Beloved

Psalm 42

Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?

To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.

 ¹As a deer pants for flowing streams,
   so pants my soul for you, O God.²My soul thirsts for God,
   for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God? ³My tears have been my food
   day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
   "Where is your God?"⁴These things I remember,
   as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
   and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
   a multitude keeping festival.

 ⁵Why are you cast down, O my soul,
   and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
   my salvation 

⁶and my God.

   My soul is cast down within me;
   therefore I remember you
 from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
   from Mount Mizar.⁷Deep calls to deep
   at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
   have gone over me.⁸By day the LORD commands his steadfast love,
   and at night his song is with me,
   a prayer to the God of my life.⁹I say to God, my rock:
   "Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
   because of the oppression of the enemy?"¹⁰As with a deadly wound in my bones,
   my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
   "Where is your God?"

 ¹¹Why are you cast down, O my soul,
   and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
   my salvation and my God.

2 Chronicles 7:14-15 

¹⁴if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. ¹⁵ Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.

These verses are written in a fictional book peppered with scriptural truths that I'm reading now called Israel, My Beloved by Kay Arthur.  This story is about a nation, a nation chosen by God, for God. In this story a woman named Sarah is representing the nation Israel.  In Ezekial 16, the prophet Ezekiel depicts a little baby abandoned in a field "abhorred" then to be taken as the adorned wife of God only to give that up to become an adulterer and harlot with many lovers.  The character Sarah portrays this young baby. 

In chapter 13 these particular verses were mentioned. in this chapter, Sarah is reflecting on why she is in captivity at this particular time and how she did not heed the warnings of her husband and the prophet Jeremiah. She is frustrated with herself and some friends coax her off of the couch to come to the synagogue to worship. A friend Nadab talks about their new place to worship in the foreign land of Babylon, "You know, I believe the synagogue will become the center of our lives.  It will be a place that reminds us no matter where we are, we are still the chosen people of the Almighty. I believe it will keep us from being absorbed by the culture in the land of our dispersion (page 74)."   It's at the synagogue she hears the passage from Psalm 42.  It rings so true to her at that time because her soul has been downcast, she has encountered people falling by the sword due to the captivity of her city Jerusalem.  She has been confronted with her idolatry which has led her into the captivity she is facing at the present time. She is reflecting on what she had with her husband. After she leaves the synagogue and spends time walking and mediating on the truth she just heard from Psalm 42 she remembers "the promise her husband gave to Solomon on the day Solomon's temple was dedicated.  It was a promise give for such a time as this--when they found themselves captives in a foreign land: 'If...My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heavem will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.  Now My eyes shall be open and My ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.' (page 75)."  After this reminder, "Sarah sets her face toward home. . . Maybe her prayers would be heard. Maybe her land would be healed. And maybe she would be healed as well. Maybe someday she would not have a care in the world.  Maybe someday life would be without discordant notes, like the melody of the birds who sang so joyfully each morning and awakened her with their delight over another day---a day without concern because they lived in total dependence on their Creator (page 75)."

The author continues on page 76:  

"Indeed, Sarah's prayers would be answered and in the fullness of time she would be healed as would her land. But not before she walked through a fiery oven burning with incomprehensible horror, the last and worst of several more yet to come. And not before her heart of stone cracked and she was given a new heart --a heart of flesh, which she so desperately needed 

Sarah slept less and less. Instead she walked and thought about her affliction and wondering--the bitter pain of it all. And as she did, she recalled that her husband's lovingkindnesses never ceases.  Her soul would not be cast down any longer, she would hope in him and the promise that his compassions never fail and his mercies are new every morning. She remembered that his gifts and calling of her were irrevocable. After all, he even engraved my name on the palms of his hands.  

A cleansing and nourishing took place. Each day as his words became her very bread of life, Sarah found a new strength, new vigor...and with it came a new beauty (page 76)." 

This is absolutely beautiful.  I'm excited to continue reading this book! Here are the passages from Ezekial where this story got it's inspiration.    

Ezekial 16:1-8

¹Again the word of the LORD came to me: ² "Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, ³and say, Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. ⁴And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. ⁵No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born.

 ⁶"And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' ⁷ I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare.

 ⁸"When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine.

Ezekial 16:10-17

¹⁰ I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. ¹¹ And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. ¹²And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. ¹³Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. ¹⁴And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD.

 ¹⁵ "But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his. ¹⁶You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been, nor ever shall be. ¹⁷You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore.

Ezekial 16:25

²⁵At the head of every street you built your lofty place and made your beauty an abomination, offering yourself to any passerby and multiplying your whoring.

Ezekial 16:30-32

³⁰"How sick is your heart, declares the Lord GOD, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute, ³¹building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street, and making your lofty place in every square. Yet you were not like a prostitute, because you scorned payment.³²Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband!