As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?  My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”  these things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.  My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon from Mount Mizar.  Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.  By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me a prayer to the God of my life.  I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?”  My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?” Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. (NIV)

This psalm centers on these two questions.

Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

This psalm centers on these answers.

Put your hope in God,

I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Sometimes during our walk on this earth we seem to walk in a dry and thirsty land.  It is during these times that we must remember that the earth is under the curse of sin.  We are not in heaven yet but on a journey.  We sometimes forget that we are on a journey and live as if this life on earth is it and there is no life after we depart from this earth.   However, it is God that leads and sometimes these paths will lead us through a period of testing or should I state a desert place.  The key to getting through these times is to remember who God is (the One that our mind can not comprehend) and that this is just our journey and not our home.  The psalmist also reflects upon his time of worship with others (how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng) during this time of testing.  Remember Psalm 62:11-12 “one thing God has spoken two things have I heard: that you , O God are strong, and that you O, Lord are loving.”  It is these times of worshiping and praising God that we must look back to when we are in these periods of testing to give us hope for the future.

As I was studying the book There was a Time written by Mary Alice Wilhelm this week I ran across a list title Nine Aspects of Life written by a source not known in the second chapter.  Reflecting on these nine aspects can help us as believers when we face the two questions that this Psalm presents to us.

Nine Aspects of Life

1. The adventure of life is to learn.
2. The purpose of life is to grow.
3. The nature of life is to change.
4. The challenge of life is to overcome.
5. The essence of life is to care.
6. The opportunity of life is to serve.
7. The secret of life is to dare.
8. The spice of life is to befriend.
9. The beauty of life is to give.

Source not known

As we age and realize that our journey through this world is now much nearer to the end we begin to look back and reevaluate our understanding of the true meaning of life.  For those who know God and the work that Christ paid for us on the cross this reevaluation will usually lead to a more rewarding life for us in our later years.