Talk to Yourself (2 of 6)
Series: Summer in the Psalms
Jonathan McLeod
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 and my God (v. 11).
ARE YOU FEELING CAST DOWN?
The book of Psalms is a book of poems that were meant to be sung. ''Poetry and singing exist because God made us with emotions, not just thoughts.'' Sometimes we feel like the writer of Psalm 42 who twice says that he feels ''cast down'' (vv. 5, 11). He is ''downcast'' (NIV), ''discouraged'' (NLT), ''in despair'' (NASB). We might even say that he's depressed.
For a Christian to struggle with depression is not an unusual thing. Charles Spurgeon is known as the ''Prince of Preachers,'' but many are unaware that he often battled depression. Spurgeon said that during one period of depression, when ''my spirits were sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child, and yet I knew not what I wept for...a kind friend was telling me of some poor old soul living near, who was suffering very great pain, and yet she was full of joy and rejoicing. I was so distressed by the hearing of that story, and felt so ashamed of myself....''
Are you feeling cast down today? What should we do when we feel discouraged?
[Read Psalm 42.]
WHERE ARE YOU, GOD?
Psalm 42 was written by the Sons of Korah. The Sons of Korah were temple singers: ''...the Korahites, stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice'' (2 Chron. 20:19). The psalmist is far away from Jerusalem (''I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar,'' v. 6), and he longs to be back at the temple where he is most able to feel God's presence: ''When shall I come and appear before God [see the face of God]?'' (v. 2b). He remembers how he ''would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise'' (v. 4).
The psalmist says, ''As a deer pants for ...
Series: Summer in the Psalms
Jonathan McLeod
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 and my God (v. 11).
ARE YOU FEELING CAST DOWN?
The book of Psalms is a book of poems that were meant to be sung. ''Poetry and singing exist because God made us with emotions, not just thoughts.'' Sometimes we feel like the writer of Psalm 42 who twice says that he feels ''cast down'' (vv. 5, 11). He is ''downcast'' (NIV), ''discouraged'' (NLT), ''in despair'' (NASB). We might even say that he's depressed.
For a Christian to struggle with depression is not an unusual thing. Charles Spurgeon is known as the ''Prince of Preachers,'' but many are unaware that he often battled depression. Spurgeon said that during one period of depression, when ''my spirits were sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child, and yet I knew not what I wept for...a kind friend was telling me of some poor old soul living near, who was suffering very great pain, and yet she was full of joy and rejoicing. I was so distressed by the hearing of that story, and felt so ashamed of myself....''
Are you feeling cast down today? What should we do when we feel discouraged?
[Read Psalm 42.]
WHERE ARE YOU, GOD?
Psalm 42 was written by the Sons of Korah. The Sons of Korah were temple singers: ''...the Korahites, stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice'' (2 Chron. 20:19). The psalmist is far away from Jerusalem (''I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar,'' v. 6), and he longs to be back at the temple where he is most able to feel God's presence: ''When shall I come and appear before God [see the face of God]?'' (v. 2b). He remembers how he ''would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise'' (v. 4).
The psalmist says, ''As a deer pants for ...
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