Verse three finds us hearing of David’s days and nights of lamenting. We have come to know David’s personality as one that was intense and it is assumed that he experienced severe depression. The psychological aspect in this psalm is all too necessary. The only sustenance, which does not sustain, has been his tears and we refer back to line one on the thirsting soul/heart/hart. He, David, has been the victim of reproaches, cruel taunting, etc., by his enemies and his (supposed) friends and others who were following him as they now see misfortune. But those voices may be David’s own as in despair he hears voices of doubt in his mind questioning God’s providence and faithfulness. The question, “Where is thy God?” reminds us of his own question in line two and if we substitute thy with my we get it all over again. And the mocking of David foreshadows Christ being mocked by the high priests, the Jewish populace and Roman soldiers years later on the cross.
Verse four lets the reader enter David’s memory as he recalls days when he felt and knew God’s presence. Like the wife who recalls the ceremony of marriage and the sweet days previous to this state of being neglected, it was a voice that was part of a community that praised God with joy and knowledge of Him. Now, his voice is one in isolation, like that crying in the wilderness we later come to learn of; but it is not a prophetic voice preparing the way for his God, rather it is one that laments the absence of God. But David does not give in to despair, however, as there is the underlying belief in God, the living God, as stated in line two.
The poem then turns to the inside, focusing on the self, the psychological/emotional/spiritual as David looks into himself and asks himself, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me?” Yet David refuses to pity himself. What he instead does is turn his thoughts unto God, remembering Him and he encourages himself to “hope thou in God” and from this there is the intention to pray to and praise Him. I shall yet praise Him, I will praise God in the midst of this and after this is over, whatever it is. We don’t know at what time in David’s life this psalm was composed.
. . . for the help of His countenance ought to call to mind for us Exodus 33 when Moses asked God to show him His glory. And God, it is said, spoke to Moses face to face, hence acknowledging Moses. A relationship is that in which we know each other face to face. Thus David seeks God’s acknowledgement of his existence, approval of him.
This turn in his psychological privation, from the “dark night of the soul” to hoping in God is unrivalled. He remembers God’s faithfulness, the help of His countenance. And verse six echoes verse five, but takes it even further. The psalmist knows his deliverance will come. The poem’s journey from verse five to verse six has gone from the inner man and his privation to the outward celebration of future deliverance and one from the depths to the heights. We see David standing on the plain in Jordan, then climbing the heights of Hermon and then to stand on Hill Mizar; and his mind has traveled further, beyond his circumstance, and beyond this world even, for it remembers God, as well as into the past and into the future. And it is Odysseus restored to his rightful place as king after his ten-year voyage back from Troy, with Penelope his queen at his side, her suitors defeated. (For Dante, however, Odysseus never comes “home,” to the truth, and he places him in the eighth circle of L’Inferno.)
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