Motyer writes, “The mind is ‘renewed’ by feeding on new thoughts.
When our emotions fight to take over the control of our hearts and the vision of our soul, we must deliberately turn to biblical meditation that is, rehearse Scriptural truths about God so as to nourish our feeble faith. Second, help is found in the renewal of the mind with the truth of God. Just as his love never falters, so his ear is always open (v. He writes, “Verse 5 surely implies that, with God as our hope, we have no need to be downcast then verse 6 chips in, ‘My soul is downcast.’ What a frank prayer I know it’s foolish to be down, but I am! This sort of openness with God runs through the psalm – what 42:8 calls ‘a prayer to the transcendent God of my life’. Transparent Prayerįirst, help is found in the honest cries of a soul in anguish. And so it will be till we get to heaven…” However, in the asking of these questions of God, Motyer is convinced, lies a double remedy for the downcast spirit. So often a person can be heard to say, ‘I have so many doubts’ when, in fact, all they have is what we all have-‘so many questions’. It is good, therefore, “to remind ourselves that questions are not doubts. He points out that the psalmist asks God questions nine times. Last week, while continuing to work through Alec Motyer’s new devotional translation of the book of Psalms, I was blessed by his summary of the application of these two songs (Remember, Psalms is a songbook!). In Psalm 43, as the man of God pleads for vindication, he repeats the habit of counseling himself with Scriptural truth about the faithfulness of God and, again, ends by telling himself to hope in God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night…” Repeatedly, he asks himself why his spirit is downcast and then exhorts himself to hope in God who restores his countenance. “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. In Psalm 42, the man of God longs for God as a deer longs for the fresh water of a flowing stream. For many, these two Psalms have become personal prayer guides, directing the eyes of their heart to the Lord as their lighthouse in the midst of emotional storms. The honesty of the psalmist is startling to those who have the impression the Bible only speaks in platitudes disconnected from life in the real world. For as long as I can remember, Psalms 42 and 43 have been a refuge for my soul and the souls of brothers and sisters whom I have helped to work through times of spiritual depression.
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