“My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.” (Psalm 42:6-7)
Those who have never faced a serious depression have trouble getting this idea of having a “downcast soul.” The writer here isn’t just bummed out because he’s having a bad day. He describes a deep sadness that won’t quickly pass.
Still, he refuses to wait for a better day to “remember” God. He describes his location. If he’d had a GPS locator, some scholars tell us that he would likely have been checking in from the mountains north of the Sea of Galilee – far from where he wanted to be worshipping God at the sanctuary in Jerusalem.
If it had been me, I might have decided to let my sadness pull me under for a while until I was in a better place to get my head on straight with God. But the writer was stubborn. He remembered God right where he was. He remembered that God controls the waves – even the ones that had swept over him. He would keep trusting.
Think: Have you been putting off getting closer to God because you’re not in the “best place” right now? What’s wrong with that idea? What would it take, really, for you to remember God wherever you’re at right now?
Pray: Ask God to help you to remember him even when your circumstances aren’t what you wish that they were.
Do: David’s song in Psalm 63 sounds similar to this one in some ways. Check it out.