Psalm 43: Rejected

I spent all of Psalm 42 sharing about the authors, the “Sons of Korah”, the Levite worship leaders who descended from a prideful Levite who wanted God’s authority for himself and was swallowed by the earth (Numbers 16 & 26). Psalm 42 and 43 are one Psalm, in fact, they are one poem separated into three stanzas. Most of us are familiar with the first lines if not from the Psalm from the chorus that was written from it, “As the deer pants for the water so my soul longeth after thee”. It’s a beautiful song, one of my favorites, but while the words are from Psalm 42, the message is not. The song is sung about intimacy, about desire, about the depth of relationship, about finding satisfaction in God’s presence, but the Psalm, both 42 and 43 are not written about satisfaction, they are written about desperation, about dryness, some have even written that they are written about depression. These are not the songs of the content and joyful, they are the songs of the displaced, the songs of those who feel the weight of darkness, the songs of those who know they are loved but feel rejected.

Psalm 42 talks of distance. The authors are wrestling with reality, just as we often do. We know that God is everywhere, that the Spirit lives within us, that we are always in His presence and yet, at times, we feel alone, and we worry that we may be abandoned. The Sons of Korah, the worship leaders of Israel, the Levites felt the same way. Their thirst was not for more worship of God but for a sense of God. In 42:2 they wrote, “When shall I come and appear before God?” They felt far off, removed from the comfort they had known, the places that they loved, the people that they needed, even from the God that they worshipped. How can that be? How can the worship leaders feel absent from the God they worship? I think it’s important that we understand this, they were not singing the truth, but they were singing the reality of their feelings. Some will say that truth is truth, there is no room for anything else, but if we will allow ourselves to not have to be right for a moment, we will probably agree that sometimes we feel things in a very real way even though we know those things are not true.

In earlier Psalms David wrote often about his enemies questioning God’s presence and God’s care, here the Sons of Korah show us that sometimes those “enemies” are our own thoughts and feelings. “My tears have been my food day and night, while they (the tears, the emotions, the hurt and the loneliness) say to me all the day long, ‘Where is your God?’” Sometimes difficult situations reveal unexpected feelings. In our good days, our days of fulfilled expectations we live in feelings of happiness that we sometimes assume is joy. These singers wrote about the days of leading the crowds into worship, of processing to the house of God, of shouting with gladness and singing praise to God as multitudes gathered for the feasts. It’s almost as if they were saying, “those were the days”. The truth is that “those days” are not to be thought of as every day. There was a reason that the festivals were only at certain times of the year, not just so that God would not be forgotten, but so that we would understand that worship that transforms is not only done in the festival, the conference or with the congregation, it’s the worship that comes in our every day. The worship that renews our minds, changes our hearts and transforms our lives is the worship that is done in the workplace and the home, that’s done in raising children and being neighbors, the worship that’s offered in times of lean just as much as times of plenty. The worship that begins to sustain us is the worship that’s offered when there is no happiness, because that’s when we discover if we possess any joy.

This is when the Sons of Korah begin to teach us how to combat feelings we didn’t expect and the enemies that want to quiet our songs and steal our joy, sing the truth you know to the reality you feel. They felt far off, they felt alone, they felt almost as if they couldn’t breathe and yet they knew that God was good. They turned from singing about how they felt to singing to those very feelings, “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.” We get to see a very real wrestling match. The feelings want control, but God’s character deserves to have the lead. The feelings came but God never leaves, the doubts arose but faith remains. It may not be a battle for our souls, but it is a battle for our hearts, for how we will live, for who we will believe, for who gets to determine who we are.
In the beginning of Psalm 43 they cry out to God with requests, “Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against and ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!” They want what we all do, for things to change, for the situations that created the feelings to go away, for the anxiety to be removed and the worry to be exposed as a fraud, they want God to do for them, what faith is designed to do in them. They want the feelings removed; God wants them to see those feelings defeated. Sometimes a surge of faith is met by an assault of doubt. They have been talking to their hearts, talking to their feelings, they have asked their souls why they would be downcast, but then, in 43:3 they ask the most important question of the poem, they ask God, “why have you rejected me?”

It is very easy for us to just stop here and say, “God hasn’t rejected them, He promised that He would never leave us nor forsake us. He said that even if our father and mother forsake us that He will remain with and for us. The feeling of rejection is a lie.” That is all true, but it’s too easy to say because we’ve all felt rejected. We’ve all felt alone. We’ve all felt dry, thirsty, displaced and distant. What do we do with those feelings? That’s what the Sons of Korah are trying to teach us, tell God how you feel but at the same time tell your feelings who God is. Express your doubts but confess your faith, sing from your soul but also sing to your soul. Three times in this poem the Sons of Korah tell themselves to “hope in God”. That’s what I could tell you today, but it’s what we must tell ourselves. The answer is hope, but hope is not the removal of hurt, it’s not the absence of doubt, it’s not even the feeling of joy, hope is “a patient but expectant waiting for God to act.” Hope is not how we get God to do what we want; hope is where we sit when we believe that God will do what He desires. Hope doesn’t erase our questions; it waits for God’s answers. Psalm 42 and 43 are the song of those who feel hopeless but want to be hopeful, a song of patience and trust, a song of the accepted while they are fighting the lies of rejection. If you feel far off today, don’t sing songs about how you want to feel, sing the reality of your feelings to God and the truth of God to your feelings. This is all about building your hope and the promise of hope is this, “Suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit whom He has given us.” Hope does not come easy, but once hope comes it never goes away and it never lets go. The presence of hope exposes the lie of rejection, we belong to Him not because of how we feel, but because of what He says and who He is. Put your hope in God.