Deep calls to
deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone
over me…I say to God, my rock: “Why have
you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” Psalm 42:7, 9
In Psalm 42, the psalmist gives us a great blueprint on how we are to relate to
God. He shows us that we are to approach
Him in a raw and real, yet reverent and biblical way. First, notice the psalmist acknowledges that
God is in control though it feels as if He is absent. He knows that God is at work in the dark
storms of life though it feels as if He is not.
In fact, the psalmist attributes his trials to God. He says in verse 7, “…your breakers—your waves
have gone over me.”
Scripture
is clear that God appoints trials for His people to grow them and mature them
and to grow and mature others and that’s clearly the case here. So the Psalmist has a biblical perspective
when it comes to his trials. However, though
the psalmist realizes that God is at work and though he expresses great
confidence in Him (vv. 5-6, 11), he is also honest with Him.
The
psalmist basically says in this passage, “I’m going through it—I’m being
crushed by the storms of this life and it feels as if you are absent—it feels
as if you have forgotten me.” He’s
complaining to God here because it feels as if He is absent. The psalmist is expressing a real emotion
that we all can relate to and notice the honesty in v. 9. He says, “Why have you forgotten me,
God?” He tells God that it feels as if
He has forgotten him. He says, “God, it
feels as if you are out of the picture.”
So we learn here from the psalmist in Psalm 42 that it’s OK to be honest
with God when we are in a bad way—it’s OK to be honest with Him in the storms
of this life.
