Why My Soul Are You So Downcast??

Reflection:  As we have been reflecting the last couple of weeks, being a man or woman of God does not insure against hardship in this life.  David reflects on the downcast nature of his soul and how he felt depressed and wondered where God was amidst the struggle. As he was taunted by his enemies, “where is your God now”, he felt an acute sense of aloneness. 

Job finally speaks up after losing everything but his life.  He curses the day he was born and wishes he had not even been granted life.  Notice he does not curse God, but definitely there is a sense of Job feeling alone and wondering why he was even on this earth with what has befallen him.  He concludes in verse 26, “I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.”

Finally, Paul continues to reflect on the status of Israel after they had rejected God, after God had hardened their hearts.  It begs the question did God harden their hearts so he could show them mercy, or in their free will did they reject their calling as God’s chosen ones.  Regardless, in verse 32, Paul claims that God has bound everyone over to obedience so that in the end our position relies on one thing, “God’s mercy”.  We also see great hope in this passage for Israel as Paul says, “God’s gifts and call are irrevocable.”  God made those promises to the first patriarchs, Abraham, Issac and Jacob.  And the original promise to Abraham is that he would be a blessing to all nations, and his descendants would be as numerous as the sands on the seashore.  (see Genesis 12 and 15).  And also Romans 8:28, “All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.”  So how does this teaching help us?

So often when we are down or wonder where God is in our circumstances, we feel guilty as if it is wrong to have those feelings.  God knows what we are feeling anyways, so I love the honesty of Job and David in the psalms.  We need places in the church and groups where people can share their honest troubles and find support and encouragement from other brothers and sisters in Christ.  We will see in the upcoming days that Job does not get very good advice from his friends.  Who can you encourage this week who might be feeling like Job or David?  Why wait give them a call or write them an email today!  It might be just what they need! 

Psalm 42:6-11

6 My soul is downcast within me;

    therefore I will remember you

from the land of the Jordan,

    the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

7 Deep calls to deep

    in the roar of your waterfalls;

all your waves and breakers

    have swept over me.

8 By day the Lord directs his love,

    at night his song is with me—

    a prayer to the God of my life.

9 I say to God my Rock,

    “Why have you forgotten me?

Why must I go about mourning,

    oppressed by the enemy?”

10 My bones suffer mortal agony

    as my foes taunt me,

saying to me all day long,

    “Where is your God?”

11 Why, my soul, are you downcast?

    Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

    for I will yet praise him,

    my Savior and my God.

Job 3,4

Job Speaks

3 After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 He said:

3 “May the day of my birth perish,

    and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’

4 That day—may it turn to darkness;

    may God above not care about it;

    may no light shine on it.

5 May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more;

    may a cloud settle over it;

    may blackness overwhelm it.

6 That night—may thick darkness seize it;

    may it not be included among the days of the year

    nor be entered in any of the months.

7 May that night be barren;

    may no shout of joy be heard in it.

8 May those who curse days[a] curse that day,

    those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.

9 May its morning stars become dark;

    may it wait for daylight in vain

    and not see the first rays of dawn,

10 for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me

    to hide trouble from my eyes.

11 “Why did I not perish at birth,

    and die as I came from the womb?

12 Why were there knees to receive me

    and breasts that I might be nursed?

13 For now I would be lying down in peace;

    I would be asleep and at rest

14 with kings and rulers of the earth,

    who built for themselves places now lying in ruins,

15 with princes who had gold,

    who filled their houses with silver.

16 Or why was I not hidden away in the ground like a stillborn child,

    like an infant who never saw the light of day?

17 There the wicked cease from turmoil,

    and there the weary are at rest.

18 Captives also enjoy their ease;

    they no longer hear the slave driver’s shout.

19 The small and the great are there,

    and the slaves are freed from their owners.

20 “Why is light given to those in misery,

    and life to the bitter of soul,

21 to those who long for death that does not come,

    who search for it more than for hidden treasure,

22 who are filled with gladness

    and rejoice when they reach the grave?

23 Why is life given to a man

    whose way is hidden,

    whom God has hedged in?

24 For sighing has become my daily food;

    my groans pour out like water.

25 What I feared has come upon me;

    what I dreaded has happened to me.

26 I have no peace, no quietness;

    I have no rest, but only turmoil.”

Eliphaz

4 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:

2 “If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient?

    But who can keep from speaking?

3 Think how you have instructed many,

    how you have strengthened feeble hands.

4 Your words have supported those who stumbled;

    you have strengthened faltering knees.

5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;

    it strikes you, and you are dismayed.

6 Should not your piety be your confidence

    and your blameless ways your hope?

7 “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished?

    Where were the upright ever destroyed?

8 As I have observed, those who plow evil

    and those who sow trouble reap it.

9 At the breath of God they perish;

    at the blast of his anger they are no more.

10 The lions may roar and growl,

    yet the teeth of the great lions are broken.

11 The lion perishes for lack of prey,

    and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.

12 “A word was secretly brought to me,

    my ears caught a whisper of it.

13 Amid disquieting dreams in the night,

    when deep sleep falls on people,

14 fear and trembling seized me

    and made all my bones shake.

15 A spirit glided past my face,

    and the hair on my body stood on end.

16 It stopped,

    but I could not tell what it was.

A form stood before my eyes,

    and I heard a hushed voice:

17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God?

    Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?

18 If God places no trust in his servants,

    if he charges his angels with error,

19 how much more those who live in houses of clay,

    whose foundations are in the dust,

    who are crushed more readily than a moth!

20 Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces;

    unnoticed, they perish forever.

21 Are not the cords of their tent pulled up,

    so that they die without wisdom?’

Romans 11:19-32

19 You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20 Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

All Israel Will Be Saved

25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, 26 and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written:

“The deliverer will come from Zion;

    he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.

27 And this is my covenant with them

    when I take away their sins.”

28 As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29 for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. 30 Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now[d] receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. 32 For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

The Lord is with me as a mighty, awesome one. Jeremiah 20:11 (NKJV)

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

Lord, you strengthen us for the work to which you call us. Remind us of this when the task seems beyond our capabilities. Center us with Mother Teresa’s wisdom that we “need do no great things; only small things with great love.” Amen.