Psalm 42:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
Imagine you are a little deer in the desert. What would be your primary goal? What would you be looking for? Well, I think we all know. What if you were a cactus, a camel, or yourself in the desert? What would you be looking for? You would first be looking for food and water, and then you would probably be looking for a car.
The psalmist in Psalm 42:1-2 says, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God.” A person can live thirty days or so without food, unless it is a teenage boy, who can only live about thirty minutes without food. One can live roughly three days without water. So, a deer in the desert is looking for water. But you can’t live another minute without hope. That is why the psalmist equates his need for God with his need for water. “My soul thirsteth for God.” You cannot live without hope.
The psalmist was in a depressed state. In verse 5 he says, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why are thou disquieted in me?” He was cast down. He had nowhere to look but up. And he had a noisy heart. Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and you have to keep excusing yourself, “I’m sorry. What did you say?” because you have a voice in your head yelling at you. You have a noisy heart and mind. That is perhaps where the psalmist was.
In verse 6 he says, “O my God, my soul is cast down.” In verse 11 he says, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?” It is a repetition of the refrain in verse 5. In Psalm 43:5 he says the exact same thing, “Why are you cast down?” He was in a depressed state.
You may find a number of answers for why David is cast down if you comb through Psalms 42 and 43, but they are basically condensed into the perceived absence of God in his life and what he could see. In Psalm 42:3 people ask, “Where is thy God?” They are saying, “You have all this turmoil in your life. Where is God?” Verse 9 says, “I will say unto God my rock, Why has thou forgotten me?” He recognizes God as steady, steadfast, and strong, but what good is that if God doesn’t remember or regard you? He asks God in verse 10, “As with the sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?”
Now, almost by definition, hope is the presence of God in your future. In verse 5, after saying, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me?” he says, “Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.” That is future tense, talking about tomorrow. Later in verse 11 he talks about God Who is the “health of my countenance.” So, I can find help in God’s countenance and that in turn is the health of my countenance. When I am standing face to face with God, He is my health and help.
Again, in Psalm 43:5 God is “the health of my countenance.” The words “health” and “help” are the same word, and they are the same word from which we get the word “Joshua.” It means “salvation.” God is what I need. He is looking to the future. Psalm 42:11 says, “I shall yet praise him.” He is saying, “I don’t know yet what other things I will have to give praise about, but I do know that I’ll be doing that.”
Everything looks different when God is in your future. That is especially important if you feel as if He is absent today because hope by definition is the presence of God in your future. And by the way, it is not as if God will meet you in the future. God is already there. I am limited by time and space, but God is not. God could be here and where you are at the same time. God is here today and already in tomorrow. So, what you need in the future is not a thing, a place, a destination, or money; it is a Person. If you feel as if you are in a tight spot today, remember that hope is the presence of God in your future and indeed God is in your future.