BEING DOWNCAST

I Was Just Thinking About – BEING DOWNCAST.

It seems as though all kinds of people suffer from Monday morning blues! It some cases, the Monday Blues filter into other days of the week. In years past, an expression used to describe this experience was one using the idiom of being “down in the dumps.” It suggests one is in a gloomy or depressed mood. A literal definition for one who is downcast is: “dejected in spirit, depressed.” Our culture has drifted more toward the psychological and psychiatric interpretation of human behavior and mood swings as though these are exclusively a twenty-first century phenomenon.

When I was very young, a Sunday School Chorus was sung occasionally:

Down in the dumps I’ll never go – 
That’s where the devil keeps me low -
So - I’ll sing with all might, 
And I ‘ll keep my armor bright! 
But - Down in the dumps I’ll never go!

When the Psalms were being written, they covered the history and inter-personal relations in the years around 1000 BC. Psalm 42 is a song of lamentation and deep concern. Why did David pen the words in Psalm 42:5, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” Again, in verse 9: “I say to God, my rock: Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

In the Treasury of David, Charles Spurgeon’s introduction to this Psalm states: “It is probable that David's flight from Absalom may have been the occasion for composing this Maschil/Psalm. It is the cry of a man far removed from the outward ordinances and worship of God, sighing for the long-loved house of his God; and at the same time, it is the voice of a spiritual believer, under depressions, longing for the renewal of the divine presence, struggling with doubts and fears, but yet holding his ground by faith in the living God. Most of the Lord's family have sailed on the sea which is here so graphically described.”

In Psalm 42:11, David summarizes his thought and wrestling within his soul by asking: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” He answers his own question with the declaration: “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” There is a phrase that is stated in Jeremiah 29:11 that should not go unnoticed or forgotten: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” It is the phrase: “To give you a future and a hope.” If or when you experience downcast moments, remember God’s perfect plan is for you to know and claim the future and hope in Him alone.

Prayerfully – consider these things with me.