Why Are You So Down Cast O My Soul; A Reflection On Psalm 42 And 43

In its introduction Psalm 42 is attributed to the sons of Korah. This is a group who were involved in leading the liturgy of the temple worship in Jerusalem. Psalm 43, has no introduction and it is argued that the two psalms are part of the same prayer. They have the same structure. Four verses followed by the haunting and powerful refrain.


Why are you so down cast O my soul

Why are you disturbed within me ?

Put your hope in God

For I will yet praise him

My saviour and My God.

The psalm is an amazing mix of prayer to God and the author speaking to their own depressed soul Pointing it to the only source of hope, the living God.

Why is the psalmist’s soul so down? Well the context for the psalm is most likely exile, The writer has been taken away from Jerusalem and the temple that was the centre of his relationship with God and it seems as if he is exiled from God himself and in his wrestling with his despair he writes this poem. Scholars say that from the geographic references in verse 6 that it’s almost as if he is being taken over the Golan heights and he stops and looks back and sees Mt Hermon and Mizar and the land of the great rift valley and then he’s taken away to captivity. His enemies have triumphed over him and they mock him, where is your God now?

In the first stanza verse 1-5 he uses the metaphor of draught to express how he feels. AS the deer pants for the water so my soul pants after you. We often have these metal pictures of a deer in the woodlands of Europe or north America beside a still lake with pine trees all around, but this is a picture from a desert land, watering hole were few and far between. The panting is that of desperation, like a deer being perused by a hunter not able to stop and quench its thirst. Chihuahuas were originally hunting dogs, they would hunt in packs, harrying, yapping and snapping at deer not giving it a chance to rest and to refresh itself, till it would fall to them from exhaustion. This is what the psalmist says his soul is like it parched and harried and it cannot find that presence of the living God that it needs to be revived and refreshed. In fact the psalmist says that the only water, the only sustenance he has had are his own tears. His enemies are like those dogs they keep barking where is your God. Then maybe in a thirst induced hallucination or in a vision or simply a memory the psalmist remembers back to the times he worshipped God in the temple, when God seemed so close and so real. He remembers and savours and draws strength from the time when his heart could leap and dance before God and is able to tell his soul to have hope in God.



Why are you so down cast O my soul

Why so disturbed with in me

Put your hope in God

I will yet praise him

My saviour and God

Then in the second stanza verse 6-11

It’s as if the heavens have opened up and instead of there being no water there are floods and storms and raging torrents.

The psalmist is full of grief as he remembers the great loss of Jerusalem, the stench of dead bodies, the temple burning, being dragged off by his gloating enemies. He expresses this with metaphors of raging torrents, waterfalls, flood gorged rivers. The deep roar of these waters calling out to the deep roar of the storm tossed waves maybe on the lake of Galilee, if you remember the gospels the storms on that sea could even make trained fishermen fear for their lives, or even out to the waves of the storm tossed Mediterranean. It was like all the things that had happened to him were like the rivers and the seas ganging up on him: Pushing him down swirling and whirling him round and round. The words and taunts of his enemies were like being dashed against trees or rocks they went so deep they damaged his bones. Then again he remembers and has hope, he looks back and he sees that God is a Rock, a refuge in the midst of the waves and the rapids, a place of safety, God is with us day and night. But where was God in the midst of the torrents. God seemed far away but he reminds his soul that there is hope because God is his rock.



Why are you so down cast O my soul

Why so disturbed with in me

Put your hope in God

I will yet praise him

My saviour and God

Psalm 43 is the third stanza of the prayer and in it the author comes to the point and makes his request to God. That God would save him rescue him from the dark place he finds himself in and bring him back to that place where he can meet with and find God, back to the temple in Jerusalem to sing a song of praise to God and once again find joy. The metaphor in this stanza steps out from the weather and prophetically addresses the enemies that have obviously defeated the people of Judea. He addresses God as his stronghold. Even though the people who have taken him away in exile have broken down the walls of his physical stronghold. His real fortress his real bastion has not been broken down, it is God. In the first stanza his memory is of being under God’s protection, in the second stanza it is God the rock and now a fortress. While God might seem on mute to quote Pete Grieg’s book that wrestles with God’s silence and unanswered prayer, he again calls his down cast soul to have hope in God.



Why are you so down cast O my soul

Why so disturbed with in me

Put your hope in God

I will yet praise him

My saviour and God

What new life for us from this old song.

Is your soul parched because the hunting dog of life are yapping and nipping at your heels or are you caught up and tossed by the river torrents and the seas waves. Do you feel like you’re defeated and heading into exile? Well the psalmist would encourage you to cry out to God. The Psalmist would encourage you to Remember those times when God seemed so close and so real. Remind your soul that God is always close sometimes we just don’t realise how close and give yourself hope. One of New Zealand’s most well know classical and biblical scholars, who I’ve always known as Prof. Blaiklock, but you might know as the New Zealand Herald’s Gramaticus sums up the psalms lesson for us by saying “Perhaps the brave writer’s personal battle with despair is the lesson, the daunting lesson, in this passionate prayer. He has found his way home.”


Remember that in the midst of those waves and rapids that God is a rock and we can hold on to him. I went through a sea cave one day at a place called mercer bay just south of Piha. We ran through the cave till we got to the other end of it, which was open to the sea. Then of course we realised that well that big waves came and flooded the cave, we realised it because well a big wave came and flooded the cave. The current was so strong that it could have ripped us away and out to sea. But I grabbed hold of a rock and it ended up being under water and I couldn’t see it but it was there and it held me. One of friends got swept out to sea and then after the next wave came back through the cave we found that it had swept him back in and he was holding strong to a rock.In God we have that Rock



Why are you so down cast O my soul

Why so disturbed with in me

Put your hope in God

I will yet praise him

My saviour and God

To finish a prayer of St Ignatius of Loyola

Simply entitled a Pray of trust in Jesus

O Christ Jesus

When all is darkness and helplessness

Give us the sense of your presence

Your Love, your strength

Help us to have perfect trust

In your protecting power

So that nothing may frighten or worry us

For living close to you

We shall see Your hand

Your Purpose, Your will through all things



-St Ignatius of Loyola