This post is dedicated to all the friends and family I know who are going through deep waters. May it be used to encourage you for Jesus’ sake. God has given us His word as a source of great comfort. There we find examples from saints who have gone before us and endured hard troubles. They found their strength by looking to the Lord. Romans 15:4 explains, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”
One of the precious passages of Scripture that provides an example of a believer who found joy in the Lord even through great trials, is Psalm 42. The author of the Psalm is not named. However, the Psalm is one of weeping and fear, so I wonder if it might have been Jeremiah. The Psalm is also one of comfort and hope.
As I was studying this Psalm in my devotions, the Lord laid upon my heart thoughts for an acrostic based on a phrase of this Psalm, “Songs in the Night.” I tried to capture the intensity of the emotions of the Psalmist and the earnestness of his prayer and pleading with God. His heart was poured out with sorrow and weeping, yet it was lifted up in joy to His God, even to the Living God! I pray you will be blessed as you read this Psalm and the acrostic and meditate on the power of God’s word.
“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. 2My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? 3My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? 4When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday. 5Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. 6O 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. 7Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. 8Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life. 9I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? 10As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? 11Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.” (Psalm 42)
Songs in the Night
So panteth my soul after God,
O God, my soul thirsteth for Thee!
Night and day my tears have been for my food.
God, when shall I come appear before Thee?
Sorrow hath filled my soul.
I hear the voice of those who mock, “Where is thy God?”
No longer do I go to the house of God with those that keep holy day.
The memory of their voices of joy and praise haunts me.
How I pour out my soul to God!
Even to the Living God!
Night hath swept over my soul;
It is dark, as in the depths of the sea, yet
God is my help and the health of my countenance.
Hope thou in God, O my soul!
Thou, LORD, wilt give me songs in the night!