Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.
Parallel Translations
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Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him, the saving help of my countenance, and my God.
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Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
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(42-12) Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why moanest thou within me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the salvation of my countenance, and my God.
Cross-references (5)
Passages linked to Psalms 42:11 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 42:5 Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.
- Jeremiah 33:6 ‘Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them; and I will reveal to them abundance of peace and truth.
- Psalms 43:5 Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him: my Savior, my helper, and my God.
- Jeremiah 30:17 For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds,” says Yahweh; “because they have called you an outcast, saying, ‘It is Zion, whom no man seeks after.’ ”
- Matthew 9:12 When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 11 O my soul! why art thou cast down?…
11 O my soul! why art thou cast down? This repetition shows us that David had not so completely overcome his temptations in one encounter, or by one extraordinary effort, as to render it unnecessary for him to enter anew into the same conflict. By this example, therefore, we are admonished, that although Satan, by his assaults, often subjects us to a renewal of the same trouble, we ought not to lose our courage, or allow ourselves to be cast down. The latter part of this verse differs from the fifth verse in one word, while in every other respect they agree. In the fifth verse, it is the helps of His countenance, but here we have the relative pronoun of the first person, thus, The helps of My countenance Perhaps in this place, the letter w, vau, which in the Hebrew language denotes the third person, is wanting. Still, as all the other versions agree in the reading which I have adopted, David might, without any absurdity, call God by this designation, The helps or salvations of My countenance, inasmuch as he looked with confidence for a deliverance, manifest and certain, as if God should appear in a visible manner as his defender, and the protector of his welfare. There can, however, be no doubt, that in this place the term helps or salvations is to be viewed as an epithet applied to God; for immediately after it follows, and my God
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain This repetition doth declare that David did not overcome…
This repetition doth declare that David did not overcome at once, to teach us to be constant, forasmuch as God will certainly deliver his.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 42:11 Why art thou cast down, O my…
Psa 42:11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, [who is] the health of my countenance, and my God.
Ver. 11. Why art thou cast down] See Psa 42:5.
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Who is the health of my countenance] i.e. The Author of my manifold, present, and apparent safety; such as shall make me look blithe and beautiful, cheery and chirp.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The health of my countenance, Heb. the salvations of…
The health of my countenance, Heb. the salvations of my face i.e. either,
1. Which are present and manifest, being before my face. Or,
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2. Which will make my face to shine, and my countenance cheerful, which supposeth the gladness of the heart, and the bettering of his condition. Or,
3. Of his person; as the face sometimes signifies, as 2Sa 17:11; Isa 3:15. As also the Greek word signifying face, is very frequently put for the person, whereof the face is an eminent part. My God: as he formerly was, so he still is, and ever will be, and will suddenly show himself to be, my God, although for a season he may hide his face, or withdraw his help from me.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Why art thou cast down, O my soul?.... The…
Why art thou cast down, O my soul?.... The same expostulation as in Psa 42:5; and so is what follows,
and why art thou disquieted within me? and the same argument and means are made use of to remove dejection and disquietude;
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hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him; See Gill on Psa 42:5; to which is added a new argument, taken from the grace and goodness of God, and covenant interest in him;
who is the health of my countenance, and my God; as the bodily health of man is seen in the countenance, and for the most part to be judged of by it; so is the spiritual health of the saints, and which they have from the Lord; when he, as the sun of righteousness, arises upon them with healing in his wings, he, by his gracious presence, makes their countenances cheerful, fills them with joy unspeakable and full of glory, and causes them to lift up their heads with an holy boldness and confidence, and without shame and fear: or as it may be rendered, who "is the salvations of my countenance" (o); that is, who is or will be the author of full and complete salvation to me; which will be so public and open, so clear and manifest, as to be beheld by myself and others; and this the psalmist mentions, in order to remove his present dejections; and besides, this God of salvation he believed was his covenant God, and would be so even unto death; and therefore he had no just reason to be dejected and disquieted.
(o) "salutes", Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Michaelis.
Next: Psalms Chapter 43
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 11. Why art thou cast down] There is…
Verse 11. Why art thou cast down] There is no reason why thou shouldst despair. God will appear and release thee and thy brother captives and soon thy sighing and sorrowing shall flee away.
Who is the health of my countenance] As a healthy state of the constitution shows itself in the appearance of the face; God will so rejoice thy heart, heal all thy spiritual maladies, that thy face shall testify the happiness that is within thee.
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There is a curious gloss on the first verse of this Psalm in my old Psalter, which I cannot withhold from the reader. The author translates and paraphrases the verse thus: -
Trans. Als the Hert yernes til the welles of waters; so my saule yernes til the God.
Par. This Psalm es al of perfite men, that er brinnand in the flamme of Goddes luf, and passes in til the contemplatyf lif: and tharfore it es sungen in the office of the dede men: for than haf thai, that thai yearned; that es, the syght of God. Far thi, sais he, als the Hert that has eten the nedder, gretely yernes to com til the welles of waters for to drynk and wax yong opayne: so destroyed in me vices and unclennes, my saule desyres with brinnand yernyng, to come til the God.
AElian, Appian, Aristotle, Nicander, and Pliny, all inform us that one cause why the hart thirsts for the waters is, that they eat serpents, and that the poison of them diffused through their entrails produces a burning heat and fever, to ease and cure themselves of which they have recourse to water. Many of the fathers tell the same tale, and from them the paraphrast in the old Psalter has borrowed what is inserted above: "Like as the hart, which has eaten the adder, greatly longs to come to the fountains of water to drink, that he may grow young again." The hart is undoubtedly a cunning animal; but it would be as difficult to believe that he eats serpents as it would be to believe that he seeks for and eats the fresh water crab or cray fish, in order to cure and make him grow young again, as Eusebius, Didymus, Theodoret, Jerome, Epiphanies, Gregory Nyssen, and others of the primitive fathers gravely inform us.
ANALYSIS OF THE FORTY-SECOND PSALM
The psalmist, driven from the assemblies of Modes people, complains; and as men overwhelmed with troubles are also oppressed with grief, so is he; and as they abruptly express their thoughts, so does he; for sometimes he expostulates, sometimes he complains! sometimes he corrects and checks himself for his weakness. One while he opens his doubts, and presently again sets forth his confidence in God. It is difficult on this account to analyze this Psalm; but it may be reduced to these four heads: -
I. The zeal of the psalmist to serve God in God's own house; Ps 42:1-2; Ps 42:4; Ps 42:6.
II. His complaint and expressions of grief for his absence, for his affliction, and his enemies' insults on that ground; Ps 42:3-4; Ps 42:7; Ps 42:10.
III. His expostulation with his soul for its diffidence, Ps 42:5-6; and again with God for his desertion, Ps 42:9.
IV. His faith and confidence in God's promises; Ps 42:5; Ps 42:8; Ps 42:11.
I. 1. He begins with an expression of his grief for his exile from the ordinances of God, and the assemblies of his people. And he sets forth his zeal and longing desire under the expressive similitude of a hard-hunted and thirsty stag: "As the hart panteth," c. Ps 42:1-2.
2. He shows the state he was in. 1. "My tears have been my meat day and night;" Ps 42:3. 2. And the cause was the bitter sarcasm of his enemies: "Where is now thy God?" Where is thy Protector? him in whom thou trustest?
II. That which added to his grief was that which gave occasion to this sarcasm, his banishment from the sanctuary.
1. When I remember these things, my absence, their insults, I pour out my heart to myself; tear follows tear, and one complaint succeeds to another.
2. And much reason I have to grieve when I compare my present with my former condition. Formerly "I went with the multitude to the house of God, - with the voice of joy and praise," c. I had gone now I cannot and must not go.
III. Hitherto he had expressed his zeal, his sorrow, and his complaints, with their causes. These put his soul in a sad condition; and thus he expostulates with himself: -
1. Blaming himself for his weakness and diffidence: "Why art thou cast down, O my soul," c.
2. Then presently fortifies himself in God's promises: "Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him," c.
In all which is described the combat that a good man has when he is in heaviness through manifold temptation, and finds great difficulty to struggle between hope and despair but at last conquers by faith, and inherits the promises.
3. But his conflict is not yet over he exclaims again, and still more affectingly, "O my God, my soul is cast down." Of which he assigns two causes: -
1. That though he was ready to remember and serve God, yet he was forced to do it in an improper place. He remembered the pleasant land of Palestine, the stately mountains of Hermon, and the little hill of Sion: but there he could not worship; he was in an enemy's country, and in captivity in that country.
2. The greatness and continual succession of his troubles: "Deep calleth unto deep." Calamity on calamity, one trial on the heels of another; so that he might well say, "All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me."
3. And yet he despairs not, he encourages himself in the Lord: "Yet the Lord will command his loving-kindness," &c. 1. "His song shall be with me." 2. "And my prayer unto the God of my life."
IV. On which he grows more confident and courageous, and again expostulates, not now with his soul, as before, but with his GOD: "I will say unto God my rock."
1. "Why hast thou forgotten me?"
2. "Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?"
3. Why am I wounded with grief, "as with a sword in my bones," while they use the sarcasm, "Where is now thy God?"
But in the conclusion, after all his complaints and expostulations, he gains a full assurance of God's favour and protection.
1. Chiding himself for his discontent and diffidence, "Why art thou cast down?"
2. Then he encourages his heart in God's goodness and faithfulness: "Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."
The forty-third is most probably a part of this Psalm: they should be read and expounded together, as the subject is not complete in either, taken as separate Psalms. See, therefore, on the following.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 42:11. Why art thou cast down, &c. —…
Psa 42:11. Why art thou cast down, &c. — See note on Psa 42:5. Who is the health of my countenance — Hebrew, The salvations of my face: which will make my face to shine, and my countenance cheerful, which supposes the gladness of the heart and the bettering of his condition. And my God — As he formerly was, so he is still, and ever will be; and will assuredly show himself to be my God, although, for a season, he may hide his face, or withdraw his help from me.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Why art thou cast down, O my soul? -…
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? - This closes the second strophe of the psalm, and, with one or two slight and immaterial variations, is the same as that which closes the first Psa 42:5. In this latter, the word “why” is inserted, and the expression “the salvation of my countenance” occurs instead of “salvations of his countenance,” with the addition of the words “and my God” at the close. The sense, however, is the same; and the verse contains, as before, self-reproof for being thus cast down, and self-exhortation to put trust in God. In the former part of the psalm Psa 42:5 he had addressed this language to himself, as designed to impress his own mind with the guilt of thus yielding to discouragement and sorrow; but he had then almost immediately admitted that his mind was distressed, and that he was cast down; here he rallies again, and endeavors to arouse himself to the conviction that he ought not to be thus depressed and dejected. He exhorts himself, therefore; he charges his own soul to hope in God. He expresses again the assurance that he would yet be permitted to praise him. He regards God now as the “salvation of his countenance,” or as his Deliverer and Friend, and expresses the conviction that he would yet make such manifestations of himself as to clear up and illuminate his countenance, at present made dark and saddened by affliction; and he appeals to him now as “his God.” He has reached the true source of comfort to the afflicted and the sad - the living God as his God; and his mind is calm. Why should a man be sorrowful when he feels that he has a God? Why should his heart be sad when he can pour out his sorrows before Him? Why should he be cast down and gloomy when he can hope: hope for the favor of God here; hope for immortal life in the world to come!
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain This brings on a renewed self-chiding, and excites hopes…
This brings on a renewed self-chiding, and excites hopes of relief.
health--or help.
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of my countenance--(compare Psa 42:5) who cheers me, driving away clouds of sorrow from my face.
my God--It is He of whose existence and favor my foes would have me doubt.
Next: Psalms Chapter 43
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 11. Why art thou cast down, O my soul—The…
11. Why art thou cast down, O my soul—The refrain is repeated from Psa_42:5, where see note. Whether we take נפשׁ, (soul,) here as distinct from רוח, (spirit,) according to the later Greek trichotomy, or consider the former as synonymous with the latter, in either case, and from the very design of the apostrophe, we have here the highest proof of a nature in man superior to the organic or psychical, rising by faith in God victorious over all infirmities and disasters of the latter, as its nature and existence are distinct from and independent of it. It is the spiritual and immortal nature asserting its superiority over the instinctive and perishable.
Health of my countenance—Hebrew, Deliverance, or salvation, of my face. The word rendered “health,” here, is the same as is rendered “help” in Psa_42:5, where also we have “his” (God’s) countenance, instead of “my” countenance, as here. That is, in Psa_42:5 God turns his face towards David as a token and pledge of his delivering grace, and this revives and gladdens the countenance of the suppliant. The language is strongly oriental.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Why art thou cast down (or, bowed down), O…
Why art thou cast down (or, bowed down), O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me! hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him. Thus far is identical with ver. 5; but what follows is slightly different: who is the health of my countenance, and my God, instead of "for the help (health?) of his countenance. " Most commentators assimilate the text in ver. 5 to that of the present verse, which can be effected by a mere alteration of the pointing; but Hengstenberg, Kay, Professor Alexander, and others regard the variant forms as preferable.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 11. Why art thou cast down, O my…
Ver. 11. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? In the rehearsal of his sorrow, he finds after all no sufficient ground for being disquieted. Looked in the face, his fears were not so overwhelming as they seemed when shrouded in obscurity. Hope thou in God. Let the anchor still keep its hold. God is faithful, God is love, therefore there is room and reason for hope. Who is the health of my countenance, and my God. This is the same hopeful expression as that contained in verse five, but the addition of and my God shows that the writer was growing in confidence, and was able defiantly to reply to the question, "Where is thy God?" Here, even here, he is, ready to deliver me. I am not ashamed to own him amid your sneers and taunts, for he will rescue me out of your hands. Thus faith closes the struggle, a victor in fact by anticipation, and in heart by firm reliance. The saddest countenance shall yet be made to shine, if there be a taking of God at his word and an expectation of his salvation.
"For yet I know I shall him praise
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Who graciously to me,
The health is of my countenance,
Yea, mine own God is he."
Ver. 11. Imitate here the example of David, instead of yielding to a vague grief: cite your soul; enquire of it the particular cause of your sorrow: different remedies will be requisite according to the different sources of your distress; and be careful that you trifle not with God, and your comfort, and your salvation, while you enquire of your soul, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Be impartial, there is another and more solemn judgment to succeed: be persevering, like the psalmist, return, again and again to the investigation: be prayerful; self love, or the delusion of your heart, may otherwise deceive you. Pray then to God, to "search you, and see if there be any wicked way in you." Henry Kollock, D.D., in "Sermons, "etc. 1822.
Ver. 11. Hope. Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey towards it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us. Samuel Smiles, L.L.D.
Ver. 11. God...is the health of my countenance. The health of David's countenance was not in his countenance, but in his God, and this makes his faith silence his fears, and so peremptorily resolve upon it, that there is a time coming (how near so ever he now lies to the grave's mouth) when he shall yet praise him. The health and life of thy grace lie both of them, not in thy grace, saith faith, but in God, who is thy God, therefore I shall yet live and praise him. I do not wonder that the weak Christian is melancholy and sad, when he sees his sickly face in any other glass than this. William Gurnall.
Ver. 11. The health of my countenance. The countenance is often a true index to the mind. In the present awakening in religion, nothing is more remarkable than the sad or joyous looks of those whom God has spiritually exercised. It is easy who are sad, and who happy. There is nothing new in this; the psalmist says, "My soul is cast down within me." Therefore had he a dejected countenance; but said he, "Send thy light and thy truth; let them lead me; then will I go unto God, my exceeding joy...And he shall be the health of my countenance." In his sorrow, the face of Jesus was marred more than any man's, and his visage more than the sons of men. The martyr Stephen was so filled with the sight of Jesus, that in the midst of his persecutors, with death in prospect, he had a face which "shone as the face of an angel." My friend, how is it with thee? Is thy countenance sad? or doth it shine with the joy of the Lord, telling the true tale of thy life and lot? J. Denham Smith. 1860.
Ver. 11. Hast thou seen the sun shine forth in February, and the sky blue, and the hedgerows bursting into bud, and the primrose peeping beneath the bank, and the birds singing in the bushes? Thou hast thought that spring was already come in its beauty and sweet odours. But a few days, and the clouds returned, and the atmosphere was chilled, and the birds were mute, and snow was on the ground, and thou hast said that spring would never come. And thus sometimes the young convert finds his fears removed, and the comforts of the gospel shed abroad in his heart, and praise and thanksgiving, and a new song put in his mouth. And he deems unadvisedly that his troubles are past for ever. But awhile, and his doubts return, and his comforts die away, and his light is taken from him, and his spirit is overwhelmed, and he is fain to conclude that salvation and all its blessings are not for him. But the spring, though late, shall break at last. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? H. G. Salter's "Book of Illustrations, "1840.
Ver. 11. His arguments and motives hereunto are impregnated with very great sense and strength; and urged upon himself as the just rate thereof. Hope thou in God. For he is 1. God. 2. Thy God. 3. The health of thy countenance, and 4. One whom thou shalt (certainly and for ever) praise as such. And 5. Do it yet, as lamentable and hopeless as thy case appears at present through seeming difficulties or unlikelihoods. God and ourselves well understood, deeply considered, and skilfully urged and improved, give gracious hearts the best encouragements and supports under the severest accidents of time. And they will very strangely animate our hopes in God under our sorest troubles and dejections. David had (1) confidence in God; and (2) reasons for it; and (3) skill and a heart to urge them. When he reviewed himself, he saw that his soul was gracious; and so he knew God valued it. It was bent for praising God; and so he knew that he should have an opportunity and cause to do it, through some signal favours from him. He had an interest in God; and he would neither lose it nor neglect it, and he had great experience of God's former mercies, and he would not forget them. And when he thinks on God, then praises must be thought on too, and everything relating to it, and all the divine perfections, within the circumference of his knowledge, must have their fresh remembrances and powerful sense revived upon his own heart. Matthew Sylvester (1636-1708), in "Morning Exercises."
Ver. 11. The soul, when once greatly disturbed, is often not soon calmed, on account of infirmities and remaining corruptions. Henry March.
Ver. 11. My God.
1. It's a word of interestMy God, as in covenant with him.
2. A word of complianceMy God, as submitting to him.
3. A word of affectionMy God, as taking delight, and rejoicing in him. T. Horton.
Ver. 11. A catechism, a consolation, a commendation.
Ver. 11.
1. David's experience of God. He is the health, or help of my countenance.
2. His relation to God, and interest in him And my God. T. Horton.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
Psa_42:11
Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
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and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
Davids malady and Davids medicine
The psalm has a beauty all its own--the beauty of an April morning--full of contrasts and surprises. Extremes meet in a single verse, and are repeated over and over again, brief though the psalm is. The Kyrie and the Gloria follow each other in quick succession, whilst often there is the harmony of discord worthy of a Mendelssohn.
I. Let us examine the patient. That he is far from well there can be no doubt. The whole tenor of his language implies disease, and so distinctly are the symptoms described that we need be at no loss to discover his malady. It is depression. Now, this is--
1. An internal disease--it has to do with his soul. Of all diseases, internal ones are the worst, especially when they are spiritual. Outward trouble will not hurt a man much so long as it keeps to the outward. The sailor cares not because the green waves with crested heads curl over and dash against the vessel, shaking it from stem to stern; or because they, rising in their wrath, leap upon the deck, and with wild glee pour off again through the port holes. But his trouble is that of the sailor when from one to another the whisper passes through the ship, We have sprung a leak. The water in the hold is more dreaded than all the ocean without. Such was the case with David. He could say, The waters have come into my soul.
2. But notice next that although inward in its nature its effects are to be seen in the countenance. In our text we read that God is the health of our countenance: if, then, His presence be wanting the countenance suffers. It is so with the body: inward disease will show itself on the countenance. And so it is with inward care. The only doctor that some Christians need is their God, and the only medicine they require is hope. Great prostration is one of the signs of this disease.
3. Another sign is that of burning thirst. You get that in the first and second verses. This disease may arise from many different causes. Then there is conformity to the world, that condition so rampant in the Church of our day.
II. Let us now carefully analyze the medicine prescribed. (A. G. Brown.)
The good mans peace
I. There is such a peace. Gods people ordinarily possess it. Hence, David asks, Why art thou cast down? etc. It was not usual for him to be thus disquieted. For--
1. The Father is engaged to give peace unto them.
2. The Son also.
3. The Holy Ghost likewise. For this is He sent as the Comforter. And He is this both in heaven above and in our own bosoms (1Jn_1:2; Joh_14:16).
II. But experience seems to contradict all this, for many of Gods people have not peace, but disquietude. But, remember, general rules have always some exceptions, and in this matter note--
1. There is a fundamental peace which Gods people have, and there is an additional peace: the first arises from their justification, the second from their sense of it.
2. And there is a great difference between peace, comfort and joy. A man may have peace that hath no comfort, and comfort but no joy. One is beyond the other.
3. There is a peace which lies in opposition to what one hath been, and a peace that is in opposition to what one would be. I may be grateful that I am not that sinner I was, but I may be disquieted that I yet am not what I would be.
4. There may be a secret, dormant peace, where there is not an awakened and apparent peace. This latter may be a while absent, but the former is not.
III. Conclusion.
1. Then behold what a blessed condition Gods saints are in. This truth appeals to the ungodly. It did so once to a great man in Germany, that it was the beginning of his conversion he was a papist, a profane person; and coming occasionally to hear Peter Martyr preach, he heard him say, When ye see men at a distance skipping, leaping and dancing, ye think the men are mad; but when ye draw near to them, hear what music they have, then ye do not wonder; but ye rather wonder at yourselves that ye should wonder at them. So, when you look upon the godly at a distance, and see them running after ordinances, and frequenting the means and rejoicing in the ways of God, you think, and ye say, they are mad; but if you draw near to a godly course, and perceive what music these people have within, you say not they are mad, but you rather wonder at yourselves, that you should wonder at them. This saying struck the nobleman and led him to look to his condition and to turn to God. Yes, the saints have music within, peace and quiet within, as a rule, though here and there there may be exceptions.
2. But some are in doubt whether their peace be counterfeit. There is such a false peace (Deu_24:19).
3. But there is a true peace given of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, etc. And thus it may be known.
4. But one says, I never had this blessed peace and have it not now. What am I to do? Meditate much upon the fulness of satisfaction made by the death of Christ. Then go to Christ Himself, seeking peace not merely for the comfort of it, but as a help to your grace: and take His promise along with you. (W. Bridge, M. A.)
True peace may be interrupted
See in text the words, cast down, disquieted; three times are they repeated. And such is the frequent experience of good men. In considering this note--
I. How far the discouragements of saints may reach. They may reach--
1. To the refusing of the word of consolation brought to you--My soul refuseth to be comforted.
2. To the consequent affliction and distress of the body (Psa_102:4-6; Psa_102:9; Jer_20:7-9).
II. Why does God permit this? It is always for His peoples good.
1. So only will men come to God. So long as they find fulness in creatures they will not come (1Ti_4:5; 1Sa_30:6).
2. To make us value peace and quietness of soul.
3. God, as a tender Father, would have all the love of His children, and so removes what intercepts that love, as our earthly comforts often do.
4. Our comforts are sent to bind us to God and to wean us from the world, but sometimes we need to be weaned from these weaners that we may grow up unto more perfection.
5. To prevent over-confidence: the soul grows wanton and secure under its comforts, and then these need to be withdrawn.
6. As a wise and honest chirurgion, though he desire his patient to be soon cured, yet if he see the plaister doth not lie right, he takes it off again: so doth Christ do if He see that the comforts of His people are not laid rightly. Hence a poor soul may ere long be much discouraged, though for the present full of comfort. He will, if he lay his comfort upon internal blessings and measure Gods love by them.
III. But how can all these discouragements stand with grace? Can a man be thus to and fro in his comfort in Christ and yet be holy? Yes, for though there be evil in this, yet there is grace withal. Though they be much cast down, they still mourn after God. They long for His presence. But let such cast-down ones take heed--
1. Not to forget God.
2. Not so to seek comfort that you lose it yet more: there is such a thing as more haste and worse speed. Some seek comfort in a use of reason, and try to argue themselves into comfort. Others give up their common duty and neglect their proper callings, thinking that in their distress here is nothing to be done but prayer. But thus they lay themselves open to yet more temptations.
3. Not so to strain after some outward comfort that you lose that which is inward. I read of Francis Spira that, having denied the truth in order to get a good estate for his wife and children, he could no longer bear the sight of them, his conscience being in such horror of what he had done. They had been his comforts before, but now to see them was to be filled with misery. What comfort had Judas in his thirty pieces of silver? God forbid that we should drink the blood of our own peace and comfort.
IV. Remedies for our discouragements.
1. DO now what you would if now you were to be justified.
2. Find out why God has left you: if for some sin, be humbled for if.
3. Read much in Gods Word, and so fill your mind with thoughts of Christ and with the blessed promises of God.
4. When God restores comforts to you, take care to understand them: if you would be rid of Satan coming into your quarters, fall you upon his. Attack him and do him all the mischief you can: put your comforts into Christs hand and use them for His. (W. Bridge, M. A.)
The souls conflict with itself
I. General observations.
1. Grief gathered to a head will not be quieted at the first. What bustling there is here before David can get the victory over his own heart.
2. A gracious and living soul is most sensible of the want of spiritual means.
3. A godly soul, by reason of the grace given it, knows when it is well with it and when it is ill, when a good day and when a bad. Now, our text tells us of Davids state wherein he was, and of his carriage in that state. He was much cast down, but he bids himself trust in God. Now, Gods people are often cast down.
II. The discouragements which come to Gods people from without.
1. God Himself. He sometimes hides His face from them (Mat_27:46). It is with the godly in this case as with vapours drawn up by the sun, which, when the extracting force of the sun leaves them, fall down again to the earth. So when the soul raised up by the beams of Gods countenance is left of God, it presently begins to sink.
2. By Satan. He is all for this; being disquieted himself, he would disquiet others.
3. By Satans instruments and servants. Hear them (Psa_137:7).
4. By ourselves. There is a seminary of causes of discouragement within us. Our flesh is one of them.
III. Those that are from within. There is cause oft in the body of those in whom a melancholy temper prevaileth. But in the soul, too, there are causes of discouragement.
1. Want of knowledge in the understanding.
2. Forgetfulness (Heb_12:5).
3. Underrating our comforts (Job_15:11).
4. A childish kind of peevishness. Abraham (Gen_15:2; Jon_4:9; Jer_31:15).
5. False reasoning and error in our discourse. Many imagine their failings to be failings, and their fallings to be fallings away.
6. Proceeding by a false method and order in judging of their estate. They will begin with election, which is not the first, but the highest step of the ladder. God descends down unto us from election to calling, and so to sanctification: we must ascend to Him, beginning where He ends.
7. Seeking for their comfort too much in sanctification, neglecting justification, relying too much upon their own performances. This is a natural kind of popery in men. St. Paul was of another mind (Php_3:8-9). Still, though the main pillar of our comfort be in the free forgiveness of our sins, yet, if there be a neglect in growing in holiness, the soul will never be soundly quiet. Sin ever raises doubts and fears.
8. The neglect of keeping a clear conscience.
9. Ignorance of Christian liberty, by unnecessary scruples and doubts.
10. Want of employment. An unemployed life is a burden to itself.
11. Omission of duties and offices of love to them to whom they are due.
12. Want of firm resolution in good things. Halting is a deformed and troublesome gesture, and halting in religion is full of disquiet (1Ki_18:21). God will not speak peace to a staggering spirit that hath always its religion and its way to choose.
IV. But there are positive causes as well as negative ones.
1. When men lay up their comfort too much on outward things. These are ever changing, and to build our hopes upon them is to build castles in the air. Micah is right (Mic_2:10).
2. When we depend too much upon the opinions of other men. Men that seek themselves too much abroad find themselves disquieted at home.
3. When we look too much and too long upon the ill in ourselves and abroad. Now, learn from all this not to be too hasty in censuring others when they are cast down, for there are so many things which cast men down; and to prepare our hearts for trouble, so that when it comes we be not cast down.
V. Casting down ourselves causes many evils.
1. It indisposes a man to all good duties.
2. It is a great wrong to God Himself.
3. It makes a man forgetful of all his former blessings, and--
4. Unfit to receive mercies. Till the Spirit of God meekens the soul, say what you will, it minds nothing.
5. It keeps off beginners from coming in. Hence, we should all labour after a calmed spirit.
VI. Remedies.
1. To do, as here, cite the soul before itself, and, as it were, to reason the case. God hath set up a court in mans heart, the court of conscience, and its prejudging will prevent future judging. But evil men love not this court; they are afraid of it (1Ki_22:16; Act_24:25). Self-love, indolence, pride, are all against it.
2. And we must not merely cite the soul before itself; but it must be pressed to give an account, and if that will not help, then speak to Jesus Christ by prayer, that as He stilled the waves, so He would quiet our hearts.
3. A godly man can cast a restraint upon himself, as David here does. There is an art in bearing troubles as in bearing burdens, and we should seek to learn it.
4. We see here again that a godly man can make good use of privacy. When be is forced to be alone he can talk with his God and himself. The wicked dread being alone. Illustration--Charles IX. of France after the massacre of St. Bartholomews day.
5. God hath made every man a governor over himself. (R. Sibbes.)
Unfitting dejection
Now, dejection is so--
1. When the soul is troubled for that it should not be vexed for. As Ahab (1Ki_21:1-2).
II. When it springs prom self-love.
III. When we trouble ourselves, though not without cause, yet without bounds. We may know when our dejection is excessive.
1. When it hinders us from holy duties. It was not thus with our Lord (Joh_19:26-27; Luk_23:42).
2. When we forget the grounds of comfort that are given us.
3. When it inclines the soul to evil. Therefore inquire--
IV. What is the sweet and holy temper of soul that we should seek for?
1. The soul must be raised to a right but yet a bounded grief. And to this end we should look at the state of the soul in itself and on what terms it is with God (Lev_16:29). And we should look outside of ourselves to note the causes of grief that are there (Jer_9:1).
2. But our grief must be kept within bounds, and it is so, when it is ready to meet God at every turn in obedience and communion; and when reason approves our grief, and when our grief moves us to all duties of love towards others. Our concern for Gods house cannot be excessive (Psa_69:9; Psa_119:39; Isa_59:19; Exo_32:19). See, then, the life of a poor Christian in this world. He is in great danger if he be not troubled at all, and, when troubled, lest he be over-troubled. Let him ask the Holy Spirits help (Joh_11:13). (R. Sibbes.)
Means not to be overcharged with sorrow
1. Take heed of building on unfounded confidence of happiness, which makes us when changes come unacquainted with them and unexpectant and unprepared. We gain help by thinking beforehand of what may come (Joh_16:33). Still, we are not to imagine troubles.
2. Love not overmuch anything in this world lest when we have to give it up we be brokenhearted. The way to prevent this is given in Col_3:1; Col_5:3. Take care when trouble comes not to mingle our passions with it. Our hearts are deceitful. Who would have thought that Moses would have murmured, David murdered (2Sa_12:9), Peter denied our Lord (Mat_26:72)? But trouble and temptation draw forth hidden evils. Therefore let us watch over our own souls and examine them continually. Let us not yield to passion; do we not belong to God? Our passions are to serve, not rule us. Mans curse was to be a servant of servants (Gen_9:25). Exercise strong self-denial. The gate, the entrance of religion is narrow, and we must strip ourselves of self before we can enter. (R. Sibbes.)
A sick soul
I. The disease.
1. He is depressed. Aspiration has grown faint. We all know these heavier moments, when the spring seems to go out of our being, and we feel as though the tripping step will never return. We feel prematurely old.
2. He is not merely burdened, he is possessed by a feverish uncertainty. He can no longer look at things calmly and therefore truly, and everything appears to him in monstrous and distorted guise. There is no more fatal minister in human life than the disquieted eye. So long as the eye can gaze at things with cool and quiet vision we see things in their true perspective and proportion. But when the eye is shaken into restlessness its focus is perverted, and everything is seen awry. But the disquieted soul is not only possessed of a restless eye, it is the possessor of a nerveless hand.
II. The remedy.
1. The first step in the removal of this spiritual sickness is a realization of the personal relationship of the soul to God. Once postulate God, and all things come within the plane of the credible.
2. The second essential secret of recovery is to believe in the possibility of Gods health being transmitted to us. There is a striking difference between verse five and verse eleven. In the former verse the psalmist speaks of praising God for the health of His countenance, and in verse eleven he speaks of praising God, who is the health of my countenance. The health of the one can be transmitted to the other. We more frequently speak of the contagion of disease. Perhaps when we know a little more we shall speak with equal assurance of the contagion of health. If evil communications corrupt good man-hers, holy communications refine them. One of the secrets of obtaining a healthy spiritual life is to obtain the fellowship of saintly people. But the transcendently important clue is to obtain the friendship of God. Gods holiness is contagious; to commune with Him is to become a partaker of the Divine nature. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)
Religious depression
I. Causes.
1. Physical weakness.
2. A constitutional tendency to look on the darker side of things.
3. The misapprehension of certain main spiritual truths, such as the character of God, conversion, etc.
II. Treatment of the disease.
1. If physical weakness be the secret of our spiritual depression, then the only effectual cure is to aim at strengthening that which is really weak, namely, the bodily health; and not to weaken the body still more by fretting over a lowness of spirits which results from our feeble physical condition almost as inevitably as loss of light follows from the setting of the sun.
2. If, again, it is a constitutional tendency to look on the dark side of things generally, that has to answer for the gloomy hue of our religion, the obvious remedy is to look on the brighter aspect.
3. Or if, by unhappy training, or through the bias of temperament, we have come to entertain such views of God, and of spiritual things, as are directly causative of religious despondency, then we must do our best to remedy the evil by acquiring right views. Above all, we must sedulously and prayerfully cherish right views of God, whom we dishonour by regarding as a captious taskmaster--Him whose nature, and whose name, is Love! (T. F. Lockyer, B. A.)
Causes and cure of melancholy
I. The causes of religious melancholy.
1. Sometimes our compassionate Father, who in mercy visits us so often with external afflictions, is pleased, for the same benevolent reasons, to make us suffer internal sorrows. As when the sun is eclipsed, all nature appears to mourn, so everything is gloomy to the believer when anything interposes between his soul and the gracious countenance of his God.
2. Sometimes Satan is permitted to disquiet and distress the children of God.
3. With Satan, wicked men often concur to depress and cast down the pious.
4. But the great causes of our dejections and melancholy are to be found in ourselves.
(1) From the temperament of the body
(2) From ignorance and error.
(3) From sin.
II. Why, like the psalmist, we should endeavour to rise from this state. Your duty to God, as wail as your own happiness, requires this. How imperfectly are all the Christian duties performed by you, when you are thus swallowed up with overmuch sorrow: how unfitly do you worship Him who loves a cheerful and a thankful giver?
III. The means whereby we may again obtain peace, comfort, and a calm trust in God.
1. Imitate the psalmist here: instead of yielding to a vague grief, cite your soul; inquire of it the particular cause of your sorrow: different remedies will be requisite, according to the different sources of your distress: and be careful that you trifle not with God, and your comfort, and your salvation, while you inquire of your soul, why art thou cast down?
2. Be careful to understand the Gospel-scheme of salvation; especially the nature, the terms, the intent of the covenant of grace.
3. Study also the promises of God; view them in their variety, their extent, their application to you.
4. In your devotions, be much employed in praise and thanksgiving, instead of principally occupying yourselves with lamentations. If you cannot do this with all the joy that you would, do it as well as you can.
5. Be not unacquainted with your own hearts; examine them, to see the marks of conversion, and to make your calling sure to yourselves.
6. But do not confine yourselves to this self-examination; be also engaged in active duties. The growing and fruitful Christian will be a comfortable one; a degree of peace and satisfaction will follow every good action; and your graces, acquiring maturity, will shine by their own light. (H. Kollock, D. D.)
The causes and cure of spiritual distress
I. The psalmists present condition or state of mind.
1. Good men are often east down; their souls are often disquieted in them, from want, as they imagine, of actual communion with God in duty, or a sense of His gracious presence with them; and if this complaint were as well founded as it is a common and heavy complaint, it would be a just cause, no doubt, of great disquiet. But how are we to judge of our communion with God in duty?
(1) We are to judge by an habitual sense of the Divinity upon our minds, and the devout reverential impressions we feel from His presence with us, and our accountableness to Him.
(2) We are to judge of communion with God in duty, from the sense we have of our need of daily supplies and communications from His fulness and all-sufficiency.
(3) It will be found no unsatisfying evidence of Gods gracious presence with us in duty if we are enabled to deal fairly with our own hearts.
2. The suggestions of Satan assail the minds of good men. But how are we to distinguish such suggestions as may be properly ascribed to the grand enemy, and those that arise from the unsubdued corruption and lusts of our own minds? We are to distinguish by the welcome they meet with, and the free quarters we allow them, on the one hand; or by the pain and distress they give us, on the other, and by our opposition to them, and our endeavours to dismiss them. It is the consent of the will alone that constitutes the moral turpitude of every emotion or action; and while it is our daily struggle to withhold this, and we are, upon the whole, through Divine grace, enabled to withhold it, we have nothing to fear from all the efforts of Satanical machinations to taint and corrupt our affections. And here the disquieted soul may rest.
3. Not a few have been disquieted and cast down from false representations and wrong conceptions of the Divine decrees; as if thereby a certain number were under a sentence of reprobation, and for ever excluded from the Divine mercy. But this ground of disquiet is most unreasonable, and most dishonourable to God.
4. Another cause of much disquietude arises from imperfect or dark views of the ground of our acceptance with God. A cause of disquietude to which bad men are entire strangers, unless under the immediate horror of momentary convictions.
II. The psalmists expostulation with himself. Why art thou cast down? etc. God doth not leave His people to lie under their spiritual distresses, to pore over them, and sink under them. He leads them home to prove their hearts; he leads them to their hope.
1. He leads them to prove their spirit, and to observe what is amiss about them: to mark this passion as too violent; that affection as wrong directed; that here they have lost the guard over themselves, and spoke unadvisedly with their tongue, and have been led into indiscretions, into excesses; that there their attachment to the world, or worldly connections, have been too strong, and occupied their time and attention too much.
2. He leads them to their hope--to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling. It is from this Sun of Righteousness that the first dawn of hope opens upon the trembling, awakened sinner, and, ready to sink under a load of guilt, supports him. And when believers themselves fall, and thereby wound their peace and lose sight of all their evidences, they have no other refuge.
III. The psalmists support amidst all his distress. Still hope in God, etc. (T. Gordon.)
Downheartedness
I. Nothing is so bad as a continued and allowed downheartedness,
1. It magnifies troubles.
2. It drags at and prevents work.
3. It shadows blessings, making the hard things in life prominent rather than the ameliorating things.
4. It bereaves of God and shadows the promises.
II. There are many causes for downheartedness in this strange and disciplinary world,
1. Exile.
2. Overstrain of work.
3. Hard environment.
III. How can one defeat downheartedness and lift into and keep himself in cheer?
1. By recognition of the fact that downheartedness is worst for us. A man ought to esteem it as bad for the soul as some corrupting contagion is for the body.
2. By service for others. That is one trouble with downheartedness--it emphasizes self. And a good, and frequently quick, cure for it is the determined emphasizing on our part of other Selves, thus causing, somewhat at least, a forgetfulness of the morbid self.
3. I pray you also, when you are downhearted, make your work a sacrament. By strong and prayerful volition put yourself at the daily duty; do it even more painstakingly than ever, even though you feel so little like it. A high reactive feeling of victory will have large share in scattering your darkness.
4. Last and chiefest, turn to God. Follow the example of the psalmist here. (W. Hoyt, D. D)
Unfailing hope
I. The state of mind in which the psalmist was and Christians sometimes are.
II. The desirableness of the investigation which the psalmist instituted.
1. It is very often for a want of asking the question that you are in that state at all. Many men allow partly imaginary trials to creep into their souls, that scarcely have a palpable existence if they were only inquired into, and yet when once they are seen they are watched over, and they grow until they expand to such an extent that they seem to fill the mans whole spirit and all around him; whereas if they were just looked at in the face in the light of Divine presence and in the glory that beams from another world, they would vanish in a moment like mists before the rising sun; the mans trouble would be turned into triumph, and his saddest sorrows into sweetest song. Let the inquiry be made, for it is for lack of the inquiry very often that the soul is cast down within us, and is disquieted in all it has to pass through.
2. The inquiry should be made because generally, if not entirely, it would be found that in the Divine dealings there really was no cause whatever for the soul to be cast down at all. The very form of the question implies that. Why art thou cast down? Really, the psalmist does not know of any reason why it should be, and he speaks to his soul like another man, of whom he was surprised and almost ashamed.
3. Another reason why the question should be asked is because very often the answer to it will be found in the soul itself. You ask me why I am cast down within you. Remember all the accumulation of worldliness and care and greed and sinful indulgence that you have heaped up upon me till I have been buried under it and could not move.
III. The counsel the psalmist addresses to his soul. Hope thou in God. Look at Martin Luther when his enemies are like raging lions gathered round him, and he is cast into prison and all things look dark and threatening, and a common soul might be disquieted and cast down. No, he says, let us sing the 46th psalm, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help; therefore will not we fear though the mountains be removed. His soul is not cast down. He hopes in God. What say you--the stream is dried up? Well, in all probability it is in mercy it has, for if that had continued you had never gone to the fountain. Hope thou in God, for if you can say, God is my salvation, with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation. What do you say--your strength is exhausted and you are feeble and have no power left? Then hope thou in God, for they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. (J. P. Chown.)
Trust in God our best support in all our troubles and afflictions
I. We have firm grounds for our trust in God from those attributes of God which enable and dispose him to help us. When we place our trust in God we run no risks, because there is nothing which infinite power cannot accomplish; nothing fit and expedient for us which infinite goodness is not disposed to grant; no promises of help can have been made us by a God of truth and holiness which will not be exactly and punctually fulfilled.
II. Have an eye to the examples of those who have thus placed their trust in God, and have found help in the time of need. Wonderful is that instance of an unshaken confidence in God, which is displayed for our instruction, and recorded for our imitation, in the history of the sufferings and of the patience of Job.
III. Endeavour to strengthen our reliance on God from the experience we ourselves have had of his former lovingkindness towards us. To God we owe our being, and those blessings which we either now do, or ever did, enjoy. There are many calamities incident to men which we have, through the goodness of God, escaped. He who hath delivered us from so great dangers, and doth deliver, in Him we may safely trust, that He will yet deliver us. Is the Lords hand, that has been so often stretched forth for our help, since shortened, that it can no longer save? Or is His ear, that has been so often opened to our prayers, grown heavy, that it can no more hear? (Bishop Smalridge.)
My God
Whatever God may be, it is no advantage to me if He is not my God. Another mans health will not make me well. Another mans wealth will not make me rich. Another mans knowledge will not make me wise. Another mans station will not make me dignified. The leaving out of one word from the will may ruin a mans hopes and blast all his expectations. The want of this one word My is the sinners loss of heaven, and the dagger that smites him into the second death. That pronoun my is just worth as much to the soul as God and heaven; because without it you cant have them. That little word is the private cabinet in which all our comfort for time and for eternity is locked up. It is the one string upon which all our joys are hung. (R. Berry.)
Psa_43:1-5
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Why are you bowed down, my soul? Why are…
Why are you bowed down, my soul? Why are you upset within me?
The author refers to his inner self as his "soul," which represents himself. He asks these questions to rebuke himself. See how you translated this in Psalms 42:5. AT: "I should not be bowed down, I should not be worried" (See: Rhetorical Question and Synecdoche)
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bowed down
The writer speaks of depression or discouragement as if it were his soul being bent over. See how you translated this in Psalms 42:5. AT: "discouraged" (See: Metaphor)
Hope in God
The writer continues to speak to his own soul and commands it to trust God. See how you translated this in Psalms 42:5. (See: Imperatives - Other Uses)
translationWords
hope
praise
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.