March 24, 1999

EXPLORE THE BIBLE:
A genuine search for God
will find him waiting
___Psalm 42:1-11
___By Dillard Wilbanks
___Travis Avenue Baptist Church, Fort Worth
___Psalm 42 is a psalm of lament. It gives expression to conflicting emotions which people of God have experienced through the ages. Sorrow and song, fear and faith, doubt and devotion are intermingled throughout. The question "why" is asked five times. Whether it is right or wrong to ask God "why" is dependent upon the spirit in which it is done. No one who asks the question out of a "thirst" for God will fail to find the answer in him.
___ A search for God (Psalm 42:1-4). The psalmist begins with an expression of his thirst for God while drowning in tears of sorrow. His very soul, his deepest life, was insatiable for a sense of divine presence. He thirsts for God as a panting deer, having escaped a chase, now thirsts for water in the desert. He exemplifies the words of Augustine, "Thou hast made us for thyself, and our souls are restless until they find rest in thee."
___Like the prodigal son, he remembers better days. His memory is of days when he used to be in God's house with multitudes of joyful worshipers. Now he is prevented from going up to the temple at some feast time and expresses his grief.
___This dual hunger for God and corporate worship poses serious questions for professing Christians today. Does my worship attendance pattern reflect a thirst for God and a longing to be with fellow Christians? With what attitude do I enter God's house? Am I a spectator or participant in voices of joy and praise? Spiritual renewal today begins with the renewal of genuine worship.
___ God at work (Psalm 42:5-8). This memory now provokes two introspective questions: "Why are you in despair, O my soul, and why have you become disturbed (v. 5a NASB)?" His memory also moves him to hope--to wait expectantly (v. 5b). He expresses the confidence that God will restore him from his brokenness and once again make his presence known.
___In verse 6 the psalmist taps into his memory once again, not of the temple, but of other times and places where God has met him in the past. Both the calm and the storm are inevitable in the Christian life. When in the storm we may feel, as did he, the "breakers and waves" of engulfing waters are pulling us under. Remember, God's lovingkindness is a secure lifeboat on a rough sea.
___ Confidence in God (42:9-11). During God's perceived absence and his silence, enemies have oppressed the psalmist with scoffing, asking him continuously "Where is your God?" Such are the questions of the humanists, new agers, secularists and agnostics of today. How is he to deal with this unnerving mockery?
___ With hope in God (Psalm 42:11). Enemies are still present, conditions have not changed and the circumstances are unaltered. What has changed is the attitude of the sufferer. Praise is but an external expression of an internal attitude. Hope is not dependent upon fluctuating circumstances.
___We can be encouraged that no day ever will dawn when a child of God is totally forsaken by his Lord. God reigns over circumstances. If the writer could ground his fervent and compassionate prayer in the very nature and grace of God without what we know from the New Testament, how much greater should be the measure of our hope in God. How much more should that confidence be evidenced in our countenance as we move among the skeptics of our day.

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