The Downcast Soul

Psalms 42 and 43 are deeply intertwined and deeply moving passages of Scripture. There is one particular refrain that has been burned into my mind ever since I prayed with them at Morning Prayer starting in high school:
“Why are you cast down, my soul? Why groan within me? Hope in God, I will praise him still, my savior and my God.”

Three times this refrain is repeated between the two psalms. Each time, it has a different tone that strikes a different chord in my mind. At different times in my life, one or another understanding is more prominent and compelling.

The first time it occurs, near the beginning of Psalm 42, that refrain is the voice of the Church Militant. The psalmist has been describing his consuming thirst to see the face of the living God. Amidst mentions of his persecution and the mockery of unbelievers, he expresses his aching dream of leading others to the temple of God, imagining the joyous throng praising God as he himself wishes to.

From that thread comes the first utterance of the refrain. It is the anchor of a man striving for God, one who is downcast because of his frustrated desire to see God and convert his fellows. The tone is of conflicted and troubled trust, a prayer of persistence and determination in spite of everything, a last stand amidst hardship.

I have found great value in this usage. The weight rests on the self-reproach of the “Why?” and the resolve of the “Hope” and the “Still.” When everything seems out of my control, yet I can use these words to place trust in God despite every instinct and fear. The tone of these words isare the staff in my hand and the strength in my legs.

But then Psalm 42 suddenly becomes the song not just of a zealot but an exile, describing landscapes far distant from the house of God that he longs to see. Far from being in the presence of God, the psalmist is cast into confusion and abysses, swept up and carried off by mighty waters. 

The psalmist acknowledges the thanks due to God for his kindness, but turns on a dime to reproach God: “Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning, oppressed by the foe? With cries that pierce me to the heart, my enemies revile me, saying to me all the day long: Where is your God?” He even presumes to question God; he wants to know the reason for his feeling of rejection.

Once more the refrain comes after these words, now the song of the Church Persecuted. Now the emphasis rests on the downcastness of the soul and the sorrow. Still, there is the self-reproach to hope in God despite everything.

The psalm takes sorrow seriously. There is a heavy burden in the world that all of us feel at some point or another, some more gravely than others. I think it’s all-important to see that faith is compatible with the grief expressed here. Christianity doesn’t promise to dispel sorrow in this life; we can rightly appropriate the psalmist’s grief, but we must also take up his refrain.

Finally, Psalm 43 completes the movement. It begins with an imprecation for God’s defense, the very thing that was lacking, and voices the same reproach: “Why do I go mourning, oppressed by the foe?” But now the tone shifts. Whereas Psalm 42 lamented exile, now Psalm 43 earnestly requests a return. “O send forth your light and your truth, let these be my guide; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the tabernacle where you dwell. And I will come to the altar of God, the God who brings joy to my youth.”

Psalm 42 expressed a deep desire to come to the house of God. Now the psalmist rises up, determined to attain his goal. He will not be shaken. And finally, the refrain echoes one last time, now with steel in it. The psalmist has not gotten there; his spirit groans. But one day, he will. And in the meantime, he will not cease to praise his savior and God. An echo of the Church Triumphant.

How fitting these psalms are for pilgrim Christians on this earth. What meaning cannot be found in the words of Psalms 42 and 43? They embrace desolation and consolation, the ebbs and flows of trust in God, while underscoring the bedrock faith even in the darkest depths of trial. All of these interpretations and tones of the refrain accompany me in my daily life. There are days where I strike myself with the stern reminder, other days when I linger on the sorrow, and some days when I can feel the uplifted spirit of the second half. A whole life, perhaps, of ups and downs contained in that one verse: “Why are you cast down, my soul? Why groan within me? Hope in God, I will praise him still, my savior and my God?”