Lord, Jesus Christ, teach me to pray.
Psalm 42
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so I long for you, O God.
I thirst for God, the living God.
When can I come and stand before him?
Day and night, I have only tears for food,
while my enemies continually taunt me, saying,
“Where is this God of yours?”
My heart is breaking
as I remember how it used to be:
I walked among the crowds of worshippers,
leading a great procession to the house of God,
singing for joy and giving thanks--
it was the sound of a great celebration!
Why am I discouraged?
Why so sad?
I will put my hope in God!
I will praise him again--
my Savior and my God!
Now I am deeply discouraged,
but I will remember your kindness--
from Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan,
from the land of Mount Mizar.
I hear the tumult of the raging seas
as your waves and surging tides sweep over me.
Through each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me,
and through each night I sing his songs,
praying to God who gives me life.
“O God my rock,” I cry,
“Why have you forsaken me?
Why must I wander in darkness,
oppressed by my enemies?”
Their taunts pierce me like a fatal wound.
They scoff, “Where is this God of yours?”
Why am I discouraged?
Why so sad?
I will put my hope in God!
I will praise him again--
my savior and my God!
The Psalm for today is an example of a prayer of lament. A lament is a passionate expression of grief or sorrow. It may be very surprising to you that the lament is the most common type of prayer in the book of Psalms with 59 out of the 150 Psalms being laments. The next closest genre is praise psalms with only 47! It is not unusual for us to try to avoid these Psalms. The raw emotions that the laments express can make us feel uncomfortable.
Many of us are unsure about approaching God with all of these powerful feelings. The ancient Israelites did not seem to share our hesitation. They came to God with their praise, thanksgiving, penance, lament, anxieties, fears, questions, and even anger. They poured their hearts out sharing everything that they were feeling with God.
I chose this Psalm of lament today because I am very sure that we can all identify with the feelings being expressed in it. Who among us, at some points in our lives, have not been as deeply discouraged and sad as the Psalmist? We have all felt alone and, in the very bad times, as though a giant wave was breaking over us, knocking us down over and over so that we couldn’t find our footing. And, we have all struggled, just as the Psalmist, to keep trusting in God. If you read the Psalm closely you will see that the writer is trying to talk himself into keeping faith by praising God, by singing His songs, and by reminding himself of God’s unfailing love pouring over him, even though at this moment he can’t feel it. Most of us have been in a similar place, the place where we have to fake it until we make it. We have to practice our faith and faithfulness until we can actually feel God’s love and presence again.
Some of us are in the place of feeling some or all of the emotions expressed in this Psalm. Some of us are not. Either way, we can all pray this Psalm together either by remembering a time when you were in this place or by thinking of someone that you know who might be feeling these things right now. Read through the Psalm one more time, attempting to pray it deeply from your heart.
For your journal: What are the images that really jump out at you in this Psalm? Are you experiencing any of the emotions that the Psalmist expresses in his prayer? How do you feel about sharing everything that is in your heart with God?
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