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THIRSTY SOULS
Psalm 42
A sermon preached at First Presbyterian Church by Carter Lester on
June 23, 2013
Introduction: “The genius of the Psalms lies in the fact that they are both inspirational and instructive, both poetic and practical. They speak both to the heart and to the mind.”[1] Psalm 42 is a psalm that has uniquely spoken to the hearts and minds of Jews and Christians through the centuries, especially those undergoing struggles in their lives.
Read Psalm 42
Several summers ago, I met my brothers-in-law to go hiking in New Mexico near Ghost Ranch, a Presbyterian retreat center where my daughter Kate was working for the summer. Ghost Ranch is located in a fairly remote section of New Mexico, the area popularized by the painter, Georgia O’Keefe, who lived on the property adjoining Ghost Ranch. Ghost Ranch is surrounded by mountains which made for great hiking. We hiked to nearly 10,000 feet and there were beautiful landscapes and the weather was perfect: sunny, low humidity. The only problem was the throbbing headache I got that night – because I was dehydrated. In higher altitudes and low humidity, it is easy to get dehydrated, I found out. Your body needs water but you don’t really feel that thirsty.
Our bodies get thirsty – whether we recognize it or not. And so do our souls, Psalm 42 reminds us: “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirst for God, for the living God.” As Christian psychiatrist and teacher Gerald May has written: “God knows that the fulfillment we long for will come from nothing other than God’s very self. Nothing less than God will satisfy the yearning, [the thirst], that God has planted within us.”[2]
God knows that we are thirsty – but likea hiker unused to hiking in higher altitudes, we do not always recognize that thirst, that hole we have that can only be filled by a relationship with God. So it is that too often we try to get by on our own – without the help of God and perhaps without the help of anyone else. We may do well for awhile – while the good times last – but when they go, as they inevitably will at some point or another, we are left high and dry.
Or we may look to something else to fill up that hole – whether it is work or financial success, entertainment, or even friends. All of those things have a place in our lives, but none of them can take the place of God in our lives. The longing beyond and beneath all of our other longings is our longing for God, Psalm 42 reminds us. And only God can satisfy that longing and quench that thirst.
Sometimes we are thirsty without knowing it – and sometimes we are aware of nothing else but our thirst. You have been working outside on a hot, humid day. You come in with a parched throat, and the sight of water in a glass with drops beaded on the outside. There is nothing that will taste quite so good as that glass of tasteless water because it fills our thirst and leaves us satisfied. (Drink glass of water).
Psalm 42 speaks to that kind of thirst too: “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, ‘Where is your God?’”
What Psalm 42 describes in these verses is the more particular thirst that some call “spiritual dryness.” It is the feeling we have when we feel distant from God or that God does not answer or even hear our prayers. It is the feeling of having a parched spirit and dried-up faith.
What do we do with that kind of thirst? Once again, Psalm offers us good instruction and inspiration.
First, Psalm 42 tells us, recognize that you are in good company.
Soren Kierkegaard “was a Danish philosopher, unlucky in love and eccentric by any standard. Often named the father of existentialist philosophy, he was also a Christian...Kierkegaard wrote from experience that every Christian has points in his journey where he feels utterly empty, desert times when his soul is hungry and thirsty for Spirit.”[3] Christian mystics even had a special term for that experience: “the dark night of the soul.”
Of course, we would all like avoid any season of dryness - and knowing that others have gone through it doesn’t take our own pain and thirst away – just as learning that many other people have had successful knee replacement surgery will hardly make us look forward to our own surgery. But it is good to know that our unquenched thirst is not a sign that we are a one-of-a-kind spiritual failure, and that what we are going through is natural in a way. While we hope that our faith and prayer and worship life will always bevital, the odds are there will be times when we feel lethargic, or beaten down by life, or distant from God. Psalm 42 is a much beloved psalm for a reason: it has voiced the feelings and cries of many a Jew and Christian through the years.
Second, Psalm 42 tells us to remember the past.
“These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.” In verses 4 and 5, the psalmist recalls a time of pilgrimage to the Temple of Jerusalem at one of the three great festivals of the year, a time of apparent great joy. It is almost as if he is reminding his soul of better times to get him through the present dryness and sense of abandonment.
A couple of weeks ago, I saw an interview of the Phillies’ hitting instructor, Wally Joyner. He was talking about the red-hot hitting at the time of the Phillies’ young outfielder, Domonic Brown. For several seasons, Brown was considered the best Phillies prospect, but he had struggled in his first few seasons in the major leagues. What Joyner said was that this hot streak would be important for Brown because when he struggled in the future, as he inevitably would, it would help him to remember this time when he had showed that he could hit major league hitting. It could be something he returned to again and again to regain confidence and relax.
So it is for us as Christians. It helps to look back and remember how we have been blessed by God, how we have seen God at work in our lives. Recalling what God has done can help us to trust that God is still doing something, and will continue to be active in our lives, whether or not we feel it or see it. Reminding ourselves of what has happened before, counting our blessings, can be a real blessing in itself, especially when we are going through dry times.
Third, Psalm 42 reminds us that when we are thirsty drinking less never helps.
It is almost as if you have a debate between two competing parties in Psalm 42. In verse 4, the psalmist remembers fondly the festival pilgrimage but in verse 6, he declares, “my soul is cast down within me.” In verse 7, the psalmist confidently declares, “By day, the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me.” But in verse 8, the other voice returns: Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?”
In other words, though filled with doubt and disquiet, the psalmist keeps on praying, whether or not he feels the prayers. He doubts but he still clings to belief. Alcoholics Anonymous has a phrase, “fake it til you make it.” What the phrase is meant to do is to acknowledge that when folks join AA they may feel that following the 12 steps is too difficult, or they feel that they will never be able comply with the steps, or they are not really committed to the program in their minds. In any case, the purpose of the phrase is to tell folks to “just try it, just do it.” By going through the twelve steps, by trying to adhere to them and act according to the teachings of the program, regardless of what one is feeling or thinking, over time it is possible to learn new habits and begin to reap the benefits.
In much the same way, the spiritual writer George Bernanos advises: “If you can’t pray – at least say your prayers.” Sometimes, beliefs and feelings lead to action. And other times actions can lead us to beliefs and feelings. Continuing to pray even when we don’t feel like praying; continuing to worship even when we don’t feel like worshipping can change us – perhaps the few drops we receive can keep us alive.
And so can the prayers and worship participation of others. When we are feeling alone or abandoned or dry, what we need most is not to drop out of community or rely only on ourselves: then and particularly then, we need to lean on God through prayer and be reminded of God’s presence and power through worship. We can voice the words of the prayers and words in the hymns even if we don’t feel them or want to sing them. Or we can lean on the prayers and songs of those around us in worship.
But community is not a one-way street in times of spiritual dryness. Not only can we be lifted up by the prayers and singing and presence of others. We can be lifted out of our funk by finding some way to help others. Alan Paton, the South African author, once wrote how whenever he had fallen melancholy, whenever he had a time lost hope or faith and felt he had no one to pray to, he would pray the prayer of Francis of Assisi: “Lord make me an instrument of Thy peace.” It always made a difference because it reminded him that he was not a mere passive recipient but was an active instrument of God’s will and love, able to serve and help others.[4]
I have shared this story before with many of you but it is worth repeating. A Scottish pastor in a small village called upon one of his parishioners, a man who recently had lost his wife and had not returned to church since her death. He had been an active member and he had had many a conversations with the pastor. They enjoyed each other’s company and sometimes said little. This time, they said next to nothing to each other as they sat and watched the fire in the fireplace on a cold and damp Scottish day.
At one point, the pastor got up and without saying a word, walked over and with the fireplace prongs pulled out one of the burning embers and sat it on the stone hearth. They both watched as the ember slowly burned out. Just before the last of the flame had disappeared, the pastor got back up and threw the ember back into the fire where it immediately flared up. The widower sighed and said to him: “You made your point. I will be back in church Sunday.”
Finally, Psalm 42 tells us, “Hope in God: for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.” When we are struggling and our spirits are dry, we hope. Because when it comes down to it, our salvation is not resting on our shoulders; it is resting on the shoulders of Jesus Christ.
We hope because even when we turn away from God, God does not turn away from us.
We hope because God has sent Jesus Christ into the world to be living water, to quench our thirst and give us abundant life.
We hope because even when we don’t see God, God see us and knows us and loves us.
We hope because there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ – not our sins or the evil in the world, not our spiritual dryness or darkness. Nothing.
“Hope in God: for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.”
[1] P.C. Ennis, “Psalm 42:Pastoral Perspective,” in Feasting on the Common Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary, Year C, vol. 1, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, eds. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 154.
[2] Gerald B. May, Addiction and Grace: Love and Spirituality in the Healing of Addictions (San Francisco: Harper, 1998), 112.
[3] Michael L. Lindvall, The Christian Life: A Geography of God (Louisville: Geneva Press, 2001), 107.
[4] Alan Paton, Instrument of Thy Peace (New York: Seabury Press, 1968), 11-12.