ChosenRebel's Blog

There are times when fear threatens to overwhelm us. All of us have been there.

These are the times when it is easy to see ourselves in the lines of Psalm 42 and 43. Some believe that both psalms were originally one because of the common chorus they share (cf. 42:5, 11 with 43:5). Together in the psalter, I see them as moving from fear to ferocity (of faith). The eleven verses of Psalm 42 seem to be a son of Korah facing a spiritually dry time in the midst of a harrowing threat to his faith. I read them as a man trying to remind his soul that God has NOT abandoned him, no matter how he feels in the moment. That’s a lesson for all of us.

Another offering for the Poetry Project:

Read Psalm 43

Dry and Weary

Dry and weary.
I needed a vindication.
I needed deliverance.
I needed the strengthening of a God
I thought had abandoned me.
I was oppressed by an enemy.
Stumbling around in the dark,
like a lost child,
fearful,
furtively looking left at a shadow,
then right, at a creek in a floorboard,
the hum of a light fixture, the tick of a clock,
desperation growing,
on the verge of tears,
and then . . .

I remembered,
      “My Father hasn’t changed.
      My Father has promised.
      My Father has called me His own.
      He’ll not forsake me.
      I am a King’s son.
      I am part of a royal family.
      He has all the power to resurrect me
      even if this darkness kills me.”

My face felt it first.
Tension released.
A weak smile escaped to my mouth.
My shoulders relaxed.
Hope flared in my spirit.
I sat up straighter in my seat.
And I remembered the truth and kindness of my God.
I opened the Book,
and light filled the room.
Worship and delight hugged one another at the altar.
And He again became my exceeding joy.
I asked the same questions from a different place,
and commanded my heart to remember
and believe.
Without changing, the final chorus changed me.
It became rhetorical, bold, positive, 
and it chased the darkness away.

     “Why are you in despair, O my soul?
     And why are you disturbed within me?
     Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him,
     The help of my countenance and my God.”

 Go to Psalm 44

Psalm 43  Why Art Thou Cast Down, O My Soul (Brian Suave)
Psalm 43 (The Corner Room)
Heavy  Booshle G.