Remember God himself.īy day the LORD commands his steadfast love,īecause of the oppression of the enemy?” Psalm 42:6-9 Play the hymns and contemporary songs that most direct your thoughts and heart to Jesus. Sing a song at home that you love to sing in worship. Call a friend from church and pray or read scripture together. Remember things that are part of corporate worship.Īnd lead them in procession to the house of GodĪ multitude keeping festival.” Psalm 42:4 Not sure where to start? Let’s take a cue from Psalms 42 and 43: 1. Be grateful if you can see and hear your pastor preach via video each week, but between livestreams, make time to preach to yourself from God’s Word. If, like me, you’re feeling the turmoil of isolation, or feeling distant from God and anxious outside of the regular comforts found at church among other believers, these Psalms are for you. Or better yet, the right person-our living God (42:2). In fact, it can even serve as evidence that our souls are thirsting for the right things. It’s appropriate to feel dry outside of Christian fellowship. It’s normal and right to miss church and feel discouraged, even to mourn these circumstances. Indeed, it’s an affliction dating back to Old Testament times. I’m comforted to be reminded that a downcast soul can be common among Christians. Watching the weekly service at home with my family and reading the Bible daily are good things, but not the same as gathering with God’s people corporately, leaving me feeling down.

The deer finds his water in the stream (42:1), but my thirst is quenched in God’s presence, and that is most often felt in public worship. As my ESV footnote helpfully pointed out we may know God has not forgotten us, but it sure feels like he is distant apart from the worship service where we meet him most fully. How timely to read Scripture expressing my own longing to return to the sanctuary. Though the messages streamed by my church, The Orchard, have been incredibly soul nourishing, much like the Psalmist, I really miss going with the throng to the house of God (Psalm 42:4).

Like many, I have been feeling the disappointment of not gathering with my local church body for several weeks.

Recently the twin pairing of Psalm 42-43 served as the perfect antidote for discouragement in isolation. After more than a month of sheltering-at-home amid the COVID-19 crisis, there has been no better place to be. How good of God to graciously ordain that I would be in the Psalms right now as part of my normal Bible reading routine.

Very downcast face