Psalm Meditation 588
Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 25, 2011

Psalm 42
1 As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, "Where is your God?"
4 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.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help
6 and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts; all your waves and your billows have gone over me.
8 By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and 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 walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?"
10 As with a deadly wound in my body, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually, "Where is your God?"
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.
(NRSV)

“Where is your God?” is a devastating question in some circumstances. In the situations in which it already seems that God has moved away from us it can be the last straw for someone to taunt us with this question. If anyone can get the question to echo in our heads they have added a further difficulty to an already dark situation. When we are surrounded by a sense of loss, even asking the question about the presence of God can throw us into despair.

For the psalmist, and hopefully for each of us, there comes a moment in the midst of despair in which we realize that God has been, is and will be with us, no matter what. We may be self-absorbed and unable to see beyond our own skin and our own particular need. In those cases God is only one of many who seems to have abandoned us. God may have stepped back to let us learn something we would not have otherwise chosen to learn right now. In those cases God is waiting beside us even though we may not be aware of that presence. Eventually we look out and see that God has been with us the whole time and the question of where God is can be answered with confident assurance.

Whether we sense the presence of God or simply come far enough out of our despair to know that God is somewhere even if it is just beyond our reach we can join the psalmist in the tentative statement of hope in God for now. After the worst of the current situation passes we will actually sense the presence of God more closely and we can join again in praising God.

September 19, 2011