This song is based off Psalm 42. The psalmist was downcast due to some trying and difficult times in his life. He may have been in exile. He was suffering greatly. The storms and tempests of his life were sweeping over him like a flood. He felt forgotten by God. He questioned why he must endure such suffering. He was bordering on serious depression. Satan was attacking him, putting doubts in his mind: “Where is your God? Why has he not come to rescue you?”
The psalmist thus counseled himself. He countered each doubt with the truth of who God is, and with the truth of the psalmist’s past relationship with God; how God was his only hope; how God was his Savior (fulfilled in Jesus Christ) and his Lord; how the Lord sent forth his love into the psalmist’s life day-by-day; and how at night God’s song was always with him. God had always been there for him before, and he would not leave him now. And, he remembered that God was his Rock (a name for Jesus Christ), i.e. his fortress and his deliverer. In other words, the psalmist chose to put on the armor of God with which to fight off Satan’s attacks (lies) and to put on the truth of who God is, and of all that he has done.
The psalmist intensely longed for his intimate relationship with God to be restored, i.e. for him to sense God’s holy presence abiding with him. He compared his intense thirst for God and for his righteousness to that of a deer panting for water. He longed to meet with God in his temple. He cried so many tears over his painful situation that it almost seemed as though his tears had been his food day and night. Men mocked him in his situation, thus reinforcing the thought in his mind that he had been deserted by God. Yet he chose to pour out his soul to God in prayer, to counter those lies with the truth, and, in spite of all his suffering, to put his hope and trust in God.
Why So Downcast? / An Original Work / December 21, 2012
Based off Psalm 42
Why so downcast, O my soul,
And why so disturbed now within me?
Put your hope in Jesus Christ,
For I will praise His name.
He’s my Savior and my God,
So therefore I’ll remember Him through
Storms and tempests sweeping o’er me.
Still I’ll praise His name.
Put your hope in God.
By day the Lord sends forth His love.
In the night His song is with me.
I pray to the God of my life.
I will praise His name. I say to God my Rock,
“Why must I be called to suffer this way?”
Foes attack me; Satan sneering.
Still I’ll praise my God.
Put your hope in Him.
As a deer pants for the waters,
So my soul pants for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God who’s living.
When can I meet Him?
My tears have been my food at night,
When men say, “So, where is your God?”
I pour out my soul to my God.
I’ll still praise His name.
Shout with joy to Him.
The psalmist thus counseled himself. He countered each doubt with the truth of who God is, and with the truth of the psalmist’s past relationship with God; how God was his only hope; how God was his Savior (fulfilled in Jesus Christ) and his Lord; how the Lord sent forth his love into the psalmist’s life day-by-day; and how at night God’s song was always with him. God had always been there for him before, and he would not leave him now. And, he remembered that God was his Rock (a name for Jesus Christ), i.e. his fortress and his deliverer. In other words, the psalmist chose to put on the armor of God with which to fight off Satan’s attacks (lies) and to put on the truth of who God is, and of all that he has done.
The psalmist intensely longed for his intimate relationship with God to be restored, i.e. for him to sense God’s holy presence abiding with him. He compared his intense thirst for God and for his righteousness to that of a deer panting for water. He longed to meet with God in his temple. He cried so many tears over his painful situation that it almost seemed as though his tears had been his food day and night. Men mocked him in his situation, thus reinforcing the thought in his mind that he had been deserted by God. Yet he chose to pour out his soul to God in prayer, to counter those lies with the truth, and, in spite of all his suffering, to put his hope and trust in God.
Why So Downcast? / An Original Work / December 21, 2012
Based off Psalm 42
Why so downcast, O my soul,
And why so disturbed now within me?
Put your hope in Jesus Christ,
For I will praise His name.
He’s my Savior and my God,
So therefore I’ll remember Him through
Storms and tempests sweeping o’er me.
Still I’ll praise His name.
Put your hope in God.
By day the Lord sends forth His love.
In the night His song is with me.
I pray to the God of my life.
I will praise His name. I say to God my Rock,
“Why must I be called to suffer this way?”
Foes attack me; Satan sneering.
Still I’ll praise my God.
Put your hope in Him.
As a deer pants for the waters,
So my soul pants for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God who’s living.
When can I meet Him?
My tears have been my food at night,
When men say, “So, where is your God?”
I pour out my soul to my God.
I’ll still praise His name.
Shout with joy to Him.
