Psalm 42:6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember you from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites… There are times when the soul is cast down within us like David's. Strength, courage, hope, are dead. We lose the very sense of freedom, and are as a wreck, borne to and fro helpless on the currents, to be dashed at last on some inhospitable shore. There are inward movements of the spirit, known only to God, which bring us to the same prostration. However it may have been reached, no man of deep human experience is ignorant of David's meaning in our text. I. FORGETTING GOD IS MAN'S NATURAL INSTINCT WHEN HIS SOUL IS CAST DOWN WITHIN HIM. Despair is reckless, and deep misery tends strongly to despair. Job's state of mind, as described in Job 3., was anything but gracious. He was so unutterably wretched that he cursed his very existence. And this is the peril of souls when east down. They think no one cares for them. I am but a waif on the great moaning ocean; it may drift me as it pleases, and cast me when it has done with me to rot forgotten on the shore. This is the language of many a natural heart in its hour of anguish; and on a broader scale, times of great social or national misery are constantly found to be times of wild, fierce recklessness of truth, honour, dignity, charity, and God. II. CONSIDER THE REASON, NATURE, AND FRUIT OF DAVID'S REMEMBRANCE OF GOD when his "soul was cast down within him." 1. The reason. I will remember Thee, for I am not my own, but Thine. I am bound to measure myself by the measure of Thy love. What does the Incarnation mean, but that God claims us by a right, and holds us by a bond of infinite strength? Nothing worth in ourselves, in Christ we are precious in His sight. 2. The nature of the remembrance. That the Lord was his portion, of which neither earth nor hell could rob him. God was left if all else was lost. And God was his "rock," enduring, unchangeable. And God was the health of his countenance, the spring of his everlasting joy. 3. The fruit of his remembrance of God in the depths — perfect peace. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar. |
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