Psalms 42:6 - Meaning and Application

Complaints and comforts take turns here, as day and night do in nature. First, he complains about how low his spirit has fallen, then he comforts himself with thoughts of God (Psalms 42:6).

In his trouble, his soul is downcast, and he brings that grief to God: “O my God, my soul is cast down within me.” That is a strong support to us when we are distressed, because we are free to come to God and speak openly before him. David had already talked to himself about his bitterness, but he found no relief. So he turns to God and lays the trouble before him. When we cannot ease our burdened hearts by talking to ourselves, we should try prayer and leave our case with God. We cannot calm the storm on our own, but we know who can.

In his devotion, his soul also rises, and he uses remembrance of God as a remedy. “My soul is sunk, so I will remember you, think on you, and call on you, and see whether that will steady me.” The way to lose our sense of misery is to remember the God who shows mercy. It is unusual when remembering God makes someone troubled (Psalms 77:3), because often it brings comfort instead. David had often remembered God and been helped by it, so he returns to that path now.

He was driven to the far edges of the land of Canaan to escape his persecutors. At times he was in the country around the Jordan, and when he was found there, he went to the land of the Hermonites, or to Mizar, the little hill. But wherever he went, he took his religion with him. He remembered God there, lifted up his heart to him, and kept private fellowship with him. That is a comfort to exiles, wanderers, travelers, and all who are strangers in a strange land, because wherever they are, heaven is still open above them.

Wherever he was, he also kept his love for God’s house. From the Jordan country or from the tops of the hills, he would look longingly toward the sanctuary and wish himself there. Distance and time could not erase what his heart loved so deeply.

He also complains about signs of God’s displeasure, but he still holds onto hope that God’s favor will return in due time. He sees his troubles as coming from God’s wrath, and that discourages him. “Deep calls to deep,” one trouble rushing after another, as if each one were calling the next to hasten on. God’s water-spouts seem to sound the alarm of war. This may describe his own mind, where one fearful thought called up another, as often happens with sorrowful, troubled people. It was as though he were overwhelmed by a flood of grief, like the old world when the windows of heaven were opened and the great deep broke up. Or it may picture a ship in a violent storm, tossed by roaring waves that sweep over it (Psalms 107:25).

Whatever waves and billows come over us, we must call them God’s waves and billows. That helps us humble ourselves under his mighty hand and also hope that, though we are threatened, we will not be destroyed. The waves are under his control. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters. So let good people not think it strange if they face many trials, one after another. God knows what he is doing, and they will understand it more fully soon.

Jonah used these same words in the belly of the great fish (Jonah 2:3), and in his case they were literally true: “All your waves and billows have gone over me.” The book of Psalms is written so that it can fit every believer’s case.

Still, he expects deliverance from God’s favor. “Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness.” Things are bad now, but they will not always stay that way. After the storm comes calm, and that hope supports him when trouble piles up. What he expects from God is God’s favor, the source of all the good he hopes for. That favor is life itself, better than life, and with it God will gather back those from whom he has hidden his face for a little while (Isaiah 54:7-8).

God’s giving of his favor is described as commanding it. That shows how free it is, because we cannot claim to deserve it. It is also powerful, because when he speaks his lovingkindness, people hear it and it is done. He commands deliverance (Psalms 44:4) and commands the blessing (Psalms 133:3), like one who has full authority. When he commands his lovingkindness, he also commands the waves and billows to stop, and they obey him. He will do this by day, because God’s lovingkindness can make a day in the soul at any time. Though weeping may last for a night, even a long night, joy will come in the morning.

If God commands his lovingkindness for him, he will welcome it with the best of his heart and worship. He will rejoice in God: “In the night his song shall be with me.” The mercies we receive in the day should be answered with thanks at night. While others sleep, we should be praising God (Psalms 119:62). In quiet and solitude, away from the rush of the world, we should comfort ourselves with thoughts of God’s goodness. Or, in the night of affliction, before the day dawns when God shows his lovingkindness, he will sing praise in hope of it. Even in suffering, God’s people can rejoice in hope of the glory of God, singing and praising in hope (Romans 5:2-3). It is God’s special right to give songs in the night (Job 35:10).

He will also keep praying in steady dependence on God: “My prayer shall be to the God of my life.” Our hope for mercy should not replace prayer, but stir us to pray more. God is the God of our life, the one in whom we live and move, and the giver of every comfort we have. So who should we pray to except him? And from whom can we expect more good than from him? Seeing God as the God of our life gives life to our prayers, because then we are asking for the life of our souls as well as our bodies.

His complaint is that his enemies oppressed him and spoke badly of him, and this weighed heavily on him. They pressed him so hard that he went mourning from day to day and from place to place (Psalm 42:9). He did not lash out in foolish anger, even though he was mistreated in a way few have ever been. Instead, he quietly wept over his sorrow and kept on mourning. We cannot fault him for feeling that way. It must grieve a person who truly loves his country and wants its good to see himself persecuted and treated harshly, as if he were an enemy.

Still, David should not have concluded from this that God had forgotten him and rejected him. He should not have spoken to God as if God had done him the same wrong that his persecutors did. He asked, “Why do I go mourning?” and “Why have you forgotten me?” We may bring our complaints to God, but we are not allowed to complain about God in that way.

They also mocked him so bitterly that it felt like a sword in his bones (Psalm 42:10). He had already said what the taunt was that cut him so deeply, and he repeats it here: “They say to me every day, ‘Where is your God?’” This was especially painful because it dishonored God and was meant to shake his hope in God. His faith was already hard enough to keep alive, and this kind of mockery was all too likely to weaken it.

His comfort was that God was his rock (Psalm 42:9), a solid place to stand and a shelter to hide in. The eternal Rock, in whom there is lasting strength, would be his strength within, both for doing what was right and for enduring suffering. He could come to God, his rock, with confidence and say everything he needed to say, knowing he would receive a gracious hearing.

So he repeats what he had said before (Psalm 42:5) and ends with it again (Psalm 42:11): “Why are you cast down, O my soul?” His grief and fears kept making noise, and they were not quieted at once, even after being answered again and again. But at last faith won the victory and drove the enemies from the field.

He wins this victory in two ways. First, he repeats what he had already said, rebuking himself again for his sadness and unrest, and urging himself to trust in the name of the Lord and rest on his God. It can help us greatly to think over our good thoughts again. If they do not help us the first time, they may the second. In any case, when the heart goes with the words, repeated words are not empty. We need to press the same truth into our hearts over and over, and even that is barely enough.

Second, he adds one word. Before, he said he would praise God for the salvation of his countenance. Here he says, “I will praise him” as the one who saves my face from the cloud now resting on it. If God smiles on me, then I will look cheerful, look up, look ahead, and look around with joy. He adds, “my God,” meaning God is joined to me in covenant, a binding promise relationship, so all that he is and all that he has belongs to me according to the true meaning of that promise.

This thought helped him rise above all his grief and fears. God’s being with his saints in heaven, and being their God, is what will wipe away every tear from their eyes (Revelation 21:3, Revelation 21:4).