From Shame to Grief

Several times in Psalm 42, this refrain comes up: Why are you so downcast oh my soul? (Psalm 42:3).

As Brenna Rubio pointed out, many of us experience lines like this in the Bible as accusatory. Because of our upbringing, if we carefully listen to our heart when this verse is read, it enters into our soul sounding something like this: “Buck up and stop being so sad!” It can sound a lot like shame.

But what if it’s a real question? What if the author is genuinely being curious about their own soul? Perhaps they are tracing their grief to something in their past. Perhaps they are coming to realize some negative reaction to a situation at hand, and are trying to make sense of it. Perhaps this simple question is the pathway from shame into a healthy grief.

Why are you so downcast oh my soul? - Psalm 42:3

What if you took time to ask that question, today. Is there some place you are experiencing loss? Sadness? Disappointment? Confusion? Take some time with this question and then consider praying the rest of the Psalm (below).

Psalm 42

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.