Deep Cry, Deep Love
Hope from Psalm 42
Free Downloadable PDF
The Book of Psalms is a collection of songs for God’s people. They are filled with beautiful poetry that expresses the depths of the human heart. From raging pain and questioning to bursting praise and thanksgiving, the Psalms affirm that it is good to pour out our hearts before our loving God for in Him is our help, security, and comfort.
In Psalm 42, the author expresses intense thirst for God in a land of friendlessness and torment. His memory of God’s love and the joy of being with God’s people keeps His hope alive. Verse 42:8 captures the theme – His song will be with me in the night.
The Psalmist goes back and forth in his agony – from crying out to God to speaking to his own soul. When he says, “Why are you cast down, O my soul?” he is not saying to God, “O God, could you please tell me why I am so down?”… but, he is saying to his own soul, “My soul, why are you down? Remember all the good times? Remember God. Hope in Him.”
We must speak truth to our own souls. The Psalmist hopes in God when life painfully unravels around him. (1 Peter 1:13b)
Psalm 42 was originally composed with Hebrew words. Their meaning unfolds the depth of God’s comfort in the depth of our pain:
despair – shāhah – brought low, abased by an enemy
disturbed – hāmâ – cry aloud, mourn, rage, roar, troubled
deep – te hôm – deep places, oceans
sound – qôl – voice, noise
waterfalls – sinnôr – pipe, conduit, faucet
A Psalm 42 Prayer of Hope in God
Deep calls to deep. My deep cry is united with Yours, O God. Your rage over the cruelty and injustice in the world is deeper than mine. You roar like an ocean pouring out of a heavenly faucet, sweeping over me, protecting me – a surge that encases me. I am caught up in Your bigness, covered by Your might, comforted by Your presence, imbued with Your courage.
The enemy has cast me down, but he will not win, because my hope is in You. You make Your love tangible to me during the day in the midst of my trial, and You sing over me in the night when
I cannot see the next step. I live in the ocean of Your warrior love.
The Deep Cry, Deep Love devotional is also an insert that can be included in your Flower Girl Greetings Art Card. You may see and purchase it here. The Song in the night Art is available as an Art Card 4-Pack and may be purchased here.
Shale Fragments™ - devotionals by Beth Ann Phifer is a division of Flower Girl Greetings, LLC. ©2020, All Rights Reserved.
Blessings and love in Him,
Beth Ann