Today, I would have us consider the second stanza of this “sadly beautiful” psalm (42:6-11). Here we find the psalmist seeking to rise out of the “depths” of spiritual drowning. In a sense we see him vigorously treading, trying to keep himself afloat in the deluge of difficulty he was encountering. We witness his dramatic struggle. Sinking, yet remembering. Submerged, yet rising. Stymied, yet recovering.
Sinking, Yet Remembering.
Even though he addressed his soul in verse 5, his discouragement remains. “O my God, my soul is in despair [“sunk down”] within me.” It is often difficult to stop a troubled soul from sinking! But here we see the psalmist trying! He takes up to direct his thoughts: “I remember You from the land of the Jordan and the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.” Though he is displaced and far removed from Jerusalem, he turns his soul to his God. Though his soul is literally “sunk down,” his sights are set in the right place, on God Himself.
God Himself is, as Spurgeon noted, our terra firma. The psalmist will say as much in verse 9 as he calls God “my rock.”
Submerged, Yet Rising.
But his trouble is totally overwhelming him. “Deep calls to deep . . .” He uses incredible language to describe the depths he feels he is in. The “deep” (Heb. tehom) was used of the flood waters that covered the earth in the judgment of Noah’s day (Gen. 7:11; 8:2). He is greatly tried–like a little ship in the middle of a storm-tossed sea. Huge billows mount up so that on all sides all he sees is one watery abyss calling to another to swallow him up, to fall upon and crush him. One flood invites another in an awful conspiracy to sink the psalmist. Deluge follows deluge. Like Jonah he is submerged and sunken under breakers and waves he understands have come from God Himself, “Thy waterfalls . . . Thy breakers . . . Thy waves.”
But it appears that in recognizing the breakers and waves as from God Himself, that he begins to gain a measure of strength again. He is able to catch his breath in the depths by anticipating God’s lovingkindness and grace. In the depths his faith finds a foothold, a “rock” (v. 9). He lifts his head above the swirling cataracts. He will not be abandoned to the breakers and waves. Where in the first stanza he found no relief “day and night” (v. 3), now he anticipates the LORD’s lovingkindness “in the daytime,” and His song “in the night”—the LORD’s grace in time of need. He finds strength to pray, as he says, “to the God of my life.” What a wonderful reference this is! Who he called “the living God” in verse 2 he calls the “God of my life” in verse 8.
The living God is the God of his living. His difficulty is not lessened, but his despondency will lose its strength in his looking to His God.
Stymied, Yet Recovering.
His expressed assurance of the LORD’s help in verse 8 is immediately followed with a resolve to “confront” Him concerning His absence in verses 9 and 10. “I’m hanging on! Where are you?” He doesn’t know how long he can tread. All he hears is the constant verbal battery of his adversaries, “Where is your God?” As he would seek to come up for air, they throw more weight upon his burdened soul. It is tough being “in the depths”! The psalmist’s faith is fighting to stay afloat.
As he did in the first stanza of this psalm, the psalmist turns to address his soul once again in verse 11.
The Challenge to His Soul.
He issues the same challenge to his soul as he did in the first stanza: “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me.” The lesson to his soul must come a second time. The remedy remains the same. If we would climb out of the depths we must not weary of rebuking our persistence in self-pitying despair and rehearsing the prescription for recovery.
The Counsel to His Soul.
As the challenge to his soul remains the same, so does the earlier counsel: “Hope in God.” “Throw the anchor out again!” Wait upon Him. Trust in His timing and help. Give your soul no mercy until it looks to the God of mercy!
The Confidence of His Soul.
And so issues the same confident assurance: “For I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance, and my God.”
We have One who rules the wind and waves of this world, One who walked upon the water, One who knows intimately what it is like to “be in the depths,” One who knows the reality of being “God-forsaken.”
The Scripture wonderfully declares that while He was being reviled and suffering on the Cross for the sake of our souls, He “kept entrusting Himself” to the Father (1 Pt. 2:23).
Hang on, dear saints. Hold fast to your Rock, to the Lord of your life. And tell your soul, “Hope in God,” who sent His Son to save you, who raised Him from the dead to give you life, and seated Him at His right hand to bring you to His glory.
