Christmas Arrangement
Why you can't cry a river.
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Ok, in one hand I have a diamond and in the other, a glass of water. Which would you choose?
Alright, now you’ve been in the desert three days, the sun bearing down on you and the heat reflecting back up in your face and in one hand I have a diamond and in the other, a glass of water. Which would you choose?
Psalm 42 opens with this scene likening the soul’s desire for God as a deer longing for water. I’ve often wondered what was on the writer’s mind to liken the soul to that deer in such a desperate position. Had he been watching something take place in the field and was inspired to liken the soul to what he saw? Had the deer been observed going about his daily routine of foraging and looking for water, perhaps observing the writer and his entourage (if any) as they passed by? Was the deer just thirsty? Perhaps the writer had observed the deer in a more desperate situation, such as eluding a hunting party or a lion and is now looking for replenishment now that danger is past. I am inclined to think the latter, for the writer asks in verse 2 when he will appear before God. I believe this is a death-cry, for he is dying of a spiritual thirst likened unto the swollen-tongued, dry-lipped, peeling skin kind of thirst. There are yet more clues to his depression and desparation, as we will see later.
Here we find a picture not of mere deer and a wispy glimpse of something called “spirituality”, but a description of one who is intensely dissatisfied with one’s state of being and a growing need that amounts to the desire for purity, power and nearness to the Lord. “It is not now a sense of guilt and God’s wrath so much as of the power and evil of inward sin, and the dissatisfaction with the life the person is living. It usually comes from the deeper revelation of God’s truth, from more spiritual teaching, from definite examples and testimonies of this life in others. Or it may result from an experience of deep trial, conflict and temptation in which the Christian has found his attainments and resources inadequate for the real issues and needs of life.”[i]
This soul rather impatiently, desperately requires God, who can alone slake this kind of thirst. This cast down soul has been eating nothing but tears day and night, while the enemy acts not as a waiter at the table, but as an unwelcome guest, “Where is your God?” Remember the question at the beginning? Too many people go through their depressions with handfuls of diamonds when they really needed water. One is deathly thirsty because he has been too easily satisfied, and those things sought for satisfaction apart from God have miserably failed.
“He is weeping and fearful, and all because he is in this state of perplexity and fear. He is worried about himself, he is worried about what is happening to him, he is troubled about these enemies who are attacking him and insinuating things about him and his God. Everything seems to be on top of him. He cannot control his feelings. He goes further to say that it is even affecting his appetite.”[ii]
In one sense many of are more than familiar with being so upset that food is repulsive. In yet another sense, there is the possibility of contrast between the water of tears and the water of a river. Could it be that he has exerted all effort to sustain himself and has come to the end of himself? Could it be that he is, as Bonhoeffer would put it, ready to meet God at the border of his existence? He should be drinking from a river, and everyone knows you can’t cry yourself a river and satisfy your own thirst. We will return to this later.
One thing the depressed seem to remember is how good things were or at least how good things seem to be for others. This writer remembers the “good old days” of being more involved, less aloof. He even remembers the contributions he made, leading others in worship to the house of God. A pastor once told about a visitor he had in his office where a lady told him, “I just don’t feel the same anymore. I feel like something’s missing.” He looked at her and asked, “Well, what have you said or thought against God, the church or even the leadership?” As her mouth hung open the pastor told her she had been seen with questionable people, gossips and others who do the body of Christ great harm and it should be no wonder as to her lacking in fellowship. Instead of siding with the enemy, we should remain in fellowship, lifting up one another with joy and thanksgiving, celebrating God! We should love God by enjoying Him forever! John Piper puts it this way:
“[W]e should be blood-earnest-deadly serious-about being happy in God. We should pursue our joy with a passion and a vehemence that, if it must, would cut off our hand or gouge out our eye to have it. God being glorified in us hangs on our being satisfied in him. Which makes our being satisfied in him infinitely important. It becomes the animating vocation of our lives. We tremble at the horror of not rejoicing in God. We quake at the fearful lukewarmness of our hearts. We waken to the truth that it is a treacherous sin not to pursue that satisfaction in God with all our hearts. There is one final word for finding delight in the creation more than in the Creator: treason.”[iii]
Now we come to a place where we hear the writer interviews himself. He has recognized his soul was in distress, panting, thirsting after God, so why not just go the source and ask the soul the reason for the despair. Here we find a person talking to himself, and this should not at all surprise us. Why? Well, consider how a person may get into the doldrums to begin with—he has perhaps talked himself into making bad decisions or into believing lies about himself or others. Self-talk can be helpful or it can be hurtful, as many people make up their own reality and then withdraw when the real world cannot see their way. Receive Godly counsel on self-talk:
“You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’—what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’—instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God’.”[iv]
Not only does he talk to himself about himself, but he talks to God about himself, “O my God, my soul is in despair within me.” He says in verse 8 this is the prayer of his life! What has he prayed? He causes himself to remember what God has done (verses 6-8). I believe that in these few words, he remembers first that God is Creator of all things; second that God has carried out his promises with faithfulness, starting with the Promised land itself; last, that God is the satisfaction of his soul. Remember how he began by talking about his thirst for God? Now he talks about his remembrance of God:
“from the land of the Jordan and the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.”
What is it that these places have in common, aside from being found within the Promised Land? Hermon is in the North, at 9,300 feet. Anything that starts on Hermon must go downhill, namely one certain river . . . the river Jordan! The Jordan River flows throughout the entire land, through the Sea of Galilee all the way to the Dead Sea.
“Deep calls to deep at the sound of your waterfalls;
and all your breakers and your waves have rolled over me.”
The writer is equating God with not a drop nor a bucket but an entire river! This concept is echoed in that great hymn we love to sing:
“O the deep, deep love of Jesus—
vast, unmeasured, boundless free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me,
underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love—
leading onward, leading homeward, to my glorious rest above.”[v]
He is reminding himself of the immensity of God, the closeness of God, the thoroughness of God. He is from the highest to the lowest. He is from border to border. He runs in the daytime as He does at night. The sound of falling water is mesmerizing, especially water falling into deep pools and echoing off the rocks. These sounds do not stop, but are a constant reminder of the presence of the river, even at night.
Matthew Henry helps us understand the necessity of the next verses explaining what is meant by God as the rock:
“A rock to build upon, a rock to take shelter in. The rock of ages, in whom is everlasting strength, would be his rock, his strength in the inner man, both for doing and suffering. To him he had access with confidence. To God his rock he might say what he had to say, and be sure of a gracious audience. he therefore repeats what he had before said (v. 5), and concludes with it (v. 11) . . . By repeating what he had before said, chiding himself, as before, for his dejections and disquietudes, and encouraging himself to trust in the name of the Lord and to stay himself upon his God. Note, It may be of great use to us to think our good thoughts over again, and, if we do not gain our point with them at first, perhaps we may the second time; however, where the heart goes along with the words, it is no vain repetition. We have need to press the same thing over and over again upon our hearts, and all little enough.”[vi]
One almost gets the picture of one tumbling down the rapids. Rapids hurt. One gets unmercifully thrown about, smashed, takes on a great deal of water . . . but should not this be a cause of rejoicing? Wasn’t water the very thing he was crying out for? Why is it the enemy is taking advantage of the situation? Does not James encourage us to, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”[vii] And again, “so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”[viii]
When he first was walking about with a fallen face (v.5) he is now encouraged to have an uplifted countenance by recognizing his failure to hope in God, his failure to praise for God and for his failure to rely on His help. He stands now corrected, nourished, having drunk deeply of the faithfulness of God, hoping in Him, praising Him and throwing Himself into the depths of His mercy!
************
[i] Selected, A.B. Simpson
[ii] Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. Spiritual Depression: Its’ Causes and Cure. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976. p. 14.
[iii] Piper, John. “A God-Entranced Vision of All Things: Why We Need Jonathan Edwards Three Hundred Years Later.” 2003 Desiring God National Conference.
[iv] Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn, ibid.
[v]Kenneth W. Osbeck, Amazing Grace : 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions, Includes Indexes. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications, 1990), 44.
[vi]Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible : Complete and Unabridged in One Volume (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996, c1991), Ps 42:6.
[vii]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Jas 1:2.
[viii]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), 1 Pe 1:7.
Alright, now you’ve been in the desert three days, the sun bearing down on you and the heat reflecting back up in your face and in one hand I have a diamond and in the other, a glass of water. Which would you choose?
Psalm 42 opens with this scene likening the soul’s desire for God as a deer longing for water. I’ve often wondered what was on the writer’s mind to liken the soul to that deer in such a desperate position. Had he been watching something take place in the field and was inspired to liken the soul to what he saw? Had the deer been observed going about his daily routine of foraging and looking for water, perhaps observing the writer and his entourage (if any) as they passed by? Was the deer just thirsty? Perhaps the writer had observed the deer in a more desperate situation, such as eluding a hunting party or a lion and is now looking for replenishment now that danger is past. I am inclined to think the latter, for the writer asks in verse 2 when he will appear before God. I believe this is a death-cry, for he is dying of a spiritual thirst likened unto the swollen-tongued, dry-lipped, peeling skin kind of thirst. There are yet more clues to his depression and desparation, as we will see later.
Here we find a picture not of mere deer and a wispy glimpse of something called “spirituality”, but a description of one who is intensely dissatisfied with one’s state of being and a growing need that amounts to the desire for purity, power and nearness to the Lord. “It is not now a sense of guilt and God’s wrath so much as of the power and evil of inward sin, and the dissatisfaction with the life the person is living. It usually comes from the deeper revelation of God’s truth, from more spiritual teaching, from definite examples and testimonies of this life in others. Or it may result from an experience of deep trial, conflict and temptation in which the Christian has found his attainments and resources inadequate for the real issues and needs of life.”[i]
This soul rather impatiently, desperately requires God, who can alone slake this kind of thirst. This cast down soul has been eating nothing but tears day and night, while the enemy acts not as a waiter at the table, but as an unwelcome guest, “Where is your God?” Remember the question at the beginning? Too many people go through their depressions with handfuls of diamonds when they really needed water. One is deathly thirsty because he has been too easily satisfied, and those things sought for satisfaction apart from God have miserably failed.
“He is weeping and fearful, and all because he is in this state of perplexity and fear. He is worried about himself, he is worried about what is happening to him, he is troubled about these enemies who are attacking him and insinuating things about him and his God. Everything seems to be on top of him. He cannot control his feelings. He goes further to say that it is even affecting his appetite.”[ii]
In one sense many of are more than familiar with being so upset that food is repulsive. In yet another sense, there is the possibility of contrast between the water of tears and the water of a river. Could it be that he has exerted all effort to sustain himself and has come to the end of himself? Could it be that he is, as Bonhoeffer would put it, ready to meet God at the border of his existence? He should be drinking from a river, and everyone knows you can’t cry yourself a river and satisfy your own thirst. We will return to this later.
One thing the depressed seem to remember is how good things were or at least how good things seem to be for others. This writer remembers the “good old days” of being more involved, less aloof. He even remembers the contributions he made, leading others in worship to the house of God. A pastor once told about a visitor he had in his office where a lady told him, “I just don’t feel the same anymore. I feel like something’s missing.” He looked at her and asked, “Well, what have you said or thought against God, the church or even the leadership?” As her mouth hung open the pastor told her she had been seen with questionable people, gossips and others who do the body of Christ great harm and it should be no wonder as to her lacking in fellowship. Instead of siding with the enemy, we should remain in fellowship, lifting up one another with joy and thanksgiving, celebrating God! We should love God by enjoying Him forever! John Piper puts it this way:
“[W]e should be blood-earnest-deadly serious-about being happy in God. We should pursue our joy with a passion and a vehemence that, if it must, would cut off our hand or gouge out our eye to have it. God being glorified in us hangs on our being satisfied in him. Which makes our being satisfied in him infinitely important. It becomes the animating vocation of our lives. We tremble at the horror of not rejoicing in God. We quake at the fearful lukewarmness of our hearts. We waken to the truth that it is a treacherous sin not to pursue that satisfaction in God with all our hearts. There is one final word for finding delight in the creation more than in the Creator: treason.”[iii]
Now we come to a place where we hear the writer interviews himself. He has recognized his soul was in distress, panting, thirsting after God, so why not just go the source and ask the soul the reason for the despair. Here we find a person talking to himself, and this should not at all surprise us. Why? Well, consider how a person may get into the doldrums to begin with—he has perhaps talked himself into making bad decisions or into believing lies about himself or others. Self-talk can be helpful or it can be hurtful, as many people make up their own reality and then withdraw when the real world cannot see their way. Receive Godly counsel on self-talk:
“You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’—what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’—instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God’.”[iv]
Not only does he talk to himself about himself, but he talks to God about himself, “O my God, my soul is in despair within me.” He says in verse 8 this is the prayer of his life! What has he prayed? He causes himself to remember what God has done (verses 6-8). I believe that in these few words, he remembers first that God is Creator of all things; second that God has carried out his promises with faithfulness, starting with the Promised land itself; last, that God is the satisfaction of his soul. Remember how he began by talking about his thirst for God? Now he talks about his remembrance of God:
“from the land of the Jordan and the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.”
What is it that these places have in common, aside from being found within the Promised Land? Hermon is in the North, at 9,300 feet. Anything that starts on Hermon must go downhill, namely one certain river . . . the river Jordan! The Jordan River flows throughout the entire land, through the Sea of Galilee all the way to the Dead Sea.
“Deep calls to deep at the sound of your waterfalls;
and all your breakers and your waves have rolled over me.”
The writer is equating God with not a drop nor a bucket but an entire river! This concept is echoed in that great hymn we love to sing:
“O the deep, deep love of Jesus—
vast, unmeasured, boundless free!
Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me,
underneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy love—
leading onward, leading homeward, to my glorious rest above.”[v]
He is reminding himself of the immensity of God, the closeness of God, the thoroughness of God. He is from the highest to the lowest. He is from border to border. He runs in the daytime as He does at night. The sound of falling water is mesmerizing, especially water falling into deep pools and echoing off the rocks. These sounds do not stop, but are a constant reminder of the presence of the river, even at night.
Matthew Henry helps us understand the necessity of the next verses explaining what is meant by God as the rock:
“A rock to build upon, a rock to take shelter in. The rock of ages, in whom is everlasting strength, would be his rock, his strength in the inner man, both for doing and suffering. To him he had access with confidence. To God his rock he might say what he had to say, and be sure of a gracious audience. he therefore repeats what he had before said (v. 5), and concludes with it (v. 11) . . . By repeating what he had before said, chiding himself, as before, for his dejections and disquietudes, and encouraging himself to trust in the name of the Lord and to stay himself upon his God. Note, It may be of great use to us to think our good thoughts over again, and, if we do not gain our point with them at first, perhaps we may the second time; however, where the heart goes along with the words, it is no vain repetition. We have need to press the same thing over and over again upon our hearts, and all little enough.”[vi]
One almost gets the picture of one tumbling down the rapids. Rapids hurt. One gets unmercifully thrown about, smashed, takes on a great deal of water . . . but should not this be a cause of rejoicing? Wasn’t water the very thing he was crying out for? Why is it the enemy is taking advantage of the situation? Does not James encourage us to, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.”[vii] And again, “so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”[viii]
When he first was walking about with a fallen face (v.5) he is now encouraged to have an uplifted countenance by recognizing his failure to hope in God, his failure to praise for God and for his failure to rely on His help. He stands now corrected, nourished, having drunk deeply of the faithfulness of God, hoping in Him, praising Him and throwing Himself into the depths of His mercy!
************
[i] Selected, A.B. Simpson
[ii] Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. Spiritual Depression: Its’ Causes and Cure. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976. p. 14.
[iii] Piper, John. “A God-Entranced Vision of All Things: Why We Need Jonathan Edwards Three Hundred Years Later.” 2003 Desiring God National Conference.
[iv] Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn, ibid.
[v]Kenneth W. Osbeck, Amazing Grace : 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions, Includes Indexes. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications, 1990), 44.
[vi]Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible : Complete and Unabridged in One Volume (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996, c1991), Ps 42:6.
[vii]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Jas 1:2.
[viii]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), 1 Pe 1:7.
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