Day 4 Advent Devotional | December 7th
Psalm 42:11
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
For centuries sailors have called from deep waters for assistance from a sinking seagoing ship. A variety of methods have been used to cry for help from a distressed vessel. Maritime communication has included anything from flags to flares, foghorns and even bells when a boat is in trouble. And of course, we are familiar with SOS messages being sent from the Titanic and Lusitania in the early 1900s. This distress call was first just a Morse code sequence used for maritime purposes that later took on the familiar meaning, “Save Our Souls” and is now used widely in a variety of emergency situations, not just at sea.
Psalm 42 comes to us from a time of deep distress by a sinking soul. His spirit needs saving from the depths of despair, longing, sadness, regret, and hopelessness. We think this Psalm was written by an author separated from Jerusalem and living away from his beloved house of God in exile. The song writer is expressing the distress of his soul with beautiful figurative language. The beginning of the Psalm expresses his longing for God “as a deer pants for streams of water,” and speaks of “deep calling to deep” which could mean his deep anguish calls to the deep power of God to save.
Seasons of discouragement do not have to be the end of our joy and hope if we are in Christ. I love how the Psalmist encourages himself and actively instructs his own soul to do several things. He tells himself to praise the Lord, put his hope in God, remember the Savior, and to speak openly with the Lord about what is distressing him. Do you only remember what it was like to have joy and to be able to praise? Follow the steps of the sinking soul in Psalm 42: remember the Lord’s faithfulness, put your hope in His ability to save, and praise Him even in the midst of the distressing time you find yourself in.
Prayer: Savior, the depth of my despair calls out to the depth of your power to rescue. Even though waves of trouble threaten to sweep my hope and joy away, I stop right now and thank you for your faithfulness and goodness. My deep need calls for a deep remedy and only You can provide that. Help me to trust, I praise you now my great Savior and my God. Amen