When Your Soul Is Struggling: What Psalm 42 and 43 Teach Us About Faith in Hard Seasons
There are seasons in life when everything feels heavy, when prayers seem unanswered, and when God feels distant. Psalm 42 and 43 speak directly into those moments with honesty, raw emotion, and a steady thread of hope that refuses to let go of God.
Why Do Psalm 42 and 43 Go Together?
Psalm 42 opens Book Two of the Psalms and carries a superscription identifying it as a contemplation of the sons of Korah, a group appointed by David to lead worship in Israel. Psalm 43 has no heading of its own. The thought simply continues from where Psalm 42 leaves off.
The clearest connection between the two is a refrain that appears three times across both psalms, word for word. It is the same struggle, the same truth, running all the way through. These two psalms belong together.
What Does It Mean to Talk to Your Own Soul?
One of the most striking things about these psalms is that the writer is literally talking to himself. He addresses his own soul directly, asking it questions and then answering with truth. It sounds unusual, but it is something many of us do without realizing it.
The problem is that we are very good at convincing ourselves of things that are not necessarily true. A check engine light comes on and within seconds we have mentally totaled the car. We do the same thing in our relationships, our marriages, our churches, and if we are not careful, with God. The situation we are in starts telling us what it must mean, and we believe it.
That is exactly why this psalm caught attention. The writer's soul is speaking, and he is speaking back to it with the truth of who God is.
When Your Soul Is Empty: Seek God
The psalm opens with one of the most vivid pictures in all of Scripture.
"As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?" - Psalm 42:1-2 English Standard Version (ESV)
The deer is not casually looking for water. It is panting because it needs water to survive. The psalmist uses that image to describe what is happening inside of him. He is not just missing Jerusalem or the gathered worship of God's people. He is longing for God Himself. He feels spiritually dried out and He knows where His life comes from.
His tears have become his food, day and night. The sorrow is not just a bad afternoon. He wakes up with it, carries it through the day, and lays down with it at night. And on top of that, the people around him are asking a brutal question: "Where is your God?"
That question, when you are already hurting, can cause even more harm. Be careful who you allow to speak into your life during a difficult season. Someone who continually feeds your doubt instead of pointing you toward God can do real damage.
Even his good memories are painful. He remembers leading processions to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, and those memories hurt because He cannot get back to them. A memory can be a gift from God and still cause pain.
When he reaches that point, he does something important. He starts talking back to himself.
"Why 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." - Psalm 42:5 English Standard Version (ESV)
He does not reach for a self-help book. He asks his soul a direct question and then answers it with truth. He forces himself to examine what is happening inside and then brings God's truth back into the conversation. That is where faith enters. His present experience is not the end of his story, and he refuses to let what he is feeling become louder than what he knows to be true about God.
When Your Soul Is Overwhelmed: Remember God
Here is where the psalm gets honest in a way that is deeply relatable. After telling himself to hope in God, verse six begins with this:
"My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you." - Psalm 42:6 English Standard Version (ESV)
He is still downcast. The refrain in verse five did not fix the problem. He is still struggling. And that honesty matters, because faith does not make us emotionally numb to hard things. Even Jesus experienced deep sorrow.
"Then he said to them, 'My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.'" - Matthew 26:38 English Standard Version (ESV)
Deep sorrow does not automatically mean something is wrong with your faith. What matters is what you do with it. For this psalmist, the response to sorrow is: therefore I remember you.
He is far north of Jerusalem, surrounded by the crashing waterfalls and rushing rivers near Mount Hermon. He uses that sound and that image to describe what his life feels like.
"Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me." - Psalm 42:7 English Standard Version (ESV)
One thing after another keeps piling on. But his suffering has not removed God from the picture. Verse eight gives us one of the most important things he remembers.
"By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night His song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life." - Psalm 42:8 English Standard Version (ESV)
The phrase steadfast love refers to the covenant love of God for His people. Even in this season, the psalmist believes that love has not disappeared. His tears are with him day and night, but so is the Lord's loyal love. He calls God the God of my life. He has not let go of that relationship.
And because of that relationship, he feels free to ask a hard question in verse nine.
"I say to God, my rock: 'Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?'" - Psalm 42:9 English Standard Version (ESV)
He calls God His rock, a word that throughout Scripture carries the idea of stability, firm foundation, and safety. And from that place of relationship, he asks why it feels like his rock has forgotten him. That is the tension of the psalm. He knows who God is, but His experience right now is confusing.
Scripture is clear that God does not forget His people. The psalmist's perspective is simply that God has not yet acted. That is it. God has not left Him. He just has not acted yet. And so the psalmist takes his confusion to the only One who can make it make sense. He takes it to God.
That is an important part of biblical lament. Faith is capable of asking hard questions without abandoning God in the process.
When Your Soul Is in the Dark: Follow God's Truth
Psalm 43 opens with a more specific prayer. He asks God to vindicate him, to defend His cause, and to deliver him from those who are opposing Him unjustly. He still calls God His refuge even while asking why God has not yet acted. His questions are still present. So is his relationship with God.
Then verse three becomes the turning point.
"Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!" - Psalm 43:3 English Standard Version (ESV)
That is a prayer for someone who is discouraged and cannot find their way. He is asking God to guide Him because he knows He cannot guide Himself. He has relinquished control. The language of light carries the idea of life, joy, favor, and deliverance. The word truth speaks to what is reliable and dependable. He needs something outside of himself to lead him because his own perspective has become clouded.
Discouragement does that. It affects the way we see everything around us. Hurt and exhaustion cloud our perspective, which is exactly why we need God's truth to guide us when we cannot trust our own view of things.
Jesus prayed this in John 17:17.
"Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth." - John 17:17 English Standard Version (ESV)
God has given us His word so that we are not left trying to figure out our way through life on our own. And look where that guidance takes the psalmist. In verse four, he can already picture himself back at the altar, praising God with an instrument in his hands, calling God His exceeding joy.
Remember where he started. He was far away, crying day and night, remembering what it used to feel like to worship with God's people. Now he is looking forward to the day he will do it again. That is the movement of these two psalms.
And then the psalm ends, one final time, with the same refrain.
"Why 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." - Psalm 43:5 English Standard Version (ESV)
It does not end with a description of how he returned to Jerusalem. It ends with his plea for his soul to hope in God. And that is enough.
Why Christians Have Even More Reason to Hope
This man was longing to return to an altar that was part of a sacrificial system pointing forward to Christ. We live on the other side of the cross. Our greatest problem is not a difficult season or an unanswered prayer. Our greatest problem is sin, and God has already acted to deal with it.
He sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins, to die the death we deserved, and then He rose again so that we might have eternal life with Him and the Father. Our hope is not built on whether we understand everything God is doing. Our hope is anchored in what God has already done.
If it feels like He has not done anything for you, look back at the cross. He did that long before you even knew it was a thing.
What Story Are You Telling Yourself?
The check engine light comes on and before anyone looks under the hood, the car is already gone in your mind. All you actually knew was that a light came on. Your mind created the rest of the story.
When our souls are tired, we do the same thing with God. We know the prayer has not been answered yet. We know the season has lasted longer than we expected. We know something is still hurting. And then we start telling ourselves what all of that must mean. Maybe God has forgotten me. Maybe He does not love me. Maybe He is not who He says He is.
But if you stay in that story long enough, you will lose sight of what you actually know to be true about who God is and how He has already proven Himself faithful.
The writer of these psalms felt that pull. His soul was empty, so he sought God. He became overwhelmed, so he remembered God. And when everything felt dark, he prayed: send out your light and your truth and let them lead me.
Before you decide what this season of your life means about God, let Him speak into it. Before you decide He has forgotten you, remember who He has already shown Himself to be. And when your soul starts talking again, because it will, answer it the way the psalmist did.
Sometimes the story going on inside of us needs to be interrupted by the truth. And sometimes you just need to start talking to yourself again.
Life Application
This week, pay attention to the story you are telling yourself about what you are going through. When discouragement, confusion, or unanswered prayer starts shaping your view of God, interrupt that story with truth. Write out Psalm 42:11 or Psalm 43:5 and put it somewhere you will see it every day. When your soul starts speaking doubt, speak back to it with what you know to be true about who God is and what He has already done.
Ask yourself these questions as you go through the week:
What story am I currently telling myself about my circumstances, and is that story drawing me closer to God or pulling me away from Him?
When was the last time I brought my real, honest questions to God instead of letting them quietly pull me away from Him?
What truth from God's Word do I need to speak back to my own soul right now?
Am I surrounding myself with people who point me toward God when I am struggling, or people who feed my doubt?