Psalm 42:11 Why are you cast down, O my soul? and why are you disquieted within me? hope you in God: for I shall yet praise him… 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.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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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