performances. This is a natural kind of popery in men. St. Paul was of another mind (Php 3:8-9). Still, though the main pillar of our comfort be in the free forgiveness of our sins, yet, if there be a neglect in growing in holiness, the soul will never be soundly quiet. Sin ever raises doubts and fears.
8. The neglect of keeping a clear conscience.
9. Ignorance of Christian liberty, by unnecessary scruples and doubts.
10. Want of employment. An unemployed life is a burden to itself.
11. Omission of duties and offices of love to them to whom they are due.
12. Want of firm resolution in good things. Halting is a deformed and troublesome gesture, and halting in religion is full of disquiet (1Ki 18:21). God will not speak peace to a staggering spirit that hath always its religion and its way to choose.
IV. But there are positive causes as well as negative ones.
1. When men lay up their comfort too much on outward things. These are ever changing, and to build our hopes upon them is to build castles in the air. Micah is right (Mic 2:10).
2. When we depend too much upon the opinions of other men. Men that seek themselves too much abroad find themselves disquieted at home.
3. When we look too much and too long upon the ill in ourselves and abroad. Now, learn from all this not to be too hasty in censuring others when they are cast down, for there are so many things which cast men down; and to prepare our hearts for trouble, so that when it comes we be not cast down.
V. Casting down ourselves causes many evils.
1. It indisposes a man to all good duties.
2. It is a great wrong to God Himself.
3. It makes a man forgetful of all his former blessings, and–
4. Unfit to receive mercies. Till the Spirit of God meekens the soul, say what you will, it minds nothing.
5. It keeps off beginners from coming in. Hence, we should all labour after a calmed spirit.
VI. Remedies.
1. To do, as here, cite the soul before itself, and, as it were, to reason the case. God hath set up a court in mans heart, the court of conscience, and its prejudging will prevent future judging. But evil men love not this court; they are afraid of it (1Ki 22:16; Act 24:25). Self-love, indolence, pride, are all against it.
2. And we must not merely cite the soul before itself; but it must be pressed to give an account, and if that will not help, then speak to Jesus Christ by prayer, that as He stilled the waves, so He would quiet our hearts.
3. A godly man can cast a restraint upon himself, as David here does. There is an art in bearing troubles as in bearing burdens, and we should seek to learn it.
4. We see here again that a godly man can make good use of privacy. When be is forced to be alone he can talk with his God and himself. The wicked dread being alone. Illustration–Charles IX. of France after the massacre of St. Bartholomews day.
5. God hath made every man a governor over himself. (R. Sibbes.)
Unfitting dejection
Now, dejection is so–
1. When the soul is troubled for that it should not be vexed for. As Ahab (1Ki 21:1-2).
II. When it springs prom self-love.
III. When we trouble ourselves, though not without cause, yet without bounds. We may know when our dejection is excessive.
1. When it hinders us from holy duties. It was not thus with our Lord (Joh 19:26-27; Luk 23:42).
2. When we forget the grounds of comfort that are given us.
3. When it inclines the soul to evil. Therefore inquire–
IV. What is the sweet and holy temper of soul that we should seek for?
1. The soul must be raised to a right but yet a bounded grief. And to this end we should look at the state of the soul in itself and on what terms it is with God (Lev 16:29). And we should look outside of ourselves to note the causes of grief that are there (Jer 9:1).
2. But our grief must be kept within bounds, and it is so, when it is ready to meet God at every turn in obedience and communion; and when reason approves our grief, and when our grief moves us to all duties of love towards others. Our concern for Gods house cannot be excessive (Psa 69:9; Psa 119:39; Isa 59:19; Exo 32:19). See, then, the life of a poor Christian in this world. He is in great danger if he be not troubled at all, and, when troubled, lest he be over-troubled. Let him ask the Holy Spirits help (Joh 11:13). (R. Sibbes.)
Means not to be overcharged with sorrow
1. Take heed of building on unfounded confidence of happiness, which makes us when changes come unacquainted with them and unexpectant and unprepared. We gain help by thinking beforehand of what may come (Joh 16:33). Still, we are not to imagine troubles.
2. Love not overmuch anything in this world lest when we have to give it up we be brokenhearted. The way to prevent this is given in Col 3:1; Col 5:3. Take care when trouble comes not to mingle our passions with it. Our hearts are deceitful. Who would have thought that Moses would have murmured, David murdered (2Sa 12:9), Peter denied our Lord (Mat 26:72)? But trouble and temptation draw forth hidden evils. Therefore let us watch over our own souls and examine them continually. Let us not yield to passion; do we not belong to God? Our passions are to serve, not rule us. Mans curse was to be a servant of servants (Gen 9:25). Exercise strong self-denial. The gate, the entrance of religion is narrow, and we must strip ourselves of self before we can enter. (R. Sibbes.)
A sick soul
I. The disease.
1. He is depressed. Aspiration has grown faint. We all know these heavier moments, when the spring seems to go out of our being, and we feel as though the tripping step will never return. We feel prematurely old.
2. He is not merely burdened, he is possessed by a feverish uncertainty. He can no longer look at things calmly and therefore truly, and everything appears to him in monstrous and distorted guise. There is no more fatal minister in human life than the disquieted eye. So long as the eye can gaze at things with cool and quiet vision we see things in their true perspective and proportion. But when the eye is shaken into restlessness its focus is perverted, and everything is seen awry. But the disquieted soul is not only possessed of a restless eye, it is the possessor of a nerveless hand.
II. The remedy.
1. The first step in the removal of this spiritual sickness is a realization of the personal relationship of the soul to God. Once postulate God, and all things come within the plane of the credible.
2. The second essential secret of recovery is to believe in the possibility of Gods health being transmitted to us. There is a striking difference between verse five and verse eleven. In the former verse the psalmist speaks of praising God for the health of His countenance, and in verse eleven he speaks of praising God, who is the health of my countenance. The health of the one can be transmitted to the other. We more frequently speak of the contagion of disease. Perhaps when we know a little more we shall speak with equal assurance of the contagion of health. If evil communications corrupt good man-hers, holy communications refine them. One of the secrets of obtaining a healthy spiritual life is to obtain the fellowship of saintly people. But the transcendently important clue is to obtain the friendship of God. Gods holiness is contagious; to commune with Him is to become a partaker of the Divine nature. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)
Religious depression
I. Causes.
1. Physical weakness.
2. A constitutional tendency to look on the darker side of things.
3. The misapprehension of certain main spiritual truths, such as the character of God, conversion, etc.
II. Treatment of the disease.
1. If physical weakness be the secret of our spiritual depression, then the only effectual cure is to aim at strengthening that which is really weak, namely, the bodily health; and not to weaken the body still more by fretting over a lowness of spirits which results from our feeble physical condition almost as inevitably as loss of light follows from the setting of the sun.
2. If, again, it is a constitutional tendency to look on the dark side of things generally, that has to answer for the gloomy hue of our religion, the obvious remedy is to look on the brighter aspect.
3. Or if, by unhappy training, or through the bias of temperament, we have come to entertain such views of God, and of spiritual things, as are directly causative of religious despondency, then we must do our best to remedy the evil by acquiring right views. Above all, we must sedulously and prayerfully cherish right views of God, whom we dishonour by regarding as a captious taskmaster–Him whose nature, and whose name, is Love! (T. F. Lockyer, B. A.)
Causes and cure of melancholy
I. The causes of religious melancholy.
1. Sometimes our compassionate Father, who in mercy visits us so often with external afflictions, is pleased, for the same benevolent reasons, to make us suffer internal sorrows. As when the sun is eclipsed, all nature appears to mourn, so everything is gloomy to the believer when anything interposes between his soul and the gracious countenance of his God.
2. Sometimes Satan is permitted to disquiet and distress the children of God.
3. With Satan, wicked men often concur to depress and cast down the pious.
4. But the great causes of our dejections and melancholy are to be found in ourselves.
(1) From the temperament of the body
(2) From ignorance and error.
(3) From sin.
II. Why, like the psalmist, we should endeavour to rise from this state. Your duty to God, as wail as your own happiness, requires this. How imperfectly are all the Christian duties performed by you, when you are thus swallowed up with overmuch sorrow: how unfitly do you worship Him who loves a cheerful and a thankful giver?
III. The means whereby we may again obtain peace, comfort, and a calm trust in God.
1. Imitate the psalmist here: instead of yielding to a vague grief, cite your soul; inquire of it the particular cause of your sorrow: different remedies will be requisite, according to the different sources of your distress: and be careful that you trifle not with God, and your comfort, and your salvation, while you inquire of your soul, why art thou cast down?
2. Be careful to understand the Gospel-scheme of salvation; especially the nature, the terms, the intent of the covenant of grace.
3. Study also the promises of God; view them in their variety, their extent, their application to you.
4. In your devotions, be much employed in praise and thanksgiving, instead of principally occupying yourselves with lamentations. If you cannot do this with all the joy that you would, do it as well as you can.
5. Be not unacquainted with your own hearts; examine them, to see the marks of conversion, and to make your calling sure to yourselves.
6. But do not confine yourselves to this self-examination; be also engaged in active duties. The growing and fruitful Christian will be a comfortable one; a degree of peace and satisfaction will follow every good action; and your graces, acquiring maturity, will shine by their own light. (H. Kollock, D. D.)
The causes and cure of spiritual distress
I. The psalmists present condition or state of mind.
1. Good men are often east down; their souls are often disquieted in them, from want, as they imagine, of actual communion with God in duty, or a sense of His gracious presence with them; and if this complaint were as well founded as it is a common and heavy complaint, it would be a just cause, no doubt, of great disquiet. But how are we to judge of our communion with God in duty?
(1) We are to judge by an habitual sense of the Divinity upon our minds, and the devout reverential impressions we feel from His presence with us, and our accountableness to Him.
(2) We are to judge of communion with God in duty, from the sense we have of our need of daily supplies and communications from His fulness and all-sufficiency.
(3) It will be found no unsatisfying evidence of Gods gracious presence with us in duty if we are enabled to deal fairly with our own hearts.
2. The suggestions of Satan assail the minds of good men. But how are we to distinguish such suggestions as may be properly ascribed to the grand enemy, and those that arise from the unsubdued corruption and lusts of our own minds? We are to distinguish by the welcome they meet with, and the free quarters we allow them, on the one hand; or by the pain and distress they give us, on the other, and by our opposition to them, and our endeavours to dismiss them. It is the consent of the will alone that constitutes the moral turpitude of every emotion or action; and while it is our daily struggle to withhold this, and we are, upon the whole, through Divine grace, enabled to withhold it, we have nothing to fear from all the efforts of Satanical machinations to taint and corrupt our affections. And here the disquieted soul may rest.
3. Not a few have been disquieted and cast down from false representations and wrong conceptions of the Divine decrees; as if thereby a certain number were under a sentence of reprobation, and for ever excluded from the Divine mercy. But this ground of disquiet is most unreasonable, and most dishonourable to God.
4. Another cause of much disquietude arises from imperfect or dark views of the ground of our acceptance with God. A cause of disquietude to which bad men are entire strangers, unless under the immediate horror of momentary convictions.
II. The psalmists expostulation with himself. Why art thou cast down? etc. God doth not leave His people to lie under their spiritual distresses, to pore over them, and sink under them. He leads them home to prove their hearts; he leads them to their hope.
1. He leads them to prove their spirit, and to observe what is amiss about them: to mark this passion as too violent; that affection as wrong directed; that here they have lost the guard over themselves, and spoke unadvisedly with their tongue, and have been led into indiscretions, into excesses; that there their attachment to the world, or worldly connections, have been too strong, and occupied their time and attention too much.
2. He leads them to their hope–to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling. It is from this Sun of Righteousness that the first dawn of hope opens upon the trembling, awakened sinner, and, ready to sink under a load of guilt, supports him. And when believers themselves fall, and thereby wound their peace and lose sight of all their evidences, they have no other refuge.
III. The psalmists support amidst all his distress. Still hope in God, etc. (T. Gordon.)
Downheartedness
I. Nothing is so bad as a continued and allowed downheartedness,
1. It magnifies troubles.
2. It drags at and prevents work.
3. It shadows blessings, making the hard things in life prominent rather than the ameliorating things.
4. It bereaves of God and shadows the promises.
II. There are many causes for downheartedness in this strange and disciplinary world,
1. Exile.
2. Overstrain of work.
3. Hard environment.
III. How can one defeat downheartedness and lift into and keep himself in cheer?
1. By recognition of the fact that downheartedness is worst for us. A man ought to esteem it as bad for the soul as some corrupting contagion is for the body.
2. By service for others. That is one trouble with downheartedness–it emphasizes self. And a good, and frequently quick, cure for it is the determined emphasizing on our part of other Selves, thus causing, somewhat at least, a forgetfulness of the morbid self.
3. I pray you also, when you are downhearted, make your work a sacrament. By strong and prayerful volition put yourself at the daily duty; do it even more painstakingly than ever, even though you feel so little like it. A high reactive feeling of victory will have large share in scattering your darkness.
4. Last and chiefest, turn to God. Follow the example of the psalmist here. (W. Hoyt, D. D)
Unfailing hope
I. The state of mind in which the psalmist was and Christians sometimes are.
II. The desirableness of the investigation which the psalmist instituted.
1. It is very often for a want of asking the question that you are in that state at all. Many men allow partly imaginary trials to creep into their souls, that scarcely have a palpable existence if they were only inquired into, and yet when once they are seen they are watched over, and they grow until they expand to such an extent that they seem to fill the mans whole spirit and all around him; whereas if they were just looked at in the face in the light of Divine presence and in the glory that beams from another world, they would vanish in a moment like mists before the rising sun; the mans trouble would be turned into triumph, and his saddest sorrows into sweetest song. Let the inquiry be made, for it is for lack of the inquiry very often that the soul is cast down within us, and is disquieted in all it has to pass through.
2. The inquiry should be made because generally, if not entirely, it would be found that in the Divine dealings there really was no cause whatever for the soul to be cast down at all. The very form of the question implies that. Why art thou cast down? Really, the psalmist does not know of any reason why it should be, and he speaks to his soul like another man, of whom he was surprised and almost ashamed.
3. Another reason why the question should be asked is because very often the answer to it will be found in the soul itself. You ask me why I am cast down within you. Remember all the accumulation of worldliness and care and greed and sinful indulgence that you have heaped up upon me till I have been buried under it and could not move.
III. The counsel the psalmist addresses to his soul. Hope thou in God. Look at Martin Luther when his enemies are like raging lions gathered round him, and he is cast into prison and all things look dark and threatening, and a common soul might be disquieted and cast down. No, he says, let us sing the 46th psalm, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help; therefore will not we fear though the mountains be removed. His soul is not cast down. He hopes in God. What say you–the stream is dried up? Well, in all probability it is in mercy it has, for if that had continued you had never gone to the fountain. Hope thou in God, for if you can say, God is my salvation, with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation. What do you say–your strength is exhausted and you are feeble and have no power left? Then hope thou in God, for they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. (J. P. Chown.)
Trust in God our best support in all our troubles and afflictions
I. We have firm grounds for our trust in God from those attributes of God which enable and dispose him to help us. When we place our trust in God we run no risks, because there is nothing which infinite power cannot accomplish; nothing fit and expedient for us which infinite goodness is not disposed to grant; no promises of help can have been made us by a God of truth and holiness which will not be exactly and punctually fulfilled.
II. Have an eye to the examples of those who have thus placed their trust in God, and have found help in the time of need. Wonderful is that instance of an unshaken confidence in God, which is displayed for our instruction, and recorded for our imitation, in the history of the sufferings and of the patience of Job.
III. Endeavour to strengthen our reliance on God from the experience we ourselves have had of his former lovingkindness towards us. To God we owe our being, and those blessings which we either now do, or ever did, enjoy. There are many calamities incident to men which we have, through the goodness of God, escaped. He who hath delivered us from so great dangers, and doth deliver, in Him we may safely trust, that He will yet deliver us. Is the Lords hand, that has been so often stretched forth for our help, since shortened, that it can no longer save? Or is His ear, that has been so often opened to our prayers, grown heavy, that it can no more hear? (Bishop Smalridge.)
My God
Whatever God may be, it is no advantage to me if He is not my God. Another mans health will not make me well. Another mans wealth will not make me rich. Another mans knowledge will not make me wise. Another mans station will not make me dignified. The leaving out of one word from the will may ruin a mans hopes and blast all his expectations. The want of this one word My is the sinners loss of heaven, and the dagger that smites him into the second death. That pronoun my is just worth as much to the soul as God and heaven; because without it you cant have them. That little word is the private cabinet in which all our comfort for time and for eternity is locked up. It is the one string upon which all our joys are hung. (R. Berry.)
Psa 43:1-5
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. Why art thou cast down] There is no reason why thou shouldst despair. God will appear and release thee and thy brother captives and soon thy sighing and sorrowing shall flee away.
Who is the health of my countenance] As a healthy state of the constitution shows itself in the appearance of the face; God will so rejoice thy heart, heal all thy spiritual maladies, that thy face shall testify the happiness that is within thee.
There is a curious gloss on the first verse of this Psalm in my old Psalter, which I cannot withhold from the reader. The author translates and paraphrases the verse thus: –
Trans. Als the Hert yernes til the welles of waters; so my saule yernes til the God.
Par. This Psalm es al of perfite men, that er brinnand in the flamme of Goddes luf, and passes in til the contemplatyf lif: and tharfore it es sungen in the office of the dede men: for than haf thai, that thai yearned; that es, the syght of God. Far thi, sais he, als the Hert that has eten the nedder, gretely yernes to com til the welles of waters for to drynk and wax yong opayne: so destroyed in me vices and unclennes, my saule desyres with brinnand yernyng, to come til the God.
AElian, Appian, Aristotle, Nicander, and Pliny, all inform us that one cause why the hart thirsts for the waters is, that they eat serpents, and that the poison of them diffused through their entrails produces a burning heat and fever, to ease and cure themselves of which they have recourse to water. Many of the fathers tell the same tale, and from them the paraphrast in the old Psalter has borrowed what is inserted above: “Like as the hart, which has eaten the adder, greatly longs to come to the fountains of water to drink, that he may grow young again.” The hart is undoubtedly a cunning animal; but it would be as difficult to believe that he eats serpents as it would be to believe that he seeks for and eats the fresh water crab or cray fish, in order to cure and make him grow young again, as Eusebius, Didymus, Theodoret, Jerome, Epiphanies, Gregory Nyssen, and others of the primitive fathers gravely inform us.
ANALYSIS OF THE FORTY-SECOND PSALM
The psalmist, driven from the assemblies of Modes people, complains; and as men overwhelmed with troubles are also oppressed with grief, so is he; and as they abruptly express their thoughts, so does he; for sometimes he expostulates, sometimes he complains! sometimes he corrects and checks himself for his weakness. One while he opens his doubts, and presently again sets forth his confidence in God. It is difficult on this account to analyze this Psalm; but it may be reduced to these four heads: –
I. The zeal of the psalmist to serve God in God’s own house; Ps 42:1-2; Ps 42:4; Ps 42:6.
II. His complaint and expressions of grief for his absence, for his affliction, and his enemies’ insults on that ground; Ps 42:3-4; Ps 42:7; Ps 42:10.
III. His expostulation with his soul for its diffidence, Ps 42:5-6; and again with God for his desertion, Ps 42:9.
IV. His faith and confidence in God’s promises; Ps 42:5; Ps 42:8; Ps 42:11.
I. 1. He begins with an expression of his grief for his exile from the ordinances of God, and the assemblies of his people. And he sets forth his zeal and longing desire under the expressive similitude of a hard-hunted and thirsty stag: “As the hart panteth,” c. Ps 42:1-2.
2. He shows the state he was in. 1. “My tears have been my meat day and night;” Ps 42:3. 2. And the cause was the bitter sarcasm of his enemies: “Where is now thy God?” Where is thy Protector? him in whom thou trustest?
II. That which added to his grief was that which gave occasion to this sarcasm, his banishment from the sanctuary.
1. When I remember these things, my absence, their insults, I pour out my heart to myself; tear follows tear, and one complaint succeeds to another.
2. And much reason I have to grieve when I compare my present with my former condition. Formerly “I went with the multitude to the house of God, – with the voice of joy and praise,” c. I had gone now I cannot and must not go.
III. Hitherto he had expressed his zeal, his sorrow, and his complaints, with their causes. These put his soul in a sad condition; and thus he expostulates with himself: –
1. Blaming himself for his weakness and diffidence: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul,” c.
2. Then presently fortifies himself in God’s promises: “Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him,” c.
In all which is described the combat that a good man has when he is in heaviness through manifold temptation, and finds great difficulty to struggle between hope and despair but at last conquers by faith, and inherits the promises.
3. But his conflict is not yet over he exclaims again, and still more affectingly, “O my God, my soul is cast down.” Of which he assigns two causes: –
1. That though he was ready to remember and serve God, yet he was forced to do it in an improper place. He remembered the pleasant land of Palestine, the stately mountains of Hermon, and the little hill of Sion: but there he could not worship; he was in an enemy’s country, and in captivity in that country.
2. The greatness and continual succession of his troubles: “Deep calleth unto deep.” Calamity on calamity, one trial on the heels of another; so that he might well say, “All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.”
3. And yet he despairs not, he encourages himself in the Lord: “Yet the Lord will command his loving-kindness,” &c. 1. “His song shall be with me.” 2. “And my prayer unto the God of my life.”
IV. On which he grows more confident and courageous, and again expostulates, not now with his soul, as before, but with his GOD: “I will say unto God my rock.”
1. “Why hast thou forgotten me?”
2. “Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
3. Why am I wounded with grief, “as with a sword in my bones,” while they use the sarcasm, “Where is now thy God?”
But in the conclusion, after all his complaints and expostulations, he gains a full assurance of God’s favour and protection.
1. Chiding himself for his discontent and diffidence, “Why art thou cast down?”
2. Then he encourages his heart in God’s goodness and faithfulness: “Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”
The forty-third is most probably a part of this Psalm: they should be read and expounded together, as the subject is not complete in either, taken as separate Psalms. See, therefore, on the following.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The health of my countenance, Heb. the salvations of my face i.e. either,
1. Which are present and manifest, being before my face. Or,
2. Which will make my face to shine, and my countenance cheerful, which supposeth the gladness of the heart, and the bettering of his condition. Or,
3. Of his person; as the face sometimes signifies, as 2Sa 17:11; Isa 3:15. As also the Greek word signifying face, is very frequently put for the person, whereof the face is an eminent part. My God: as he formerly was, so he still is, and ever will be, and will suddenly show himself to be, my God, although for a season he may hide his face, or withdraw his help from me.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. This brings on a renewedself-chiding, and excites hopes of relief.
healthor help.
of my countenance(comparePs 42:5) who cheers me, drivingaway clouds of sorrow from my face.
my GodIt is He ofwhose existence and favor my foes would have me doubt.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Why art thou cast down, O my soul?…. The same expostulation as in Ps 42:5; and so is what follows,
and why art thou disquieted within me? and the same argument and means are made use of to remove dejection and disquietude;
hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him; [See comments on Ps 42:5]; to which is added a new argument, taken from the grace and goodness of God, and covenant interest in him;
[who is] the health of my countenance, and my God; as the bodily health of man is seen in the countenance, and for the most part to be judged of by it; so is the spiritual health of the saints, and which they have from the Lord; when he, as the sun of righteousness, arises upon them with healing in his wings, he, by his gracious presence, makes their countenances cheerful, fills them with joy unspeakable and full of glory, and causes them to lift up their heads with an holy boldness and confidence, and without shame and fear: or as it may be rendered, who “is the salvations of my countenance” o; that is, who is or will be the author of full and complete salvation to me; which will be so public and open, so clear and manifest, as to be beheld by myself and others; and this the psalmist mentions, in order to remove his present dejections; and besides, this God of salvation he believed was his covenant God, and would be so even unto death; and therefore he had no just reason to be dejected and disquieted.
o “salutes”, Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
11 O my soul! why art thou cast down? This repetition shows us that David had not so completely overcome his temptations in one encounter, or by one extraordinary effort, as to render it unnecessary for him to enter anew into the same conflict. By this example, therefore, we are admonished, that although Satan, by his assaults, often subjects us to a renewal of the same trouble, we ought not to lose our courage, or allow ourselves to be cast down. The latter part of this verse differs from the fifth verse in one word, while in every other respect they agree. In the fifth verse, it is the helps of His countenance, but here we have the relative pronoun of the first person, thus, The helps of My countenance Perhaps in this place, the letter w, vau, which in the Hebrew language denotes the third person, is wanting. Still, as all the other versions agree in the reading which I have adopted, (125) David might, without any absurdity, call God by this designation, The helps or salvations of My countenance, inasmuch as he looked with confidence for a deliverance, manifest and certain, as if God should appear in a visible manner as his defender, and the protector of his welfare. There can, however, be no doubt, that in this place the term helps or salvations is to be viewed as an epithet applied to God; for immediately after it follows, and my God
(125) All the ancient versions, with the exception of the Chaldee, read both in this and the fifth verse, “my countenance.” Hammond thinks that as these words are the burden of this and the following psalm, and as the meaning of the other words of the sentence in which they occur is the same in the different verses, it is not improbable that the old reading in both places may have been “my countenance.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
11. Why art thou cast down, O my soul The refrain is repeated from Psa 42:5, where see note. Whether we take , ( soul,) here as distinct from , ( spirit,) according to the later Greek trichotomy, or consider the former as synonymous with the latter, in either case, and from the very design of the apostrophe, we have here the highest proof of a nature in man superior to the organic or psychical, rising by faith in God victorious over all infirmities and disasters of the latter, as its nature and existence are distinct from and independent of it. It is the spiritual and immortal nature asserting its superiority over the instinctive and perishable.
Health of my countenance Hebrew, Deliverance, or salvation, of my face. The word rendered “health,” here, is the same as is rendered “help” in Psa 42:5, where also we have “his” (God’s) countenance, instead of “my” countenance, as here. That is, in Psa 42:5 God turns his face towards David as a token and pledge of his delivering grace, and this revives and gladdens the countenance of the suppliant. The language is strongly oriental.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope you in God,
For I will yet praise him,
Who is the help of my countenance,
And my God.
So once again he calls on his soul, and demands to know why it should be so disquieted within him. Rather should he hope in God, for he is confident that one day he will again praise God in His House, and this because God is the One Who enables him to lift up his face, and is his God. Thus he knows that He cannot finally let him down.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 42:11. The health of my countenance The salvation of my countenance; i.e. The preserver of my person, which is chiefly expressed in the countenance; or rather the support of my face; he who enableth me to hold up my face; which is equivalent to another expression, the lifter up of my head. Mudge.
REFLECTIONS.We have here,
1. The eager longings of David’s soul after communion with God in the courts of his sanctuary. Like the hart flying before the blood-thirsty hounds, parched with heat, and panting for breath, with such intense desires is he athirst for God, for a sense of his love and favour, even for the living God, the only fountain of true felicity. Note; (1.) Nothing but God will satisfy the believer’s soul; a sense of his love is his supreme happiness; and, if that be withdrawn, every other enjoyment is tasteless. (2.) While foolish men, with eager impatience, seek from their broken cisterns of earthly comforts to slake their raging thirst: how few feel these ardent desires after the living fountain! (3.) Constrained absence from the means of grace is a sore burden to the true believer, and quickens his longings after them. (4.) If God’s sanctuary was so desirable, how much more his beatific presence in his eternal temple!
2. He laments the sorrows which oppressed him, the insults that he sustained from his taunting enemies, and his dejection under the views of the blessings he had lost and the miseries he endured. The heathens, among whom he dwelt, upbraided him as having no visible God, while their idols stood in their temples; or his Jewish enemies reproached him, as if he was now abandoned of God, because he appeared not instantly for his relief. These things melted his heart with sorrow, and made his eyes as fountains of tears which, flowing ceaseless, mingled with his cup, or so affected him, that he forgot to eat his bread; while the remembrance of past happy days rose up to aggravate his distress in that strange land, where no songs of Zion were heard, no holy festivals observed to Jehovah, nor multitude of worshippers appeared, crowding his gates with sacrifices of praise.
3. Under all, he encourages his heart in God. Why art thou cast down, O my soul, so broken, so dispirited, and why art thou disquieted within me, as if all were lost, and help despaired of? hope thou in God, cast this firm anchor there, and then thou shalt not only ride out the storm in safety, but, when these thick clouds disperse before his bright beams, the light of his countenance shall return, and the language of my ransomed soul be praise. Note; (1.) In our distresses it is good to reason with our souls, why am I thus? We often cause our own dejection, by poring on our trials or afflictions, and forgetting the promises, grace, and faithfulness of our Redeemer. (2.) In heaven at least all the sorrows of the faithful shall end, and the never-clouded light of God’s countenance fill their souls with everlasting consolations.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Here is a beautiful reiteration of what was said before, and every renewed view of a God in covenant, and every renewed remembrance of a God engaged in covenant, brings with it increasing strength to the soul. I shall praise him now, and I shall praise him forever. He is, he hath been, and he will be the strength of my soul, and any salvation forever.
REFLECTIONS
Oh! thou ever living, ever flowing, ever refreshing source, to assuage the thirsty souls of thy redeemed in all their pilgrimage state here below; precious Jesus! be thou to me, as to the church in all ages, a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. Thou art indeed in the midst of the throne above, leading thy church to fountains of living waters; but never to overlook or forget thy redeemed in the wilderness below.
No, bountiful Lord! there is enough in thee for all, and nothing can interrupt or cause to intermit even for a moment, thy attention to the thirsty souls of poor sinners. Thou hast said, If any man thirst let him come to me and drink: And, To him that is athirst will I give of the water of life freely. Come, Holy Spirit, and give me that thirst of soul equal to the most vehement desires of the hart for the water-brooks, and cause me to be continually going forth in holy longings after Jesus; and the more he gratifies them, the more may these longings increase, until I appear before the presence of God, and drink my fill of Jesus at the fountainhead of bliss and glory!
And, my soul, I charge it upon thee, this day, cast all thy fears, thy doubts, thine unbelief, cast the whole to the wind; never, never more let these things rob thee of thy confidence in Jesus, neither thy God in Christ of his glory. Jesus hath promised to the thirsty soul a full assuaging of all his longings. Who then will arise to prevent? What shall ever exhaust a full, free, suitable, and all-sufficient Saviour? And if men will not leave the snow of Lebanon, which cometh from the rock of the field, or if the cold flowing waters which come from another place be not forsaken, shall my soul leave Jesus, the rock of ages; or shall the streams which come from the heaven of heavens (which is himself,) be forsaken, or feared, or doubted by me? Oh, my soul! keep a stedfast eye on Jesus. From the depths of thine own unworthiness, weakness, and misery, cry to the depths of mercy in Jesus. Hope thou in thy God, for I shall yet praise him on earth; and by and by eternally praise him in heaven, who is the health of my countenance and my God.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 42:11 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.
Ver. 11. Why art thou cast down ] See Psa 42:5 .
Who is the health of my countenance
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
health = salvation.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 42:11
Psa 42:11
“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 help of my countenance, and my God.”
We have already commented upon the meaning of this verse in the three locations where it appears in these psalms, giving the particular meaning in each case. See under Psa 42:5, above.
The evidence of the influence of the words of Jonah in this passage is overwhelming.
“I shall yet praise him (God)” (Psa 42:10). Jonah prayed, “I am cast out from before thine eyes, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.” (Jon 2:4). And again, he prayed, “The earth with its bars closed upon me forever, yet hast thou brought up my life from the pit … and my prayer came in unto thee” (2:6-7). Note the recurrence of the word “yet” and its position here in Psa 42:10.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 42:11. See comments at Psa 42:5 for application to this verse.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
cast down: Psa 42:5, Psa 43:5
the health: Jer 30:17, Jer 33:6, Mat 9:12
Reciprocal: Gen 49:6 – O my soul 1Sa 30:6 – David 1Ki 8:38 – the plague Job 21:4 – if it were Psa 6:3 – My Psa 44:3 – light Psa 55:22 – Cast Psa 62:5 – soul Psa 63:1 – thou Psa 71:5 – For thou Psa 73:1 – Truly Psa 74:1 – O God Psa 119:50 – This Psa 131:2 – quieted Pro 12:25 – Heaviness Pro 18:14 – but Isa 36:7 – We trust Isa 50:10 – let Lam 3:20 – humbled Lam 3:24 – therefore Jon 2:7 – I remembered 1Co 13:13 – hope 2Co 4:9 – cast 1Th 5:8 – the hope Heb 6:19 – both Heb 11:1 – is the
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 42:11. Why art thou cast down, &c. See note on Psa 42:5. Who is the health of my countenance Hebrew, The salvations of my face: which will make my face to shine, and my countenance cheerful, which supposes the gladness of the heart and the bettering of his condition. And my God As he formerly was, so he is still, and ever will be; and will assuredly show himself to be my God, although, for a season, he may hide his face, or withdraw his help from me.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
42:11 {k} 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.
(k) This repetition declares that David did not overcome at once, to teach us to be constant, for as much as God will certainly deliver his.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Again the psalmist encouraged himself with the rhetorical refrain (cf. Psa 42:5).
When spiritually dry, we who are believers should remind ourselves that God is sufficient for all our needs. This remembrance will encourage us to continue to trust Him while we go through temporarily distressing periods. [Note: See Swindoll, pp. 118-29.]