Why Are You Cast Down?

“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I will again praise him, my salvation and my God.” Psalm 42:5

I have been burdened down by the troubles of the world – which is, I suppose, natural considering our fallen state… But lately I have been recognizing things – whether it be flaws in relationships, or the “unfinished-ness” of the talents that I do possess, or the state of our country (which is very sad.)  And tonight, my heart spun around a few times, and thumped against my body as though it sent a message to my brain, for I immediately thought: “Why are you cast down, O my soul?”  And it amazed me because I’ve never actually memorized that verse, but the words hit me right there, and I was led to the Scriptures to find the verse.  The entire thing read: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I will again praise him, my salvation and my God.”  That triggered another memory.  ”Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice!”  And I thought: “Why are you cast down, O my soul? What right have you to complain?”  I put my chin in my hands, and closed my eyes very tight.  The words rang in my ears – “Be still, my soul… be still…” And I could not help but think: “Christ has done so much for me… Why are you cast down? Why do you worry? Where is your faith?”  My mind reeled put on its brakes and I was jerked to a stop.  Where is my faith? Is my faith placed in the strength and power of men, or my imagination, or even the weather? Is it placed anywhere except in God?

The thought scares me.  It scares me as much as the blue hairy monster with yellow teeth under my bed scared me when I was seven.  And I was pretty scared then.  If my faith isn’t placed in God, what foundation do I have?  “How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word! What more can he say than to you he has said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled!” And yet, if my faith is not laid in him (or his word) that is hardly a firm foundation.  No wonder my soul is cast down within me!  I have been guilty of not reading my bible, thereby feeding my faith.  My faith has weakened, and I have not trusted in God… It is amazing to me when I consider this wonderful thing: when my trust is placed in princes and chariots, I worry.  I begin to question the strength of men.  It is as though I have no stability.  When my trust is placed in God, I feel free of anxiety.  To me, trust is like a wonderful mystery. Something I cannot comprehend.  It means to me not only have faith that God will do this or that (or rather everything), but it means peace. A river of peace. Have you ever felt that wave of peace sweep over your soul?  Have you ever felt that, and had this knowledge – this mysterious knowledge – that somehow, He has it all under control, and nothing is beyond him?  That we belong to him? That we’re hiding in the shelter of his wing?

“When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roar – whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, ‘it is well, it is well with my soul!’”

I want to say this.  I don’t want to say, during the sad times when I want to lament 24/7, “Ah, why are you cast down, O my soul?” I want to say: “It is well with my soul!”  There is a knowledge that allows me to say this… It is the knowledge of something too wonderful for me to grasp.  The knowledge that my Lord, my beloved Lord and Savior has saved me from something so terrible I cannot even imagine it… the fact that he loves me with an everlasting love, that he will never let anything come between him and me, that he sacrificed his only Son who was humiliated in his birth and death, that I might be saved.  Ah, ah holy savior!  I crucified thee, and thou hast saved me!  What love is this! What wondrous, beautiful, terrible love!

Why are you cast down, O my soul? Are these cares of the world so large that they loom up against the brilliant image of Christ, and seem to be of greater importance than what he has done?

“Hope in God, for I will again praise him, my salvation and my God.”

No, I have realized what is much more important.  My God has given me so much - what cause have I to complain?  he has already done so much for me - and why should I fret?  "Rejoice in the Lord always... again I will say, rejoice!"  I think I've found my answer.  

Bury Thy Sorrow

Go bury thy sorrow, the world hath its share;
Go bury it deeply, go hide it with care.
Go think of it calmly, when curtained by night;
Go tell it to Jesus, and all will be right.

Go tell it to Jesus, He knoweth thy grief;
Go tell it to Jesus, He’ll send thee relief;
Go gather the sunshine He sheds on the way:
He’ll lighten thy burden—Go, weary one, pray.

Hearts growing aweary with heavier woe
Now droop ’mid the darkness—Go, comfort them, go!
Go bury thy sorrow, let others be blessed;
Go give them the sunshine, tell Jesus the rest.

"The au­thor of the hymn was the daugh­ter of a min­is­ter. When she wrote these lines she was liv­ing with her bro­ther, whom she great­ly loved. He also was a min­is­ter, and had the usu­al cares and bur­dens to car­ry that are in­ci­dent to a pas­tor’s life. To him she con­fid­ed all her joys and sor­rows. One day, af­ter hav­ing dis­closed to him some pe­cul­iar tri­al which she was en­dur­ing, she was re­proached by her con­science for hav­ing need­less­ly add­ed to his al­ready num­er­ous cares. She stood by the open win­dow, and saw the long, hea­vy sha­dows cast by the tall pop­lar trees across the lawn, and the thought came to her:

“That is just what I have done to my brother! Why did I do it? Why did I not ra­ther bu­ry my own sor­row, and al­low on­ly words of cheer and bright­ness to reach his ears?”

With such thoughts in her mind, and with tears of re­gret fill­ing her eyes, she re­tired to her lit­tle at­tic bed­room, and there wrote the hymn above."

O! How this makes should make us realize how selfish we can sometimes be! We can be so wrapped up in our own sorrows, that we never look to see whether others are suffering or not, and we needlessly put more on their burden by unloading ours upon them!

This young woman obviously had a selfless demeanor. I do so earnestly wish that I could assume such a position. To abandon our sorrows, and comfort and encourage those around us in whatever grief they might be feeling, would be a way to be looking to the interests of others, as it says in Philippians 2:4.

There are many times when we undergo trials and tribulations of many kinds. Take the instance of Cyrano de Bergerac... the play. He falls in love with the beautiful Roxane, but he is asked to woo her for a more handsome, but less articulate young man, Christian. Cyrano does this, and wins the heart of Roxane... but not for himself—for Christian. The young couple are married and live happily, but Cyrano sacrificed his love for Roxane in order that Christian would be enabled to marry her. He buried his own sorrow deep within his heart, and performed an act of love towards Roxane by wooing her for the man that she would love and be happy with. (Now I'm finding it hard to articulate... I can't seem to say very well what it is I want to say.. :P)

But back to the hymn...

I know from experience that when any member in the family is not happy, it affects everybody else's mood. However, if that person, no matter what they were going through, could offer a cheerful and good-natured word, then who knows what encouragement it would bring! This brings to mind the verse to a poem...

"The ill-timed truth we might have kept—
Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung!
The word we had not sense to say —
Who knows how grandly it had rung!"

I can't seem to express my thoughts the way I want to. That's rather frustrating, you know. But I want to say something along the lines of this...

The people who truly love you care about you (obviously). So, when you are undergoing some affliction, it will matter to them. They will not just pass it by indifferently, but they will fervently pray for you, they will worry about you. And sometimes, you might unburden yourself so much that you never even think of what might be occurring in their soul. They might be happy to simply have you be oblivious to their affliction, but how much better it would be to listen then to talk, to encourage rather than complain! Some people hide their sorrow so well that you would never guess what affliction is occurring in the labyrinth of their soul. Some make their sorrow public. But even so! Whatever it is, we should always seek to be attentive, and to encourage and comfort where it might be needed. :)

But anyhow... I just had some thoughts on that subject that I wanted to share. :)