Blown Glass – Local Artists Show MN Landscape Arboretum

Why art Thou cast down Oh my soul, and why art thou disquieted within? Psalm 42:5

The words came to me in a difficult period in my life. I don’t remember the situation that day, only that I was hurting. I had never consciously learned this verse of scripture. Seminary was in the future as a distant dream. My go to Bible at the time was the New English Bible, with vastly different wording for those verses in Psalm 42 and Psalm 43, than the poetic King James Version.

Had I learned this verse in Sunday School? Had these words been embedded in my mind, while joining a congregation in a responsive reading? Was someone praying the words for me, reminding me to hope in God.

Before access to either a computer or the internet, it took me a while to find the verse in my old Bible. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.” KJV Psalm 42: 5

To be disquieted is to be troubled of spirit and soul . . . Distraught, worried, upset over circumstances one cannot control. The psalmist’s question and the promise, reminded me to put my hope in God, who was working in my life in unseen ways. Today, I look back and clearly see what was invisible to be at  the time. Perhaps the psalmist too, simply  needed to be reminded that God who helped him in the past, was in the future. Still caring. Still loving. Still being God.

Many times since, the psalmist words have wandered in my mind asking me “Why art thou cast down, oh my soul, why art thou disquieted within?” nudging me again to put my hope and my trust in God.