Psalms 42:11

Psalms 42:11

There were two things under which at this time probably the time of Absalom's short-lived and wicked triumph David's soul was suffering. It was "cast down," and it was "disquieted." To be "cast down" is depression of spirit; to be "disquieted" is agitation restlessness of mind.

I. When he was low and very "cast down," David reasoned with his own soul, for thus we are to take it, not as an impassioned ejaculation, but as a deliberate question and an investigation of the matter within himself. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul?" The worst part of almost every trouble is a certain vagueness which there is about it. It is the indefiniteness of an evil which constitutes the greatness of the evil. Whenever, therefore, you feel distress and a general sense of wretchedness coming over you, at once deal with the matter deliberately and searchingly, and ask yourself, What is the real nature and what is the root of this discomfort?

II. The next step which we note in David's way of escape is that he finds refuge in God Himself. He looks away from what his circumstances are, from what he is, to what God is. "Hope thou in God." The great cure for all evil lies somewhere in the work and character of God, and he will reach his refuge the surest and the quickest who can most forget everything else, and concentrate himself and absorb himself in something that God says, or something that God does, or something that God is.

III. David's hope saw at once the present darkness only as a passage which was leading out into a bright future. "I shall yet praise Him." He regarded and valued his joy, not for what that joy was in itself, but for the honour it should bring to God. Not "I shall be happy," but "I shall praise Him."

IV. There is yet one more lesson a felt personal property in the love of God. "Who is the health of my countenance, and my God." Till you can say that, you must always be the slave of circumstances and the prey of every kind of temptation and distress; but when your faith is high enough to enable you to feel that all the sunshine that plays in your face is a reflection of the light of God's countenance, and that not only the gifts, but the Giver, is yours, then that "my God" will carry you on, and bear you up, superior to all the vexations of life; and the possession of God will be the dispossession of care.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,4th series, p. 21.

References: Psalms 42:11. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxi., No. 1226; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. ii., p. 111; J. P. Chown, Old Testament Outlines,p. no. xlii. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xx., p. 89.