Dealing
with Spiritual Drought
TThe scripture reveals much about
King David’s life, but only things conducive to telling the biblical
narrative. Of his forty-year reign as King, we know just a small
percentage of all that transpired in that time period. The point is
there are many instances in the Psalms where he described BAD TIMES,
times of spiritual perplexity, spiritual drought, that cannot be
definitively linked to a historical event.
Psalm 42 appears to represent such a
time. David was experiencing a severe spiritual drought in stark
contrast to the GOOD TIMES (42:4) of spiritual rain he enjoyed as God’s
man. In Psalm 42, the one who seeks to walk with God, but runs up
against a brick wall, can find hope. There are a few recurring
themes.
First, his soul is “disquieted”
(42:5,11). The word speaks of “commotion, noise, a roar.” It’s the
difference between a placid lake at sunrise and the same lake
experiencing a heavy chop in the midst of an afternoon squall. It’s
restlessness instead of rest; chaos instead of calm. Secondly, his soul
is “cast down” (42:5, 6,11). The word means “to be sunken, depressed,
to be crouched down.” The Psalmist is carrying a ‘heavy load’ brought
on, for the most part, by his enemies, both political and spiritual.
Men of God don’t always walk with head held high!
Thirdly is the question:
“Where is thy God?” (42:3,10). When your “tears” and the tongues of
your “enemies” are asking the same question about the location of your
God, you know things are bad. Then there is a unique
juxtaposition between what David says he “will remember” (42:6) over
against what he feels God has “forgotten” (42:9). It’s
“remember thee” in contrast to “forgotten me.”
In so many words, the Psalmist
affirms he will ‘hold up his end of the log’ by remembering all the
times God came to the rescue of his people “from [the time of crossing
the] Jordan [river]” (42:6). Then he questions whether/when his God
will start holding up his end of the log by remembering him in his time
of disquietedness. It may sound disrespectful of the Almighty, but in
reality it’s the bold query of a man in the midst of spiritual
drought who's accustomed to experiencing intimacy with his
God.
We need only consider the Cross of
Christ to understand how living in a body of flesh can make perception
feel like reality. When Jesus asked, “My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34), should we assume for a moment the Father
forsook his Son? The Father might have answered: “No, my Son, it’s not
PERSONAL; it’s just the BUSINESS for which I sent you into the world.
And that business will be done before the sun goes down!”
When you’re Jeremiah or Daniel, there
could be a miry pit or den of lions in your future. Neither of these
men, however, was ‘forgotten’ by God in the midst of their trial even
though they might have perceived otherwise.
The Psalmist began by describing his
current spiritual drought: “As the hart [deer] panteth after the water
brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for
God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?”
(42:1-2). In seasons of normal rainfall, deer don’t have to go panting
after the water brooks. It’s only when drought causes rivers and creeks
to dry up that deer begin to pant for and thirst after water that was
once in plenteous supply.
Even as he questions WHY his soul is
cast down, he answers his own question: “HOPE thou in God: for I shall
yet PRAISE him for the help of his countenance” (42:5, 11).
Translation: No matter how bad things may seem at the present, I’m
going to EXPECT God, in his time and for his purposes, to pick up his
end of the log. Therefore “I will YET PRAISE him” for the HELP
of HIS countenance (42:5), which is the HEALTH of MY countenance
(42:11). Nothing puts a smile on the face of a believer quite
like knowing there’s a smile on God’s face concerning him!
When a spiritual drought comes, it is
the firm expectation of HOPE mingled with PRAISE that sets the stage
for a good spiritual rain!
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