Psalm 42:1-11 As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after you, O God.… I. THE CAUSES OF DAVID'S DESPONDENCY. 1. The thirst for God. 2. The temporary loss of the sense of God's personality.Let us search our own experience. What we want is, we shall find, not infinitude, but a boundless One; not to feel that love is the law of this universe, but to feel One whose name is Love. For else, if in this world of order there be no One in whose bosom that order is centred, and of whose Being it is the expression: in this world of manifold contrivance, no Personal Affection which gave to the skies their trembling tenderness, and to the snow its purity: then order, affection, contrivance, wisdom, are only horrible abstractions, and we are in the dreary universe alone. Foremost in the declaration of this truth was the Jewish religion. It proclaimed — not "Let us meditate on the Adorable light, it shall guide our intellects" — which is the most sacred verse of the Hindoo sacred books: but "Thus saith the Lord, I am, that I am." In that word "I am," is declared Personality; and it contains, too, in the expression, "Thus saith," the real idea of a revelation, viz., the voluntary approach of the Creator to the creature. Accordingly, these Jewish psalms are remarkable for that personal tenderness towards God — those outbursts of passionate individual attach. meat which are in every page. How different this from the God of the theologian — a God that was, but scarcely is: and from the God of the philosopher — a mere abstraction, a law into which all other laws are resolved. Quite differently speaks the Bible of God. Not as a Law: but as the Life of all that is — the Being who feels and is felt — is loved and loves again — counts the hairs of my head: feeds the ravens, and clothes the lilies: hears my prayers, and interprets them through a Spirit which has affinity with my spirit. It is a dark moment when the sense of that personality is lost: more terrible than the doubt of immortality. For of the two — eternity without a personal God, or God for seventy years without immortality no one after David's heart would hesitate, "Give me God for life, to know and be known by Him." No thought is more hideous than that of an eternity without Him. "My soul is athirst for God." The desire for immortality is second to the desire for God. 3. The taunts of scoffers. "Where is now thy God?" (ver. 3). This is ever the way in religious perplexity: the unsympathizing world taunts or misunderstands. In spiritual grief they ask, why is he not like others? In bereavement they call your deep sorrow unbelief. In misfortune they comfort you, like Job's friends, by calling it a visitation. Or like the barbarians at Melita, when the viper fastened on Paul's hand: no doubt they call you an infidel, though your soul be crying after God. Specially in that dark and awful hour, when He called on God, "Eloi, Eloi:" they said, "Let be: let us see whether Elias will come to save Him." II. DAVID'S CONSOLATION. 1. And first, in hope (ver. 5): distinguish between the feelings of faith that God is present, and the hope of faith that He will be so. There are hours in which physical derangement darkens the windows of the soul; days in which shattered nerves make life simply endurance; months and years in which intellectual difficulties, pressing for solution, shut out God. Then faith must be replaced by hope. "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter." Clouds and darkness are round about Him: but righteousness and truth are the habitation of His throne. 2. This hope was in God. The mistake we make is to look for a source of comfort in ourselves: self-contemplation instead of gazing upon God. In other words, we look for comfort precisely where comfort never can be. For first, it is impossible to derive consolation from our own feelings, because of their mutability. Nor can we gain comfort from our own acts, because in a low state we cannot justly judge them. And we lose time in remorse. In God alone is our hope. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: {To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah.} As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.WEB: As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God. |
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