My friend in college had a spiritual roller coaster journey. We were friends before I came to Christ. He was backsliding and left our college when he was kicked out of our fraternity. He went to another college to play college baseball.
During that time, he became close to the Lord and appealed to the fraternity to move back in. He came as a witness to show others what a life surrendered to Christ was like. Again, we became friends as I had made a profession of faith. I took him along to a Christian meeting where he met the girl who would become his wife.
We met some years later in South Texas and I found out his roller coaster journey had continued. He mentioned a young person at his church who gave a testimony. They played guitar, sang, and said in their testimony that when they spend time with the Lord their spirit soars.
My friend resented that young man giving the testimony. He said you paint my face on him and that was me twelve years ago. He said let’s see how this young man does in twelve years when he has a job that keeps him on the road and family responsibilities with two children. Life becomes complicated. Let’s hear how you talk about letting your spirit soar then.
You may have your own spiritual roller coaster experience when you spirit would soar and then you felt like you were wondering in the spiritual desert. There is no doubt that holding a job, paying a house mortgage, and having family responsibilities can keep us from thirsting for God.
You will never drift toward the Lord, you only drift away from the Lord. We must deliberately focus to return to the Lord. Psalm 42 is the right Psalm to refocus on seeking the Lord and returning to that place where your spirit soars. It is not just for the young single person to know these refreshing spiritual streams of water. If we seek the Lord like we find in Psalm 42 we will grow close to the Lord in midlife and old age. We will be able to say the longer I serve him the sweeter He grows.
Even with serving the Lord we can drift away in our relationship with God. We could study the Bible, go to meetings and be busy serving people but not seek God like the deer pants for water. When that happens, we miss the fellowship with God that student was sharing about. We don’t need to resent the testimony of the young person whose spirit soars. We need to get our own spiritual life back on the right path.
I was looking at my wife’s testimony that her cup of joy runs over. She is seeking the Lord more than thirty years later and her spirit soars. This goas beyond circumstances. This kind of spiritual joy comes despite the circumstances.
This song is attributed in the introduction to the sons of Korah. Their history begins in Genesis and starts with rebellion against Moses and against God. By the time of the Psalms, they are leading worship. Subsequently to King David’s reign we see as recorded in 2 Chronicles 20 how they blessed their nation.
The Lord’s people were under threat from a vast army with the alliance of nations coming to attack them. They sought the Lord and pleaded the Lord for deliverance. While under this threat the sons of Korah led the people to praise God. They were appointed to sing to the Lord and praise him for his splendor and holiness. During the time of praise the Lord caused the armies to defeat each other. The place was always known as the valley of praise.
These sons of Korah are the experts in seeking God. We need to seek God like they do. Let them point us to seeking God. This Psalm still may be about or by King David. It is written in first person and fits the situation of David’s life. In that case the sons of Korah arranged and put to music another Psalm of David. Whatever the case David’s life parallel’s this Psalm.
Like the college student whose spirit soared David was tremendous in his time with God and power of God in his life in his younger years. The Spirit of God gave him power to kill a bear, a lion and the giant Goliath.
When I was twenty-four years old, I was leaving Kansas City for an interview. I sat on the plane with the CEO of an Insurance company, Farmers Insurance group. He was reading the leadership book In Search of Excellence. I asked him what he was doing back here with me on the passenger plane. He said they were servicing his private corporate jet.
I said to him, let me tell you what a great leader David was. No other human leader has seen such success. He took Israel from insignificant to a superpower. You can’t search for excellence in a corporate setting and not consider what David did. I gave him the book on King David from the bible study I was in.
David was able to maintain his seek the Lord posture as King. He went through the troubles of running for his life because of Saul’s jealousy and his son Absolom’s jealousy. He went through internal family feuds and his own moral failure, and he lived the abiding life. How?
As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God? (Psalm 42:1-2)
David made seeking the Lord a priority. David would seek the Lord even when he is down, even when he feels overwhelmed. He would seek after the Lord like a deer seeking refreshment. It is like dry soil soaking up the water after the rain. Let the Lord be our refreshment.
We can seek the Lord through the practice of a daily quiet time. It is our time to meet with the Lord. A time where we open the Word of God and read until we find a scripture that meets a life situation.
It is amazing how the Lord will bring the right scripture for our situation at just the right time. We pray to the Lord. If you do not have the practice of a daily quiet time this is the time to make a start.
You can set a goal of a short time with the Lord and let it grow over time. If you can be consistent, then as the opportunities come expand your time with the Lord. Ask God to meet with you. Pray for your family and for the lost. Pray for the unreached people. Pray for God to answer the requests on your prayer list.
When you are having a constant quiet time, you will be blessed when someone testifies that their spirit soars. You will not feel like that used to be me; you will be blessed because also that is your experience. Spending time seeking God in this way is medicine for your soul.
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?” (Psalm 42:3)
What has driven the Psalmist to seek the Lord? It has been a brokenness that has them crying day and night. David had such emotional experiences but so has everyone. Something has happened in the life that has caused intense weeping.
This should be our response when we have anything in our life that has us crying day and night. This is a time we should seek the Lord. We live in a broken world. David wept intensely when his son was killed. We might weep over a broken relationship, our own failure or when we are hurt by others. The hurt should drive us to our knees to seek God.
These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation 6 and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
(Psalm 42:4-6)
Remember those mountaintop days when we are in the valley. We need to keep going when we are in the valley. We may feel forgotten by God, but nothing should stop you. Your time with the Lord must be your priority.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
8 By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me? (Psalm 42:7-11a)
You may be going through a spiritually parched time. You are thirsty for fellowship with the Lord. You can go to the Lord and let Him satisfy your spiritual thirst. You will find that your corporate worship comes alive when you seek the Lord in your private worship.
This is very similar to David’s Psalm that Jonah quoted in the belly of the fish. It calls us to see the Lord in unimaginable difficulties. Only the Lord will hear our voice in these times of despair.
You don’t need to let yourself come to the place where you are to busy to seek the Lord in private devotional time. Make time for seeking God. Make your spiritual life a priority. It will make a difference in your family life your work your church life in everything.
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God. (Psalm 42:11b)
The Psalmist, weather it was David or another author they had been through extreme difficulties. The sons of Korah were the experts of putting these Psalms to song. At night they would be with the people singing them and encouraging them to seek the Lord in everything.
We must seek after God. Our hope is in God and our salvation is in God. The Lord is able to deliver us from despair. Put your hope in Christ who came to die for us the just for the unjust to bring us back to God.
