Finding Christ When We Feel Alone

"As deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God." (Psalm 42:1)

Our pastor is really good at telling stories. And while preaching on this Psalm, he did a very good job of illustrating with words the desperation of a thirsty deer after it has been running for miles through the fields and woods. While going over this Psalm later on my own, I read this verse and I could not help but think of the many times I run to the water fountain in seeming desperation during dance practice. After a fast-paced five minute long dance (five minutes of dancing is longer than it looks), my chest feels about ready to die. My heart is beating hard and fast. And I plunge my head into that water fountain the way that thirsty deer, white with foam, sheen with sweat, and near parched to death, would probably plunge its own head into the flowing streams of life-giving water.

This is the thirst that the Psalmist has for God when he sings Psalm 42. You can almost imagine him walking along the shores of Jordan when all of a sudden he sees that thirsty deer approaching the river's shores. It plunges its head into the rushing waters and the Psalmist is inspired. His soul leaps, because he knows he is as thirsty for God's presence as that deer is for the water. And he bursts into song.

"My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

My tears have been my food day and night.

while they say to me all the day long,

'Where is your God?'" (2-3)

My pastor is not just good at telling stories, but he's also good at finding Jesus Christ in the Psalms where I never would expect Him to be. Here in verses two and three, we not only have a defected, lonely, suffering Psalmist yearning for God's presence, but we also have Jesus Christ, hanging on the cross. He cries "I thirst" in the first verse of this Psalm. He thirsts not for wine or water, but for the living God, for the presence and nearness of His Father (Jn. 19:27-30). He cries out to His Father, but there is no answer. He is left to suffer all the judgment and wrath accumulated by us on his own. He is alone. His tears are His food all day and night. And below the crowds cry and jeer at Him, "Where is your God?"  (Mtt. 27:39-43, Mk. 15:29-32, Lk. 23:35-39).


Have we not felt this in our own lives? Even as Christians, as people who know and believe that God is forever present and with us, do we not still so often feel alone? As though God has abandoned us? When you feel alone and abandoned, remember, as much as you experience and struggle with these feelings, you never are truly alone. And I know this is true because Christ suffered loneliness on the cross for you. He was completely abandoned by His Father in Heaven in His suffering. He is the only man who ever legitimately cried, "When shall I come and appear before God?" and "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Ps. 22:1, Matt. 27:46) because God was truly not there.


When you feel alone, remember that Christ knows what it feels like to be left alone. And Christ is the only one who ever need be truly left forgotten and alone. 

"These 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." (4)

While on the cross, our Savior remembers. He remembers how He led the people of Jerusalem in worship when He entered the Holy City, how He rode on the back of a humble donkey and led the people in procession to the house of God. And they cried, "Hosanna! Save us!" (Mtt. 21:1-11, Mk. 11:1-11, Jn. 12:12-19). He remembers how God fulfilled His promise that day. And He finds comfort in remembering the worship place of God as He suffers on the cross. 

"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." (5-6a).

This Psalm is one of the few Psalms that is in the foremost thoughts of my memory. I find myself singing it and repeating its words to myself quite often in times of confusion and doubt, especially this one phrase when the Psalmist reminds Himself, "Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God." These are my Savior's words, they're not just mine, or King David's, or the Sons of Korah, or whoever "really" wrote this Psalm. Jesus is the one singing these words to me. He carried them all the way to the cross. And now I sing these words with my Savior.